Sunday, February 14, 2010
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Book Mark: Canada Also Reads
The National Post has released their short list for their inaugural Canada Also Reads. This came about as what they call a 'friendly counterpoint' to the Canada Reads event (but this is the National Post, soooo....).
The panelists will each present a short essay defending their selected book: making the case for why you need to read it. Two essays will be posted each day through the week starting March 1. And on March 8 a live chat will be held with the panelists and the authors and enjoy a rousing discussion of the titles.
Short List:
• Writer and critic Steven Beattie defends My White Planet by Mark Anthony Jarman
• Author Tish Cohen (Inside Out Girl, Town House), defends The Day The Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan
• Singer/songwriter Andy Maize (Skydiggers) defends Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis
• Poet Jacob McArthur Mooney (The New Layman's Almanac) defends The Last Shot by Leon Rooke
• Blogger John Mutford defends Yellowknife by Steve Zipp
• Author Lisa Pasold (Rats of Las Vegas) defends You And The Pirates by Jocelyne Allen
• Author Neil Smith (Bang Crunch) defends Come Thou Tortoise by Jessica Grant
• Author Zoe Whittall (Holding Still For As Long as Possible) defends Fear of Fighting by Stacey May Fowles
The panelists will each present a short essay defending their selected book: making the case for why you need to read it. Two essays will be posted each day through the week starting March 1. And on March 8 a live chat will be held with the panelists and the authors and enjoy a rousing discussion of the titles.
Short List:
• Writer and critic Steven Beattie defends My White Planet by Mark Anthony Jarman
• Author Tish Cohen (Inside Out Girl, Town House), defends The Day The Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan
• Singer/songwriter Andy Maize (Skydiggers) defends Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis
• Poet Jacob McArthur Mooney (The New Layman's Almanac) defends The Last Shot by Leon Rooke
• Blogger John Mutford defends Yellowknife by Steve Zipp
• Author Lisa Pasold (Rats of Las Vegas) defends You And The Pirates by Jocelyne Allen
• Author Neil Smith (Bang Crunch) defends Come Thou Tortoise by Jessica Grant
• Author Zoe Whittall (Holding Still For As Long as Possible) defends Fear of Fighting by Stacey May Fowles
Table of Contents: The Electric Michelangelo
Author: Sarah Hall
Publisher/Year: Faber and Faber, 2004
Synopsis: Cy Parks is the Electric Michelangelo, an artist of extraordinary gifts whose medium happens to be the pliant, shifting canvas of the human body. Fleeing his mother's legacy -- a consumptives' hotel in a fading English seaside resort -- Cy reinvents himself in the incandescent honky-tonk of Coney Island in its heyday between the two world wars. Amid the carnival decadence of freak shows and roller coasters, enchanters and enigmas, scam artists and marks, Cy will find his muse: an enigmatic circus beauty who surrenders her body to his work, but whose soul tantalizingly eludes him.
What Others Have To Say:
The Guardian
"...a work of unusual imaginative power and range."
The New York Times
"The way to read [it] then, is to put aside quibbles about plot and allow the language and imagery to sweep you up."
BBC News
"This is an exhaustingly energetic book filled with emotion, historic trivia and sometimes sordid detail, all tied up into a very unusual plot."
Extras:
Reading Guide
Publisher/Year: Faber and Faber, 2004
Synopsis: Cy Parks is the Electric Michelangelo, an artist of extraordinary gifts whose medium happens to be the pliant, shifting canvas of the human body. Fleeing his mother's legacy -- a consumptives' hotel in a fading English seaside resort -- Cy reinvents himself in the incandescent honky-tonk of Coney Island in its heyday between the two world wars. Amid the carnival decadence of freak shows and roller coasters, enchanters and enigmas, scam artists and marks, Cy will find his muse: an enigmatic circus beauty who surrenders her body to his work, but whose soul tantalizingly eludes him.
