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This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance!
Author:
Evison, Jonathan
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Class:
Fiction
Age: Adult
Language: English
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LC: PS3605.V
Print Run: 35000
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ISBN-13: 9781616202613
LCCN: 2015004221
Imprint: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
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Pub Date: 09/08/2015
Availability: Out of Print Confirmed
List: $25.95
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Hardcover
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Physical Description:
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296 pages ; 22 cm
H 8.5625",
W 5.75",
D 1",
0.14 lbs.
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LC Series:
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Brodart Sources:
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Brodart's Insight Catalog: Adult
Brodart's TOP Adult Titles
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Bibliographies:
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Fiction Core Collection, 18th ed.
Fiction Core Collection, 19th ed.
Fiction Core Collection, 20th ed.
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Awards:
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Kirkus Best Books
Kirkus Starred Reviews
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Starred Reviews:
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Kirkus Reviews
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TIPS Subjects:
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Domestic Fiction
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BISAC Subjects: |
FICTION / Women
FICTION / Family Life / General
FICTION / Humorous / General
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LC Subjects:
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Mothers and daughters, Fiction
Widows, Fiction
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SEARS Subjects: |
Widows, Fiction
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Reading Programs: |
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| Annotations |
| Brodart's TOP Adult Titles | 06/01/2015 |
| Two years after her husband's death, 79-year-old Harriet Chance embarks on an Alaskan cruise filled with rough waters when she realizes her whole life has been built on a lie. A non-linear structure shines a light on key moments in Harriet's life. 304pp., 35K, Auth res: WA |
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| Starred Reviews: |
| Kirkus Reviews | 07/01/2015 |
| Insightful, richly entertaining look at a woman who, very late in the game, finds that life remains full of surprises. It's not often that a male writer gets inside the head of a female character without botching it somehow; Jim Harrison pulled it off in Dalva and maybe Daniel Defoe in Moll Flanders. Evison joins that short list with a yarn that, like his Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving (2012), seems a bit of a comic detour from his more serious earlier work (West of Here, 2011, etc.). The eponymous lead is wrestling with the fact that her husband of many decades has passed away, though she keeps seeing him; as the book opens, she's working hard to convince her priest that "Bernard still lingered somehow in the earthly realm," and certainly Bernard, "five decades of familiarity imprinted on her memory like a phantom limb," continues to exercise some influence over his wife when she learns that he's booked an Alaskan cruise for her, seemingly from beyond the grave. Naturally, Bernard haunts the halls of the cruise ship--but then, other unexpected persons turn up there, too, players in a seriocomic series of turns in which she discovers that her life with Bernard had plenty of corners that she never knew about. Harriet's no patsy, but she has a way of blundering into mishaps, including a memorable run-in with security ("Do I look like a terrorist to you? For heaven's sake, I'm Episcopalian!"). Evison allows his story to unfold at leisure, darting back and forth across the span of Harriet's life and sometimes telegraphing what lies ahead: writing of (and to) her at the age of 30, for instance, he says of one to-be-revealed matter, "it will be 48 years before you will confide the information to anyone." So Harriet, it seems, has secrets of her own. Evison writes humanely and with good humor of his characters, who, like the rest of us, muddle through, too often without giving ourselves much of a break. A lovely, forgiving character study that's a pleasure to read. 304pg. KIRKUS MEDIA LLC, c2015. |
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| Journal Reviews |
| BookPage | 09/01/2015 |
| Board the Alaska-bound Zuiderdam, a luxury cruise ship, alongside Harriet Chance. The 78-year-old widow has set sail using a pair of tickets purchased by her late husband, Bernard. Although he never mentioned the trip, Harriet is touched by his thoughtfulness and determined to take advantage of his last romantic gesture. Despite her children's worry that Harriet is infirm, she sets sail alone, accompanied only by a letter from her best friend, Mildred. Well, that letter and repeated visits from--hallucinations of?--her late husband. It seems both Mildred and Bernard have something to say. In This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance!, author Jonathan Evison ( The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving and West of Here ) alternates between a cheeky narration of Harriet's past and present. The chapters reveal Harriet at different ages and are written with unfussy candor when examining the present and recent past. When Evison portrays Harriet's younger days, however, he employs a more hopeful, boisterous tone that underscores the exclamation point of the novel's title. It echoes the cinematic approach of Evison's previous work, painting a vivid picture that's easy for a reader to immerse him or herself in. Through carefully constructed vignettes of Harriet's life, Evison peels away layers. What's left is a core understanding of who Harriet is, and the layering of those events and defenses that led to her becoming that person. A book of secrets, This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance! reveals how one or two choices can dramatically alter not only the course of your life, but the lives of many others. Carla Jean Whitley. 304p. BOOKPAGE, c2015. |
