Family memories inspired Lesley Crewe's novel The Spoon Stealer, which is on the Canada Reads 2022 longlist
CBC Books | | Posted: January 17, 2022 2:35 PM | Last Updated: January 17, 2022
The Spoon Stealer is on the Canada Reads 2022 longlist
Lesley Crewe is the author of several books, including the novels Mary, Mary, Beholden, Amazing Grace and Relative Happiness, which was made into a feature film. Born and raised in Montreal, Crewe now lives in Cape Breton and is best known for her work as a novelist and columnist.
Crewe's novel, The Spoon Stealer, is on the Canada Reads 2022 longlist. The panellists and the books they choose to champion will be revealed on Jan. 26, 2022. The debates will take place March 28-31, 2022.
The Spoon Stealer is a story about family secrets, friendship and belonging. The novel follows Emmeline, a compulsive spoon stealer that struggles to fit into life on her family's rural Nova Scotian farm. Struck by a family crisis during World War I, Emmeline flees to England to start a new life with her best friend, a small white dog named Vera. When she decides to write her memoirs, secrets are uncovered and friendships are formed as Emmeline learns more about herself and the world she lives in.
Crewe spoke with CBC Books about writing the novel.
Inspired by family
"Emmeline is based on my grandfather's sibling. My great aunt, in 1919, went all the way across the world as a young woman during the pandemic. When I wrote this story and found out it was 1919, I thought it was during the war. But it was during the pandemic. And then, of course, I had no idea when I was writing it that the COVID-19 pandemic was crawling over the Earth, just on the horizon. I really shivered when I found out.
Emmeline is based on my grandfather's sibling.
"I knew I loved this story. I mean, how fantastic to think of this young woman going overseas at a time when young women didn't go halfway around the world by themselves? And of course, she stayed. She had to stay until the war was over. She couldn't get back. So I really only used that one little thing about going over to England during the war as a jumping off point."
The power of memory
"I love being in a decade where people smoke because it always makes for a great scene. If somebody's got a cigarette in their hand, they can either butt it out furiously or blow the smoke into the air. There's something about it that I love, and of course, it's memory. It's my childhood.
"I use my life, my grandmother's memories and my mother's memories. They are the basis of all the stories that I write. All these memories come back and that's what I use. It's kind of a natural process.
I use my life, my grandmother's memories and my mother's memories.
"When I write these books, they just happen. They just come. I don't write every day. When a story happens, I write it in a couple of months and then I might not write for six months. So it's an odd way of doing it, but that's the way it seems to happen for me."
Learning from the past
"I just want [readers] to realize that the generations before them are pretty spectacular. Their world doesn't exist anymore. I love that world. I love the stories that my grandmother had and my mother had and the stories of the war and different things. And because the world is changing so fast, and it's becoming almost unrecognizable to me, I want to have these stories for myself and I hope people will remember.
I often tell people, if you want to write something, write down the stories that you remember your grandmother and grandfather telling you.
"I often tell people, if you want to write something, write down the stories that you remember your grandmother and grandfather telling you. Those are the stories that really matter the most; those are the ones that are going to be the ones your children will want to hear about.
"The world is moving so fast. I like to remind people that there was another time and another generation and we've all lived through the same kind of things, but you muddle through and you get through it."
Writing for yourself
"I only started writing when I was 50. I'm not in it for a career. It's almost like a hobby for me. The success of this book, well, this kind of thing — longlisted for Canada Reads! I mean, that was completely out of the blue and something I never expected in a million years. And that's lovely. It's always lovely to have so many readers, you know, obviously buy the book. But the enjoyment I get is the actual writing of the book because I always write for myself. That's how I started.
"I never expected to be published. Writing was always something that I gravitated to to make sense of my world. I just happened to write something that somebody wanted to actually publish. So all of this has been an accident, a happy accident.
I never expected to be published. It was just that writing was always something that I gravitated to to make sense of my world.
"But when I think of people having awards for their books, I never, never think of my books because they're too easy to read. People sometimes equate that as being, well, that's not that important.
"But I think the emotions in the book obviously shone through."
Lesley Crewe's comments have been edited for length and clarity.