Sitting Practice
Adderson, Caroline
Longlisted for CBC Radio's Canada Reads 2016,
Three and a half weeks after his wedding, Ross Alexander is driving home from a tennis game with his new bride when a wayward tennis ball rolls under his feet. As his wife Iliana removes her seatbelt to retrieve the ball, a truck slams into the car, and she ends up paralyzed and in a coma.
So begins this extraordinary portrait of a fated marriage. Ross struggles with the guilt over the consequences of his wife's paralysis and for the imagined life that is now forever lost. He turns to an exploration of Buddhist principles to ease his pain. He must also contend with his codependent twin sister, Bonnie, mother of his adored nephew, who is jealous of the other woman in her brother's life.
Iliana must deal with her new existence as a wheelchair-bound wife, her husband's feelings of alienation, and their aching and growing lack of intimacy. In this stunning new novel, acclaimed writer Caroline Adderson shows how lives can change forever because of one fateful moment.
With characters that are achingly real, Adderson demonstrates why she is one of Canada's most talented and significant writers.
Publisher: Toronto : Thomas Allen Publishers, 2003.
Read more reviews of Sitting Practice at iDreamBooks.com
janetkayak Mar 04, 2017
A lovely surprise! Set in neighbourhoods, culture and religions somewhat unique to BC. Author writes comfortably about intimacy and sensuality from a womans point of view and I feel does it well. This family faces many everyday challenges with themselves, parents, spouses and friends. They are forced to question their internal thoughts and personal story and to find another angle that allows solutions.
WVMLStaffPicks Jan 12, 2015
One of Canada's emerging and promising women writers, Caroline Adderson, has written a complex portrait of a newly married couple fatefully wounded in a car accident. Ross, madly in love with his bride, is emotionally defeated by guilt when Iliana is paralysed from the waist down. Iliana seems able to deal with being wheelchair bound but her grief stems from Ross turning away from her, leaving her celibate and unhappy. Adderson shows us how two people, deeply in love, can misunderstand one another so profoundly, yet finally turn towards each other for redemption.
Chifox92 Nov 04, 2011
Great beginning, but got really rambling and depressing after the first 5 or so chapters.
Domestic Fiction.
Psychological Fiction.