Safe Return Doubtful

Canadian Literature – first published in 1978

Originally published in 1978 under the title Abra, and then by The Women’s Press in 1980 as Gaining Ground, this has now been reissued by Faber Books. Barfoot’s novel is a psychological portrait of the breakdown of a privileged housewife. She leaves her husband and two young children for a remote cabin in the Ontario woods.

When her daughter Katie, 9 years old when her mother left, and now 18 and about to study archeology, finds her, Abra takes stock of her past, and reflects on her decision to follow her own desire for solitude over the ties that bound her to others.
It reminds me of a couple of other dark stories of women removing themselves from their families, Doris Lessing’s [book:To Room Nineteen|1290402], and even darker, Véronique Olmi‘s [book:Beside the Sea |232985994], though it is possible to read with not such a dark agenda, in the ilk of Thoreau’s Walden.

My GoodReads score 3 / 5

In relevant news, GoodReads is now allowing scores out of 5 to be in quarters, or in other words, now marking out of 20..