Wednesday, August 14, 1968
My favourite subject is math. I love math, even though I'm not especially good at it. I'm not good at anything really, or good for anything, as Dad often says...
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I am required to make it clear at the beginning of my reviews that I received this book for free from the author. I have not been paid for doing this and all opinions are my own. I am Bookshop.org affiliated, which means I earn a very small amount of money if you buy from there using my direct link. Although I include purchase links to Amazon, I am not affiliated with them. I include them to make it easy for you to navigate to them if you so wish.
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The Blurb
Doubles takes place in 1968 in an institution for troubled youth, and is told from the perspective of a brilliant, spunky, 12-year-old girl who is obsessed with math. Engagingly written and often funny, this novella explores how a sensitive young teenager changes over a six-month period from a polite, quiet "good girl" into a delinquent. Although set in the past, Doubles has direct relevance to today, with our recently heightened awareness of the harsh reality in some of our residential institutions during that era (including for Indigenous children, but not only).
My Review
I am not new to this author's work and I will include links to my reviews of her other books at the bottom of the post. When she asked if I would review this book for her, I was delighted to accept as she is a talented author.
This novella exceeded my expectations. It is rare for me to attribute five stars to such a short book, but this is worthy of the sparkle of each of them.
It tells the story of a girl who has been removed from her home by the authorities and placed into a children's home. Needless to say, she doesn't want to be there. She just wants to return home and does not understand why she can't.
Set in 1968, the entire story is told from her perspective through her diary entries. However, this is a multi-faceted novella and what the reader can ascertain from reading between the lines is significant. The reader's adult eyes allow us to understand what this narrator cannot. My heart was breaking for this girl as I read her diary entries and I found it very moving.
The reason for my giving this book five stars is because of the levels within the narrative. It is powerful, heart-rending and thought-provoking, and the author writes with compassion and sensitivity. I think she has done a brilliant job with this and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Publishing tomorrow, I strongly suggest you get your hands on a copy of this novella. I think you will enjoy it every bit as much as I did.
To read my other reviews of Nora's work, please click on the respective titles.
In Sickness and in Health/Yom Kippur in a Gym
Book Details
ISBN: 978 1778490361
Publisher: Guernica Editions
Formats: Paperback
No. of Pages: 86 (paperback)
Purchase Links
About the Author
Dr. Nora Gold is a prize-winning author of five books. Her first, Marrow and Other Stories, won a Vine Canadian Jewish Book Award and was praised by Alice Munro. Her second book, Fields of Exile, won the inaugural Canadian Jewish Literary Award for best novel, and was acclaimed by Ruth Wisse and Irwin Cotler. The Dead Man was honoured with a Canada Council translation grant and published in Hebrew. Her most recent book, 18: Jewish Stories Translated from 18 Languages (an anthology of translated works), was praised by Publishers Weekly, Cynthia Ozick, Dara Horn, and Joseph Kertes. Gold's fifth book, In Sickness and In Health/Yom Kippur in a Gym (two novellas), will be published by Guernica Editions in March 2024.
Gold received her PhD from University of Toronto, was a tenured professor for ten years, and left her academic position to write fiction fulltime. Subsequently she was associated with the Centre for Women’s Studies at OISE/University of Toronto, where she was, for six years, its Writer-in-Residence and created and coordinated the Wonderful Women Writers reading series.
In addition, Gold is the founder and editor-in-chief of JewishFiction.net, a prestigious online literary journal that publishes first-rate Jewish-themed fiction from around the world. To date, Jewish Fiction .net has published almost 600 works of fiction that were either written in English or translated into English from 20 languages but never before published in English. These include works by eminent authors such as Elie Wiesel and Aharon Appelfeld, Canadians Gary Barwin, Chava Rosenfarb, George Jonas, Sidura Ludwig, Morley Torgov, David Bezmozgis, and Sonia Zylberberg, and many talented emerging writers. A story from Jewish Fiction .net was selected for the Fall 2023 Pushcart Prize anthology, and Jewish Fiction .net has readers in 140 countries.
You can also find Nora at:
(ARC and media courtesy of the author)
(author photo and bio courtesy of The Writers' Union of Canada)
(all opinions are my own)
(Bookshop.org affiliated)
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