2. The Widows by Suzette Mayr
This book is awesome. Three elderly women decide to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel (constructed with the aid of modern science!). The Widows shifts through time between the plummeting barrel and the pasts of the three German women who ride in it.
Apart from a somewhat slow beginning, the action is expertly paced. Suzette Mayr fills her books with dark humour, and constructs characters that break through the mundane to touch a supernatural optimism.
I actually laughed out loud when I read:
“Frau Schnadelhuber is addicted to Clotilde, like cigarettes, like gorgonzola. Gorgonzola the most delicious thing on this intensely troubled Earth and life without gorgonzola would be the same as death.” (207)
Because yes. Exactly.
I enjoy that this book is centered around three elderly ladies, survivors of the World Wars even, but contains unapologetic descriptions of both straight and queer sex and sexuality. These are not the chaste and venerated grandparents that our culture prefers to imagine! This is no Viagra ad either, couched in euphemism and focused on male pleasure. These women, told over and over that they’ve aged into obsolescence, respond in the only way that makes any sense. By pulling off a heist, driving across Canada, and plunging over the Falls.
~Claire
