Van Herk, Aritha

No Fixed Address: An Amorous Journey (Inprints Series)

Average customer rating:

"Threads to and from the web" in Aritha van Herk's 'No Fixed

No Fixed Address: An Amorous Journey (Inprints Series)
Aritha Van Herk
Manufacturer: Red Deer Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Psychological & Suspense | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Mystery & Thriller Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

The River Where Blood Is Born (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
Face of an Angel
The Reef
The Bonesetter's Daughter: A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang

ASIN: 0889951837
Release Date: 2002-09-10

Book Description

<font color="#002090" size="2">Winner of the Writers' Guild of Alberta Award for Fiction

Nominated for the Governor General's Award for Fiction</font>

Arachne Manteia is a road rider, a traveling sales rep who drives a classic Mercedes and peddles women's underwear for a living. From her working class childhood to her comfortable adult life, Arachne refuses the conventional and embraces whatever adventure fate throws in her path.

A rogue sales rep with a man in every town, she lures each into her web of desire. All of them she claims as part of her never-ending journey, which promises fulfillment but offers no map for her longing. Always ready to fight and flee, Arachne Manteia is the quintessential picara, skillfully reckless, frighteningly irresistible, ready to go to the edge of the mappable world and beyond.</p>

Customer Reviews:

"Threads to and from the web" in Aritha van Herk's 'No Fixed.......1999-06-02

This is a book report from graduate students in the Netherlands (College for Adult Education in Zierikzee) on Aritha van Herks NO FIXED ADDRESS: AN AMOROUS JOURNEY (1986) We made use of the Seal paperback, printed by McClelland & Stewart Limited, Toronto in 1987 (page references NFA-1) and the reprint by Red Deer College Press, Red Deer, Alberta in 1998 (page references NFA-2)

