Sharon Butala
Auteur de The Perfection of the Morning: An Apprenticeship in Nature
A propos de l'auteur
Sharon Butala was born in Nipawin, Saskatchewan, in 1940. She was educated in small towns in Saskatoon, and at the University of Saskatchewan. Butala gave up work as a Special Educator to become a novelist, short story writer, and writer of creative non-fiction. Her book, The Perfection of the afficher plus Morning reached number one on the bestseller list in July '94. She is one of Canada's most acclaimed authors. Her first short story collection, Queen of the Headaches, was shortlisted for a Governor General's Award in 1986. Her trilogy of novels, The Gates of the Sun, Luna, and The Fourth Archangel, formed an evocative and highly praised portrait of prairie life. Her most recent short story collection, Fever, won the 1992 Authors Awards for Paperback Fiction. Her first non-fiction work, Perfection of the Morning, was nominated for a Governor General's Award and won the Saskatchewan non-Fiction Award and The Spirit of Saskatchewan Award in 1994. (Bowker Author Biography) afficher moins
Crédit image: photo credit: joanne gregorie
Œuvres de Sharon Butala
Oeuvres associées
The Oxford Book of Stories by Canadian Women in English (1999) — Auteur, quelques éditions — 30 exemplaires
Étiqueté
Partage des connaissances
- Nom canonique
- Butala, Sharon
- Date de naissance
- 1940-08-24
- Sexe
- female
- Nationalité
- Canada
- Lieu de naissance
- Nipawin, Saskatchewan, Canada
- Lieux de résidence
- Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Eastend, Saskatchewan, Canada - Études
- University of Saskatchewan (B.A., Art; B.Ed., English)
- Professions
- teacher
- Prix et distinctions
- Marian Engel Award (1998)
Order of Canada (Officer, 2001)
Saskatchewan Writers' Guild Member's Achievement Award
Canada 125 Commemorative Medal
Queen's Jubilee medal
Saskatchewan Centennial Medal - Courte biographie
Born in Nipawin, Saskatchewan, she has spent the last thirty years on a ranch in the southwest near the Saskatchewan-Montana border. She graduated from the University of Saskatchewan, but didn't begin writing until she was 38, publishing her first book at 44. She is married to Peter Butala, and has one son, Sean Hoy, and two grandchildren. The Butala ranch, with the Nature Conservancy of Canada, became the Old Man On His Back Conservation Area in 1993. She has published fifteen words of both fiction and nonfiction, as well as essays, articles, and poems and has had five plays produced.
Membres
Critiques
Season of Fury and Wonder par Sharon Butala
In the preface to her unflinching short story collection Season of Fury and Wonder, Sharon Butala states with bald assurance, “These stories are about old women.” Her intention in this volume is to grant a voice to women who have reached an advanced age and describe their current circumstances: how they are living in the here and now, more often than not alone, marginalized and with death staring them in the face. But she acknowledges this can’t be done without bringing the past into the discussion. So, what we have here then, is a collection of ten stories in which elderly women are contemplating their present in light of past events, decisions, and behaviours that have shaped their lives and helped bring them to where they are. Butala acknowledges as well that each of her stories is a tribute or response to an earlier classic story. The first piece in the collection, “What Else We Talk About When We Talk About Love,” inspired by the famous Raymond Carver story, treats the mysterious nature of love: a woman who has always been emotionally reserved and unaffectionate visits her sister and brother-in-law, both of whom are dying of cancer, and experiences a shocking and unexpected epiphany when she finds herself flooded with love for them. In “Grace’s Garden,” inspired by Allen Sillitoe’s “The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner,” widowed Grace struggles each day to retain her dignity and independence, resisting pressure from her children to give up the house and move into a care facility despite evidence of advancing dementia. And in “Downsizing” (inspired by John Cheever’s “The Swimmer”), widowed Lucinda, terrified of spending her twilight years alone, has scoured her high-school and college yearbooks and compiled a list of candidates who might be willing to provide the affection and male companionship she craves. Heading out to meet them, however, she encounters the flaws in her strategy: some on her list are dead, others are boring, and some never liked her and don’t mind