Five Linked Novels of the Canadian West

Margaret Laurence's Amazing Writing Technique Shines in this Series

Oct 12, 2009

Anyone who craves realism in fictional style will enjoy reading Laurence's novels based in the story bound town of Manawaka. Discover valuable "Tricks of the Trade."

Margaret Laurence’s intertwined novels are written with style. Her protagonists show courage as they face challenges in their lives. Her good diction, descriptive words, irresistible characters, and amazing transitions from past to present are just a few reasons why Laurence is known as one of Canada’s most beloved novelists. She keeps all the novels connected by mentioning previous characters in each addition to the Manawaka series.

The Stone Angel (1964) – First Book in the Manawaka Series Portrays a Woman in her Terminal Stages

The protagonist Hagar Shipley is a good example of how Laurence can overpower her audience to care about her main character. Hagar is an elderly woman who is in her terminal stages. She makes it impossible for anyone to get close to her. She has been this way since she was a little girl. Throughout the story Hagar recalls her past experiences. She lost many loved ones during her life but never experienced the grief. However, in the last chapters Laurence has her character Hagar experience an epiphany which helps her realize that all her life she has been afraid of death. She then takes responsibility for the way things went throughout the years. Only then does Hagar love herself and others.

In The Stone Angel there is one sentence in particular that can actually arouse the reader’s sense of smell and sight. “They were tough-rooted, these wild and gaudy flowers, and although they were held back at the cemetery’s edge, torn out by loving relatives determined to keep the plots clear and clearly civilized, for a second or two a person walking there could catch the faint, musky, dust-tinged smell of things that grew untended and had grown always, before the portly peonies and the angels with rigid wings, when the prairie bluffs were walked through only by Cree with enigmatic faces and greasy hair.”

Laurence gives readers a graphic paragraph and it's quite appropriate for this story because the protagonist, Rachel, has only just begun to experience intimacy. “He’s lying beside me now, and I touch the skin of his shoulder. My fingers explore a little the thicket on his chest, and his nipples which seem to me so strange on a man. . .” Note: A Jest of God was made into a movie called Rachel, Rachel in 1968 starring Joanne Woodward.

Stacey MacAindra is a housewife and mother who strives to have a balance in her life. Her husband questions her about a rumour of an affair. She didn’t have one but wishes she had because she is accused anyway. One day when she is off on her own thinking about her life, she meets a man. As they talk she feels a connection with him and they become intimate. Afterwards devastating things happen in Stacey's family and she soon realises that life has its ups and downs and decides she would never give up her life with her family.

Laurence mentions characters from previous novels in each new story. She does this very smoothly. In A Bird in The House important characters are noted. In the chapter titled “The Loons” the Tonnerre family is mentioned. As Vanessa, Margaret’s protagonist describes the area near the Wachakwa River she recalls “. . . at the centre of the thicket stood the Tonnerre family’s shack.” She goes on to explain how Jules Tonnerre had built the shack only to stay the winter. However, roots were made as the family increased and the place was still there when she was a child in the thirty’s.

With past events she refers to memory banks. “Memorybank Movie: Parsons’ Bakery Is the Worst Place in Town August. No school for another month yet. The heat is awful. Prin minds the heat, but Morag doesn’t. In the house, the flies are in their millions, but slow and stupid with the heat. . .”

Avid Writers and readers alike will enjoy reading the Manawaka series. Laurence's work will leave an impression with all who explore it.

The copyright of the article Five Linked Novels of the Canadian West in Classic Canadian Fiction is owned by Mary Quehe. Permission to republish Five Linked Novels of the Canadian West in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.