Sarah Bastard’s Notebook

in English, 200 pages,
Insomniac Press, May 22, 2006
Order here

Marian Engel’s mordant, witty first novel (first published in Canada in 1968 as “No Clouds of Glory”) follows the self-sabotage of a Canadian academic mired in an affair with her sister’s husband. Sarah, 30, is the youngest of the four Porlock daughters, an unmarried assistant professor of literature at St. Ardath’s College, Toronto. Wrung out after her exhaustive affair with Sandro, the husband of her pretty sister, Leah, Sarah is contemplating taking off for China (or maybe Africa). She feels abandoned by the recent death of her father; her longtime friend and lover, Joe, has returned to his wife; Sandro has written her a Dear Jane letter.

The story pivots on an abortion. Sarah’s abortion is complicated by social pressure to keep an affair with her sister’s husband a secret. Choosing to name the fetus encapsulates her search for love and identity. She imagines herself as an “almost-mother” to a strong and loving boy with whom she can share the world. Antonio becomes an antidote for her loneliness.