The Book of Eve (New Canadian Library) Review

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The Book of Eve (New Canadian Library) ReviewI first discovered this 1973 novel around 1976 when I was a junior in high school. I was very impressed with the story of a 60-something woman (which was ANCIENT to me at the time!) who has spent 40 years in an unhappy marriage, with the husband now disabled, petulant, and demanding, and who one day sets down the tea tray, packs her hairbrush, and walks out without a word. At the time I found Eva an inspiring character, and the story was in a pseudo-journal style, which I enjoy.
In high school, I too was looking for ways out, not wanting to be doomed to family expectations, and Eva's story also seemed a cautionary tale about what could happen to someone who did not take charge of her own life sooner. Eva ends up impoverished, making ends meet by picking up items to sell at the pawn shop, yet feeling an enduring sense of freedom and gratitude. But I think her story made me less worried about becoming a "bag lady," one of the big fears of my generation, since Eva did quite well on her own with her small pension cheque, thank you, and the life of a poor old lady was, overall, better than her previous life of marital servitude.
When I reverently gave the novel to my aunt to read, she was less impressed. How could Eva just walk out on her marriage like that, when her husband needed her? Unfortunately, my Christian aunt's marriage broke up several years later, which goes to remind one that marital commitment is not always returned in kind anyway.
The premise of the novel stuck with me all these years, but for a long time I had the title wrong, so I couldn't find it again, and of course it was long out of print by the time I did. But once I had title and author, it wasn't long before I found a copy at a used bookstore (the Green Apple Annex in San Francisco, if you must know).
How does it play 30 years later? First, I found Eva a less inspiring character personally than before. The fact that she has recriminations about her actions does not excuse her selfishness in not communicating with her worried family. In fact, she is a judgmental and often disagreeable old lady herself, and the people who are able to get close to her do so in spite of herself. Yet she is intelligent and resourceful, qualities that had been suppressed in her life as wife and mother. However, all that "I'm so bad!" introspection without changing her behavior comes off as tedious now. The side characters come off as more interesting and complex, which Eva in her suburban snootiness is slow to appreciate, though eventually she does come around.
But there was a completely new and unexpected pleasure in Beresford-Howe's nature writing. She describes the changing of the harshly beautiful Montreal seasons in dazzling, radiant, and poetic detail. That was the kind of stuff I skimmed over in high school, but it is one of the pleasures of style that I could not appreciate when I was reading only for plot.
So, in appreciation for a novel that is layered enough to change with the age of the reader, and in gratitude that it wasn't a stinker after all these years of fond remembrance, five stars to ya, baby!The Book of Eve (New Canadian Library) Overview

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