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The Stone Carvers
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Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Author: Jane Urquhart
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Average Customer Rating:
Our Price: $11.90
You Save: $ 2.10 ( 15% )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Author: Jane Urquhart
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Average Customer Rating:
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The Stone Carvers Description
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780142003589
ISBN: 0142003581
Label: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 400
Publication Date: 2003-11-25
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Product Release Date: 2003-11-25
Studio: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780142003589
ISBN: 0142003581
Label: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 400
Publication Date: 2003-11-25
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Product Release Date: 2003-11-25
Studio: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Editorial Review of The Stone Carvers
In her fifth novel, award-winning writer Jane Urquhart interweaves the sweeping power of big historical events with small but very moving personal stories. Klara Becker is the granddaughter of a woodcarver in German-settled southern Ontario. She has a love affair with a brooding, silent Irish lad who then goes off to fight, and die, in World War I. Meanwhile her older brother Tilman has literally snapped the ties that would have chained him to the family home, and vanished.
Of course, as in all great romantic epics, the two are destined to meet again. Tilman loses his leg in the war and experiences joyful belonging with an exuberant Italian immigrant family in industrial Hamilton, Ontario, before finally venturing home. Klara remains a spinster in her small town, sewing and working on and off for years on the figure of an abbess carved from wood. The novel culminates in the building of a huge stone monument to Canada's war dead in Vimy, France. Klara and Tilman are both compelled to visit the site of this insanely ambitious artistic obsession of real-life Canadian sculptor Walter Allward; both find that they have a personal struggle to overcome the past and learn to express love. Urquhart grasps her characters from outside and inside as precious few authors manage to do. She is, in her own way, a sculptor who carves a radiant and enduring tale from the elegant material of raw language. --Nigel Hunt
Customer Reviews of The Stone Carvers
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: The Book + Visit to Vimy = profound
Review: It's been 5 years since I read the book and longer ago that I had wanted to visit the Vimy memorial. So I read the book in the summer of 2001 and travelled to France in Oct 2001.
I found the combination of book + visit very moving and recommend both to any Canadian with an interest on what Canadians have done in the name of the country elsewhere in the world (though in WWI, the name of the "empire "would be closer to the truth). I recall the story as being a good read and the fictional story told of the carver's assistants added additional interest and meaning to what I actually saw upon arrival at Vimy (went directly there off the flight). The story can fit in, in a manner, as a surrogate for the actual sculpture's own story, which is not told in great depth.
The monument is an amazingly powerful place to me. The book sets up the visit very nicely.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Did I Miss Something??
Review: After hearing about how great Jane Urquhart's writing is, I have to say I was really disappointed with The Stone Carvers. Primarily, I was irritated by the overall lack of depth in this book; The story, although somewhat interesting because it is historical, has little structure. Urquhart uses the old "parachute under the pilot's seat" device a bit too much, and so nothing is believable. Things just happen, and there is no reasoning behind circumstances or events. Likewise, the characters are flat, predictable, and rather stereotypical--not real people.
I found myself becoming aware of Urquhart's writing while reading The Stone Carvers, usually because I was amazed at how simple and un-insightful it was. Perhaps I missed something, or expected too much. Either way, I wish I hadn't bought this book!
