Polar Vortex
By Shani Mootoo
3.5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
A novel reminiscent of the works of Herman Koch and Rachel Cusk, in which a lesbian couple attempts to escape the secrets of their pasts.
Shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize!
A Globe & Mail Best Book of 2020
One of Autostraddle's Best Queer Books of 2020
Shortlisted for the 2020 Caribbean Readers’ Awards (Best Adult Novel)!
"Shani Mootoo is one of the towering lesbian novelists of our time…Polar Vortex [is] a jewel in an already extraordinary creative life. Mootoo’s powerful capacity capture of people and their inner vulnerabilities and longings in her novels make them compelling reads.”
--Autostraddle
“With grace and dexterity, Polar Vortex maps the interiority of middle age lesbians and the complex and fraught intimate dances of couples...Here is a writer at the full height of her power asking vital, important questions rendered beautifully through character, setting, and plot. Here is a writer demonstrating with passion and power the importance of art to understanding the world. What pleasure!”
--Lambda Literary
"The action is dramatic, but it could only be surprising to someone who hasn’t noticed the accumulation of clues. There is violence and betrayal, but the characters are so sympathetically drawn that no one emerges as a villain or a stereotype...The structuring of the plot as a series of scenes gives this novel a steady momentum. Polar Vortex is a cautionary tale for adults."
--The Gay & Lesbian Review
”A lesbian couple, together six years, move from Toronto to a home in an isolated island community. Priya is an artist, from an Indian family in the West Indies, Alex a writer and native Canadian. But there’s a third presence, Prakash, a Ugandan Indian whose family fled Amin and settled in Canada, who Priya met at university. Priya had turned him down as a suitor years ago, but now he has found her new location, and Priya has invited him for a weekend. Alex seems unduly displeased, but as the story unfolds through Priya’s voice, the balance tips. Priya’s story is more complex than she has shared with Alex; Prakash may have darker intentions for his visit, while Alex herself has secrets of her own.”
--Lavender Magazine
"A suspenseful story of desire, secrets, and an unexpected love triangle.”
--Trinidad & Tobago Express
“The story is tense and on every page tension rises. Yet even while sitting on the edge of my chair, I could not stop reading. In fact, I am still thinking about what I read a week later. Mootoo mixes two genres--psychological thriller and literary fiction--as she delves into the nature of queer sexuality and identity, immigrant experiences and the results of sexism, racism, and homophobia on LGBT women of color.”
--Reviews by Amos Lassen
Polar Vortex is a seductive and tension-filled novel about Priya and Alex, a lesbian couple who left the big city to relocate to a bucolic countryside community. It seemed like a good way to leave their past behind and cement their newish, later-in-life relationship. But there's leaving the past behind--and then there's running away from awkward histories.
Priya has a secret--a long-standing, on-again, off-again relationship with a man, Prakash. In Priya's mind Prakash is little more than an old friend, but in reality things are a bit complicated. Why has she never told Alex about him? Prakash has tracked Priya down in her new life, and before she realizes what she's doing, she invites him to visit.
Alex is not pleased, and soon the existing cracks in their relationship widen, revealing secrets Alex herself would have preferred to keep. Into the fissure walks Prakash, whose own agenda forces all three to face the inevitable consequences of their choices.
Shani Mootoo
SHANI MOOTOO is a novelist, poet, and visual artist. Her novels include Moving Forward Sideways Like a Crab, long-listed for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and short-listed for a Lambda Literary Award; Valmiki's Daughter, long-listed for the Scotiabank Giller Prize; He Drown She in the Sea, long-listed for the Dublin IMPAC Award; and Cereus Blooms at Night, short-listed for several prizes including the Giller Prize, and long-listed for the Man Booker Prize. In 2020 Mootoo received an honorary doctorate of letters from Western University, Canada. She is also a recipient of the K.M. Hunter Artist Award for Literature, the Chalmers Arts Fellowship, and the Dr. James Duggins Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist Prize.
