About 7 years ago(June 19th 2000), I read Margaret Laurence for the first time. I can tell you exactly what I was doing, where I was reading it, how I felt. I felt extremely overwhelmed, I remember that. I was taking 3 summer school classes at the same time, a feat I had only managed to accomplish because I begged and pleaded with the powers that be, so that I could finish simultaneous bachelor's quicker than had been anticipated. I was having an internal struggle that I told very few people about, if anyone...I was worried about the future and struggles I would have to go through to get all of my coursework done. I was extremely depressed, at that time I was very very thin, the thinnest I've ever been, school stressed me out, my family stressed me out...I was staying in Montreal the whole summer in order to get away from them, my sister was on a downward spiral, and I was caught in the middle. I was trying to figure out my sexuality, even then, scared of what all of it might mean. I remember going to see a doctor because I was so depressed and I couldn't even talk to her, just looking at her I burst into tears. I was put on antidepressants for the first time that summer. My one solace, as it has always been, was reading. I used to have a spot, right in front of the Arts building, on top of a slab of concrete that I absolutely loved because it was so warm...I would lie on my back and read for a couple of hours before I would go home and do my homework. I read The Fire-Dwellers that summer. It was not the most uplifting novel, but I did like it quite a bit. Laurence is one of those great writers who no one knows about in the United States, highly feminist, writing about what women in the sixties and seventies really felt like, putting their internal thoughts and feelings on the page for all to see. It's been a while since I read her(7 years!!!), but she's been on my list, not only because The Diviners is one of Kate's favorite books, but also because, of course, Margaret Laurence is one of the few women to win the Governor General, and she won it twice, for The Diviners and A Jest of God. A Jest of God is what I just finished this afternoon. I was a bit excited because it was supposed to have a theme of homosexuality in it, and of course it does a bit. Rachel, the main character, has a friend(if you could call it that, Rachel doesn't really have any friends in the small town that she lives in, she is very much apart in terms of how she interacts with people)Calla, who comes onto her at the beginning(very risque for 1966!)and who Rachel, uncomfortable, distances herself from for the rest of the novel, until the end, when she needs to turn to someone, and they are able to resolve things as best as they can be. Rachel is 34 years old, lives with her ailing mother, who is quite overbearing in a very passive aggressive kind of way, and has never had sex or really a boyfriend to speak of. She is in danger of being a spinster(has all the qualifications, esp. being a TEACHER as was almost stereotypical, unfortunately at that time)until she meets Nick, a man who has returned to his aging parents for the summer. She has repeated sexual encounters with him, but, it seems, mostly because she wants to feel close to someone, not necessarily because the sex is actually any good. The one thing Laurence writes VERY WELL is loneliness. I was a bit afraid to read it now given the fact that I've been a bit lonely lately, but it was very well written, a great first novel. But, what is it with loneliness and MANITOBA? That's all I'm going to say about that. This book was turned into a movie, directed by Paul Newman, starring Joanne Woodward, called Rachel, Rachel. Wondering what that would be like, perhaps a rental at some point. I felt a bit of flashback coming on when I read this book though, back to the times when I read that first Laurence. Therefore, I read it quickly to be done with it. It wasn't really necessary, it was still a good book and didn't affect me as deeply as the previous book I read did(Jodi Picoult's The Tenth Circle), about how rape affected a family, but the slight paranoia in the character's internal monologue sometimes was a bit disturbing, because I sometimes think that way and wonder what I would be like at 34 if I had been single forever. The book actually reminded me quite a bit of Clara Callan, Richard B. Wright's GG winner, with the single spinster having intercourse for the first time, getting pregnant, etc. That book also had homosexuality themes...and some pretty open sex scenes. What is it with Canadians writing openly about sex? I mean it's great, but so different from the U.S., which of course is so Puritanical...The next book I'm going to read is The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter. This is for a few reasons, one because it won the Pulitzer and I'm trying to keep things balanced, two it's written by a woman which is also good because I want to keep reading women's work, but the thing that's really interesting is that 1966, the year that A Jest of God won is also the year that The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter won the Pulitzer. Only 2 other times in the combined histories of the awards did two women win in the same year. The first time was 1937, when Laura G. Salverson and Margaret Mitchell won, for The Dark Weaver and Gone With the Wind, respectively. Both books I've already read, both large-scale epics. The second time was 1966, and the third time was in 1985, the year that The Handmaid's Tale and Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie won. There were quite a few male-female combos and a TON of male-male combos, but since women make up only about a third of the winners of the prizes(and in Canada quite a few of the women were multiple award winners, like Gabrielle Roy(won twice), the aforementioned Laurence(won twice), Alice Munro(three time winner)...so the actual number of women who won is smaller(not to mention the US award has been around since 1918)...I'm rambling. Time to call it quits. Team Leader dinner was tonight, I talked about the books some, always feel kind of impressive and also like a big dork too, but of course the latter is something I'm quite used to...:) GGs-27, Pulitzers-27.