The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence is the eloquent story of a 90-year-old woman coming to terms with her life thus far and facing what happens next. Hagar Shipley is frail and dependent on her son and daughter-in-law but unlike many of the kindly “grandmothers” portrayed in fiction, she is stubborn, difficult and sometimes not very likable.

Through flashbacks Hagar tells her story of growing up the daughter of a stern, well-to-do merchant in the fictional town of Manawaka in western Canada. Hagar shows a rebellious streak when she marries Bramwell Shipley, a good dancer and handsome fellow, but one who isn’t quite from her same social class.

I think Hagar’s unflinching honesty as she recalls her life is part of what makes her character believable. For example, here are some of her thoughts on her husband: “Whatever anyone said of him, no one could deny he was a good-looking man. It’s not every man who can wear a beard. His suited him. He was a big-built man, and he carried himself so well. I could have been proud, going to town or church with him, if only he’d never open his mouth.”

Hagar has lived with her decisions and the consequences of her uncompromising attitude; however, now Hagar has to learn acceptance. She may be old and frail but Hagar still wants to be in control of her life even when her son and daughter-in-law have other thoughts. They want Hagar to go to a nursing home but she is adamant that that will be the death of her and so she plans an escape.

This is a novel that focuses on the internal. We have Hagar’s brooding thoughts and her rage at growing older and dependant on others. There are some passages that I found just heartbreaking. And, because of all of this I found Hagar a character with so much depth that you feel like you really know this woman.

I felt a very personal connection with this novel because I’ve seen some of Hagar in some of the women in my family. This novel makes you think about getting older and how each one of us will approach old age. Perhaps that’s why a lot of reviews on Amazon were unfavorable and said who cares about an old, hateful woman. Well, growing older may not be all sunshine and rainbows but shouldn’t we care about older members in our families? And what about when each one of us gets old? We are all going in that direction after all.

I found this to be an excellent book and with so much more to discuss than what I’ve written about. I highly recommend it and I also hope you’ll join in book discussion with the Slaves of Golconda over at the MetaxuCafe forum.

Before I show you my book finds I wanted to let Eva know that she won the ARC of Free For All and Julie got Immortal. Thank you so much for being interested in those books so just send me an email with your address and I’ll get those out this weekend. Hopefully I’ll have more ARCs to share – I guess I just need to read faster! ha,ha.

Now on to the book loot. Here’s a pic of the 26 books for $26!

There are quite a few Elizabeth George books so you are right to assume that I really enjoyed A Great Deliverance and now want to read more in the series. I need to post my review so stay tuned. I also found a few books in the Richard Jury series by Martha Grimes which I like.

I had to snatch up Up at the Villa as I remember Matt reviewed it a while back. Same thing for Witch Child which TY reviewed recently and Coraline which Stephanie reviewed a few days ago. My other major finds were Angelica, Everything Is Illuminated, The Glass Castle and One Good Turn — it seems I can never find those books on BookMooch or at Half Price Books.

Finally, I got a couple of other mysteries and fiction books which sounded good and had been on my radar. It was a great time at the book sale, but now I have to figure out where to put these books. Sigh.