What Others Have To Say:
The Guardian
"...a work of unusual imaginative power and range."
The New York Times
"The way to read [it] then, is to put aside quibbles about plot and allow the language and imagery to sweep you up."
BBC News
"This is an exhaustingly energetic book filled with emotion, historic trivia and sometimes sordid detail, all tied up into a very unusual plot."
Extras:
Reading Guide
Friday, February 12, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Book Review: Alice Hoffman, Blackbird House
Author: Alice Hoffman
Publisher/Year: Doubleday 2004
Review:
Alice Hoffman has yet again proven her talents as one of the foremost writers on the American literary landscape today. In her novel, Blackbird House, Hoffman takes a different direction and uses one Cape Cod farmhouse to connect different generations of occupants. The result is a lush and invigorating read, one that celebrates the richness of life and love and family and death as each story lingers and then fades into the next.
Blackbird House begins during the British colonial times, when fisherman John Hadley decides to give up the sea in order to provide a more stable existence for his beloved wife and sons. His dream is to give his wife "something precious and lasting and hers alone." Tragedy unfortunately strikes the family before he can fully bring this dream to fruition. The lasting legacy of this tragedy is a blackbird, the beloved pet of the man’s 10-year old son who sets the bird free just before he and his father drown. This blackbird, whose feathers have turned white, figures into the following eleven tales.
The house then falls to a young man who hates the sea, having lost his leg to a giant halibut. He finds love with a young woman who comes to board with him after she loses her home and family in a tragic fire. His love for her compels him to find and bring home the only thing that she wants, “a tree that has pears the color of blood.” This love story leads into a tale of heartbreak as the eldest daughter of this couple recounts how her mother cried red tears when her husband died. The imagery is so vivid in this tale that you may begin to believe it almost possible to cry such tears.
From here the house falls into the hands of numerous occupants. There is Larkin Howard, a young man who must care for an orphan baby abandoned by its mother. There is Violet, in love with a man who betrays her but who ultimately finds true love in an unexpected friend. There is also her son Lion West, whose allegiance to his mother’s ambitions result in tragedy, and his son Lion West Jr who marries a Holocaust survivor during World War II.
Throughout the mini vignettes, Hoffman drops in touch points to signal the different eras. The advent of the automobile age figures into one tale. Hippies take over the house in another and grow marijuana in one of the fields. The house eventually evolves into a summer retreat for two different city families, both seeking a respite from tragedies at home.
Over a span of two hundred years, Hoffman interweaves the stories of the house’s various occupants with the aid of some creative narrative devices. The white blackbird is one, so too are the red pears, water, and even the fruitwood floor in the kitchen. All of these items are nimbly interwoven into the stories, lending additional richness and resonance to the narratives These repeating images are emblematic of the repeated themes that, when combined in various configurations, tell the story of the house at the centre of it all.
Apparently Hoffman used her own summer cottage in Cape Code as inspiration for these tales. Built in 1846, the house had fallen into disrepair after a century of ownership by the original family. Legend had it that her house was occupied by the ghost of a young boy who had died at sea. This tangible background may explain why Hoffman slips easily in to the various voices and circumstances of her characters. She does not dwell on each story for long, just long enough to elicit the emotional core, the magical symbolism to build upon in the next and future tales.
Blackbird House is not a novel nor is it a collection of short stories, as each story is interwoven with the ones preceding and following. The result is a fluid, almost hypnotic reading experience that defies definition in its time-arching quest to comprehend the profound, crazy, and confusing complexities of life and love.
Publisher/Year: Doubleday 2004
Review:
Alice Hoffman has yet again proven her talents as one of the foremost writers on the American literary landscape today. In her novel, Blackbird House, Hoffman takes a different direction and uses one Cape Cod farmhouse to connect different generations of occupants. The result is a lush and invigorating read, one that celebrates the richness of life and love and family and death as each story lingers and then fades into the next.