saying so. Butala’s writing is incisive and unsentimental, often pulsing with cheeky humour. Her elderly characters have reached a stage of life where time is of the essence, a reckoning is approaching, and the vices of youth—vanity, denial of unflattering truths, wasteful extravagance, self-pity—serve little purpose. Sharon Butala writes barbed, difficult stories. Her characters, though often frail and sometimes losing their grip if not their edge, are courageous and resilient as they confront without regret the indignities of old age. Sharon Butala’s triumphant return to the short story grants an urgent and honest voice to an underrepresented segment of humanity and makes a compelling argument that we ignore these voices at our peril.… (plus d'informations)
Crone Lit Shorts
Review of the Coteau Books paperback edition (2019)
I don't know if the "Crone Lit" name for this sub-genre will catch on, as it will require a major shift away from the negative connotations that most will have with the word "crone." The publisher's own synopsis doesn't shy away from it though: "Crone lit stories that are examples of the wisdom and insights of older women and at the same time tributes to the classic literature that inspired them," for perhaps that very reason. Still, there were some early signs that a gradual reclamation and rebranding of the word is on its way in titles such as The Crone: Woman of Age, Wisdom, and Power (1988) and Crones Don't Whine: Concentrated Wisdom for Juicy Women (2003).
Sharon Butala paints ten wonderful portraits of senior women in this collection of short stories in which each is also inspired by an earlier classic that was influential on the author in the past. The influence on the story can be very small such as an elephant figurine appearing in the story inspired by Ernest Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants (1927). You can also interpret it as a sequel as if the woman in Hemingway's story had moved far off to Canada and keeps the figurine as a mnemonic. In any case, knowing the original inspiration isn't key to appreciating each portrait that Butala constructs. It is the raw human angst, yearning and joy that is captured which is the real draw.
I don't know what the extent of the audience is for a book such as this as many are fearful of aging and the infirmities and struggles that it brings with it. Butala looks at it right in the face and embraces it and makes you feel it as well.… (plus d'informations)
Review of the Coteau Books paperback edition (2019)
I don't know if the "Crone Lit" name for this sub-genre will catch on, as it will require a major shift away from the negative connotations that most will have with the word "crone." The publisher's own synopsis doesn't shy away from it though: "Crone lit stories that are examples of the wisdom and insights of older women and at the same time tributes to the classic literature that inspired them," for perhaps that very reason. Still, there were some early signs that a gradual reclamation and rebranding of the word is on its way in titles such as The Crone: Woman of Age, Wisdom, and Power (1988) and Crones Don't Whine: Concentrated Wisdom for Juicy Women (2003).
Sharon Butala paints ten wonderful portraits of senior women in this collection of short stories in which each is also inspired by an earlier classic that was influential on the author in the past. The influence on the story can be very small such as an elephant figurine appearing in the story inspired by Ernest Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants (1927). You can also interpret it as a sequel as if the woman in Hemingway's story had moved far off to Canada and keeps the figurine as a mnemonic. In any case, knowing the original inspiration isn't key to appreciating each portrait that Butala constructs. It is the raw human angst, yearning and joy that is captured which is the real draw.
I don't know what the extent of the audience is for a book such as this as many are fearful of aging and the infirmities and struggles that it brings with it. Butala looks at it right in the face and embraces it and makes you feel it as well.… (plus d'informations)
3.5 stars
Chloe is ½ French and ½ English, and she grew up in Saskatchewan. When her husband heads to Scotland to work on his PhD, she discovers he has been having an affair. Not knowing what to do about her marriage, she travels for a bit with a friend, then heads to her father’s French town in Sask. for a while. While there, she learns about being French in Saskatchewan and comes across her grandmother’s diary.
