In Margaret Laurence’s final novel most of her characters are searching; searchers for home, family or creativity, water or scavenging in town dumps. The Diviners; the final novel in Laurence’s Manawaka sequence (though I still have to read number three and the collection of stories) is though a novel of outsiders.
At about 400 pages, I thought twice about reading this, as I am trying not to pick anything too big as I race toward the end of my A Century of Books. I had wanted to read this so long, I decided it didn’t really matter – I should read what I wanted to. So very glad I did, I loved every bit of this novel, not a fast read, but a thoroughly absorbing one, beautifully written it proved a real treat spending time with this book. An epic novel, which is already considered a classic of Canadian literature. Strangely, the novel has also been banned several times by school boards for blasphemy. I find that absurd.
Manawaka is the fictional prairie town that first appeared in Margaret Laurence’s The Stone Angel. The Diviners is the story of Morag Gunn, a fiercely independent writer, her difficult relationships with her Métis lover Jules Tonnerre, and her daughter Pique. As we first meet Morag, she is a forty-seven-year old woman, living near a river. Her eighteen-year-old daughter has gone away for a while and she is worrying about her, watching the river – trying to get her mind back to her work. Here, Morag is alone but has friends close by – neighbours who pop in frequently. Old Royland, the water diviner is one.
“No boats today. Yes, one. Royland was out, fishing for muskie, seventy-four years old this year, Royland. Eyesight terrible, but he was too stubborn to wear glasses. A marvel that he could go on working. Of course, his work did not depend upon eyesight. Some other kind of sight. A water diviner. Morag always felt she was about to learn something of great significance from him, something which would explain everything. But things remained mysterious, his work, her own, the generations, the river.”
The story moves back and forth between Morag’s present – where she struggles with her work and her relationship with her daughter, and the past as she grows up more and more desperate to escape the town of Manawaka.
Morag Gunn wasn’t born in Manawaka – her parents died when she was just five years old – and she goes to live in Manawaka with an army friend of her father’s and his wife – who agree to take the orphaned child in. Christy Logan and his wife Prin (short for Princess) are an odd choice as guardians for such a young child. Morag has never lived in town before – it all seems very strange – and she has never met Christy and Prin before she is taken there by a neighbour. Christy is the town scavenger – he spends his days at the nuisance grounds (the town tip) he gets rid of the things people don’t want – a keeper of secrets, and a finder of things. His wife Prin is an enormously large woman, who stays mainly in the house.
“‘She’ll be alright Christie,’ the Big Fat Woman says. ‘She gotta get used to us. Leave her be, now’
‘I was only trying, for God’s sake, woman,’ sounding mad.
‘You want to see your room, Morag?’ the woman says.
She nods. They mount the stairs, the woman going very slow because fat. The room is hers, this one? A thin bed, a green dresser, a window with a (oh – ripped, shame on them) lace curtain. A little room. You might be safe in a place like that, if it was really yours. If they meant it.”
Christy and Prin are kind people – and though Morag is often slightly ashamed of them – in the way children are when their adults are so obviously different to other children’s – she becomes used to them. Christy is a good teller of tales – stories that Morag carries with her – she is both fascinated and repelled by his life at the nuisance grounds (I shall forever now, think of a rubbish dump as the nuisance grounds). However, as Morag grows up – she becomes more and more dissatisfied with life in Manawaka, knowing that when the time is right, she will break away.
Morag is made tough by this strange life in the prairie town. It is here in Manawaka though as a teenager that Morag first meets Jules Tonnerre, (nickname Skinner), Jules and his family are outsiders, Métis living on the outskirts of town, they are subject to all the usual prejudices. While Jules is away at the war, Morag a junior reporter on the town newspaper is sent to report on the fire at the Tonnerre home, where Jules’ sister and her children are killed. It is a scene that will haunt them both over the coming years.
Morag does leave Manakawa – she goes to college where she meets new friends and lovers, marries the wrong man and longs for a child. One day, she meets up with Jules again, though their relationship is never destined to be conventional, she takes the chance to break away one more time.