Blackbird House begins during the British colonial times, when fisherman John Hadley decides to give up the sea in order to provide a more stable existence for his beloved wife and sons. His dream is to give his wife "something precious and lasting and hers alone." Tragedy unfortunately strikes the family before he can fully bring this dream to fruition. The lasting legacy of this tragedy is a blackbird, the beloved pet of the man’s 10-year old son who sets the bird free just before he and his father drown. This blackbird, whose feathers have turned white, figures into the following eleven tales.
The house then falls to a young man who hates the sea, having lost his leg to a giant halibut. He finds love with a young woman who comes to board with him after she loses her home and family in a tragic fire. His love for her compels him to find and bring home the only thing that she wants, “a tree that has pears the color of blood.” This love story leads into a tale of heartbreak as the eldest daughter of this couple recounts how her mother cried red tears when her husband died. The imagery is so vivid in this tale that you may begin to believe it almost possible to cry such tears.
From here the house falls into the hands of numerous occupants. There is Larkin Howard, a young man who must care for an orphan baby abandoned by its mother. There is Violet, in love with a man who betrays her but who ultimately finds true love in an unexpected friend. There is also her son Lion West, whose allegiance to his mother’s ambitions result in tragedy, and his son Lion West Jr who marries a Holocaust survivor during World War II.
Over a span of two hundred years, Hoffman interweaves the stories of the house’s various occupants with the aid of some creative narrative devices. The white blackbird is one, so too are the red pears, water, and even the fruitwood floor in the kitchen. All of these items are nimbly interwoven into the stories, lending additional richness and resonance to the narratives These repeating images are emblematic of the repeated themes that, when combined in various configurations, tell the story of the house at the centre of it all.
Apparently Hoffman used her own summer cottage in Cape Code as inspiration for these tales. Built in 1846, the house had fallen into disrepair after a century of ownership by the original family. Legend had it that her house was occupied by the ghost of a young boy who had died at sea. This tangible background may explain why Hoffman slips easily in to the various voices and circumstances of her characters. She does not dwell on each story for long, just long enough to elicit the emotional core, the magical symbolism to build upon in the next and future tales.
Blackbird House is not a novel nor is it a collection of short stories, as each story is interwoven with the ones preceding and following. The result is a fluid, almost hypnotic reading experience that defies definition in its time-arching quest to comprehend the profound, crazy, and confusing complexities of life and love.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Canada Reads Book Club: Update #3
Woohoo - we are over halfway through the books! Though, with the re-read of Fall on Your Knees still to come, perhaps on a page-by-page ratio we may not be as far along as initially thought....mmm....
Anyway, reading is progressing very well and Generation X is now in our clutches. A lot is riding on this novel, as the first read years ago did not leave a positive impression and there is trepidation in picking it up again. But if fellow Edmontonian Roland Pemberton aka Cadence Weapon says to read this book, well then, we are going to give it another shot.
This past week we started posting our reviews/musing on each of the novels. First up to bat was Good to a Fault, and coming up this week will be Nikolski. (And just between us, Nikolski is shaping up to be our favorite of the lot - shhhh, don't tell the others.)
Over the past few weeks we have posted brief bios for Marina Endicott, Nicolas Dickner, and Wayson Choy. We always find it interesting to check up on an author, as it provides an additional lense on the reading experience. Upcoming will be bios for Douglas Coupland and Anne-Marie MacDonald.
And for a little something extra, we took a timeout from reading last week to take on the CBC challenge of picking a novel that we would defend if selected to participate in the Canada Reads event. Our selection did not require any thought at all - The Imperialist - and our defense demonstrates why.
Hope all is going well with those joining us on this journey! Happy reading!
Anyway, reading is progressing very well and Generation X is now in our clutches. A lot is riding on this novel, as the first read years ago did not leave a positive impression and there is trepidation in picking it up again. But if fellow Edmontonian Roland Pemberton aka Cadence Weapon says to read this book, well then, we are going to give it another shot.
