“This is a quirky and powerful book, original, heartbreaking, clever, enigmatic, oh so intelligent, sometimes angry, and more often humorous in a sly way. This is prose that slips into poetry. This is snatches of memory, a glimpse of family history, a dream journal, and a series of love letters. This is what the title says it is, broken fiction. It is autobiographical in some parts, not in others, except in the sense that authors always leave traces of themselves behind.”
—Jan Rehner, author of The House of Izieu and Almost True

“In what is perhaps best described as a series of meditations, at once intimate and philosophical, Marlene Kadar writes of illness and treatment, family members both living and dead, her own memories and history’s so-called facts. Part journal, part fiction, Broken Fiction refuses to be one kind of book. It encompasses moments of sadness and grief with sharp insight and humour to find delight and certainly love.”
—Linda Warley, Associate Professor Emerita of English, University of Waterloo

“With a writing style that is clear and concise, while also containing traces of sarcasm and a beautiful sardonic wit, Marlene Kadar tells us how it is. Broken Fiction is a multi-part, braided essay that marries the fictional, the known, and the imagined with philosophy and scientific and medical exploration—and poetry. In fact, the poetry is what stands out to me most—for it winds its way through the writing from beginning to end… Kadar shines here—and in the darkest moments, she shows us light.”
—Carolyne Van Der Meer, author of Journeywoman and Sensorial