This contains spoilers. Read at your own risk. Fall On Your Knees is massive. Ann-Marie MacDonald successfully weaves a multi-generational story of the Piper family on Cape Breton Island wrapped in secrets, love & loss, family values/ the value of family, sins, compassion and redemption. As it should, the story unfolds in waves. There are moments of playfulness and humor, and others where the tide of pain comes down so strong, slightly unexpected, and, for a second, the feeling of drowning, only to return to the surface, rejoicing, for calmer approaching moments. Now, I started by saying that this story is massive. It really is, and I'm not trying to say that I'm intimidated by 508 pages, because I'm not. I'm still digesting it, and I don't think I'll ever fully consume the entire thing. AHHH the importance of titles and the 1st line of every novel. FALL ON YOUR KNEES- (did anyone else read w/ Celine Dion's voice in the back of their head? No one?)"They're all dead now." The story, or prologue, opens with highlighting objects and photos that seem to evoke voices of distant memories. We are then launched into James Piper's story and his arrival at Cape Breton. Well, Sydney 1st. James is a diligent young man, 15 or so, and imagines making a new life of his own. He envisions a family of his own "filled with music and the silence of good books." He becomes a piano tuner, which grants him the introduction of Materia. It's love at first sight for him, and they quickly elope and plan to move away to NYC, unbeknownst to her parents. She's 12, going on 13 and already promised to someone else. So you can only imagine the rage and shame Mahmoud, Materia's father felt, and understand why (despite custom) he banished them (with a home of their own). And like every other angry person, Mahmoud curses them, the home, and Materia's womb. *shakes fist & looks off into the distance* I'm not trying to make it seem like this story has secret gypsies, spirits, or magical beings that will free them from the upcoming events. There are spirits in this story. Spirits in another sense. A lot of things seems to be alive, and alive on their own.They move into the house on Water street. The romance never kindles, despite James's attempts. He builds her a hope chest, to which she leaves empty. The smell reminds her of her family, but James takes her lack of use of it, among other things as her choice not to be a good wife. They eventually have Kathleen. Kathleen is beautiful, and proves to be a very talented singer as she gets older. By then James has already transferred his love for his wife to just love for his daughter. He looks at Materia w/ shame and disgust, often wondering why/ how they were together in the 1st place.The downfall of a family comes sins of the father. James has transferred dreams for Kathleen. He pushes her to become a worldwide success. Kathleen is an alienated, child prodigy, who continues to develop into an incredibly beautiful, snobby, talented, young woman. Eventually war consumes their town and the world around it. James goes off to fight his demons or run from them He returns to have Kathleen sent away to NYC to continue her path of success, and rekindle love w/ Materia. They have Mercedes- a good delicate child, and Frances- nothing but a heathen. I LOVE FRANCES!!!!! Materia, takes this as a second chance from God. She has done nothing but care for the house, resent Kathleen, and take abuse from James prior to the new babies. She has thrown herself into being some what of a religious mute, speaking (mostly arabic) when necessary, and seeking mercy and understanding from God. (postpartum depression)Things get rocky as Kathleen is suddenly brought home from NYC, pregnant. The story continues to spiral from these events, (Lily is born- Mumma & two babies are dead) and we watch the characters all come into their own, filling the hope chest with their pain and memories, and secrets unfold until the book closes. And like the sea, it is difficult finding the beginning or where it truly ends...I won't say more on that because it is really good, and definitely worth enduring. MacDonald created amazing, well developed characters, and a really good plot. I found myself the same way I felt when I read Jane Eyre; I know the ending is coming, a lot has happened, this is good and I don't want it to end but I want to know what is what. Oh! 250 pgs to go. What I will say is there are so many parallels, metaphors, symbolism, and significant elements throughout the book that I can go on for days and days, but for a few points:- The hope chest is like Pandora's box to some extent. When opened it brought happiness to some, and painful memories to others until they found redemption- Redemption : To do something that compensates for the faults or bad aspects of poor or past behavior. FALL ON YOUR KNEES- ask for forgiveness...a)Mahmoud redeemed himself to some extent when he gave his banished family a home and extended a hand for their 1st born's music lessons. He also redeemed himself by allowing the younger children to marry happily, excusing some customs and embracing the difference. He loses the 1st two, Materia & Camille, but Camille (happily widowed) comes back and Mahmoud gets just desserts. b) James doesn't exactly find his until he apologizes and tries to make it right by embracing what family really means and showing them. (red boots, giving Frances Kathleen's book)c) I'm still digesting this part, because I'm still peeved w/ Mercedes- but why should I be mad w/ her when she has redeemed herself- to an extent-with her sisters and attempted to make it all right with the family tree & Lourdes fund. (Lourdes fund? Lord's fund... that might be a stretch)-Acknowledgement of humanity--- compassionWe are all human, broken in some way at birth, and we will go back into the earth or wash up into the sea just as we came. & ultimately we are all related, sheesh nearly every character! I kept asking, "why are we discussing them in depth. I get it, she's pissed because she lost her job etc, & and she's mad because another woman is after her man..." Now I get it.- Do we have control over what exactly we become, or are some things inevitable? (Abuse is at the hands of the creator, there is no excuse for such acts of violence. Violence begets violence & hate is always learned) & as I mentioned before about the parallels and the way the story weaves...It was interesting seeing Materia throw herself into religion & Mercedes become religious. Materia was a little wild, and Frances received all of those gifts. I can't help but think that Kathleen maybe took after James's mother. They all definitely had their father's strong will and diligence. I caught myself comparing Mahmoud and James a lot. The way they both came into a marriage, how they arrived on the island, how they lead their families and how they came out of their faults. I also compared Materia's resentment towards Kathleen and the likeness of that in Mercedes's resentment towards Lily. In all, it was a very good read. I often felt like I was watching ER again, the way the voices faded into one another in a scene just by the touch of an object or the path a person took passing by. I wasn't really left with too many questions, more or less "whys and I wonder if." I think I felt a little guilt, too. Mrs. Luvovitz did, wishing she had spoken up sooner... I, too, had no idea about Frances's grief until the end. & now I'm wondering (& I think I know) who Pete was & where he came from. When I finished last night, I immediately started flipping through Wuthering Heights, looking for something, I'm still not sure. I just wonder what the significance was with Mercedes & Frances hiding precious items in the Charlotte and Emily Bronte's books; & I flipped because I forgot about the epigraph at the very beginning of the book from Wuthering Heights... I will be re-reading that in the very near future. For the sins of the father, I wonder if this is why he never recieves a son of his own... I give it 3 stars (plus or minus one). I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it might be in my top 5 (that, I'm still developing) but I wasn't too keen or disappointed at how the ending came about. Like the ending of a good song, or leaving the beach, I'm just glad I experienced it.
