'The family secrets are only just beginning to unravel...
'When her elderly mother is hospitalised after an accident, Vicki is summoned to her parents' isolated and run-down ranch home in Alberta, Canada, to care for her father. She has been estranged from her parents for many years (the reasons for which become quickly clear) and is horrified by what she discovers on her arrival.
'For years her mother has suffered from an undiagnosed mental illness but carefully hidden her delusions and unpredictable behaviour behind a carefully guarded mask, and has successfully isolated herself and her husband from all their friends. But once in hospital her mask begins to crack and her actions leave everyone baffled and confused ... and eventually scared for their lives.
'Meanwhile Vicki's father, who has been systematically starved and harruanged for years, and kept virtually a prisoner in his own home, begins to realise what has happened to him and embarks upon plans of his own to combat his wife.
'The ensuing power play between the two takes a dramatic turn and leaves Vicki stuck in the middle of a bizzare and ludicrously strange family dilemma. All this makes for an intensely gripping, yet black-humoured family drama which will leave you on the edge of your seat.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Writing Disability in Australia
| Type of disability | Mental illness (specifics unconfirmed). |
| Type of character | Primary. |
| Point of view | Third person. |
Dedication: For Laurence and Simon, and for Irene.
'Ancient glaciers did not travel alone. They carried within them pebbles, rocks, even boulders, sometimes for hundreds of miles. These migrating stones, once deposited, are called “erratics” — they stick out among their new surroundings. When the Cordilleran ice sheet worked its way down the mountains of Alaska and across western Canada, it melted to reveal a trail of angular stones now known as the Foothills Erratics Train.' (Introduction)
'With agile humour and moments of tenderness, The Erratics by Vicki Laveau-Harvie evokes the Canadian winter and the trauma of living with a manipulative parent. The second in Guardian Australia’s literary highlights series for 2019.'(Introduction)
'In her Stella prize-winning memoir, The Erratics, Vicki Laveau-Harvie deals with the trauma she experienced at the hands of a parent. Writing it, though, was anything but cathartic.' (Introduction)
'Ancient glaciers did not travel alone. They carried within them pebbles, rocks, even boulders, sometimes for hundreds of miles. These migrating stones, once deposited, are called “erratics” — they stick out among their new surroundings. When the Cordilleran ice sheet worked its way down the mountains of Alaska and across western Canada, it melted to reveal a trail of angular stones now known as the Foothills Erratics Train.' (Introduction)
'Sydney writer Vicki Laveau-Harvie joins five others in the running for the $50,000 prize for Australian women’s writing.'
'Vicki Laveau-Harvie’s memoir of a “monstrous” mother has won the 2019 Stella Prize. The Erratics tells the story of Vicki’s return home to a prairie house in the sparse wintry landscapes of Alberta, Canada, where she grew up. Once there, the narrator faces family relationships that are strained to the point of breaking.' (Introduction)
The Stella Prize 2019 : Vicki Laveau-Harvie
Astrid Edwards
(interviewer),
2019
16375488
2019
single work
single work
interview
podcast
'Vicki Laveau-Harvie was born in Canada, but lived for many years in France before settling in Australia. She worked as a translator and editor in France, and then lectured in French Studies at Macquarie University in Australia. After retiring, she taught ethics in a primary school.
Vicki's debut work, her memoir The Erratics, won the Finch Memoir Prize in 2018 and The Stella Prize in 2019.'
Source: Introduction.
'It is difficult to know where to begin with The Erratics. For the story begins many times, at different places and points. The book begins near the end of the story, although more follows, and what happened before is revealed fleetingly, in slow unravellings and chronological leaps. So let us begin here firstly with the context, why I am writing about this book and why you might have heard of it.' (Introduction)