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| Booklist | 07/01/2015 |
| With a tip of the hat to the 1950s game show This Is Your Life, Evison's droll portrait of 78-year-old Harriet Chance homes in on key incidents in the widow's life. As Harriet sets off on an Alaskan cruise, she is visited by the ghost of her dead husband, Bernard (their conversations are a comedic highlight), who held some dark secrets that, once revealed, inspire Harriet to seriously reevaluate her life. It turns out that she has some secrets of her own, which seriously impacted her relationship with her children, especially her deeply depressed daughter, who is still struggling with addiction and who unexpectedly shows up on the boat midway through the cruise. Whether describing Harriet's epic battle with a crab-leg dinner after imbibing too much wine or her tentative attempts to reach rapprochement with her daughter, Evison always depicts her with a great deal of compassion and a keen eye for the humorous detail. Both uplifting and melancholy, funny and thought-provoking, this entertaining read speaks directly to the importance of acceptance and healing. Wilkinson, Joanne. 304p. AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, c2015. |
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| Library Journal | 08/21/2015 |
| Evison's (All About Lulu; The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving) newest novel is a romp back and forth through the life of Harriet Chance. Recently widowed, 79-year-old Harriet seems to have accepted that her deceased husband will be popping up to talk to her whenever he likes. Despite this condition, she sets off on an Alaska cruise, during which she's forced to confront a sudden and uncomfortable truth: her life has been lived under completely false pretenses. Evison takes the reader straight back to Harriet's birth, popping in and out of the past with an amusing flourish to explain to Harriet how things came to be this way, while the present Harriet tries to find her footing through the sudden arrival of her estranged daughter, who has more revelations of her own. Verdict Evison writes a quick-paced family drama, with enough lighthearted enthusiasm to soften the serious blows he delivers to our poor heroine and his readers. This title will be particularly appealing to fans of quirky, dysfunctional families and authors Maria Semple and Jami Attenberg. [See Prepub Alert, 4/6/15; a LibraryReads September pick.]-Mara Dabrishus, Ursuline Coll. Lib., Pepper Pike, OH. 304p. LJ Xpress Online Review. LIBRARY JOURNAL, c2015. |
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| Library Journal Prepub Alert | 04/06/2015 |
| Evison has done nicely so far with multiple best-book honoree All About Lulu, as well as two Pacific Northwest Booksellers award winners: the New York Times best-selling West of Here and The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving, currently in film production. So smart readers will want to take this Alaskan cruise he's booked for widowed 79-year-old Harriet Chance, who suddenly realizes that her whole life has been based on a lie, even as she thinks she sees her late husband on board and really does meet up unexpectedly with her estranged daughter for a chance at reconciliation. Barbara Hoffert. 304p. LJ Prepub Alert Online Review. LIBRARY JOURNAL, c2015. |
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| Publishers Weekly | 07/27/2015 |
| Harriet Chance, a 78-year-old Seattle native, gets an unexpected phone call informing her that her husband, Bernard, now dead, had won a trip on an Alaskan cruise at a charity auction and failed to pick up his winnings. With the voucher set to expire, Harriet decides to go out of her comfort zone and bring a friend on the trip. The trip causes Harriet to question everything she thought she knew about her past and her relationships. Evison (The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving) chooses a second-person narrative to delve into the mind-set of Harriet, a woman who seems estranged from not only her close family (including favored but distant son Skip and her troubled recovering addict daughter Caroline) but from herself. The time line skips back in forth: from her wedding day at 22 as a pregnant bride, to her attempts to cast off her domestic duties and reenter the work force ("Look at you, Harriet Chance, so diligent, so fastidious in your attention to detail!"). Evison's voice is buoyant and cheeky as he unveils the deep traumas that form Harriet's sense of herself, but there are missteps--namely, a secondary narrative in which Bernard Chance risks being barred from a sketchily described afterlife to try to communicate with Harriet. Still, Evison succeeds in crafting a believable and gut-wrenching story, particularly Harriet's relationship with her daughter and their efforts to accept and love one another. Agent: Mollie Glick, Foundry Literary + Media. (Sept.). 304p. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, c2015. |
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9781616202613,dl.it[0].title
| Review Citations |
| New York Times Book Review | 09/27/2015 |
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