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Garbo
Laughs
Elizabeth Hay reads from Garbo Laughs
Reader's Guides:
Chapter by Chapter Movie Guide
Reader’s
Guide
Reviews:
The
Guardian
New
York Times
Now
Magazine
Curled
Up
Book
Club
The Guardian wrote:
"Watch Guys and
Dolls in the afternoon, and the price you pay is evening gloom."
So writes Harriet Browning, a woman so saturated with old movies
that she no longer fits into this world. Deprived of films as a
child, she is making up for it now, gorging herself on classics,
watching the same scenes repeatedly. Her son and daughter share
this love affair. Around the table in their Ottawa kitchen, they
test each other: the movie with the worst ending? The best beginning?
The best line? Only her husband is excluded. An affectionate man,
he wants his wife to fall in love with him, but watches as she commits
adultery with every actor under the sun. For all its movie references,
Canadian Elizabeth Hay's second novel is a very literary book. Its
story - of family and friends, love and death - unravels slowly
while its characters are lovingly fleshed out. What it lacks in
drama, it makes up in poetry. From start to finish, this book is
perfect, and as lovely to behold as it is beautifully written. ES
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