No Crystal Stair
{{Short description|Novel by Mairuth Sarsfield}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2024}}
{{Infobox novel
| author = Mairuth Sarsfield
| isbn = 1-896867-02-2
| pub_date = 1997
| genre = Historical fiction
| set_in = 1940s Little Burgundy
| image = File:No_Crystal_Stair.png
}}
{{About||the poem with this line|Mother to Son|the documentary novel|Lewis H. Michaux}}
No Crystal Stair is a 1997 novel by Canadian author Mairuth Sarsfield.{{Cite news |url=https://www.cbc.ca/books/why-the-bridge-host-nantali-indongo-loved-no-crystal-stair-by-mairuth-sarsfield-1.4514330 |title=Why The Bridge host Nantali Indongo loved No Crystal Stair by Mairuth Sarsfield |date=February 12, 2018 |work=CBC News |access-date=April 23, 2020 |archive-date=October 7, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007015221/https://www.cbc.ca/books/why-the-bridge-host-nantali-indongo-loved-no-crystal-stair-by-mairuth-sarsfield-1.4514330 |url-status=live}}{{Cite news |last=Patrick |first=Ryan B. |date=February 2, 2018 |title=14 must-read works of fiction by Black Canadian authors |url=https://www.cbc.ca/books/14-must-read-works-of-fiction-by-black-canadian-authors-1.4535443 |access-date=April 23, 2020 |work=CBC News}} It is a coming-of-age story set in the Little Burgundy district of Montreal during the 1940s.
The title is a reference to the line "Life for me ain't been no crystal stair" in Langston Hughes's poem "Mother to Son".
Plot summary
Widow Marion Willow works at two jobs to raise her three daughters properly. Fighting racism and sexism, Marion schools her girls in manners, English poetry and the need for an education; her elegant neighbour and rival (both women are in love with railway porter Edmund Thompson) teaches the children the ways of the street and their black cultural heritage.
Major themes
Two themes in the novel run through No Crystal Stair: passing as white and surviving as black. Sarsfield recounts a story about the desire to survive, all the while depicting the cosmopolitan Montreal of the 1940s, a city inhabited by jazz musicians, socialites, artists and gangsters.{{Cn|date=October 2024}}
Reception
No Crystal Stair was one of the selected novels in the 2005 edition of Canada Reads, where it was defended by Olympic fencer Sherraine MacKay.{{Cite news|url=https://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/no-crystal-stair-1.3992132|title=No Crystal Stair|date=February 21, 2017|work=CBC News|access-date=April 23, 2020|archive-date=June 26, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200626145344/https://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/no-crystal-stair-1.3992132|url-status=live}}
The book received reviews from publications including Herizons, School Library Journal, Quill & Quire, and New York Amsterdam News.{{Cite web | url=http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/book-reviews/2658527/reviews |title = The Reviews}}{{dead link|date=November 2020|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}{{cite magazine |magazine=Herizons |title=Review: No Crystal Stair |first=Beatrice |last=Watson |date=Fall 1999 |volume=13 |issue=3 |page=35}}{{cite news |newspaper= Toronto Star |title=Revisiting Little Burgundy |first=Donna |last=Nurse |date=3 May 1997 |page=K19}}{{Cite journal | title=Adult books for young adults: Fiction |journal=School Library Journal |last=Freeman |first=Connie |date= October 1997 |volume= 43 |issue=10 |page=160-161}}{{cite magazine |url=https://quillandquire.com/review/no-crystal-stair/ |magazine=Quill & Quire |title=Review: No Crystal Stair |first=Maureen |last=Garvie |access-date=22 May 2023 |year=1997 |volume=63 |issue=4 |page=38 |archive-date=22 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230522162930/https://quillandquire.com/review/no-crystal-stair/ |url-status=live }}{{Cite web | url=http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/book-reviews/6523494/no-crystal-stair-book |title = NO CRYSTAL STAIR (Book)}}{{dead link|date=November 2020|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}{{Cite news |url=https://essentials.ebsco.com/search/eds/details/mairuth-sarsfield-colorfully-depicts-life-in-montreal-s-tittle-burgundy?query=%22no%20crystal%20stair%22%20mairuth&db=asx&an=48017192 |newspaper=New York Amsterdam News |last=Misani |date=21 January 2010 |volume=101 |issue=4 |page=23 |title=Mairuth Sarsfield colorfully depicts life in Montreal's Tittle Burgundy' |access-date=22 May 2023 |archive-date=22 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230522162931/https://essentials.ebsco.com/search/eds/details/mairuth-sarsfield-colorfully-depicts-life-in-montreal-s-tittle-burgundy?query=%22no%20crystal%20stair%22%20mairuth&db=asx&an=48017192 |url-status=live }}
The book was the subject of articles in the journals Canadian Review of American Studies and Essays on Canadian Writing.{{Cite journal |doi = 10.3138/cras.2017.006|title = Contested "Places" and Conflicted Nexuses in Gloria Naylor's Linden Hills and Mairuth Sarsfield's No Crystal Stair|year = 2018|last1 = Green|first1 = Kim|journal = Canadian Review of American Studies|volume = 48|issue = 2|pages = 210–230}}{{Cite journal|last=Wegmann-Sanchez|first=Jessica|date=September 2001|title=Rewriting race and ethnicity across the border: Mairuth Sarsfield's 'No Crystal Stair' and Nella Larsen's 'Quicksand' and 'Passing'|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/197247581|journal=Essays on Canadian Writing|issue=74|pages=136|id={{ProQuest|197247581}}|access-date=2023-05-22|archive-date=2024-10-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007015219/https://www.proquest.com/docview/197247581|url-status=live}}
Category:Canadian historical novels
Category:Novels set in Montreal
References
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