Book Mark: 2012 Scotiabank Giller Prize

A little behind with this one, as it was awarded the end of October. Nonetheless, it is a significant win for humorist / travel writer / fiction writer Will Ferguson.

Courtesy CBC.ca:

Will Ferguson has won the 2012 Giller Prize, the $50,000 award considered one of Canada's most prestigious literary honours.

Though best known for his humour and travel writing, the Calgary writer won for his dark novel 419 on Tuesday night, accepting the prize at a star-studded gala in Toronto.

"I want to thank the jury for putting together such a fresh list of books," Ferguson, who was dressed in a traditional kilt, said after taking the stage to accept the prize.

"I commend them for taking the books on their own merit, without preconceptions — which is how a jury should act."

Then, reaching into his sporran for a flask, the author concluded his speech by leading the audience in a toast.

"Ladies and gentlemen: To the written word," Ferguson said before taking a sip from the flask he procured from the pouch.

"And finally, to answer the question you're all wondering — yes I have something on underneath!"

A departure and a continuation

419 is a provocative tale of an email scam and a woman who sets out on a wide-ranging search for those she believes responsible for her father's death. It's different sort of writing for many fans of Ferguson, a three-time winner of the Stephen Leacock Medal.

"Everyone's saying it's a departure, which is understandable, but I think it's a continuum from Spanish Fly," he told reporters after the ceremony, referencing his earlier book.


"Spanish Fly was about con artists in the 1930s. It was a historical novel. So I didn't think of [419] as out of the blue, but I think of it as a continuation."

Ferguson didn't worry as much about writing in a genre for which he isn't as known.

"I think my publisher really took more of a risk than I did, to be honest, when I switched to literary fiction," he said.

Despite the kudos he's received for 419, he not ready to limit himself to one type of writing either.
"If a funny story grabs you, it grabs you. If travel grabs you, it grabs you," he said, noting that his next book will be a travel narrative about Rwanda, Burundi and potentially eastern Congo.
"I try to switch between fiction and travel. It uses different parts of your brain. No, I'm not giving up on travel writing, but I'm certainly enjoying fiction."

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros

Something new I want to try this year is participating in one or two book memes. One of the first I have decided to participate in is from Diane at Bibliophile by the sea.

Every Tuesday she posts the opening paragraph (maybe two) of a book she decided to read based on the opening paragraph (s). This sounds like a fun activity, so am going to schedule this activity for the next few weeks.


And for my inaugural "intro": Joseph Boyden's Through Black Spruce

When there was no Pepsi left for my rye whiskey, nieces, there was always ginger ale. No ginger ale? Then I had river water. River water's light like something between those two. And brown Moose River water's cold. Cold like living between two colours. Like living in this town. When the whiskey was Crown Royal, then brown Moose River water was a fine, fine mix.

Book Mark: Giller Prize Winner Announced

A little bit of a shocker earlier this week with the announcement of Linden MacIntyre as the winner of the 2009 Scotiabank Giller Prize. The Bishop's Man is MacIntyre's latest novel takes on the controversial topic of the Catholic Church and its never ending stream of sexual abuse allegations.

From the Globe and Mail:

Veteran investigative reporter Linden MacIntyre scored a surprise upset Tuesday night by winning the 2009 Scotiabank Giller Prize for excellence in Canadian literature.

Mr. MacIntyre's novel about corruption in the Catholic church, The Bishop's Man , beat four highly regarded literary titles to take the main prize.

Attributing his success to “an accident of consensus,” Mr. MacIntyre paid tribute to his fellow finalists and urged a glamorous crowd at Toronto's Four Seasons Hotel to “buy their books.”

He also acknowledged his colleagues at the CBC and other struggling media outlets. “I just want to involve them in this,” he said. Mr. MacIntyre also paid tribute to the people of Cape Breton, among whom the novel is set, “and last but not least, the priests and nuns who are struggling to do their jobs in spite of the failures of their leadership.”

Mr. MacIntyre's The Bishop's Man chronicles the emerging crisis of conscience in a worldly priest who has been assigned to keep a lid on church-related sex scandals that are destroying the lives of the faithful in rural Cape Breton. Super topical but not even slightly sensational, it is “a brave novel, conceived and written with impressive delicacy and understanding,” according to the Giller jury.

Perhaps the best known of all the finalists, Mr. MacIntyre, 66, is a veteran journalist who first came to national prominence for his work with The Journal , CBC's groundbreaking newsmagazine, and currently co-hosts The Fifth Estate , the network's investigative journalism program. He is the winner of nine Gemini Awards for broadcast journalism and two national non-fiction prizes for his most recent book, a boyhood memoir called Causeway: A Passage from Innocence . The Bishop's Man is his second novel.

Mr. MacIntyre said Tuesday night he is planning to write a third novel to complete the trilogy. “I'm hoping these characters will grow older. I'm hoping they will deal with some of the problems of age, which I know something about.”

As for the prize money, he said he hopes to share it “with some of the people who are important to me.”