Frontiers and Sanctuary: A Woman's Life in Holland and Canada

W.J. Keith is a retired professor of English at the University of Toronto and author A Sense of Style: Studies in the Art of Fiction in English-Speaking Canada.

Madzy Brender а Brandis, born into a comparatively wealthy Dutch family
in 1910, emigrated to North America in 1936, but returned to Holland
just before the outbreak of World War II. There she raised a young
family under harsh conditions during the German occupation while her
husband was confined in a prisoner-of-war camp. They moved to Canada
permanently in 1947, living initially as pioneers in northern British
Columbia. The last 30 years of her life were spent as a victim of
rheumatoid arthritis, but this did not prevent her from leading a rich
familial and cultural life. Despite her health she became a writer and
amateur painter, and brought up three talented children, including
Marianne (herself a writer and the author of this biography) and Gerard
(distinguished as an artist, wood engraver, and maker of hand-crafted
books).

This is an absorbing and heartening human story, told movingly and
effectively. “Madzy” was acutely aware of the strains but also the
satisfactions of the immigrant experience. Her best-known book, Land for
Our Sons (1958), focuses on this theme. The biography adds further
dimensions, thanks to the varied perspectives provided by mother/subject
and daughter/biographer, who sensibly juxtaposes memories of her
response as a child to those of her mother as an adult.

In addition to its insights into the complex challenges of immigration
and the details of pioneer life as late as the mid-20th century in
western Canada, the account of “ordinary” life in occupied Holland
as experienced by women and children covers an aspect of war experience
too easily neglected. The gap is admirably filled here.

Pleasantly illustrated by photographs and reproductions of Mazdy’s
paintings, this is a remarkable book about a remarkable woman (and,
indeed, a remarkable family). It is also one of the most moving human
documents I have read in a long time.