No Crystal Stair

No Crystal Stair is a 1997 novel by Canadian author Mairuth Sarsfield.[1][2]

For the poem with this line, see Mother to Son. For the documentary novel, see Lewis H. Michaux.

The title is a reference to the line "Life for me ain't been no crystal stair" in Langston Hughes's poem "Mother to Son".

Plot summary

No Crystal Stair is a coming-of-age story set in the Little Burgundy district of Montreal during the 1940s.

Widow Marion Willow works at two jobs to raise her three daughters properly. Fighting racism and sexism, Marion schools her girls in manners, English poetry and the need for an education; her elegant neighbour and rival (both women are in love with railway porter Edmund Thompson) teaches the children the ways of the street and their black cultural heritage.

Major themes

Two themes in the novel run through No Crystal Stair: passing as white and surviving as black. Sarsfield recounts a story about the desire to survive, all the while depicting the cosmopolitan Montreal of the 1940s, a city inhabited by jazz musicians, socialites, artists and gangsters.

Reception

No Crystal Stair was one of the selected novels in the 2005 edition of Canada Reads, where it was defended by Olympic fencer Sherraine MacKay.[3]

The book received reviews from publications including Herizons, School Library Journal, Quill & Quire, and New York Amsterdam News.[4][5][6][7][8][9][10]

The book was the subject of articles in the journals Canadian Review of American Studies and Essays on Canadian Writing.[11][12]

References
  1. "Why The Bridge host Nantali Indongo loved No Crystal Stair by Mairuth Sarsfield". CBC News. February 12, 2018. Retrieved April 23, 2020.
  2. Patrick, Ryan B. (February 2, 2018). "14 must-read works of fiction by Black Canadian authors". CBC News. Retrieved April 23, 2020.
  3. "No Crystal Stair". CBC News. February 21, 2017. Retrieved April 23, 2020.
  4. "The Reviews".
  5. Watson, Beatrice (Fall 1999). "Review: No Crystal Stair". Herizons. Vol. 13, no. 3. p. 35.
  6. Nurse, Donna (3 May 1997). "Revisiting Little Burgundy". Toronto Star. p. K19.
  7. Freeman, Connie (October 1997). "Adult books for young adults: Fiction". School Library Journal. 43 (10): 160-161.
  8. Garvie, Maureen (1997). "Review: No Crystal Stair". Quill & Quire. Vol. 63, no. 4. p. 38. Retrieved 22 May 2023.
  9. "NO CRYSTAL STAIR (Book)".
  10. Misani (21 January 2010). "Mairuth Sarsfield colorfully depicts life in Montreal's Tittle Burgundy'". New York Amsterdam News. Vol. 101, no. 4. p. 23.
  11. Green, Kim (2018). "Contested "Places" and Conflicted Nexuses in Gloria Naylor's Linden Hills and Mairuth Sarsfield's No Crystal Stair". Canadian Review of American Studies. 48 (2): 210–230. doi:10.3138/cras.2017.006.
  12. Wegmann-Sanchez, Jessica (September 2001). "Rewriting race and ethnicity across the border: Mairuth Sarsfield's 'No Crystal Stair' and Nella Larsen's 'Quicksand' and 'Passing'". Essays on Canadian Writing (74): 136.
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