Clara Callan

Last updated
Clara Callan
Clara Callan book cover.png
Clara Callan book cover
Author Richard B. Wright
LanguageEnglish
Publisher HarperCollins
Publication date
September 2001
Publication placeCanada
Media typePrint
Pages448
ISBN 978-1554684809

Clara Callan is a novel by Canadian writer Richard B. Wright, published in 2001. It is the story of a woman in her thirties living in Ontario during the 1930s and is written in epistolary form, utilizing letters and journal entries to tell the story. The protagonist, Clara, faces the struggles of being a single woman in a rural community in the early 20th century. The novel won the Governor General's Award in the English fiction category, the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and the Trillium Book Award.

Contents

Plot

Clara and Nora Callan are sisters, roughly thirty years old. Clara lives in her family home in the rural community of Whitfield, near Toronto, Ontario, after her father's death, while Nora moves to New York to pursue a glamorous career in radio soap operas. Their mother died from a possible suicide when Clara, the eldest, was seven. Their mother had been known to wander off frequently to the grave of her first-born child, so Clara cannot completely dismiss the death as accidental. Her father was a principal in a local school and raises the two daughters alone.

Clara now lives the simple life of a school teacher, she plays piano and composes poems, although she generally burns the latter after writing them. She is an independent woman who finds it difficult to live freely in a traditional rural community, especially as she realizes she has lost all faith in God. She writes letters to her sister and Nora's lesbian writer friend Evelyn Dowling and also maintains a journal. She is averse to the technological advances of the time, refusing to get a telephone for years and only accepting a radio from her sister as it was a Christmas present.

Nora's letters start narrating how the glamorous life of the big city is fake and the events in Clara's life break her solitude. Nora's popularity on the radio grows with Evelyn's help. One fateful day in 1935, when Clara goes out in the evening for a stroll, she is raped by two vagabond travelers. Discovering that she is pregnant, Clara reaches out to her sister in New York, gets an abortion, and returns to her life, hoping it to be peaceful again.

Global politics begin affecting their lives when Europe approaches World War II. Nora convinces Clara to come with her and her latest beau to Italy for a month, and they witness firsthand the growing military presence of Mussolini's regime.

In 1937 Clara meets a man named Frank in a movie theater and soon falls in love with him. She finds out early on he is in an unhappy marriage and continues to see him, even after one of his children warns Clara that there are other women. They break up when Clara asks Frank to commit to one woman, but reunite briefly a few months later. Evelyn moves to California to write for Hollywood.

Clara is contacted by one of Frank's other women and finally cuts ties with him. Unfortunately Clara finds out she is pregnant again but decides to have the child, as arranging another abortion without Evelyn's help would be far too risky. Clara ponders her past and looks for future options. Nora remains supportive and helps when she can.

The epilogue is written by her daughter Elizabeth, outlining Clara's expulsion from teaching, and search for work while raising a child alone.

Publishing and development

Clara Callan is Wright's ninth novel. [1] The novel begins in 1934 and ends in 1939. It includes themes of economics in the depression-era, sexual politics, greedy male sexuality, and the advent and influence of radio and movies in North America. [2] The letters written by Clara have a formal tone whereas those written by Nora include colloquialisms. [3] The novel was published by HarperCollins in September 2001 and reported to have sold approximately 200,000 copies. [4] It was edited by Phylis Bruce, and Wright took nearly five years to complete the novel, and in his memoir A Life with Words: A Writer's Memoir calls it as "the most difficult to write". [5] : 186, 191 

Reception and review

Quill & Quire calls the book a page-turner and "[a] lovely mix of highbrow literature and lowbrow melodrama." [2] Carol Birch writing for The Guardian notes the able mix of contrast in the novel as "a sense of the turbulence beneath the surface calm of small lives in small towns underpins this beautiful and subtle book." [3] Kirkus Reviews in their starred review of the novel noted it to be based similarly to Arnold Bennett's classic 1908 novel, The Old Wives' Tale . [1] Online magazine BookBrowse calls it "a mesmerizing tribute to friendship and sisterhood, romance and redemption." [6]

