Spitting From High Places
by Verna Bednarski
Short-Listed for the Ontario Library Sevices-North 2007 Northern "Lit" Award
"I don't deny that we're going downhill, but we sure as hell don't have to jump on a rollercoaster to do it!"
Spitting From High Places is the story of six friends, each woman possessing very different and sometimes conflicting personalities. They recognize that they, unwittingly, have started to grow old before their time and decide to fight back.
They pack themselves into a resurrected old van along with a load of camping gear, and take off on a rollicking road trip across Canada. Their travels take them from their small home town, to a farm in Southern Ontario, a bar in Northern Ontario, a Ukrainian Festival in Manitoba, a mixed farm in Saskatchewan, a rodeo in Alberta, whitewater rafting in Alberta and finally hiking in the mountains of British Columbia.
Learning to live and adjust to each other's idiosyncrasies in the close confines of the old van has as much to do with changing their attitudes to life as their achievements and the people they meet. Oh, and the people they meet are as rich and real as they are, living life to the fullest.
I'm not going to spoil the end and explain the title. As a mature woman, who has many older women friends, I can relate to the problems this unlikely group of women experience in Spitting From High Places, and some of the personal solutions are unique.
You'll laugh, howl, cry, and even swear you know who these women are in real life. That's not possible because they are fictional characters, but unforgettable characters they are.
Beautiful summer reading, winter reading, you will read it over and over again. In every piece of great fiction, there's a piece of the essential truth of human experience there for all to see. And it's done very well while Spitting From High Places.
Verna Bednarski, a farm girl born in Saskatchewan, graduated from the University of Saskatchewan. As the years unfolded, she married an engineer, and they moved and travelled with their three children across Canada and the United States. Eighteen years ago she and her husband retired to Espanola, Ontario, to enjoy writing, photography, gardening and time at the cottage. Spitting From High Places is her first novel, but we certainly hope it will not be the last.
ISBN: 978-1-894747-19-6 | WMPub#1024 | 6 x 9"
286 page Trade Paperback | $18.95 Very few left.
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What people are saying about Spitting From High Places
Send us your quote after you experience this book.
"It was a fun read, I really started to care for those "old girls". Like looking into the future, I could put faces I know on the whole group."
~ Rita, Uxbridge, Ontario
Couldn't put it down. When's the movie coming?
J.L., Haileybury
Couldn't stop reading. Had to find out what they could possibly get into next. Laughed so hard, cried at the end. Can't look at the weather the same way again.
D.R., New Liskeard