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Jan 05, 2015WVMLStaffPicks rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
If you are an old movies buff, you will love Hay’s new novel of a family addicted to the film classics. Sinatra, Brando, Keaton and Garbo live again through the lives of this idiosyncratic family. Harriet Browning’s love for her husband and children beats strongly through the novel as she writes unsent letters to Pauline Kael, the well-known movie critic, that speak about her relationships with her family, neighbours, friends and difficult relatives. The vagaries of the Ottawa climate are reflected in the disharmony that settles slowly around Harriet’s family. Infidelity, illness and death; love, friendship and happiness are all laid bare in Hay’s “reel” life story.