Review: Purple for Sky

This family saga follows three generations of women in a deeply religious family in a rural corner of Canada. Lindy, her aunt Ruby, and grandmother Euphemia have spent their lives at the mercies of the religious sensibilities of their family's men. The men of the Lewis family are deeply devoted to a fire-hot, low-church, dissenting faith. Particularly pious is Euphemia's husband, Silas, and his mother, Tryphena. Their faith fundamentally shapes Euphemia's marriage, and the consequences reverberate through the lives of successive generations.

The story is told primarily through the eyes of Lindy, aging and single, her life consists of caring for the family store and her Aunt Ruby, who is succumbing to dementia. Readers also hear from Ruby, as she reminisces, and Euphemia, when Lindy uncovers her grandmother's diary. I would have preferred to hear more from Ruby and Euphemia, as I found their narratives to be much more interesting than Lindy's. This was a book that was slow to get going, and I was never able to get invested in Lindy. Bruneau has written Lindy in a particularly folksy style, one that I was not able to engage.

Carol Bruneau, Purple for Sky (Cormorant, 2000) ISBN: 1896951244