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    Clara Callan
    Clara Callan
    Clara Callan
    Audiobook (abridged)8 hours

    Clara Callan

    Written by Richard B. Wright

    Narrated by Joanna P. Adler and Anne Twomey

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Clara Callan is a deeply moving portrait of two women and of an age heralding seismic changes-the Depression era-that will alter the fabric of their inner lives and the world as they once knew it.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateOct 24, 2002
    ISBN9781598873153
    Clara Callan
    Author

    Richard B. Wright

    Richard B. Wright is the author of nine novels, including The Age of Longing, In the Middle of a Life, and Weekend Man. He lives with his wife in Saint Catharines, Ontario.

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    Reviews for Clara Callan

    4/5

    272 ratings19 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Getting to know these two sisters and sharing their lives was the most important part as well as the most enjoyable part of Wright's book. The sisters, Clara and Nora, are from a village in Ontario bound by the typical social mores of the 1930s. The story is told through their letters after the younger one goes to work in the glamorous world of radio soap opera. Clara, a teacher, remains at home. I loved the gentle writing, the look back at life in the 1930s. It's hard to believe the author is male yet was able to portray the women so perfectly.
    • 4/5
      Initial impressions:- I was desperately looking forward to this tale of two sisters, one a 'sensible' school teacher, the other a 'flighty' girl who travels from Canada to New York to follow her dreams.The story is told via several mediums - Clara's journal, the letters that go between Clara and her sister Nora, and the poems Clara writes. From a personal point of view, I'm most enjoying the extracts from Clara's journal. In her letters she's too guarded, her phrases and sentiments are stiff. Nora's letters are effusive and irritating - Nora annoys me very much, her obtuseness, and what comes across as lack of intelligence. In spite of the flightiness she's actually quite conservative, finding it hard to deal with Clara's loss of religious faith, for instance.When Clara is raped by one of the tramps who came to her house to chop wood, she becomes pregnant and turns to her sister. Clara travels to New York and puts herself into Nora's hands to arrange for an abortion, though she doesn't tell Nora the details and lets her sister assume that she was made pregnant by a lover.Clara puts up so many barriers that it took me a long time to begin to understand her. Sometimes it appears that she's being sarcastic in her letters to Nora who, being the kind of gal who prefers not to see much below the surfaces of things, misses the undertones, the fact that Clara's letter-writing persona is a mask. The 'truth' is somewhere between the lines. The reader is invited to read between those lines. I am trying to do this, to open up a bit more to Clara. On many levels I can relate to her - her need for privacy, her tentative desire for adventure, her need to belong in her small town coupled with a realisation that many of its values and attitudes are ridiculous.When in Italy with Nora and Nora's lover, they see an Englishwoman, a rather dried-up stick, who confounds them by being whisked off by a handsome young man on a bike. Clara reminds me somewhat of a Barbara Pym character when she comments that, 'Had I not also confined her to a room with only books and a gas ring? Or evenings alone with aged parents? This homely Englishwoman had triumphed over all our presumptions and was now pursuing a life of romantic adventure, reminding me that things are never as they seem, and that in fact we know very little about the lives of others.'Clara quietly endures life experiences that are really quite extraordinary for a bookish, intensely private schoolteacher living in a small Canadian village in the 1930s. She gets on with things. Nora, too, gets on with things in her own way - not really flighty at all, she carves out a successful career for herself in radio, and makes a successful marriage in her 40s. The novel is a wonderful portrait of the times - the sisters mention the news items of the day, the Dionne quins, the abdication, the rise of Hitler, which gives context and texture to the story. A portrait of a time and of a remarkable, ordinary woman. July 2004]
    • 5/5
      This book won numerous prizes when it was published in 2001, and it is a deserving winner. The book is centered around four years - 1934 to 1938. It is a book that is relayed through letters and journal entries which makes it a very intimate book. The story is mostly about two sisters who were born in a small Ontario town. One sister remains in Canada and the other pursues a career in radio in New York City. In those days the radio was a very important entertainment medium, and many stories and serials were broadcast. In some ways it was a magical time. Radio is so much more intimate than television. This book is so well-written that these characters come to life in the pages. The book is very engrossing as we follow the lives of Clara and Nora Callan. It totally captivated me and I came to identify with Clara who was the girl that remained at home in the house that she was born in. Somehow it seems that things just seemed to happen to poor Clara through no effort of her own. I didn't want to put the book down and was sorry when it was over. Life seemed to be deceptively simpler then it is now for sure.
    • 4/5
      This book was cruising along at three stars, I didn't think it was that good, but afterword wrapped the story nicely. Not enough likeable characters the trip through the era was fascinating 1930s era New York, Italy and Ontario and even a glimpse of Hollywood. If it weren't for the afterword the novel would be pretty uneven.
