The Stone Angel

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Published on Monday, August 28, 2017

By Brenda Ferguson
Margaret Laurence Home

Margaret Laurence is most well known for her novel “The Stone Angel”.  It’s a book about aging and the life of a fictional character, Hagar Shipley, a 90 year old woman who is struggling with her mortality and fighting against going into a nursing home.  The book tells her story in present day narrative (the ‘60s) with reflections back to her past.  Her past takes us back to Manawaka, a small prairie town in Manitoba, a community with which those of us who grew up in Neepawa will be able to relate.   Hagar fights her mortality by planning an adventure, one where she runs away from home.  I found the book to be very entertaining. It made me both laugh and cry.  It brought back memories of my mother, who always firmly stated that she was not going to move to the nursing home.  The book left me to wonder if she was struggling the same way as Hagar or if it was truly because she, in her words, “Did not want to live downwind from the chicken barns”!
The novel was made in to a movie in 2007.  It was filmed in Winnipeg and Hartney and starred Ellen Burstyn.  Copies of the book are available in the gift shop at the Margaret Laurence Home.  We are open daily from 10:00 am until 5:00 pm.  Stop by for a visit.