Fall on Your Knees by Ann Marie MacDonald

What makes a book 'original'?
Every plot conceivable has been done to death.
Every character imaginable has graced the pages of some novel or other.
Every emotion possible has been wrung out of the reader.
So why even write any more books? If it's all been done, why do it again?

A true pleasure of reading is finding that one novel in a thousand that manages to break free from the rest, that manages to startle and amuse within a familiar frameswork, that makes the old seem fresh. Fall on Your Knees is such a book.

Fall on Your Knees follows the tribulations of the Pipers, an unusual family living in Cape Breton in the early twentieth centure. The patriarch is James, a former piano tuner, who married Materia, a thirteen-year-old Lebanese girl who is promptly disowned from her family. Resulting from this rather unhappy coupling: Kathleen, a girl with the voice of an angel; the devout and well-meaning Mercedes; the wild and possibly insane Frances; and the crippled yet miraculous Lily.

At its essence, this is a 'family drama', a novel that traces one family's life throughout its tumultuous history. There is absolutely nothing original about this theme. Ann-Marie MacDonald has accomplished something equally as fine and wonderful as Irving has often done; she has broken the bounds of the novel, making it read as if this was the first time anyone ever conceived of the idea.
As MacDonald drives the narrative, through the battlefields of World War One, into the great depression, and then veering into the worlds of New York and Harlem, she consistently delights the reader with fresh sub-plots and characters. As well, MacDonald refuses to judge her characters. She leads us through the despicable acts of James and Frances, the self-pitying laments of Mercedes, the class hatred and eventual rebirth of Kathleen, all without a moment's disdain or loathing. The characters are all deeply flawed, but MacDonald refuses to sentimentalize or soften them. For better or for worse, they are who they are.

Fall on Your Knees has moments of remarkable vision, and easily holds its own against any of the more established novelists of today. It is a treasure of a novel, and MacDonald will have a difficult time if she ever wants to top it.