Awards

The novel was presented with the 2001 Governor General's Awards for English-language fiction having been shortlisted along with Life of Pi (by Yann Martel), Dragons Cry (by Tessa McWatt), The Stone Carvers (by Jane Urquhart), and Salamander (by Thomas Wharton). [7] The book also won the Scotiabank Giller Prize where it was shortlisted along with, The Russlander (by Sandra Birdsell), River Thieves (by Michael Crummey), Martin Sloane (by Michael Redhill), Stanley Park (by Timothy Taylor), and again The Stone Carvers (by Jane Urquhart). The award was judged by novelist David Adams Richards, author Joan Clark, and journalist Robert Fulford. [8] It also won the Trillium Book Award and became the first book to have won all the three awards. [4] Wright had earlier received nominations for both the Giller Prize and the Governor General's Award in 1995 for his novel The Age of Longing . [8] [9] [10] Wright was awarded Author of the Year, and the novel was awarded Fiction Book of the Year at the Canadian Booksellers Association Libris Awards in 2002. [11]

Related Research Articles

<i>The Time in Between</i> 2005 novel by David Bergen

The Time in Between is a novel by Canadian author David Bergen. It deals with a man, who mysteriously returns to Vietnam, where he had been a soldier earlier in his life, followed by his children, who also go to Vietnam to search for him. The novel was the recipient of the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award in 2005.

Bonnie Burnard was a Canadian short story writer and novelist, best known for her 1999 novel, A Good House, which won the Scotiabank Giller Prize.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lynn Coady</span> Canadian novelist and journalist

Lynn Coady is a Canadian novelist and journalist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miriam Toews</span> Canadian writer (born 1964)

Miriam Toews is a Canadian writer and author of nine books, including A Complicated Kindness (2004), All My Puny Sorrows (2014), and Women Talking (2018). She has won a number of literary prizes including the Governor General's Award for Fiction and the Writers' Trust Engel/Findley Award for her body of work. Toews is also a three-time finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and a two-time winner of the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize.

Richard Bruce Wright was a Canadian novelist. He was known for his break-through 2001 novel Clara Callan, which won three major literary awards in Canada: The Giller Prize, the Trillium Book Award, and the Governor General's Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Redhill</span> Canadian poet, playwright and novelist

Michael Redhill is an American-born Canadian poet, playwright and novelist. He also writes under the pseudonym Inger Ash Wolfe.

Anita Rau Badami is a Canadian writer of Indian descent.

Dennis Bock is a Canadian novelist and short story writer, lecturer at the University of Toronto, travel writer and book reviewer. His novel Going Home Again was published in Canada by HarperCollins and in the US by Alfred A. Knopf in August 2013. It was shortlisted for the 2013 Scotiabank Giller Prize.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heather O'Neill</span> Canadian writer (b. 1973)

Heather O'Neill is a Canadian novelist, poet, short story writer, screenwriter and journalist, who published her debut novel, Lullabies for Little Criminals, in 2006. The novel was subsequently selected for the 2007 edition of Canada Reads, where it was championed by singer-songwriter John K. Samson. Lullabies won the competition. The book also won the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction and was shortlisted for eight other major awards, including the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Governor General's Award and was longlisted for International Dublin Literary Award.

<i>A Good House</i> 1999 novel by Bonnie Burnard

A Good House is the first novel by Canadian writer Bonnie Burnard, published by Picador in 1999 and later by Henry Holt and Company in United States of America. It was the winner of that year's Scotiabank Giller Prize. The novel narrates the story of a family in three generations, five houses starting from 1949 until 1997.

<i>The Polished Hoe</i> 2002 novel by Austin Clarke

The Polished Hoe is a novel by Barbadian writer Austin Clarke, published by Thomas Allen Publishers in 2002. It was the winner of the 2002 Scotiabank Giller Prize and the 2003 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Canada and the Caribbean region and 2003 Trillium Book Award.

