Crackpot

By Adele Wiseman

Book Overview

Hoda is a prostitute, but that is not the most important fact about her. Earthy, bawdy, vulnerable, and big-hearted, she is the daughter of an impoverished Jewish couple who emigrated from Russia to Canada to escape persecution. Growing up in a ghetto of Winnipeg, she experiences cruelty and bigotry early and fights back with humor and anger, which is something to behold as her young body takes on gargantuan proportions. In the neighborhood, she is considered a crackpot and worse. In truth, she is a cracked pot, a flawed human being, but her quest for love, which brings hope out of humiliation, is one of the most memorable in modern fiction. Crackpot, set in the period between two world wars, is Adele Wiseman's comic vision, for all its darkness. Somewhat satirically, the novel touches on puritanical hypocrisy and the inhumanity of institutions, notably the schools and the welfare system. Hoda, caught in a web of relationships beginning with her blind father and humpbacked mother, is its great heartbeat.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 080329753X
• ISBN13: 9780803297531
• Release Date: November 1993
• Publisher: Bison Books
• Length: 302 Pages
• Weight: 0.94 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Touched me deeply

This book touched me so deeply that I keep it on a shelf of my most important books. It skillfully brought me to understand and accept an untraditional journey, that of a young girl who doesn't fit in, who enjoys sex generously with local boys, and who accepts payment for it eventually, with dignity and integrity, because her family needs the money.

sensual and spiritual

This book is a hidden treasure, deserves attention and appreciation. Brings to mind the best of I.B. Singer; rich with humor, tragedy, sexuality and spirituality.

Okay

I really didn't like this story. I grew bored with the story