    • 5/5
      Engaged. Engaged is the word I would describe how I read Clara Callan. I think I read it in four days. Despite its name, Clara Callan is actually about two women, sisters in fact. Clara is the elder, living in their deceased parents house in a small rural town outside Toronto. She is a no-nonsense serious schoolteacher who loves to play the piano, read and  write poetry; a perfect candidate for spinsterhood and self righteousness despite the fact she no longer believes in God. Since it is the 1930s and Clara is so mysterious, she is also fodder for constant gossip and worry in her village. Meanwhile younger sister Nora Callan has flown the coop to America and the Big Apple to seek fame and fortune as a radio star. Despite their vasts differences the sisters remain close, sharing letters to keep in touch. Clara's journal rounds out the epistolary tale and fills in the gaps.Probably my favorite subliminal element to Clara Callan is how Wright weaves current events into to the story. Nora, being in show business, complains of a bratty young man hanging around a pretty brunette. The talented brunette would go on to star in a little movie about a wizard from Oz. Or the radio program designed to sound like a real newscast scaring the bejesus out of everyone. Or the new sensational book, Gone with the Wind. It is very tempting to put together a list of every book Clara reads or every song she mentions.The novel has a Bridges of Madison County kind of feel to the ending. I was a little disappointed with the tactic.
    • 4/5
      What we may think of as simpler times weren't really all that simple, at least not to those living in those times. So Canadian writer Richard B. Wright makes clear in this absorbing 2002 novel. Set during the years from 1934 to 1938, Wright's characters wrestle with confusing new technology like party-line telephones, home entertainment delivered via radio, long-distance air transportation and the conversion of coal furnaces to oil. And as for personal relationships, well they were certainly as complex then as now.Clara Callan is a young school teacher, introverted and unmarried, in an Ontario village a few miles outside of Toronto. Her younger sister, Nora, more beautiful and outgoing than Clara, has just moved to New York City and very quickly become a star on a popular radio soap opera. The entire novel is told through Clara's diary entries during those years and in letters exchanged between the two sisters and with a few other characters.Clara's quiet life is disrupted when she is raped while walking along some railroad tracks. When she discovers she is pregnant, she enlists Nora's help, without telling her how the pregnancy happened, in getting an abortion in New York. Wright leaves hints that Clara might seek revenge against the man who raped her, as she seeks him out and stalks him, but then she meets a man in a Toronto theater and, for the first time in her life, falls in love. Of course, Frank turns out to be married. And so this bland schoolteacher has another secret she must hide from the nosy people of her village, made all the more difficult when she gets one of those party-line telephones.How this timid teacher ultimately becomes the bravest, if not the wisest, resident of her village makes fine reading.
    • 4/5
      Set between the wars in north-east North America, this is to some extent an "historical" novel, by which I mean that there are lots of references to historical events whose notoriety has endured (Hitler, Mussolini, The Depression, communism & anti-communism, the Hindenburg disaster etc). However it is also a study a social conventions of that era and, more importantly to me, an apparently realistic story of a person's life. I liked the diary+letters style of the writing, perhaps because I am a regular diary and letter writer myself. The contrast between Clara and her sister was also an interesting focus which kept me reading. This won't make it to my Favourites list, but the fact that I didn't find the 500 pages too daunting is a testament to its success.
    • 4/5
      Clara Callan ist Lehrerin in dem kandadischen Dorf, in dem sie aufgewachsen ist und immer noch lebt. Das Buch beginnt 1934, Clara ist 31 Jahre alt. Ihr verwitweter Vater ist vor kurzem verstorben, ihre Schwester Nora nach New York gezogen. In den Briefen Noras und Claras sowie anderer Personen und in Claras Tagebucheinträgen wird Claras und Noras Geschichte über die nächsten vier Jahre erzählt. Clara lebt ein unspektakuläres Leben, ist innerlich jedoch reich. Begleitet wird das Buch durch Bezugnahmen auf die Literatur, Politik und Musik der damaligen Zeit, wodurch der Kontext gut vorstellbar wird.Das Buch ist ausgesprochen lebhaft erzählt. Jede der Personen wird vollkommen glaubwürdig und plastisch dargestellt. Einen Punkt ziehe ich ab, da es irgendwann doch beginnt sich zu ziehen - andererseits ist ja das echte Leben auch nicht immer spannend. Das Buch ist wirklich toll zu lesen.
    • 5/5
      This book was recommended to me. I got it from the library and didn't put it down until I finished it. Later, I bought the book because I thought it is worthwhile having it in my home library. The book is written as series of letters between two sisters who live far way from each other and lead very different lives. The author succeeds in exposing the sisters' emotional sides and unique life stories through a close look in their letters. The book is a testament of the lifelong bond between sisters. I recommend this book strongly.
    • 5/5
      I really loved this book about 2 sisters from smaal-town Ontario. One, the younger, goes off to find fame and fortune as an actress in New York. The older sister stays behind to teach. The year is 1934. Nora does succeed as an actress in a popular radio show but Clara's life is eventful too. We follow their separate paths through their letters and Clara's diary entries. What astounded me is that the writer is a man and yet he convincingly portrays a woman's emotions. This book won both the Giller Prize and the Governor General's Award in 2001.
