Series
Publication
Virago (2008)
Original publication date
1974
Collections
Genres
Subjects
Awards
Governor General's Literary Award (Finalist — 1974)
Description
Morag Gunn, now in her mid-forties, lives in a riverside farmhouse in Eastern Ontario. Through a series of flashbacks she reviews the painful and exhilarating moments of her earlier life: her childhood on the social margins of the small prairie town of Manawaka; her escape from a demeaning marriage into writing fiction; and her travels to England, Scotland and finally back to Canada where she faces a different challenge - the necessity to understand, and let go of, the daughter she loves. A feminist saga as inspirational as when it was first published in 1974, The Diviners is an evocative exploration of one woman's search for her identity.
User reviews
LibraryThing member veronicay
I discovered Margaret Laurence through the first in the Manakwa series, The Stone Angel, a marvellous novel told in the voice of an angry 90-year old woman who doesn't want to be locked up in an old folks' home. I wanted to read more, but Laurence's books are near-impossible to find. Or were, till
I picked this first, not realising it was the last, and read it over a couple of days while stuck at home with a cold. What a marvellous writer; she pulls you into her characters' lives and dilemmas, and Morag is very real, if clearly largely autobiographical.
At one point I found myself thinking that many of these concerns have been aired many times before... intelligent girl stuck in small town, gets educated and leaves, marries the wrong man, liberates herself through writing. But then I realised that Laurence wrote this series in the 60s and 70s, before the women's movement had really started, before Margaret Atwood, before Alice Munro ... she paints the trapped lives of women and Morag's gradual letting go of her daughter and reconcilement with her past with subtlety and intelligence.
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I joined Bookmooch. Now I have three of them in my TBR pile.I picked this first, not realising it was the last, and read it over a couple of days while stuck at home with a cold. What a marvellous writer; she pulls you into her characters' lives and dilemmas, and Morag is very real, if clearly largely autobiographical.
At one point I found myself thinking that many of these concerns have been aired many times before... intelligent girl stuck in small town, gets educated and leaves, marries the wrong man, liberates herself through writing. But then I realised that Laurence wrote this series in the 60s and 70s, before the women's movement had really started, before Margaret Atwood, before Alice Munro ... she paints the trapped lives of women and Morag's gradual letting go of her daughter and reconcilement with her past with subtlety and intelligence.
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LibraryThing member tripleblessings
Morag Gunn is my favourite of Margaret Laurence's strong women characters. She has a difficult life, and a life-long relationship with Jules, a metis man. She is a writer, who worries about her daughter and reflects back on her own life and some mistakes she made along the way. She holds imaginary
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conversations with Catherine Parr Traill, a Canadian pioneer and writer, about living in the wilderness. This classic is worth re-reading every few years. Different parts strike me as very moving and meaningful, perhaps as I change and grow older myself. Show Less
LibraryThing member iayork
a Canadian classic: There are some spicy sex scenes, but it's hard to believe that this novel was called pornography when it was first published in 1974. Margaret Laurence got all kinds of praise and hate mail because of it, as well as disapproval from members of her congregation and people who
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knew her back home for writing "such stuff". This story is a young prairie girl's search for real love, and in Morag Gunn we have the perfectly well-drawn believable figure of the independent young woman who defeats the odds and achieves the life she wants thanks to her strength of courage and perseverance. (...) Show Less
LibraryThing member redcedar
this is without a doubt one of my favourite books in the can-lit cannon: a story of racism, romance, and class divisions that grow from the small town to the big city over the period of the main character's life. morag gunn as a heroine is strong, yet not without mis-steps, and it is through her
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own exploratory journey that we find ourselves examining our own influences and prejudices. this one is always on the re-read list as it is a true classic in the canadian tradition. Show Less
LibraryThing member oldblack
It's probably my old age and lack of reading experience, but I initially found the writing a little difficult...the changes in time, the material in parentheses, the non-sentences, the slightly unusual headings for recalled events ("Memorybank Movie") , the imagined dialog with a 19th century
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author Catharine Parr Traill, unusual character names ("A-Okay"). However, by the time I reached the end of the novel, I almost couldn't imagine the book written any other way. There are lots of issues covered in the book, giving the reader an enormous depth of knowledge of the characters, especially Morag. Although there is a host of really different characters, most of whom have lives which are totally outside my realm of experience (including the geographic focus), they all came across as completely real and believable.This is a great book from a wonderful author. Show Less
LibraryThing member sturlington
While well written, this story was a bit too close to real life to really hold my interest. I don’t meant that it was realistic, which it was but is not necessarily a fault. I mean that reading this was like reading about someone’s fairly ordinary life, with no elements of escapism or
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transcendence, which is not something I normally turn to novels for. Show Less
LibraryThing member ilovecookies
Excellent, excellent book!!
