The Erratics
A Memoir
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The Erratics
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Narrated by:
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Vicki Laveau-Harvie
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Written by:
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Vicki Laveau-Harvie
About this listen
In this award-winning memoir, two sisters reckon with the convalescence and death of their outlandishly tyrannical mother and the care of their psychologically terrorized father, all relayed with dark humor and brutal honesty.
When Vicki and her sister learn their mother has been hospitalized for a broken hip, they return to their parents' home in Alberta to put things back in order. Though their parents disowned them years before, the sisters now reassert themselves in the dysfunctional household: their father, undernourished and suffering from Stockholm syndrome, is unable to see that he is in danger from his outlandish and vindictive wife. Rearranging their lives to be the daughters they were never allowed to be, the sisters focus their efforts on helping their father cope with the unending manipulations of their mother and must encounter all the characters common in the circus of caretaking - oddball nurses and home helpers; over-opinionated hospital staff who have fallen for their mother's compulsive lies - along with the pressures that come with caring for elderly loved (and sometimes unloved) ones.
Set against the natural world of remotest Alberta ("in winter the cold will kill you, nothing personal"), this memoir - at once dark and hopeful - shatters precedents about grief, anger, and family trauma with surprising tenderness and humor.
©2019 Vicki Laveau-Harvie (P)2020 Penguin Random House CanadaWhat the critics say
"A beautifully crafted, unblinkingly honest, often darkly funny lament for a loving family that never was . . . an unflinching and empathetic memoir of the collision between past trauma and new outrage, dotted with precious moments of rueful levity and fleeting beauty." —Linda M. Castellitto, BookPage (Starred) ty." (Linda M. Castellitto, BookPage [starred])
"After learning that a fall had landed her elderly, 'mad as a meat-ax' mother in the hospital . . . This riveting book explores family relationships with a darkly humorous ferocity that is both remarkable and eloquent. A poignant, unsparing, often poetic memoir." —Kirkus
"Two adult sisters return to their childhood home in Canada to pick up the pieces of their shattered family in Laveau-Harvie’s eloquent debut . . . [a] well-constructed, fluent memoir." —Publishers Weekly
What listeners say about The Erratics
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Lynne
- 2020-11-27
True story stranger than fiction
Read by the writer, which I always like when well done. Brings an added intimacy to the Audible experience.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- S. Watson
- 2021-08-29
An amazing story
The writer has a beautiful way with words. Her story is engaging, sad and and at times funny.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mrs. P.
- 2022-09-25
fabulous
story hit home. heart smiled and felt anguish. well written and narration, made it real. highly recommend
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 2021-08-26
Brilliant
Vickie Laveau-Harvie’s story is brilliant, funny, illuminating and erudite. Her words heal. I hope that she releases another of her stories out into the world one day soon.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Bets on Stars
- 2022-08-18
Beautiful telling of a life lived.
The people who drive these great memoirs in life are the most difficult of characters. But in their stories come this amazing clarity about oneself. It’s better than therapy to see into the lives of those who walk among us!
This is beautiful.
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