NO FIXED ADDRESS is the fourth book by Aritha van Herk that we have analyzed in class. Like her previous novels JUDITH (1978) and THE TENT PEG (1981), and her fictional autobiography PLACES FAR FROM ELLESMERE, A GEOGRAFICTIONE; EXPLORATIONS ON SITE (1990) , NO FIXED ADDRESS (NFA) deals with a woman on the move, challenging boundaries of male dominated space and place. All four books are situated in the west and north of Canada with a travelling saleswoman as the protagonist of this book roaming west and north in a black Mercedes. A female infiltration and inscription has begun. Aritha van Herks work is particularly interesting to us after her successful performance with her musical assistant Brian Stanko in Zierikzee in November 1996. Born in Canada, van Herk has close ties with her parents native country Holland, from which her family emigrated after World War II. Van Herk reads and understands Dutch well and after a few days in Holland speaks it fluently. The richness of her roots is visible in all her work. In NO FIXED ADDRESS it ranges from obvious references to the snot rag red handkerchief (NFA-1: 41);(NFA-2 : 30) Dutch wooden shoes (NFA-1:145); (NFA-2 : 117) and Dutch cafe (NFA-1: 191); (NFA-2 : 155) to underlying structures of narrative examples of the Dutch-Calvinist bible with its sumptuous array of traditional stories. Like mythology, which van Herk draws freely from, these stories try to explain the world and shed light on social interactions. In NO FIXED ADDRESS we meet Arachne Manteia, only daughter of teacup reader Lanie and (unskilled labourer) Toto. Unwanted by her mother, Arachne from an early age is often left alone and later spurns the socialization of motherhood. No dolls for her but sets of clothespins representing two armies, attacking and decimating each other; a game she played with her father,. (NFA-1: 39; NFA-2: 27). Arachne is rebellious in her youth and leads the Black Widows gang. Like biblical David she conquers the strong Goliathan attackers. (NFA-1: 193; NFA-2: 156). Leaving school early, she becomes a busdriver in Vancouver, meets cartographer Thomas, who left his precious maps in her bus. Maps are important for Arachne; like words they resemble an extra-textual reality, whether landscapes or objects, which are both constructions. Arachne goes beyond maps and words. Arachne drives Thomas to his hometown Calgary in her black 1959 Mercedes. She inherited this car from Gabriel, one of her mothers teacup reading clients. Like the biblical archangel Gabriel proclaimed the annunciation of her name: Arachnid, the Greek equivalent of spider. Spiders are rogues. They eat each other when theres nothing else to catch. (NFA-1: 83; NFA-2: 65). Arachne, a travelling saleswoman of womens underwear, catches men, even kills one and leaves a thread before and after spiralling her weblike Canadian roads and trails. Mythical Arachne in Ovids METAMORPHOSES defies the gods and wins the weaving contest for which she is punished not by death but by being suspended in the air with a noose round her neck. In her pregnancy Lanie watches an injured and also pregnant spider, anchoring its first thread diagonally across the window (NFA-1: 82; NFA-2: 64) weaving her silken web. The English Virago edition has taken this seven-legged spider on the back cover of the book. Arachne is injured too, affected by her youth, and ruthlessly pushes ahead her dissent from fixed addresses. Womens paths are not linear or straight but rather circular and diagonal. Arachnes story is embedded in a documentary foreword and afterword, where the researcher questions the historical entrapment of the female body by uncomfortable clothing, particularly underwear. The researcher records the story of the vanishing Arachne Notebook on a missing person who has left a trail of panties in the far north where all the roads have stopped. (NFA-1: 319); (NFA-2 :260) and where a helicopter pilot saw her last driving her black Mercedes. The few inhabitants of this sparsely populated region witness the blue tail of a comet, emblemmatic of Arachnes disappearance into space. On the level of the story Arachne disappears with a helicopter pilot watching the roadless world below her, knowing she has arrived (NFA-1:310) after witnessing Thomas initials (NFA-2 : 253) buried in the moss. The surreal end implies the impossibility of closure - no death for Arachne but suspension in air whether it is a Christian heaven or the mythological realm of the gods. The message of researcher and Arachne is clear: the thread of female identity continues to be woven, maps of female inscription remain to be written, roads of female subversion have to be driven. As intriguing as Arachnes relationship with Thomas (the middle-class homemaker patiently waiting on/for her), is her relationship with Joseph, an elderly Serbian immigrant, who like his biblical namesake, wants to own graves. They both cherish a skull in a graveyard acknowledging the buried history of Canadas native population. (NFA-1: 18-25; NFA-2 : 9 - 16) Thanatos and Eros, death and sex, are closely linked in this immensely rich novel which by means of biblical and mythical symbols lays bare the intricacies of representation of womens experience.

Bear
Average customer rating:
Bear
Marian Engel
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000FP99MA

The Tent Peg
Average customer rating:

A BEAUTIFUL NOVEL

Absolutely Nails the Bush Camp Atmosphere

The Tent Peg
Aritha Van Herk
Manufacturer: Virago Press Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1853810185

Customer Reviews:

A BEAUTIFUL NOVEL.......2002-11-10

This spare novel of a young woman who infiltrates an all-male geologists' camp in northern Canada uses the technique of rotating narrators pioneered by Faulkner in As I Lay Dying to achieve a wonderfully multi-dimensional evocation of the main character. Though certain of the peripheral characters, notably Jerome and Milton, never break free of caricature, the novel is made profound, and rereadable, by the strength, honesty and uniqueness of J.L. I completely fell in love with her. You will too.

Absolutely Nails the Bush Camp Atmosphere.......2000-07-08

The book is about a camp cook in a Geology camp in the Northwest Territories of Canada.I worked in the Bush in Canada for eleven years and everyone I know who has lived in those camps finds this book extremely evocative of the camp experience. I read this book cover to cover in one sitting. I don't think you need to have lived that life to enjoy the story, however. It's an excellent piece of writing.