LibraryThing member lauralkeet
The Diviners is the last novel in Margaret Laurence’s Manawaka cycle, set in and around a fictional Canadian town. All four novels feature strong, smart female protagonists, chafing under the constraints society places on them (circa 1970 and earlier). In this novel, Morag Gunn is a 47-year-old
Morag’s parents died when she was very young, and she was taken in by Christie Logan and his wife, Prin. They treated Morag as their own child; it was a loving home environment if a somewhat impoverished one. Christie was the town scavenger / garbage collector, and the family’s socioeconomic status led to Morag being somewhat of an outsider among her classmates. Morag befriended Jules Tonnerre, who was also an outcast due to his Métis heritage (a mix of indigenous people and European settlers). Eventually Morag, suffocating in the small town environment, left for university, married, and published her first novel, but the bond between Morag and Jules remained strong. The plot threads come together beautifully as the narrative of the past catches up to the present.
I loved everything about this novel. The characters are beautifully drawn; I felt I knew Morag and was moved by her relationships with Pique, Jules, and Christie, especially during pivotal events in their lives. Laurence connects this novel to the previous books in the Manawaka cycle through references to characters or events, and while it’s not essential to read the earlier novels first, doing so enhances the reading experience. Near the end of The Diviners, Laurence makes a powerful emotional connection back to The Stone Angel’s Hagar Shipley that was absolutely perfect, and that’s when I knew for sure I was reading a 5-star book.
Margaret Laurence’s Manawaka novels are true classics -- highly recommended.
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writer with a young adult daughter, Pique, who recently set off to make her way across Canada on her own. While Morag frets about Pique’s welfare while trying to get work done, she also reflects on her past through a series of “snapshot” and “memorybank movie” flashbacks. Morag’s parents died when she was very young, and she was taken in by Christie Logan and his wife, Prin. They treated Morag as their own child; it was a loving home environment if a somewhat impoverished one. Christie was the town scavenger / garbage collector, and the family’s socioeconomic status led to Morag being somewhat of an outsider among her classmates. Morag befriended Jules Tonnerre, who was also an outcast due to his Métis heritage (a mix of indigenous people and European settlers). Eventually Morag, suffocating in the small town environment, left for university, married, and published her first novel, but the bond between Morag and Jules remained strong. The plot threads come together beautifully as the narrative of the past catches up to the present.
I loved everything about this novel. The characters are beautifully drawn; I felt I knew Morag and was moved by her relationships with Pique, Jules, and Christie, especially during pivotal events in their lives. Laurence connects this novel to the previous books in the Manawaka cycle through references to characters or events, and while it’s not essential to read the earlier novels first, doing so enhances the reading experience. Near the end of The Diviners, Laurence makes a powerful emotional connection back to The Stone Angel’s Hagar Shipley that was absolutely perfect, and that’s when I knew for sure I was reading a 5-star book.
Margaret Laurence’s Manawaka novels are true classics -- highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member starbox
It grew on me.
The lifestory of a Canadian writer in the 70s, from a tragic start, adoption by a well meaning if socially marginal couple...and then breaking away, the morass of relationships, from an unhappy marriage to the lifelong bond with part Native American folk singer Jules Tonnerre, father
It moves about in time: from the present (anguishing over her free spirit adult daughter, dealing with deaths and illnesses) to the past, in pages entitled 'memorybank movie.' I can't say it was madly compulsive reading, but you gradually become enmeshed in narrator Morag Gunn's world, so certainly accomplished.
The lifestory of a Canadian writer in the 70s, from a tragic start, adoption by a well meaning if socially marginal couple...and then breaking away, the morass of relationships, from an unhappy marriage to the lifelong bond with part Native American folk singer Jules Tonnerre, father
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of her only child...It moves about in time: from the present (anguishing over her free spirit adult daughter, dealing with deaths and illnesses) to the past, in pages entitled 'memorybank movie.' I can't say it was madly compulsive reading, but you gradually become enmeshed in narrator Morag Gunn's world, so certainly accomplished.
