All Times Have Been Modern

Allison Sivak is a librarian in the Science and Technology Library,
University of Alberta.

This pulsing and beautiful novel follows the life of Kay Oleski, a woman
who, after her divorce from her husband, pursues her work as a writer.
The book traces Kay’s first sexual experience at age 10 with a boy
staying at her parents’ house, through her difficult marriage to an
emotionally distant and philanderous architect, and finally, to her
relationship with a younger man who is also an architect. However, the
novel is not solely about Kay’s relationships with others: key to her
character’s development is her development as a writer, which begins
in her early adulthood, and is put on the back burner as she raises her
sons and negotiates her marriage. After her divorce, Kay falls on
financial hard times, and struggles to work at low-end jobs, live in a
grotty Montreal apartment, and ultimately pursue a graduate education in
the name of living to write.

As Kay faces various hardships, at times through her poor treatment by
others, and at times as a result of her own mistakes, she nonetheless
remains optimistic and without guile. Harvor writes with immediacy of
Kay’s experiences, tracing perfectly the ways that emotions flicker
rapidly over us: in the midst of loneliness on a solitary vacation, for
example, Kay will shift into awe for the writing of Virginia Woolf, lose
herself in the understanding of a cloudy childhood memory, and then feel
intense physical desire for her lover. Harvor doesn’t gloss over the
fine details of living, but writes them out, slowing the pace of the
book and heightening the pleasure of readers who allow themselves to
follow Kay’s train of thought as she moves through her life. Kay’s
story is simultaneously dreamlike and intensely real.

The author notes in the acknowledgements that this book ultimately took
a dozen years to write; this period of time may have contributed to what
is a fully immersive experience for the reader. Harvor’s writing is
adept and fluid, the story quietly suspenseful. Elizabeth Harvor is one
of Canada’s best writers, and this is her best book to date.