Once Upon an Effing Time
Once Upon an Effing Time
Alice Meems
, Sabrina Phan
, Heather Norris
, Melissa Poremba
, Mary Therrien
, Elise Van Manen
, Shannon Leclerc
, Agnes Marshall
, Patricia Johnson
, Barry Kazimer
, Janice Hutchinson
, Anne Baldo
, Catherine Westerberg
, Sandra Furlotte
, Sarah Schwartz
, P. Thompson
, Lisa Ostrowski
, Joshua Lewis
, Marilyn Stanley
, Marissa Yip-Young
, Angeline Schellenberg
, Joanna McFarlane-Frampton
, Dawn Macdonald
, Lauren Seal
, Margaret McKay
, Susan Fitzgerald
, Jude Castillo
, Tyra Antle
, Noelle Walsh
, Sandra Perry
, Angela Mitchell
, Deana Bueley
, Linda Leitch
, Hoda Montazeri
, Andrea Pole
, Natasa Ilic
, Cathalynn Labonte-Smith
, Margo Beredjiklian
, Janice B Knickle
, Carol Anne Turner
, Naomi MacKinnon
, Susan Jang
, Ariane Béland
, Teree Hokanson
, Andrea Gillespie
, cassandra schiemann
, Hailey Slaviero
, Deb Philippon
, PATRICIA SOPEL
, Janai Phillips
, Rhona Brinkman
, Elaine Baptie
, Chris Carvalho
, Dani Kat
, Connie Bennett
, Claire Gear
, Shawna Moodie
, Sunshine Gudlaugson
, Trish Bowering
, Amber Beardwood
, Meaghan Krygier
, Diane Normandin
, Heather Rose
, Lynn Bechtel
, Lori Watson
, Jennifer Beyak
, Janet Miller
, Charles Leblanc
, colleen novotny
, Karen Kendrick
, Liz Moreau
, Jenna Lyn Albert
, Pamela Roberts Griffith
, Benita Hartwell
, Randi Ann Doll
, Shonna Froebel
, Susan Terendy
, Mary Campbell
, Rachel Edmonds
, Janet Meisner
, Paula Adam
, Robert Hykawy
, Cynthia Heinrichs
, C. Ray
, Derek Davidson
, Debbie Youngman
, Janice Cournoyer
, Huguette Lemieux
, Shannon Lee
, Kat Sommer-Derksen
, Heather Sibley
, Paula Ritchie
, Denise Duvall
, Alison James
, Nancy Reid
, Rodney Cross
, Rosa Cross
, Kim Cappellina
, Ken Gilmour
, Sara Conway
, Kym Marsh
, Karen Nordrum
, Alex Henderson
, Diane O'Flaherty
, Ryan Pritchard
, Mary Danieli
, Prabh Toor
, Lisa Mallia
, Deanna Carney
, Jessica Gilbert
, Debra Fisher
, norma haill
, Lil Anderson
, Dorianne Emmerton
, Joe Mitchell
, Joanne Epp
editor@49thShelf.com
A quirky, thrilling, darkly-funny page-turner that explores the fuzzy lines between sanity and insanity, magic and reality, love and duty.
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.
