Editorial Reviews

From AudioFile

This arresting story, with its powerful opening, is beautifully read by a talented cast, sensitively led by Janet Wright as the heroine. At the end of her long life, Hagar Shipley looks back at the choices she made in her battle for personal independence. The cast's fine interpretation of each character pulls the listener into a Canadian family saga both intriguing and disturbing. The sightless stone angel, which overlooks the Canadian town and graces the production's CD jacket, serves as an apt metaphor for a melancholy story. Listeners may question some of Hagar's decisions and the prices she pays for them but will savor this poignant listening experience. L.C. 2005 Audie Award Finalist © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Sonja Larsen

The Stone Angel is a compelling journey seen through the eyes of a woman nearing the end of her life. At ninety, Hagar Shipley speaks movingly of the perils of growing old and reflects with bitterness, humor, and a painful awareness of her own frailties on the life she has led. From her childhood as the daughter of a respected merchant, to her rebellious marriage, Hagar has fought a long and sometimes misguided battle for independence and respect. In the course of examining and trying to understand the shape her life has taken, her divided feelings about her husband, her passionate attachment to one son and her neglect of another, she is sometimes regretful, but rarely penitent. Asking forgiveness from neither God nor those around her, she must still wrestle with her own nature: "Pride was my wilderness, and the demon that led me there was fear." She has been afraid of being unrespectable, afraid of needing too much, afraid of giving too much, and her pride is both disturbing and inspiring. The Stone Angel is an excellent example of the realism and compassion present in all of Margaret Laurence's writing.