Once Upon an Effing Time
Once Upon an Effing Time
Rodney Cross
, Rosa Cross
, Pamela Roberts Griffith
, Barry Kazimer
, Lisa Ostrowski
, Reilly Robson
, cassandra schiemann
, Linda Leitch
, Chantal Comeau
, Jude Castillo
, Marilyn Stanley
, Marissa Yip-Young
, Zara Garcia-Alvarez
, Dawn Macdonald
, Mary Therrien
, Meaghan Krygier
, Agnes Marshall
, Beth Dekoker
, Noelle Walsh
, Joshua Lewis
, Andrea Pole
, Sandra Furlotte
, Shayla Bradley
, Natasa Ilic
, Naomi MacKinnon
, Sarah Schwartz
, Patricia Johnson
, Dani Kat
, Claudie Léveillé
, Margo Beredjiklian
, Tyra Antle
, Stacy Stafford
, Amanda Schempp
, Deana Bueley
, Hoda Montazeri
, Alice Meems
, Cris Jenna
, Georgia Aliphtiras
, Roland Schigas
, Melissa Kohlman
, Joe Mitchell
, Karen Nordrum
, Karen Kendrick
, Bob Paterson-watt
, Heather Belliveau
, Joan Clare
, Prabh Toor
, Kym Marsh
, Mairi Lester
, steph vandermeulen
, Rhona Brinkman
, Christopher Evans
, Suzanne Nesbitt
, Cathy Genge
, Tiffany C
, Christine Lion
, Caleb Nault
, Laurie Burns
, Susan Terendy
, Diana Richardson
, Charles Leblanc
, Sandra Storey
, Maria Mclean
, Anne Range
, Huguette Lemieux
, Robert Hykawy
, Alissa Bender
, Susan Jang
, Paula Ritchie
, Claire Gear
, Siobhan Monaghan
, Randi Ann Doll
, Laura Patterson
, Cynthia Heinrichs
, Heather Sibley
, Ellen Clarke
, Deb Philippon
, Shannon Lee
, Selina Hatt
, Shawna Moodie
, Mary Ellen Havlik
, Lisa Mallia
, Mary Danieli
, Trish Bowering
, Sandra Perry
, Ken Gilmour
, Jessica Murray
, Andrea Gillespie
, Ariane Béland
, Crystal Inwood
, Melissa Poremba
, Irenee R Anderson
, Kim Cappellina
, Janet Meisner
, Nicki D'Angelo
, Vanessa Seto
, Nikita Richter
, Taylor MaGee
, PATRICIA SOPEL
, Christa Seeley
, Shari Dalton
, Joanna McFarlane-Frampton
, Theresa Dewis
, Annika Fotheringham
, Paula Adam
, Maureen Brownlee
, Allison Dube
, Paris Semansky
, Michelle Onyango
, Linda Ham
, Margaret McKay
, Yolande Thivierge
, Laura Peters
, Lynn Andrews
, Mary Campbell
, diana kirkwood
, Jenna Lyn Albert
, Rose Ghaedi
, Benita Hartwell
, Janice Cournoyer
, Pamela Humphrey
, Anne Baldo
editor@49thShelf.com
It’s 1969. An eight-year-old girl, Elizabeth Squire, has a choice to make: to be disabled by the circumstances of her own botched birth or to become extraordinary.
In Buffy Cram’s captivating new novel, Elizabeth narrates the story of her childhood in the late sixties, describing how she came to be at a Vancouver halfway house at the age of nineteen. Once Upon an Effing Time chronicles the sometimes-exploitative relationship between Elizabeth and Margaret, her mother, and the bizarre and criminal misadventures they have after running away from Ontario’s cheese belt and their “Big Sad Story.”
Attempting to bond with her neglectful mother, Elizabeth learns to adopt personas and live multiple lives, transforms into a fortune teller named MeMe who speaks primarily in Bob Dylan lyrics, and joins an American hippie doomsday cult. Elizabeth’s life is fragmented between ordinary childhood pleasures and indulging her mother’s conspiracy theories about the upcoming moon landing by hiding pamphlets in New York City Public Library books. Throughout, Buffy Cram weaves humour and heartbreak together to form an engaging narrative about cults—the cult of family, the cult of counterculture, the cult of rock ’n’ roll—and the role of story within those cults.
