Adult Onset by Ann-Marie MacDonald

Ann-Marie MacDonald's new novel is out and I am getting so much joy from every word.  It begins Mary Rose, also known as Mr., just barely coping (and hilariously so) with her precocious toddler while her wife is working across the country.  The setting is Toronto, the annex, lovingly described, a great neighbourhood for those who know the city.  As Mary Rose is experiencing some pain in her arms the novel gently travels back in time to her birth and early childhood in Germany.  Ms. MacDonald writes childhood with great wit and humour, she writes of the post-natal depression her mother endures perfectly and with that amazing empathy all great writers seem to possess.  I think what astounds me about the writing is how one minute I am with Mary Rose in her bathroom where she is randomly studying her teeth in the mirror, next minute I am in mid fifties Winnipeg where her mother gives birth to a still born child, next I am in Germany where her army dad is oblivious to her mother's post-natal depression.  All this and I feel like I've not turned a page.  What pacing!  I cannot praise this beautiful, funny, tender novel enough.

Nora Webster by Colm Toibin

Toibin is a master at empathy for his characters.  His pacing is so deliberate, so thought out, that not a word is wasted.  The novel opens with Nora Webster dealing with the kindness of neighbours, showing up with words of sympathy for the recent death of her husband, a man who took centre place in her life.  She still must worry about money, her four children and how to find meaning for her life under the scrutiny and judgement of her neighbours.  This she does slowly and successfully, breaking free from the constraints of her time and place - mid sixties in a small town in Ireland.