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Told through diaries and letters, sisters Clara and Nora are brought to life in a world struggling through the Depression and the threat of fascism in Europe. Violence, deception, and loss are never far away from both sisters as they journey from innocence to experience.
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Review:
A finely detailed depiction of the Depression era, Richard B. Wright's Clara Callan is told entirely in the letters and journal entries of two adult sisters, Clara and Nora Callan, and their older lesbian friend, Evelyn. The novel, Wright's ninth, made a surprising sweep of Canada's major awards for best novel--the Giller Prize and the Governor General's Award--in 2001. Wright has the gift of making the reader care deeply about these characters and their worlds, which include small town Ontario, where Clara is a sensitive schoolteacher, and New York City, where the younger Nora has moved to become a radio soap opera star. Since both sisters are still "on the shelf," their roller-coaster love lives--Nora's in worldly Manhattan and Clara's in the more restrictive atmosphere of small-town spinsterhood--are a primary subject of their letters and Clara's journal.
From the Back Cover:
This is a quiet book, studied and well researched, but thoroughly engaging and readable. Numerous references to period music, political events, and the looming war quite successfully place the reader at both the centre and the periphery of life in the 1930s. Side trips to Italy and to view the Dionne quintuplets feel entirely authentic. With deceptive simplicity, the author creates a world of clear images: "Nora came in from her shuffleboard game with a sweater tied across her shoulders, her hair damp from the rain." Most importantly, Wright has realized characters that come alive on the page--quite a feat considering the self-imposed limitations of this novel's form. --Mark Frutkin, Amazon.ca
In the midst of the Great Depression, two sisters from small-town Ontario pursue separate destinies. While Nora escapes to New York City to become the glamorous star of a radio soap opera, her older sister Clara follows a more conventional route, staying home and teaching school. Yet, as Clara's diary and the sisters' letters reveal, beneath the seeming ordinariness of her daily life the spinster schoolteacher hides dark secrets and clandestine longings. In his sensitive portrait of a quietly passionate woman who defies social mores, Richard B. Wright brilliantly evokes the atmosphere of the 1930s, when show business was still in its infancy and the world trembled on the edge of war.
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- PublisherHARPERCOLLINS @ PUBLISHERS
- Publication date2003
- ISBN 10 0732275539
- ISBN 13 9780732275532
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages512
- Rating
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Clara Callan
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HarperCollins Publishers Australia
(2003)
ISBN 10: 0732275539
ISBN 13: 9780732275532
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: Very Good. 495 pages. the prize-winning international bestseller. It is the late 1930s and two sisters, Clara and Nora Callan, face the f uture with hope and uncertainty. Clara, a 30-ish schoolteacher, l ives in small-town Ontario and longs for love and adventure. Nora , her flighty, gorgeous younger sister, escapes to New York and b ecomes a minor radio soap celebrity. told through the sisters' di aries and letters, Clara Callan vividly brings the two sisters to life in a world struggling through the Depression, and with the growing threat of fascism in Europe. Violence, deception and loss , it seems, are never far away from both sisters as they journey from innocence to experience. '.an engrossing Depression-era saga .a moving portrait of loneliness with a redemptive ending.' - the Bulletin. '[Clara] engages us so absolutely.[a] magnificently re alized protagonist.' - the Gazette, Montreal. Seller Inventory # 2073k
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: Good. In a small town in Canada, Clara Callan reluctantly takes leave of her sister, Nora, who is bound for New York. It's a time when the growing threat of fascism in Europe is a constant worry, and people escape from reality through radio and the movies. Meanwhile, the two sisters -- vastly different in personality, yet inextricably linked by a shared past -- try to find their places within the complex web of social expectations for young women in the 1930s. While Nora embarks on a glamorous career as a radio-soap opera star, Clara, a strong and independent-minded woman, struggles to observe the traditional boundaries of a small and tight-knit community without relinquishing her dreams of love, freedom, and adventure. However, things aren't as simple as they appear -- Nora's letters eventually reveal life in the big city is less exotic than it seems, and the tranquil solitude of Clara's life is shattered by a series of unforeseeable events. These twists of fate require all of Clara's courage and strength, and finally put the seemingly unbreakable bond between the sisters to the test. 495 pages. Seller Inventory # 1519400
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