The Icelandic Canadian - 01.12.2001, Page 43

Vol. 56 #3
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
169
Dropped Threads
edited by Carol Shields and
Marjorie Anderson
$22.95, Vintage Canada, ISBN 0679310711
Reviewed by Lillian Vilborg
This book has topped the best seller
lists for months. But when it first came out
I heard and read such conflicting views of
it, I hardly knew what to expect. The
Globe and Mail review said that women
talking about their response to lived expe-
rience was overdone, boring and we didn't
need another book on it. A young woman
told me there was too much male bashing
in it for her. Then again, another woman
told me that she read a review of it in the
Winnipeg Free Press, phoned McNally
Robinson to set aside a copy, went straight
down to pick it up, and sat down and read
it from cover to cover—she said she could-
n't put it down. In another review, the
reviewer, confessing not to have read the
whole book, claiming in the same breath
that no reviewer ever did, complained that
the book was disappointingly non-intellec-
tual.
So, I kind of steeled myself to be dis-
appointed. However, I wasn't. I found no
male bashing in the book—not a trace of it.
It wasn't intellectual, in the academic sense.
The pieces aren't footnoted, and hundred
dollar words aren't used when a ten dollar
word will suffice.
There aren't a lot of references to post-
modern theorists, or to theorists of any
kind. The pieces are thoughtful and most-
ly well-written. And because I find it very
interesting to read about women's lived
experience, I am perturbed when a review-
er objects to women telling their stories. As
if those stories were finite.
The premise behind these memoirs and
personal essays is that there are silences in
our lives, silences which leave us unpre-
pared for what life has to offer.
The silences that women live with are
as varied as the thirty-five voices in this
book. The pieces on childbirth and not
childbirth—abortion are especially mov-
ing, as these quintessentially female life
experiences are so shrouded in secrecy,
films and prenatal classes notwithstanding.
The searing consuming pain and ecstasy of
childbirth is new for every childbearing
woman, and shame, the dark secret of abor-
tion, for those who undergo it.
Some of the writers deal with women's
solidarity. Margaret Atwood wonders why
women are her biggest critics, her most
unreliable supporters.
There are some very well known
authors in this book, like Atwood, Joan
Clark, Bonnie Burrard, Lorna Crozier,
Sharon Butala, Miriam Toews and June
Callwood. There are also well known pub-
lic figures such as Eleanor Wachtel and
Sharon Carstairs. The editors, Marjorie
Anderson and Carol Shields, both with an
Icelandic connection (Carol is married to a
man of Icelandic origin) approached people
to write for the anthology. A high percent-
age responded, and some who heard about
the work in progress, offered to submit.
The book seems to be loosely orga-
nized with pieces of similar content side by