September 2010
188 pages | ISBN 978-1-894987-51-6
$19.00
Marie Anne Lacaille would have said she was an ordinary woman, but to her granddaughter and her family, she was an inspiration, the source of her family’s strength, and an incredible cook. The Work of Her Hands is Plynn Gutman’s effort to capture her grandmother’s stories and to recreate a way of life that has all but vanished from our memories. From her move to Saskatchewan from Quebec in the early 1900s, to her raising a family through the ’30s, to her reinvention as a working woman in the ’50s, Marie Anne Lacaille lived her life with style, humour and an ability to create spectacular meals.
Reviews
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Review (Linda Hoye, Story Circle Book Reviews, 04/02/2011). “The book is a fascinating tale of harsh prairie life and the tenacity of those who lived there during the harsh Great Depression years. It is also a somewhat-humorous account of Gutman's attempts to recreate her grandmother's recipes.”
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6 authors pick the books to give for Christmas (Lesléa Newman, masslive.com, 12/21/2010). “Plynn Gutman's beautifully written book is a love song from a granddaughter to her grandmother….‘The Work of Her Hands’ offers stories, history, and recipes, all lovingly told. What more could any reader want?”
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Review (Andrea Belcham, Prairie Fire Book Review, 12/01/2010). “What was certain, in Gutman’s account, was the love [Marie-Anne] had for her children and grandchildren, and how she communicated that love through food. The Work of Her Hands is as much Gutman’s journey as it is Lacaille’s story, with the author trying to understand through memories – hers and others’ – a woman who is no longer around to tell her story herself.”
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Review (Elizabeth Massey, ASU Alumni Magazine, 11/01/2010). “Gutman’s history blends conversations with her grandmother, old family stories, genealogical research and a generous heaping of literary imagination to create a full-bodied portrait of her grandmother, which is enhanced by the presence of Marie-Anne’s recipes, which are sprinkled liberally through out the volume and provide both metaphoric and literal flavor to the piece.”
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Gutman mixes recipes, recollections in book about grandma (Joanne Villeneuve, The Brandon Sun, 09/19/2010). "It really made me reflect on the courage and tenacity and the creativity of the women, the people of that time. I began to appreciate all that they did to survive, to make their families comfortable and feed and clothe them. There was a lot more attention to life and that has caused me to do the same."
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Pioneer woman's hardships given life (Brenda Suderman, Winnipeg Free Press, 09/11/2010). “By the end of the book, readers will be salivating for a taste of chocolate pie, twisted bread doughnuts, or even a bit of skinny steak. They might even want to try their hand at Lacaille's two ways to make a rug.”
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Review (Laurie Glenn Norris, Telegraph-Journal, 09/07/2010). “I hope Plynn Gutman continues to write; her prose is lyrical and her descriptions are nuanced. The Work of Her Hands is an important book. It reminds us that ordinary people getting on with their lives create Canada's history.”
Downloads
Work of Her Hands: A prairie woman's life in remembrance's and recipes
Read an excerpt of The Work of Her Hands by Plynn Gutman.
