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.