Mister Sandman - Softcover

Gowdy

3.69

989 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0006550177 ISBN 13: 9780006550174

Publisher: Flamingo, 1997

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

Barbara Gowdy's outrageous, hilarious, disturbing, and compassionate novel is about the Canary family, their immoderate passions and eccentricities, and their secret lives and histories. The deepest secret of all is harbored in the silence of the youngest daughter, Joan, who doesn't grow, who doesn't speak, but who can play the piano like Mozart though she's never had a lesson. Joan is a mystery, and in the novel's stunning climax her family comes to understand that each of them is a mystery, as marvelous as Joan, as irreducible as the mystery of life itself. In its compassionate investigation of moral truths and its bold embrace of the fractured nature of every one of its characters, Mister Sandman attains the heightened quality of a modern-day parable.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:

"Count this wickedly funny and moving novel by a Canadian writer the year's sleeper. It's unlikely that anything else will come along that will equal its combination of audacious concept, inspired characterization, frank sexuality, ribald humor and poignant message... Gowdy's raucous, tender love is a find indeed.""-- Publishers Weekly" (A Best Book of the Year) ""Mister Sandman" displays the same quirkiness, the same mordant sense of humor, the same ear for the vernacular, the same innocent-eyed acceptance of the bizarre, that characterizes her two previous novels...Gowdy surprises and delights; she also--which is rare--gives us the moments which are at the same time preposterous and strangely moving."-- Margaret Atwood, "Times Literary Supplement" ("Best Books of the Year") "One of the strangest--and most heartwarming--paeans to family ties you'll ever read. A+.""-- Entertainment Weekly" " The family at the center of "Mister Sandman" is uniquely, whimsically dysfunctional. But it is the unexpected birth of Joan Canary, half idiot savant and half changeling, that catalyzes the individual idiosyncrasies and personal secrets of the people around her, melding them into a clan defined by its eccentricity...Joan's possibly brain-damaged brilliance lies at the heart of both the narrative and the symbolism of this delightfully quirky novel, in which the Canary family's life emerges as a weird yet often affecting group composition.'""-- The New York Times Book Review" "With Mister Sandman, Gowdy will surely join the ranks of Lorrie Moore, Kazuo Ishiguro and other great dark-humored literary beguilers. The novel is a true literary original, a perfectly pitchedcreation in which story, ideas and authorial voice merge so explosively, so felicitously that the reader feels compelled to exclaim 'Yes!' on almost every page.""-- L.A. Weekly" "There is an astonishing sensibility in Barbara Gowdy's "Mister Sandman," which bounds, spritelike, into the farthest corners of lunacy while staying tethered to the author's very real understanding of love."--" Elle "(A Best Book of the Year) "It's truly a monumentally entertaining, brilliantly constructed novel...Barbara Gowdy is poised to be the next big thing."-- "Bloomsbury Review"

From the Back Cover:

The Canarys are quite unlike any other family. Little Joan is exquisite, reclusive and plays the piano like Mozart. Her sister Marcy is a nymphomaniac, while Sonja is enormous and knits compulsively. Their parents by comparison seem quite normal, but then they have their own peculiar habits.

‘‘This book begins with the birth of its central figure, a tiny, white-haired, angelically beautiful child, who is thought to have cried, ‘Oh no, not again!’ at her first sight of the world, and is thereafter mute. She takes up residence in a closet, and becomes the repository of all her family’s secrets; and very odd secrets they are. Then she refashions them into her own explosive work of art. Barbara Gowdy surprises and delights; she also – which is rarer – gives us moments which are at the same time preposterous and strangely moving.’’
MARGARET ATWOOD

‘‘Barbara Gowdy has a sharp, surreal edge and a beguiling sense of humour; her prose comes from a darker place whose other residents include Lorrie Moore and Alice Munro. 'Mister Sandman' is funny and moving at the same time – strange rather than wacky; touching rather than sentimental. Gowdy invites the reader’s complicity, and makes us fall in love with her characters... a subtle and original talent.’’
JESSAMY CALKIN, 'Observer'

‘’This is one of the most extraordinary books I have ever read. Gowdy takes the ordinary and turns it inside out. The writing is studded with unlikely, apposite metaphors, conceits, 'bons mots', puns and mordant humour. Gowdy has performed a sleight of hand – she made what is strange seem normal.’’
ALICE THOMSON, 'Scotman'

‘‘Gowdy has written a great novel – funny, bizarre and strange. She deserves to be catapulted into the front rank of Canadian novelists.’’
IAN CRITCHLEY, 'Literary Review'

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.