Mavericks: An Incorrigible History of Alberta

Average customer rating:

Alberta Re-defined

Mavericks: An Incorrigible History of Alberta
Aritha Van Herk
Manufacturer: Penguin Books Canada
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Customer Reviews:

Alberta Re-defined.......2004-11-29

'Mavericks:An Incorrigible History of Alberta' depicts the evolution of a stabilized culture and civil society in the province called Alberta.The author attempts to dissolve the delineations of genres as she presents facts in a way that is inimitable.The approach to the history of the province enhances the amount of interest that the reader has.All the fourteen sections are worth regarding as regards the enlisting of ideas and the style of presentation.The narrative provides the formation of the landmass right from the primordial time and deals with the slow infiltration of fur traders into the province.It is the saga of the troubles and tribulations of the First Nations people who are the true inheritors of the province.The last section which gives the details of some of the characteristics of Alberta is quite interesting.

Average customer rating:

Moon Honey (Nunatak Series)
Suzette Mayr
Manufacturer: Newest Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1896300006

Average customer rating:

Judith
Aritha Van Herk
Manufacturer: Seal Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000CSZEF6

Average customer rating:

Always original, at times wickedly funny

The Studhorse Man (cuRRents)
Robert Kroetsch
Manufacturer: The University of Alberta Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Gone Indian

ASIN: 0888644256

Book Description

Hazard Lepage, the last of the studhorse men, sets out to breed his rare blue stallion, Poseidon. A lusty trickster and a wayward knight, Hazard's outrageous adventures are narrated by Demeter Proudfoot, his secret rival, who writes this story while sitting naked in an empty bathtub. In his quest to save his stallion's bloodline from extinction, Hazard leaves a trail of anarchy and confusion. Everything he touches erupts into chaos necessitating frequent convalescences in the arms of a few good women-excepting those of Martha, his long-suffering intended. Told with the ribald zeal of a Prairie beer parlor tall tale and the mythic magnitude of a Greek odyssey, The Studhorse Man is Robert Kroetsch's celebration of unbridled character set against the backdrop of a rough-and-ready Alberta emerging after the war. Winner of the Governor General's Award for Fiction.

Customer Reviews:

Always original, at times wickedly funny.......2004-08-08

When Hazard Lepage sets out to breed his rare blue stallion Poseidon in the hope of saving his horse's bloodline from extinction, he creates a trail of anarchy, confusion, and chaos -- as well as encountering the charms of a few good women. The narrator of Hazard's idiosyncratic adventures in pursuit of his obsession is a maniacal, naked writer who works in his bathtub. Always original, at times wickedly funny, and told with unrestrained enthusiasm framed by a post-war, rough-edged Alberta, The Studhorse Man showcases and documents Robert Kroetsch as one of Canada's best living writers at work today. Also part of the University of Alberta Press "Canadian Literature Series" and very highly recommended reading are Robert Kroetsch's earlier works: What The Crow Said (0888643039, $14.95); The Words Of My Roaring (0888643490, $16.95); Completed Field Notes (088864-3500, $19.95: and The Hornbooks Of Rita K. (0888643721, $16.95).

In Visible Ink: Crypto-Frictions (The Writer As Critic Series ; V. 3)

Average customer rating:

In Visible Ink: Crypto-Frictions (The Writer As Critic Series ; V. 3)
Aritha Van Herk
Manufacturer: NeWest Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Essays | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Foreign Languages | Reference | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 092089707X

Average customer rating:

Judith

Judith
Aritha Van Herk
Manufacturer: Little Brown & Co (T)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0316896969

Customer Reviews:

Judith.......2002-04-08

This is a great book that looks at how a woman is lost in a society that only prides itself on economical gain. Judith is a character who is searching for her morality but is blinded by societies values without having an oportunity to see the negative aspects of it. While making decisions that could have serious effects on her future, she is unable to fully understand her choices and makes them without analysis her goals. This is a book that deals with a person's moral blindness and how they have to cope with making choices without fully comprehending their decision.

Due West: 30 Great Stories from Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba

Average customer rating:

Due West: 30 Great Stories from Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba

Manufacturer: Coteau Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Anthologies | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

United States | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Anthologies | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1550500961

Authors:

Authors

Authors