The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence (1964).

             The story centers around ninety year-old Hagar Shipley, an aging woman living with.

             her son and his wife. Hagar is forgetful, spiteful, remorseful by turns, but always.

             evincing an indomitable spirit. Born and raised on the prairies of Manitoba, Hagar is.

             of the pioneer generation. Her father was one of the early settlers of the town, the.

             fictional Manawaka, and she has inherited his stubborn Scottish resolve and temper.

             which have dogged her all her life. .

             Laurence skillfully reveals Hagar's past through a series of flashbacks, and the reader is.

             taken on a tour of this woman's life as she struggles with her present failing condition.

             (she suffers from mild dementia, like a child at times in her manner, and she is diagnosed.

             with what appears to be cancer-her precise disease is never mentioned in book) and her.

             angers and resentments about the past. In her memories Hagar sees her childhood and her.

             relationships with friends and family in that small prairie town. She remembers her.

             stubborn streak and her marriage that flew in the face of all her father had hoped.

             for her. She remembers those times when she could not "live and let live," but instead.

             meddled and coerced, resulting in a lifelong series of disappointments and grief. Hagar.

             has always prided herself on being independent and self-sufficient, and in these last.

             days of her life, she realizes what a price she has paid over the years.

             The present action of the novel concerns Hagar as she becomes increasingly unable to.

             care for herself and therefore becomes an intolerable strain on her son and his wife.

             Hagar is full of recriminations and anger, but she is childlike and illogical. She needs.

             assistance with most everything, yet she angrily refuses help; she is incontinent, yet she.

             denies it; she knows she is a burden, yet she denies it even to herself. She is alternately.

             lucid and clouded in her mind, moving back and forth between the present and the past,.