Linda Svendsen (2) (1954–)

Amazingly good. I bought this never having heard of the title or author, I do not remember where, because the graphic design was really excellent (which means someone loves it dearly) and I liked the title, which reminds me of myself. The chapters follow time in a haphazard way through the life of our narrator, Adele, as she grows up in Vancouver and moves around - including an interesting brief section living with the Inuit. Adele's intelligence shine through these stories of her relationships and those of her family members, but it doesn't help her avoid screwing up, sometimes in her mother's footsteps, sometimes all on her own. The climax is heartbreaking.
The novel asks 'what is success?' in love and relationships in a very tough but insightful way.
4.5… (more)

This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

I wanted to like this book but it got off to such a slow start that I never felt it was more than just okay. Two narrators, twins Justine and Perry, multiple settings, interspersed with old letters from a deceased dad disrupted the rhythm. The novel tried really hard to show what it is like living as and with a person with a "brain condition" but the resolution of all the plot threads (long lost mother, needy boyfriend, future living arrangements) thanks to an earthquake just didn't work for this reader. Sorry.… (more)

Canadian political satire lives! yay! It is an endangered species in Canadian literature. Linda Svendsen provides welcome company to [a:Terry Fallis|908869|Terry Fallis|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1281271757p2/908869.jpg]([b:The Best Laid Plans: A Novel|4441454|The Best Laid Plans A Novel|Terry Fallis|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328045175s/4441454.jpg|4489501] and [b:The High Road|12919678|The High Road|Terry Fallis|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1319072559s/12919678.jpg|12266716]), but this is more biting, and strongly rooted in real events.

The book is set during the presidential reign of Canada's non-president prime minister who nonetheless aspires to a different kind of regime. Stephen and Laureen Harper have become Greg and Becky Leggatt, and our former young black governor general, Michaelle Jean, immigrant from Haiti, has been transformed into young black Lise Lavoie, immigrant from St Bernand. And the Queen has abdicated to allow her son to become King Charles. The personalities though, are deliciously the same as our real-life politicos. The angry cold-eyed ruthless PM in the book keeps yielding to my image of Harper. And what a mean bastard he is in this book (no spoiler alert there, that's a given!). It is only the PM's wife in the book that seems to be fictional -her cunning and wicked political nous surpass even that of her fish-eyed hubby's.

Real Canadian and world-wide political events provide the framework and most of the plot lines in the book, from the transformation from a minority to majority government in Canada, and the cynical reliance upon prorogation of parliament by the PM and his cronies. The story though, is told from the sides of the women, the wife and the GG.
Svendsen has taken these real events and stuffed the empty spaces, the spaces where we don't know what the reality is, with her wildly inventive but scarily almost plausible plot twists. These narrative twists might be entirely imagined but sadly, the Machiavellian stylings are too real.

Despite re-opening our scabby political wounds, this book is a fun read. Her writing is tight, sharp, focused, and hilarious. We need more of this kind of book.… (more)