Pamela Porter (1) (1956–)
Autor von The Crazy Man
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Werke von Pamela Porter
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Wissenswertes
- Geburtstag
- 1956-07-14
- Geschlecht
- female
- Nationalität
- USA (birth)
Canada - Geburtsort
- Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
- Wohnorte
- Sidney, British Columbia, Canada
Dallas, Texas, USA
Monroe, Louisiana, USA
Seattle, Washington, USA
Ulm, Montana, USA
North Saanich, British Columbia, Canada (Zeige alle 7)
Sunspot, New Mexico, USA - Ausbildung
- Southern Methodist University (BA)
University of Montana (MA, Poetry) - Berufe
- poet
professor - Organisationen
- University of Victoria
Mitglieder
Rezensionen
I'll Be Watching von Pamela Porter
Lovely, heart-wrenching book in prose poetry so a quick read. Even with the sparse prose you really know the Loney family and root for them. The nasty townspeople bordered on caricatures but it made me love Ran, Nora, Jim, and Addie all the more.
It is 1965, and twelve-year-old Emaline lives on a wheat farm in southern Saskatchewan. Her family has fallen apart. When her beloved dog, Prince, chased a hare into the path of the tractor, she chased after him, and her dad accidentally ran over her leg with the discer, leaving her with a long convalescence and a permanent disability. But perhaps the worst thing from Emaline's point of view is that in his grief and guilt, her father shot Prince and then left Emaline and her mother on their own.
If I said it's like Anne of Green Gables?
Well, then, I'd be lying. Because nothing is like Anne of Green Gables, right?
But I'll Be Watching gave me a lot of the same feelings that reading my battered copy of Montgomery's story gives me.
That's bound to sound hyperbolic, so let me explain.
Pamela Porter's novel opens in October 1941 and introduces readers to the Loney family one by one.
Each of them has a voice, each of them is watching.
They -- and the folks around them -- are just watching as life unfolds in Argue, Saskatchewan.
The meaning of the title is not immediately clear, but what is recognizable straight off is that the Loney family is going through a rough patch.
Each member is struggling to find a place, collectively and individually, and each is searching for something like home, in the wake of overwhelming losses.
And Argue might be insulating for some (like Anne's Avonlea) but it can be painfully isolating for others. In fact, the line between insulating and isolating is a fine one indeed.
As the schoolteacher observes:
"This town -- how shall I put it -- the welcome
I initially received has dried up
like a leaf in winter."
Remember, it's 1941: a man of German extraction like Franz Lahr faces new challenges in a town like Argue.
It's wartime, but the Depression is still fresh on the prairie. So the oldest Loney boy, Randall, has taken months to find even part-time work on the railroad.
And what of the other Loney children?
Jim is a few years younger, but he too has just left school -- in defiance, because his schoolteacher hadn't heard about the discovery of Pluto, which happened in 1930.
Nora is desperately trying to fill the gap left by their mother's death (a gap that is not being filled, but excavated, by their father's second wife Effie).
Seven-year-old Addie hasn't spoken since their mother, Margaret, died.
And their father, George, has hardly stopped drinking in that long.
"Losing that farm was George's greatest failure
but wasn't his fault. Gawdam drought.
Gawdam dust. Gawdam government."
So says Elmer Spanner, who is the proprietor of the Buffalo Bar. Elmer doesn't speak/observe much. There are several townsfolk who make only brief appearances in the narrative.
You might think this would fragment the story, but the Loney family is clearly at the heart of I'll Be Watching, so including these other voices/viewers has the opposite effect: cumulatively they create a sense of community in the story.
(More about the sense of community, more about the structure of the novel, the connections to Montgomery's works, and about the characters, and and and...here, on Buried In Print.)… (mehr)
Well, then, I'd be lying. Because nothing is like Anne of Green Gables, right?
But I'll Be Watching gave me a lot of the same feelings that reading my battered copy of Montgomery's story gives me.
That's bound to sound hyperbolic, so let me explain.
Pamela Porter's novel opens in October 1941 and introduces readers to the Loney family one by one.
Each of them has a voice, each of them is watching.
They -- and the folks around them -- are just watching as life unfolds in Argue, Saskatchewan.
The meaning of the title is not immediately clear, but what is recognizable straight off is that the Loney family is going through a rough patch.
Each member is struggling to find a place, collectively and individually, and each is searching for something like home, in the wake of overwhelming losses.
And Argue might be insulating for some (like Anne's Avonlea) but it can be painfully isolating for others. In fact, the line between insulating and isolating is a fine one indeed.
As the schoolteacher observes:
"This town -- how shall I put it -- the welcome
I initially received has dried up
like a leaf in winter."
Remember, it's 1941: a man of German extraction like Franz Lahr faces new challenges in a town like Argue.
It's wartime, but the Depression is still fresh on the prairie. So the oldest Loney boy, Randall, has taken months to find even part-time work on the railroad.
And what of the other Loney children?
Jim is a few years younger, but he too has just left school -- in defiance, because his schoolteacher hadn't heard about the discovery of Pluto, which happened in 1930.
Nora is desperately trying to fill the gap left by their mother's death (a gap that is not being filled, but excavated, by their father's second wife Effie).
Seven-year-old Addie hasn't spoken since their mother, Margaret, died.
And their father, George, has hardly stopped drinking in that long.
"Losing that farm was George's greatest failure
but wasn't his fault. Gawdam drought.
Gawdam dust. Gawdam government."
So says Elmer Spanner, who is the proprietor of the Buffalo Bar. Elmer doesn't speak/observe much. There are several townsfolk who make only brief appearances in the narrative.
You might think this would fragment the story, but the Loney family is clearly at the heart of I'll Be Watching, so including these other voices/viewers has the opposite effect: cumulatively they create a sense of community in the story.
(More about the sense of community, more about the structure of the novel, the connections to Montgomery's works, and about the characters, and and and...here, on Buried In Print.)… (mehr)
Written in free verse, a fictional story is told of a 12-year old girl in 1965 Saskatchewan who is injured in a tractor accident. Porter grabs the reader’s attention at the beginning of the story with the family dog’s body being placed in a burn pile. On top of the accidents, Emaline begins the journey of mourning her father’s and her dog’s deaths. The story teaches about mental illness, acceptance, perseverance, everyday heroes and the danger of making assumptions.
The book would make a good book club novel for intermediate students or as a read aloud with class discussions around anti-bullying.
Recommended for ages 10 and up.… (mehr)
The book would make a good book club novel for intermediate students or as a read aloud with class discussions around anti-bullying.
Recommended for ages 10 and up.… (mehr)
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- Werke
- 8
- Mitglieder
- 210
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- #105,678
- Bewertung
- 3.8
- Rezensionen
- 9
- ISBNs
- 42
- Sprachen
- 2