Laurence’s characters are wonderfully memorable – her storytelling is rich and poignantly written. My first novel of the month will be one that is hard to beat. I don’t think it matters that I am reading these books slightly out of order, but I am looking forward to reading The Fire Dwellers even more now.
This sounds excellent, highly original. I’ve not read any Laurence but your enthusiasm is infectious!
Do check out her novels, Margaret Laurence is such a good writer.
It does sound like an interesting story, you were right to follow the good feeling you had that it’d be a good one! It makes me think of Annie Proulx’s Barkskins and the families that settled in Canada and how their lives were formed and changed by various random events.
Someone recommended Barkskins to me before, so perhaps I should really be looking out for that one.
It’s quite long, but it’s an incredible novel in its historic frame, and telling that history through two families, originating from two men coming from France. It took her 10 years to write and many believe it to be her ‘tour de force’. It also has one very interesting female protagonist, unlike what we usually see in novels in that era. I’ve also heard people mentionRichard Power’s The Overstory in the same breath as Barkskins, another one I’d quite like to read, if only it weren’t such a chunkster!
This does sound as if your instincts were right Ali. I’ve not heard of Laurence but I think she’s someone I could enjoy. Is this a good one to start with or would you suggest an alternative title?
I would really start with The Stone Angel. The books are linked by geography rather than characters though so perhaps it doesn’t matter.
Noted, thanks for the night Ali
I’m so glad you liked it. Another book I’d love to re-read!
So glad I read it, what a lovely novel it turned out to be.
Lovely review, Ali. Your love of Laurence’s storytelling definitely shines through. Not an author I’ve ever read, but she does sound worthy of consideration. The Stone Angel sounds like it would be the best place to start – it’s certainly the one I’ve heard the most about.
Yes definitely someone worth reading if you can. The Stone Angel would probably be the best place to start.
Lovely post Ali. I’ve yet to read Laurence, though I own a couple of her books. I need to read more Canadian lit than just Atwood! :)))
I don’t really read much Canadian lit either. Funnily enough though, I am reading Margaret Atwood right now – Life Before Man, very much enjoying it.
This sounds wonderful Ali, would it be wise to read The Stone Angel first?
I would say The Stone Angel is the best place to start yes, though that too is a marvellous novel.
It is a coincidence to read your post because I picked this up at the library the other day and was immediately drawn in by the opening couple of pages. Unfortunately, that particular copy was rather badly damaged – it must have been read many times, which is a good thing. But I find it a distraction to read books like that so decided to get my own copy – and am even more determined to do so now that I have read your thoughts!
That is a coincidence. Sounds like that library copy had been well read. Hope you continue to enjoy it, when you get your own copy.
[…] The Diviners – Margaret Laurence (1974) – Ali Hope at Heavenali found the characters “wonderfully memorable” and the storytelling “rich” in the final novel of Canadian author Margaret Laurence’s Manawaka sequence. […]
“Christy and Prin are kind people – and though Morag is often slightly ashamed of them – in the way children are when their adults are so obviously different to other children’s – she becomes used to them.”
I just love the way you’ve expressed this. Those aspects of the story really got to me, especially as the novel wends along (you will know what I mean – the obvious bits that I am not calling out). Another aspect of the story which I found really touching was the way that she negotiates the push-pull with Pique. My copy is the one you’ve included near the bottom and it is one of my all-time favourite reads (and she one of my Must Read Everything authors). There is an autobiography, Dance on the Earth, which you might enjoy once you are done with the others (and don’t fret about the order for a second – it’s all good). Looking forward to hearing about your next encounter with her work!
I must put that autobiography on my wishlist, for after I have read her other fiction. I am so glad I discovered her, such a good writer.
[…] began with me reading The Diviners (1974) by Margaret Laurence – a Canadian modern classic and novel I knew it would be hard to better with […]
[…] The Diviners by Margaret Laurence (1974) A modern classic in Canadian literature; The Diviners is the story of Morag Gunn, a fiercely […]