This past week we started posting our reviews/musing on each of the novels. First up to bat was Good to a Fault, and coming up this week will be Nikolski. (And just between us, Nikolski is shaping up to be our favorite of the lot - shhhh, don't tell the others.)
Over the past few weeks we have posted brief bios for Marina Endicott, Nicolas Dickner, and Wayson Choy. We always find it interesting to check up on an author, as it provides an additional lense on the reading experience. Upcoming will be bios for Douglas Coupland and Anne-Marie MacDonald.
And for a little something extra, we took a timeout from reading last week to take on the CBC challenge of picking a novel that we would defend if selected to participate in the Canada Reads event. Our selection did not require any thought at all - The Imperialist - and our defense demonstrates why.
Hope all is going well with those joining us on this journey! Happy reading!
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Table of Contents: The Catastrophist
Author: Lawrence Douglas
Publisher/Year: Other Press, 2006
Synopsis: Meet Daniel Wellington: art historian, academic star, devoted husband, and total basket case. Although Daniel has known nothing but success, he’s convinced the future promises nothing but disaster. When his wife, known simply as R., presents him with a tiny, size-XXS Yale sweatshirt, Daniel is seized by the impulse to bolt; the specter of imminent fatherhood sends him into a full-blown existential crisis. Soon this well-intentioned young professor finds himself plotting bigamy, lying about his past, imagining his pregnant wife in the arms of an androgynous grad student, and explaining to the dean his obscene e-mail to the lead in a student production of Miss Julie.
What Others Have To Say:
The New York Times
"With material [this] fresh, why saddle yourself with a mopey protagonist in his underwear in a seedy apartment, eating Fruit Loops all alone?"
Entertainment Weekly
"That we enjoy the company of this walking disaster is a tribute to Douglas' witty prose; that we love R. — practical, attractive, and shrewd — can be chalked up to the author's bedrock understanding of what constitutes an appealing human being."
America Psychiatric Association
"... winner and too witty and haunting a tale to be thought of as summer reading."
Publisher/Year: Other Press, 2006
Synopsis: Meet Daniel Wellington: art historian, academic star, devoted husband, and total basket case. Although Daniel has known nothing but success, he’s convinced the future promises nothing but disaster. When his wife, known simply as R., presents him with a tiny, size-XXS Yale sweatshirt, Daniel is seized by the impulse to bolt; the specter of imminent fatherhood sends him into a full-blown existential crisis. Soon this well-intentioned young professor finds himself plotting bigamy, lying about his past, imagining his pregnant wife in the arms of an androgynous grad student, and explaining to the dean his obscene e-mail to the lead in a student production of Miss Julie.
What Others Have To Say:
The New York Times
"With material [this] fresh, why saddle yourself with a mopey protagonist in his underwear in a seedy apartment, eating Fruit Loops all alone?"
Entertainment Weekly
"That we enjoy the company of this walking disaster is a tribute to Douglas' witty prose; that we love R. — practical, attractive, and shrewd — can be chalked up to the author's bedrock understanding of what constitutes an appealing human being."
America Psychiatric Association
"... winner and too witty and haunting a tale to be thought of as summer reading."
Monday, February 8, 2010
Line By Line: Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient
"He has been disassembled by her. And if she has brought him to this, what has he brought her to?"
"Kirpal’s left hand swoops down and catches the dropped fork an inch from the floor and gently passes it into the fingers of his daughter, a wrinkle at the edge of his eyes behind his spectacles."
"We die containing a richness of lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we have plunged into and swum up as if rivers of wisdom, characters we have climbed into as if trees, fears we have hidden in as if caves. I wish for all this to be marked on by body when I am dead."
"The beautiful songs of faith enter the air like arrows, one minaret answering another, as if passing on a rumor of the two of them as they walk through the cold morning air, the smell of charcoal and hemp already making the air profound. Sinners in a holy city."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)