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Reviews for Polar Vortex
33 ratings10 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5At first it seemed strange that a complicated relationship was being portrayed from inside just one character's head, especially as it was unclear why the relationship was so fraught. Then Alex comes along to tell us her side, from inside her own head, and then finally Prakash literally arrives, and we learn what Priya has been withholding, and has also forgotten, about their university relationship. At the end, another surprise relationship. I loved the layering of perspective, the insights that come gradually. At the end the characters came alive for me, and I wanted more! What happened then? I wished I could ask.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I've been trying to read this for over three months. I pick it up and read a bit and set it aside. I'm half-way through it. It's a first person narrative by a woman in a same sex living relationship. She is musing about the expected visit by a male friend. Is he more than a friend? Perhaps a former lover? She teases us with the exact nature of that relationship. Frankly she goes on with this inner monologue too much and I keep losing interest in both her current and former relationships. Sometimes it's best to walk away from a relationship and that's just what I'm doing. I'm not investing any more time in this.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pure queer, literary goodness. A roving, deep dive into memory with characters that all had understandable motivations for why they do what they do. They're realistic, flawed humans who make bad decisions. An ending that crept up on and gutted me--in retrospect, the signs were there, but I only felt certain what was about to happen a few pages before it happened. Overall, it was maybe a bit repetitive in places, but I wasn't bothered or impatient while reading.Also, considering everything that happens, the story and themes surrounding the story, the title is perfect. The cover design too.This was a strong introduction to Mootoo's work for me, and I've heard good things about her other books so I'm anticipating they'll be even better.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I got this book free from Library Thing's early reviewers program. I read it in an afternoon, but really liked it. It's a story about a lesbian couple living on a rather remote island, and one of them has an old (male) friend come to visit for a day. The book takes place all on the same day; the characters were great, plus I learned a lot about Idi Amin and what happened in Uganda in the 70's.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'd like to read more by this author and will be keeping tabs. I am reading this along with a friend that also received a copy, we are not so far through it but we are both greatly engrossed
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5First person narrative, lots of angst-ridden inner dialogue, more like an overly drawn-out short story. Nothing surprising here for me, but might appeal to a younger reader of a background similar to the main character. Didn't feel a connection to or resonance with the characters or storyline, and didn't care for Prakash at all. Fairly graphic hetero sex throughout. **I received my ARC from the publisher via LibraryThing Early Reviewers in exchange for an honest review.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Coming from a heterosexual woman, I’m not sure my review would be considered legitimate by a homosexual woman! The writing is superb and the characters became very real. The story is heartbreaking on multiple levels; yet I’m left wondering if the emotional struggles these characters endured are universal or specific to these 3 individuals in this particular situation.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Polar vortex not only describes last winter’s weather event, but also the state of Priya’s closest relationships. Shani Mootoo exquisitely guides us through the thoughts, actions, and motives of Priya, her partner Alex, and Priya’s oldest friend Prakash. While the current events play out in a single day, we travel back forty years to understand beginnings and back stories, and learn not everyone remembers events the same way. This novel has a lot to say about memory and privacy, and what it means to come to terms with who you are. The barren Canadian setting does much to add to the mood and increasing tension building between the characters and what they will reveal.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Priya and Alexandra fled the city to live a simple rural life, and Priya took the opportunity to cut ties with most of her former life. Now her college friend Prakash is coming to visit and she's anxiously lost in the memories of their complicated relationship, which is creating trouble in her relationship with Alex.I found this incredibly stressful to read. All three characters behave poorly towards each other, deceiving themselves and projecting guilt and blame. It was a little too realistic.The writing is very good, which is probably the main reason it succeeded in stressing me out so much. Recommended if you want contemporary sadness.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Priya and her wife, Alex, have moved from Toronto to the countryside. At the same time, Priya shuts down all her social media accounts because she is trying to avoid all contact with her long-time friend, a straight man named Prakash. The blurb on the back cover makes this story sound like a thriller, but it is a psychological examination of friendships and love set in a context of homosexuality and immigrants of colour. The novel also explores memory and forgetting.After six years, Prakash re-establishes contact with Priya, and she invites him to visit her and Alex. He jumps at the chance. Alex is not happy that she hasn't been consulted about having an overnight guest. There is a good build up of tension between the two of them, and within Priya's mind about her upcoming reunion.I enjoyed the first part of the novel, told from Priya's perspective best. We learn her story and a lot about her relationship with Prakash, which is deep, loving, but fraught with tension. In the second part, Prakash arrives for his much anticipated and dreaded visit. I enjoyed this part less because it was more of the same....wondering and worrying...rather than resolving or escalating things. I guess life's like that. The writing is very good. I might read more by this author.