A novel full of dark secrets, revealed gradually over the course of its immense length. I had this book on my shelf for over three years before attempting to read it, wondering how the author would sustain my interest over its 560-plus pages. And, once making the bold attempt to finally pick-up the book, I had difficulty putting it down at times.The novel is visual, reminiscent of a screenplay. MacDonald uses a variety of techniques to hook the reader: the rapid mixing of tenses and point-of-view, anchoring the story along pivotal events and replaying those scenes from different vantage points like different camera angles applied for the same screen shot, hiding information in scenes and gradually revealing more clues in subsequent takes of the same scene, using combinations of journal, memory, snappy and irreverent dialogue and tight unconventional narrative that focuses on visual imagery rather than on syntactical propriety - yes, a masterful performance for a first novel, and great learning for emerging novelists.This story has a resemblance to the King Lear tale but is not as obvious as in recent re-takes such as Jane Smiley's "A Thousand Acres". The patriarch, James Piper, marries a Lebanese child-bride and begets daughters, some whose mothers are unclear until the end. There is Kathleen the budding opera singer, Frances the evil one, Mercedes the pious one, and the crippled Lilly the saint. Incest is at the core, which hobbles and fractures the family over a time horizon spanning the dawn of the twentieth century to the 1950'sPivotal events such as Kathleen's tragic birthing of twins and its series of catastrophic aftershocks, Frances' shooting and the events that precede and follow, the unravelling of what happened to Kathleen in New York - are all launching points to move the story forward and grip the reader in a non-stop read.The four sisters emerge gradually from their childhood as the indistinguishable offspring of James Piper, into fully flushed characters with different personalities and histories over the time span of this novel. Unfortunately, Momma, or Materia their Lebanese mother, gets no accolades for the girls' destiny, apart from a few Arabic words they banter around, and the occasional Middle Eastern dish they prepare for James. Daddy, in his twisted, well meaning way, gets all the credit for the disasters that befell their lives. A great read, I recommend it.
What do You think about Fall On Your Knees (2002)?
Stupid people read books because Oprah says so. Other stupid people won't read a book just because Oprah picked it to be part of her club. The second group of stupid people think they are very smart though, and they are usually pretentious windbags who say very stupid shit but with big words that people are supposed to be impressed with. The people in the second group will never read this awesome book, and I don't feel sorry for them because they don't deserve it. (A note: Of the second group they will also whine when a book from Oprah Book Club 2.1 (ie., the second incarnation of the book club which began with John Steinbeck's East of Eden, and was in it's 2.0 manifestation only going to be for dead authors, but then morphed into 2.1 to include such titles as The Road, and Measure of a Man) they want to buy is now affixed with the Oprah wrapper or sticker. They will now whine about the little blemish in the same way they whine when the book they now want to read has just been made into a movie and only comes with a movie cover. In both cases these people are bandwagon jumpers but don't want to seem like bandwagon jumpers and by buying the new edition of the book they will be seen as no different from the ignorant masses they so deeply despise. Again they deserve what they get, especially since everyone knows that you can goto a used bookstore and buy an old cover, and if you really need to lie to yourself and everyone around you, you can claim that the 1960's beat up mass-market copy of Steinbeck you bought was really bought by you in a much better condition when you were thirteen, and now you have worn the book down by your constant reading of it, and because of that you know the book soooooo much better than anyone else alive).
—Greg
This five-star rating is the one I gave Ann-Marie MacDonald's powerhouse first novel the first time around, but I confess I was remembering and rating it at a great distance. I'm going to think on my second rating a bit more, but I can tell you that this was a very different read this time. I don't know that I liked it as much - although I recognize the mastery of its writing and characterization, and the amazing imagination behind the story. And I love how Cape Breton it was. But it was also gruelling and painful; it was long and sloggy at the 2/3rds to 4/5ths mark. And of course, having read it, the big reveal at the end was not the shocker it was on first read. I think I'll land on a high 3, so let's say 4.
—Jennifer (aka EM)
I cannot recommend this book. I actually threw it away after finishing it.This tells you a few things. 1) The writing was so good and compelling and addicting it made it difficult for me to stop reading, despite my issues with it. 2) I didn't want anyone else to read it, so I didn't give it away or sell it. How's that for hypocritical and childish?There were some sexual images, specifically incest, that I could not shake from my brain for several days. I kept replaying the scenes over and over a
—Scooping it Up