Unfortunately, there were no likable characters in this book. That almost brought my rating down to 3 stars (ok). However, I got much more interested in the second half of the book when Chloe started reading her grandmother’s diary – about having to move from Quebec to Saskatchewan and starting over in an English province (though in a French town). I am not French, but I grew up in a small, primarily French, town in Saskatchewan, so I found this really interesting: the history of the Fransaskois (French-Saskatchewanians). The town this was set in was not near the town I grew up in, but it was close to Batoche, famous for the battle during the Rebellion where Louis Riel was defeated.… (plus d'informations)
Chloe is ½ French and ½ English, and she grew up in Saskatchewan. When her husband heads to Scotland to work on his PhD, she discovers he has been having an affair. Not knowing what to do about her marriage, she travels for a bit with a friend, then heads to her father’s French town in Sask. for a while. While there, she learns about being French in Saskatchewan and comes across her grandmother’s diary.
Unfortunately, there were no likable characters in this book. That almost brought my rating down to 3 stars (ok). However, I got much more interested in the second half of the book when Chloe started reading her grandmother’s diary – about having to move from Quebec to Saskatchewan and starting over in an English province (though in a French town). I am not French, but I grew up in a small, primarily French, town in Saskatchewan, so I found this really interesting: the history of the Fransaskois (French-Saskatchewanians). The town this was set in was not near the town I grew up in, but it was close to Batoche, famous for the battle during the Rebellion where Louis Riel was defeated.… (plus d'informations)
I read Sharon Butala's best selling book The Perfection of the Morning some time in the 1990s and it has stuck with me ever since. Her story of leaving a life as an academic in Saskatoon and moving to a remote corner of Saskatchewan when she married in her mid 30s struck a chord with me. I also made a pretty significant life change in middle age so I felt a kinship. However it was her descriptions of the land and the hard but rewarding life as a rancher that really were memorable. In this book she picks up the story of her life as she went through another change, that of becoming a widow and moving off the land.
Peter and Sharon Butala did not have any children although Sharon had a son with her previous husband. Since there were no offspring to take over the ranch it was a conundrum how to manage the land when they were no longer able to do so. They came up with a novel solution. The Nature Conservancy took over the ranch land that was mostly native prairie and it now is the home of a herd of plains bison. The land also supports wildlife, many of whom are endangered. So when Peter died there was not as much land to manage but Sharon knew that she would have to leave and move somewhere else. She chose to move to Calgary where her son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren lived. Even in the midst of a big city she managed to find natural surroundings to walk, allowing her to continue her connection to nature. She feels that connection is vital to her well-being and also to her writing. As people become increasingly disconnected from the rural life it is instructive to learn how to maintain a connection to nature.
As always, Sharon's writing is beautiful. However, you need to also spend some time gazing at this book cover. It is truly a work of art.… (plus d'informations)
Peter and Sharon Butala did not have any children although Sharon had a son with her previous husband. Since there were no offspring to take over the ranch it was a conundrum how to manage the land when they were no longer able to do so. They came up with a novel solution. The Nature Conservancy took over the ranch land that was mostly native prairie and it now is the home of a herd of plains bison. The land also supports wildlife, many of whom are endangered. So when Peter died there was not as much land to manage but Sharon knew that she would have to leave and move somewhere else. She chose to move to Calgary where her son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren lived. Even in the midst of a big city she managed to find natural surroundings to walk, allowing her to continue her connection to nature. She feels that connection is vital to her well-being and also to her writing. As people become increasingly disconnected from the rural life it is instructive to learn how to maintain a connection to nature.
As always, Sharon's writing is beautiful. However, you need to also spend some time gazing at this book cover. It is truly a work of art.… (plus d'informations)
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Statistiques
- Œuvres
- 24
- Aussi par
- 2
- Membres
- 579
- Popularité
- #43,293
- Évaluation
- 3.5
- Critiques
- 14
- ISBN
- 76
- Favoris
- 2