    • 4/5
      I am so impressed with how beautifully Wright managed to write about the relationship between these two sisters---the audio voices were fantastic as the sisters read the letters they wrote to each other and Clara added in her diary entries. You could just feel their emotional well-being at the writing of each letter. Positioning of this story during the early 1930s---how much would we see changed if the book were written with today's background?
    • 4/5
      i really liked this. i liked the letter format. clara was a little boring about her boyfriend but she was in love. i love the review done as a letter. why didn't i think of this?
    • 5/5
      Dear Clara,I thoroughly enjoyed my time reading your journals and letters from those four years during the 1930s. You provided a nice overview of events during the Depression, just as background, as well as what life might be like for a single lady living alone in small town Ontario. But more importantly, you showed the struggle to find personal happiness and our place in this world.I liked your voice, and your mistakes, and your dignity in the face of difficulties. Your loving but realistic relationship with your sister, the big time radio actress living in New York City. I hope more readers discover your wonderful story.In appreciation,raidergirl3
    • 4/5
      Winner of several awards in Canada. Two sisters travel different ways in the 1930's; story told in letters and diary entries. Recommended.
    • 1/5
      I once read a satirical website that boasted a recipe for the composition award-winning literature. It had dictums like "thou shalt sneer at conflict" and "thou shalt commit no plot". I thought it was hilarious, sinister, at the time, distant. Now that I have wasted hours of my life - gone, irretrievably gone like the wind - reading Clara Callan, winner of the Giller Prize and the Governor General's Award for Fiction, I now find new bitter meaning in "suckitudinous" fiction.Clara Callan has no real plot. The titular character lives in rural Ontario in the 1930s. She is a school teacher living along, unmarried. An odd woman (incidentally have also recently read The Odd Women, a much better read) she loses her belief in religion, is victim to a random, senseless act of violence by a tramp, goes to New York (where sister Nora resides) to get an abortion and returns to Ontario to become more and more eccentric until she meets the man of her dream: a Catholic, married man who regularly cheats on his wife with the odd women - unmarried women who have given up on finding marital bliss, trapped in a mundane experience, alone, unprotected and perfect for him to stalk and meet in movie theatres. From beginning to end, it's just one long series of events - meaningless violence, meaningless disbelief in God, meaningless sex, etc. The book is told through letters of Clara to her sister Nora and her friend Evelyn and her diary entries. Sister Nora is a radio actress in New York, a minor celebrity, and is very Sister Carrie. My problem is that it was absolutely dull. Certainly things happen, but there's no connecting theme. Does Clara change at all? I think not. There's no evolution of character. In the beginning, she sees the town drunk wearing her deceased father's donated coat and delights in the sight. In the end, she attends his funeral; distinctly out of place amongst the poor, lewd man's rough, unkempt acquaintances. Even after all that's happened to her, she is still the same and sees things around her the same way. No forward motion. No development.And all the references to the 1930s (this book was a piece of historical fiction published in 2006) are corny. Old King George died, handsome King Edward abdicated for that crass American woman, that book Gone with the Wind was published and filmed - it was so tacky. I'm reading the volume of Anais Nin from the same period and the way she references things that we now consider to be historically important is altogether different. The feeling I get when I find familiar things that Anais encounters at the time (Otto Rank for example) is vastly different from the same type of thing in Clara's letters - it is not forced or ostentatious or jarring.And honestly, people with interesting lives don't give vague summaries of current affairs and weather updates in their diaires. In fact, interesting people living dull, sequestered lives don't write mundane drivel either - like Emily Dickinson, for example. This establishes that Clara Callan has the prize-winning combination of being an uninteresting person living an uninteresting life. If you're determined to read this, then I have to offer this Rushdie-ian advice: if dullness be your drug, make your will.
    • 4/5
      Letters & diary in 30's - interesting history
    • 5/5
      It is the story of two sisters born in a small village in southern Ontario whose ways part when they are both in their thirties. One goes to New York to try her luck in the radio soap opera business, the other one stays as a school teacher in her village.The entire story is told in the form of letters and journal pieces and is set against the background of the historical events of the late thirties in America and Europe.
    • 5/5
      A most enjoyable book!
    • 4/5
      Sue lent me this book last summer. It's a series of letters written to and from Clara who lives in a small Ontario town near Toronto. The letters tell the story of two sisters in the 1930s; a teacher who stays where she grew up and an aspiring actress who moves to New York.This book won the Giller and Governor Generals prizes. I enjoyed reading it. I could really relate with her trips into Toronto. It was like reading a soap opera. But I don't think there's any great thoughts or messages in it.