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LibraryThing member gypsysmom
I don't reread many books but I have a few Canadian classics that I have read at least twice. A few years ago I reread The Stone Angel and so I was primed to give this book another go when I saw it for sale in the lovely used book store in Onanole Manitoba, Poor Michaels.
Morag Gunn is a succesful
Ten years separated the writing of The Stone Angel from the writing of The Diviners. They were also written on different continents. Laurence was living in England when she wrote The Stone Angel but she was back in Canada by the time The Diviners was written. I think there are significant differences between the two books. For one thing, The Stone Angel had Biblical underpinnings but I couldn't really detect anything like that in The Diviners. For another, the central character in The Diviners is a middle-aged woman with a still young daughter but Hagar Shipley in The Stone Angel was 90 years old and her surviving son is also quite old. Many people have called The Diviners Laurence's outstanding achievement. It certainly is a mature work and has become an exemplar of Laurence's ability as a writer.
Morag Gunn is a succesful
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writer living in a small rural area in Ontario. She grew up in Manawaka in Manitoba where she lived with Christie and Prin Logan who were no relation to her but who agreed to raise her when her own parents died of polio. Christie was the town garbage man and he was a veteran of the First World War. He had served with Morag's father and he credited her father with saving his life. Prin, his wife, was morbidly obese even when Morag came to live with them. There was not much money in the household and Morag was poorly dressed when she started school. Naturally she was the butt of many jokes and remained an outsider all the time she lived in Manawaka. In her class was a Metis boy, Jules Tonnerre, who was also an outsider. His family lived in shacks in the river valley and his father provided for Jules and his siblings by hunting and trapping. Perhaps it was inevitable that Morag and Jules would be drawn to each other but World War II intervened with Jules going off to fight. After the war Morag had saved enough money to go to college where she met, fell in love with and married one of her professors. Brooke Skelton takes a job in Toronto and Morag becomes a stay at home wife while trying to launch a writing career. She manages to write one book which is accepted for publication, something which drives a wedge between Morag and Brooke. Morag would like to have children but Brooke always says it is not the right time. Then Morag meets Jules on a street, invites him back to her and Brooke's apartment and Brooke is rude to Jules. Morag realizes she has to leave Brooke and goes off with Jules who she stays with for a few weeks before moving to Vancouver. Morag and Jules have sex and Morag tells Jules she doesn't want to take any precautions. After she gets to Vancouver Morag realizes she is pregnant. When her daughter is born she names her Piquette after Jules' sister who died during WWII when the Tonnerre shack caught on fire. Morag lets Jules know about Pique's birth but she raises Pique by herself. Morag starts to become more well-known as a writer and after some years she moves to England with, of course, Pique. Jules came to Vancouver once and stayed for a while with Morag so he has met Pique but, in reality, Pique does not have a father figure. When Morag has moved back to Canada and there could be an opportunity for a relationship it never happens until Pique leaves home at age 18. Then she tracks down Jules who supports himself by singing and playing guitar in small coffee shops. Pique is also a musician and Jules shares with her some of his own songs that tell about his family's history. In this way Pique becomes acquainted with her paternal heritage and she continues to explore that. Morag knows that she has to let Pique go her way as she had to do herself. At the end of the book Morag goes to look at the river which seems to flow both ways. "Look ahead into the past; and back into the future, until the silence." Ten years separated the writing of The Stone Angel from the writing of The Diviners. They were also written on different continents. Laurence was living in England when she wrote The Stone Angel but she was back in Canada by the time The Diviners was written. I think there are significant differences between the two books. For one thing, The Stone Angel had Biblical underpinnings but I couldn't really detect anything like that in The Diviners. For another, the central character in The Diviners is a middle-aged woman with a still young daughter but Hagar Shipley in The Stone Angel was 90 years old and her surviving son is also quite old. Many people have called The Diviners Laurence's outstanding achievement. It certainly is a mature work and has become an exemplar of Laurence's ability as a writer.
