Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Jan 2009
368 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
Paperback Original.
It is August of 1963, the year of the Taylor/Burton film epic Cleopatra, showcasing a passion too grand to be contained on the movie screen. The women of the Kalyna Beach cottage community gather for gin and gossip, trading the current racy bestsellers among themselves as they seek a brief escape from the predictable rhythms of children and chores. But dramatic change is coming this summer as innocence falters and the desire for change reaches a boiling point, threatening to disrupt the warm, sweet, heady days and the lives of parents and children, family and friends, forever.
"Keefer neatly captures the security and claustrophobia of immigrant communities, but diffuses her story's power with too many points of view." - Publishers Weekly.
"... a book that mimics the kind of lazy summers that are filled with nothing much, but somehow create indelible impressions. Atmospheric writing that offers more than the sum of its parts." - Kirkus Reviews.
"If you're in the market for a deeply thoughtful, beautifully written novel about first- and second-generation Ukrainians struggling to fit into comparatively bland, prosperous and easy Canadian society, this is absolutely your book." - The Washington Post, Carolyn See.
"It satisfies in the way the best sort of summer reading does – like wild strawberries, or blueberries gathered in the sun, or cold spring water gulped on a hot day." - Quill & Quire.
"Though The Ladies' Lending Library is a bit of a slow starter (it's easy to confuse the numerous characters in the early sections), it's ultimately engrossing and often moving." - The Seattle Times.
This information about The Ladies' Lending Library was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Janice Kulyk Keefer writes novels, short story collections, poetry, and nonfiction. The Ladies' Lending Library is her fifth novel but first to be published in the USA. She lives in Toronto.
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