Kim Echlin is a Canadian novelist, translator, editor and teacher. She has a PhD in English literature for a thesis about the translation of the Ojibway Nanabush myths. Echlin has worked for CBC Television and several universities. She currently works as a creative writing instructor at the University of Toronto School for Continuing Studies. Her 2009 novel, The Disappeared, featured on the shortlist for the 2009 Scotiabank Giller Prize.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cordelia Strube</span> Canadian playwright and novelist

Cordelia Strube, is a Canadian playwright and novelist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Esi Edugyan</span> Canadian novelist (born 1978)

Esi Edugyan is a Canadian novelist. She has twice won the Giller Prize, for her novels Half-Blood Blues (2011) and Washington Black (2018).

Souvankham Thammavongsa is a Laotian Canadian poet and short story writer. In 2019, she won an O. Henry Award for her short story, "Slingshot", which was published in Harper's Magazine, and in 2020 her short story collection How to Pronounce Knife won the Giller Prize.

<i>Us Conductors</i> 2014 novel by Sean Michaels

Us Conductors is a debut novel by Canadian writer Sean Michaels. Published in 2014 by Random House in Canada and Tin House in the United States, the novel is a fictionalized account of the relationship between Léon Theremin, the inventor of the theremin, and Clara Rockmore, the musician regarded as the instrument's first virtuoso player.

<i>The Age of Longing</i> 1995 novel by Richard B. Wright

The Age of Longing is a 1995 novel by Canadian author Richard B. Wright and published by HarperCollins. The novel was nominated for the 1995 Scotiabank Giller Prize and Governor General's Award in the English-language fiction category.

<i>Split Tooth</i> 2018 novel by Canadian musician Tanya Tagaq

Split Tooth is a 2018 novel by Canadian musician Tanya Tagaq. Based in part on her own personal journals, the book tells the story of a young Inuk woman growing up in the Canadian Arctic in the 1970s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zalika Reid-Benta</span> Canadian writer

Zalika Reid-Benta is a Canadian author. Her debut novel River Mumma was a finalist for the 2024 Trillium Book Award and received starred reviews from publications such as Publishers Weekly. It has been listed as one of the best fiction books of 2023 on numerous platforms, including CBC Books. The novel is a "magical realist story" inspired by Jamaican folklore. The main character, Alicia Gale, is a young Black woman having a quarter-life crisis, while adventuring through the streets of Toronto, Ontario.

<i>How to Pronounce Knife</i> 2020 short story collection by Souvankham Thammavongsa

How to Pronounce Knife is a short story collection by Souvankham Thammavongsa, published in 2020 by McClelland & Stewart. The stories in the collection centre principally on the experiences of Laotian Canadian immigrant families, sometimes from the perspective of children observing the world of adults.

References

  1. 1 2 "Kirkus Review: Clara Callan". Kirkus Reviews. 1 August 2002. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
  2. 1 2 Jackson, Lorna (September 2001). "Reviews: Clara Callan by Richard B. Wright". Quill & Quire. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
  3. 1 2 Carol Birch (12 October 2002). "Grit and glamour". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
  4. 1 2 Medley, Mark (8 February 2017). "Canadian novelist Richard B. Wright, author of Clara Callan, dies at 79". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
  5. ↑ Wright, Richard B. (2015). A Life with Words: A Writer's Memoir. Simon and Schuster. p. 224. ISBN   978-1476785363.
  6. ↑ "Clara Callan A novel". BookBrowse. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
  7. ↑ Sandra Martin (24 October 2001). "The kindest cut of all: The G-G's shortlist". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
  8. 1 2 "Scotiabank Giller Prize: past winners and jury". Scotiabank Giller Prize. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
  9. ↑ "People: Richard B. Wright". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
  10. ↑ "Author Richard B. Wright Wins The 2001 Giller Prize". Scotiabank. 6 November 2001. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
  11. ↑ "Winner History: Libris Awards" (PDF). Retail Council. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 22 March 2017.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.