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Material Type | Shelf Number | Shelf Location | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Book | FICTION SKIBSRUD, JOHANNA | Adult Fiction Collection | Searching... |
Summary
Summary
Haunted by the vivid horrors of the Vietnam War, exhausted from years spent battling his memories, Napoleon Haskell leaves his North Dakota trailer and moves to Canada. He retreats to a small Ontario town where Henry, the father of his fallen Vietnam comrade, has a home on the shore of a man-made lake. Under the water is the wreckage of what was once the town - and the home where Henry was raised. When Napoleon's daughter arrives, fleeing troubles of her own, she finds her father in the dark twilight of his life, and rapidly slipping into senility. With love and insatiable curiosity, she devotes herself to learning the truth about his life; and through the fog, Napoleon's past begins to emerge. Lyrical and riveting, The Sentimentalists is a story of what lies beneath the surface of everyday life, and of the commanding power of the past. Johanna Skibsrud's first novel marks the debut of a powerful new voice in Canadian fiction.
Reviews: 3
Booklist Review
When Vietnam veteran and absentee father Napoleon Haskell's health declines, his daughters move him to a rambling Canadian lakeshore house owned by a family friend, the father of one of Napoleon's deceased war buddies. As Napoleon drowns his last days in alcohol, crosswords, and classic film quotations, his elder daughter struggles to understand the enigmatic man whose silences and erratic behavior have haunted her life and the horrors of war that have haunted his. Although a lugubrious pace and understated conflict may put off readers hungry for faster (and more linear) plots, Scotiabank Giller Prize winner Skibsrud's dreamlike narration and astonishing imagery range from rooms haunted by casual ghosts to an actual house, the predecessor of the one in which Napoleon now dwells, that is now covered by a manmade river. Skibsrud's subtle, contemplative prose provides exquisite meditation on the ripple effects of violence upon generations, the untrustworthiness of memory, and the sorrowful impossibility of truly understanding one's parents.--Vanderhooft, JoSell. Copyright 2010 Booklist
Publisher's Weekly Review
Montreal poet Skibsrud's first novel, the dark horse winner of Canada's 2011 Giller Prize, is an intricate story about the crushing power of experience. As elderly, alcoholic Napoleon is being moved from his home in Fargo, N.D., to that of widowed family friend Henry Carey in Casablanca, Ontario, the unnamed narrator, one of Napoleon's two daughters, recalls time spent throughout her life in the Carey home and the strange story of her father, whose life fell apart after he returned from Vietnam. The story moves from the narrator's childhood; Napoleon's pivotal wartime service with Henry's son, Owen; and Napoleon's abandoning of his family, which crushed the narrator and her sister. Poetic ruminations are frequent but not oppressive, and provide uncommon perspectives on the characters: Napoleon's deathbed confessions "opened a seam through which the rest of the world now burst"; the narrator realizes, at her sick father's side, that her "own sadness seemed, at those times, to draw itself in-a complete and separate object-so that it seemed to have nothing to do with me anymore." Skibsrud's assured prose and graceful wordplay elevate this delicately structured story of redemption and forgiveness, and her storytelling is so refined and subtle that the punch at the end, while fully anticipated, still has a leveling power. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Library Journal Review
First novelist Skibsrud takes a poignant look at family, focusing mainly on Napoleon Haskell, his adult daughter, and Henry, father to a young man Napoleon served with in Vietnam. These three live in Henry's house in Canada as a sort of makeshift family. When Napoleon's daughter first comes to live with him and Henry after a relationship ends badly, she finds out much more about the father she hardly knew while growing up. And she begins to understand who Henry is and why he has a connection to her own family. She also learns that her father's alcoholism is much more progressed than she'd originally thought. And she begins to figure out the identity of the mysterious Owen, Henry's son, and why Henry feels indebted to her father because of him. With flashbacks to Vietnam and heartfelt recollections of the daughter's own childhood, the narrative shows Napoleon slowly letting his daughter in on deep secrets of his life. VERDICT A quick and satisfying read; recommended for most public libraries and reading groups that have an interest in books about familial relationships.-Leann Restaino, Girard, OH (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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