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Autobiography of Childhood
by
Sina Queyras
"Queyras's novel scores the jagged incisions of childhood. How her characters escape or embrace or succumb to the damage, she manages through an exquisite prose that cannot comfort them, nor ease us. Yet we cannot help but be held by the language.
-Dionne Brand
The Combals are not unacquainted with death: they have never quite recovered from the loss of one of them in childh ...more
-Dionne Brand
The Combals are not unacquainted with death: they have never quite recovered from the loss of one of them in childh ...more
Paperback
,
200 pages
Published
April 17th 2012
by Coach House Books
(first published October 15th 2011)
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Community Reviews
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While reading this, I received the news that another member of our family passed away. Our second major death this year. This debut novel by Sina Queyras coincidentally ended up being a guide of sorts. As a poet, it read like a stream of singing language. As someone grieving, it hit home and I had to pause to reflect a few times. The scenes in it were familiar and bravely raw.
All I can say is that it is a very good read, one that you can savor throughout your day. The impermanence of life is wh ...more
All I can say is that it is a very good read, one that you can savor throughout your day. The impermanence of life is wh ...more
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I received a copy of this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.
2 stars
I started writing a review and then accidentally hit the back button on my keyboard and lost it aaaall (Goodreads, why don't you have autosave? seriously). Basically, I don't think this book is that great; the childhood theme seems superficially imposed; the book seems like it is supposed to be character-driven but the characters aren't well developed or interesting.
The book opens with Guddy who, to me, seemed like the ...more
2 stars
I started writing a review and then accidentally hit the back button on my keyboard and lost it aaaall (Goodreads, why don't you have autosave? seriously). Basically, I don't think this book is that great; the childhood theme seems superficially imposed; the book seems like it is supposed to be character-driven but the characters aren't well developed or interesting.
The book opens with Guddy who, to me, seemed like the ...more
This is a goodreads free give away book for me. This is the story of a family and how they lived. It is told from the point of view of each of the children, at a time when one of them is dying. Through thie prespective, we see a family who went through some difficult times, each of which is described differently based on the member's point of view. I found it interesting to see how each member felt and reacted to the family's life. Coming from a somewhat dysfunctional family myself, I enjoyed vi
...more
I was fortunately enough to win an advance reading copy from the Goodreads giveaway program. That said, this isn't typically a book I might choose, but it was very interesting to read about the varying perspectives of the family members and how they reacted to what was happening within their family. The prose was a bit poetic for me, but then again the author is a poet. I think that anyone who faced similar family circumstances as portrayed in this book would feel more connected to it than I did
...more
Amazing book about how different members of a family see events in their childhood and how it affects their relationships.
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Sina Queyras' last collection of poetry, Expressway, was nominated for a Governor General's Award and won Gold at the National Magazine Awards. Her previous collection Lemon Hound won a Lambda Award and the Pat Lowther Award, and she is the winner of the 2012 Friends of Literature Award. She is a blogger for Harriet, the Poetry Foundation's blog.
More about Sina Queyras...
