![]() At the novel’s conclusion, the Canary family secrets stand revealed, thanks to the brilliant handiwork of the idiot savant, Joan. Rounding out the clan are Marcy, who is as sexually precocious as her older sister Sonja is naive, and Doris’s mother, the contented resident of a damp basement that serves as a breeding ground for mold, mushrooms, and frogs. ![]() Although Joan’s biological mother is Sonja, a clueless and kind-hearted 15-year-old obsessed with knitting and food, she is raised as the child of her grandparents, Gordon and Doris, both of whom are caught up in same-sex love affairs that are by turns exhilarating and terrifying. A fall on her head post-delivery leaves the infant mute but able to reproduce nonverbal sounds with uncanny accuracy. ![]() The story opens in 1956, with the birth of Joan. Sandman, her third novel, chronicles the hilarious misadventures of the gloriously dysfunctional Canary family. ![]() In Barbara Gowdy’s weird and wonderful fictional universe, abnormality is the norm. ![]()
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