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LibraryThing member DeltaQueen50
The Diviners by Margaret Laurence is considered a classic of Canadian Literature, winning the Governor General’s Award for fiction in 1974. The main character of the story is Morag Gunn, an independent novelist and single mother who grew up in the small town of Manawaka, Manitoba. She has a
The novel opens with Morag finding that her eighteen year old daughter has left home then while brooding over that she thinks back over her own life, her traumatic childhood, her difficult relationships and her struggles to assert herself. This self-reflective portrait not only portrayed Morag’s life but also with it’s exploration of several generations, races and classes painted a vivid picture of the Canadian immigrant experience.
When originally published The Diviners was considered quite controversial with it’s depiction of a woman who chose to leave her marriage and conceive a child out of wedlock. Also the interracial relationship between Morag and Jules caused more than a few raised eyebrows. I believe the author was striving to show how mixed culturally and racially Canadian heritage can be.
I surprised myself by how much I enjoyed this book. Although published in the 1970s, its feminist themes still ring true today. I will long remember Morag Gunn, the flawed, conflicted yet strong main character who takes the reader on such an emotional journey. The author’s writing totally engaged me with it’s honest and intimate manner of delivering such a complex story.
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difficult relationship with her daughter Pique and the father of Pique, a Metis named Jules Tonnerre and is struggling with her writing as well.The novel opens with Morag finding that her eighteen year old daughter has left home then while brooding over that she thinks back over her own life, her traumatic childhood, her difficult relationships and her struggles to assert herself. This self-reflective portrait not only portrayed Morag’s life but also with it’s exploration of several generations, races and classes painted a vivid picture of the Canadian immigrant experience.
When originally published The Diviners was considered quite controversial with it’s depiction of a woman who chose to leave her marriage and conceive a child out of wedlock. Also the interracial relationship between Morag and Jules caused more than a few raised eyebrows. I believe the author was striving to show how mixed culturally and racially Canadian heritage can be.
I surprised myself by how much I enjoyed this book. Although published in the 1970s, its feminist themes still ring true today. I will long remember Morag Gunn, the flawed, conflicted yet strong main character who takes the reader on such an emotional journey. The author’s writing totally engaged me with it’s honest and intimate manner of delivering such a complex story.
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LibraryThing member amerynth
Considered a classic of Canadian literature, Margaret Laurence's "The Diviners" was definitely a compelling read. Filled with complex and rich characters who are all searching for their way in life, the novel tells a solid and generally interesting story.
Told mostly in flashback, Morag Gunn's
I enjoyed the story a great deal.
Told mostly in flashback, Morag Gunn's
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memories start out with the tragedy of her parent's death. The future writer searches for connections with people, which she does and doesn't find, while the other people in her life, in turn, search for things meaningful to them. I enjoyed the story a great deal.
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LibraryThing member japaul22
[The Diviners] is the story of Margaret Gunn who grows up in a small town on the Canada prairie, raised by friends of her father after her parents die when she is five. The people who raise her are Christie and Prin. Christie is the town scavenger, i.e. garbage man, and is looked down upon. He is
This book isn't linear. It's told through a series of brief flashbacks labeled "memorybank movies" in the text. It's an exploration of memory as well as life through Morag's experience. Somehow it all flows together perfectly, though, and you barely realize the different shifts in time - they just work. I really, really loved this book. The characters were so alive to me and I did not want the book to end. I read another of Laurence's books, [The Stone Angel], recently and it was also excellent. This, though, was more complex and I felt a bit more maturely written. I highly recommend reading some [[Margaret Laurence]].
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also deeply scarred from his WWI experience. Prin is eating herself into an early grave. The town in small in thinking and backwards until you get to know the characters. Morag, though, must escape and finds her way through the world as a writer. Before she leaves, she meets Jules Tonnerre, a mixed race boy, who she falls in love with. He will come and go in her life throughout the novel. Morag later has a child, Pique, and their travels and relationship form another portion of the book. This book isn't linear. It's told through a series of brief flashbacks labeled "memorybank movies" in the text. It's an exploration of memory as well as life through Morag's experience. Somehow it all flows together perfectly, though, and you barely realize the different shifts in time - they just work. I really, really loved this book. The characters were so alive to me and I did not want the book to end. I read another of Laurence's books, [The Stone Angel], recently and it was also excellent. This, though, was more complex and I felt a bit more maturely written. I highly recommend reading some [[Margaret Laurence]].
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Language
Original language
English
ISBN
1844085368 / 9781844085361
Physical description
400 p.; 4.72 inches
Pages
400