Tere
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Sweeps across three countries and two centuries
Review: The Stone Carvers by Jane Urquhart tells the story of two long-estranged siblings and a visionary 19th Century German priest, and an obsessive sculptor by the name of Walter Allward. Klara Becker (the granddaughter of a master carver), is a seamstress haunted by a love affair cut short by World War I and the frequent disappearances of her brother Tilman. After a number of years Klara and Tilman find themselves involved with Walter Allward's ambitious war memorial at Vimy, France. This highly recommended, deftly abridged, flawlessly recorded, CD audiobook is brilliantly narrated by Nicky Guadagni who does full justice to Jane Urquhart's panoramic novel whose stories and characters sweep across three countries and two centuries.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A journey
Review: This book was the first I've read of Jane Urquhart's novels. I read reviews about it here on Amazon before I read the book, and I was worried that I would find it too long as some reviews suggested, but I loved it. I didn't find it long at all. In fact I couldn't put it down! I took it with me everywhere, even to the golf course! Ha. The descriptions of the work that went into the stone and wood carving performed in the book made me want to go out and buy a set of carving tools. Today I went out and bought two more of her books; Away and The Underpainter. I'm hoping I will enjoy them as much as I enjoyed this one.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Elegant book by a stellar author
Review: Jane Urguhart slowly and carefully, chisel chip by chisel chip, sets powerful but delicate personal stories against the sweeping backdrop of World War I. It's the story of Klara and her brother Tilman, separated for years and living those intervening year in very different ways. Their eventual reunion is the climax on which the story turns, and you won't be disappointed as they learn together how to move beyond their pasts and (it sounds trite, but it isn't) find love.
Highest recommendation.
Review Summary: The Book + Visit to Vimy = profound
Review: It's been 5 years since I read the book and longer ago that I had wanted to visit the Vimy memorial. So I read the book in the summer of 2001 and travelled to France in Oct 2001.
I found the combination of book + visit very moving and recommend both to any Canadian with an interest on what Canadians have done in the name of the country elsewhere in the world (though in WWI, the name of the "empire "would be closer to the truth). I recall the story as being a good read and the fictional story told of the carver's assistants added additional interest and meaning to what I actually saw upon arrival at Vimy (went directly there off the flight). The story can fit in, in a manner, as a surrogate for the actual sculpture's own story, which is not told in great depth.
The monument is an amazingly powerful place to me. The book sets up the visit very nicely.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Did I Miss Something??
Review: After hearing about how great Jane Urquhart's writing is, I have to say I was really disappointed with The Stone Carvers. Primarily, I was irritated by the overall lack of depth in this book; The story, although somewhat interesting because it is historical, has little structure. Urquhart uses the old "parachute under the pilot's seat" device a bit too much, and so nothing is believable. Things just happen, and there is no reasoning behind circumstances or events. Likewise, the characters are flat, predictable, and rather stereotypical--not real people.
I found myself becoming aware of Urquhart's writing while reading The Stone Carvers, usually because I was amazed at how simple and un-insightful it was. Perhaps I missed something, or expected too much. Either way, I wish I hadn't bought this book!
Tere
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Sweeps across three countries and two centuries
Review: The Stone Carvers by Jane Urquhart tells the story of two long-estranged siblings and a visionary 19th Century German priest, and an obsessive sculptor by the name of Walter Allward. Klara Becker (the granddaughter of a master carver), is a seamstress haunted by a love affair cut short by World War I and the frequent disappearances of her brother Tilman. After a number of years Klara and Tilman find themselves involved with Walter Allward's ambitious war memorial at Vimy, France. This highly recommended, deftly abridged, flawlessly recorded, CD audiobook is brilliantly narrated by Nicky Guadagni who does full justice to Jane Urquhart's panoramic novel whose stories and characters sweep across three countries and two centuries.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A journey
Review: This book was the first I've read of Jane Urquhart's novels. I read reviews about it here on Amazon before I read the book, and I was worried that I would find it too long as some reviews suggested, but I loved it. I didn't find it long at all. In fact I couldn't put it down! I took it with me everywhere, even to the golf course! Ha. The descriptions of the work that went into the stone and wood carving performed in the book made me want to go out and buy a set of carving tools. Today I went out and bought two more of her books; Away and The Underpainter. I'm hoping I will enjoy them as much as I enjoyed this one.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Elegant book by a stellar author
Review: Jane Urguhart slowly and carefully, chisel chip by chisel chip, sets powerful but delicate personal stories against the sweeping backdrop of World War I. It's the story of Klara and her brother Tilman, separated for years and living those intervening year in very different ways. Their eventual reunion is the climax on which the story turns, and you won't be disappointed as they learn together how to move beyond their pasts and (it sounds trite, but it isn't) find love.
Highest recommendation.