Barometer Rising by Hugh MacLennan

Until reading this book, the extent of my knowledge about the explosion in Halifax during World War I comes from a Joel Plaskett song where he sings;

"Wanna know the truth? / I was thinking 'bout ships / in the Halifax harbour / before they blew the city to bits / in nineteen hundred, seventeen."

The truth of the matter is that this event was on par with the World Trade Centre attacks. The blast had 1/6th of the power of the blast that destroyed Hiroshima as a ship that contained 3000 tonnes of explosives blew up in the harbour. 2000 people were killed, 6000 wounded and 9000 left homeless.

It is this event that provides the climax for Hugh MacLennan's novel. Taking place over eight days in December 1917, Barometer Rising is a war novel situated not in the battle fields of Europe, but at the third most important port in the British Empire, Halifax.

Neil McCrae is hiding out in the city, searching for the one person that can clear his name from a court martial. He needs to avoid Geoffrey Wain, his uncle and the commander of his battalion, whose order he disobeyed. McCrae's cousin and Wain's daughter, Penny, is showing herself to be an expert ship designer having only got the opportunity because the men are at war. Penny is being pursued by an aged Colonel, Angus Murray, who was a Medical Officer before an injury sent him back to Canada, though Penny is still carrying a torch for her cousin who is presumed dead.

A surprisingly good read, though MacLennan obviously has an affinity for Halifax and its environs, describing the harbour, shipyards and areas of the city to the point of tedium. The plot is slightly botched as the explosion renders the character's problems moot, but this is not enough to ruin the read. 

An important artifact of Canadiana both for its literary quality and its historical significance.

The Flying Troutmans - Miriam Toews

I knew little about Winnipeg author Miriam Toews personal life until listening to an episode of This American Life. In the episode, Toews talks briefly about a road trip with her teenage son and 12-year old daughter. Her son is quiet and brings his CD's for accompaniment. The daughter is chatty and precocious and occupies herself with art supplies and comic books.

Toews' newest book, The Flying Troutmans, concerns a similar road trip. When Hattie Troutman's sister, Min, is hospitalized, Hattie gets temporary custody of Min's children, Logan and Thebes. The three then embark on a road trip to find the children's father. Teenage Logan carves morbid sayings into the dashboard and looks for places to play basketball at every stop. 11-year-old Thebes never washes and talks incessantly. Hattie calls her ex-boyfriend in Paris and tries to keep it all together.

As usual, Toews' prose is funny and lucid. It manages to be both smart and conversational. However, the star in this novel is Thebes. Her purple hair, bizarre outfits, and fondness for making and writing out over sized novelty cheques, are totally endearing and come off as sincere rather than smarmy.

Despite echos of other books (Summer of My Amazing Luck is also about a road trip to find a missing father), this is another gem from Toews.

"The Withdrawal Method" - Pasha Malla

Go here.

"In Transit" - Mavis Gallant

There's something very appealing about the foreigner abroad. It makes me think the characters in "Lost in Translation", vulnerable and lonely in a strange world. Like that film, this collection of stories is more about the characters themselves than how they experience their environment.

The 19 stories in this collection all deal with protagonists who are away from home. Apart from their own culture and language, not quite living in the real world, these people are perpetually in transit.

Gallant's prose is simple and elegant and peppered with startling and astute observations.

"'Digby is slightly restless, and marriage would settle him,' said Mrs Glover, pitying Digby, who now joined the company of men whose fate had been settled by a pair of women over empty cups." (from "A Question of Disposal")

"Every day had to be filled as never at home. A gap of two hours in a strange town, in transit, was like being shut up in a stalled lift with nothing to read." (from "In Transit")

"He had the soul of a carpet." (from "Good Deed")

Gallant is one of Canada's most treasured writers, but people would be hard pressed to recall her work. Her short stories are highly anthologized and she's often read in the course of English-Canadian literature studies and then forgotten. Gallant deserves much more. 

Summer of My Amazing Luck - Miriam Toews

Miriam Toews (pronounced "taves", figure that one out) Governor General award-winning A Complicated Kindness is among my all-time favourite books, so I was a little ashamed when I realized that I haven't read any of her other novels. While looking for a fast and entertaining read that I could sneak in between essays and theory, I came across Toews' debut and thought it would be a perfect fit.

Summer of My Amazing Luck revolves around two single-mom's living in a Winnipeg housing project. There is Lucy, the narrator, who is unsure of who the father of her young son, Dillinger, is; and Lish, an eccentric with four daughters, two of whom were fathered by a travelling fire-eating busker. When lish decides to find the father, the two women and five kids pile into a van for a road trip to Denver. 

I did enjoy this book, but at times, it felt a little like a role-call of all the characters in the Winnipeg housing project. Yes, there's a plot, but this story is more about character than what actually happens. It's nice to see how Toews has progressed as a writer from this first novel to where she is now. Gives me hope.

"louis riel: a comic-strip biography" by chester brown

i think it is appropriate that i finally got around to reading this now that i'm living in winnipeg. louis riel is a hero 'round these parts, with numerous establishments named after him and a couple imposing statues.

a graphic novel portraying part of the very interesting life of manitoba founder and politician, and metis rights activist, louis riel. a beautifully drawn, interesting read, i like this book more for what it is than its literary quality.

"what we all long for" by dionne brand

there's a tenet in play writing of don't show us, tell us, and i think this novel could have benefited from that mantra. the majority of this novel takes place in the character's heads as they ponder their feelings. why couldn't these thoughts be shown through dialogue or action? i guess that's a benefit of writing prose, but i found myself at times getting a little fed up with how internal the story was. 

at its heart, this novel is the story of four friends: tuyen, carla, oku and jackie, who all have complicated family and personal backgrounds. their stories are interspersed with chapters from the perspective of quy, the child tuyen's parents lost when they were immigrating to canada. 

at times, "what we all long for" felt like an advertisement for multiculturalism in canada. all the characters are visible minorities. there are two minor characters who are white; jackie's boyfriend who is referred to as "the german", and carla's mother, who killed herself. i'm not saying that this book is prejudice towards whites, but when tuyen, the vietnamese-canadian lesbian artist, is cycling through little italy and coming across spanish speakers, it was kind of like "ok, great, toronto is a mecca for everyone, let's move on".

i did enjoy this novel, but it's not one i would gush about to others. a quick and enjoyable read.

"kiss of the fur queen" by tomson highway

oh contemporary fiction....how i miss thee.

the language of this novel is stunning.  1950's cree life in northern manitoba explodes into life with highway's lush and lyrical descriptions.  the narrative jumps between the real world and a spiritual cree world where the fur queen and other fantastical, almost surreal myths exist. 

semi-autobiographical, 'the kiss of the fur queen' is about jeremiah and gabriel okimasis.  the narrative follows these brothers as they go from a magical and rustic life in the north, to a residential school where they're abused by their teachers, and finally to life in the big city of winnipeg.  wherever they are, a trickster figure in guise of a fur queen watches over them as they struggle with balancing their cree heritage with their new world.

i'm always weary of novels like this.  yes, it was terrible what happened to aboriginals at residential schools, but it's not my fault because i'm white.  this novel doesn't place the blame or ask for an apology, but just tells a lovely story that is beautiful, melancholy, funny and clever - everything you require from literature.  

"the penelopiad" by margaret atwood

there's no doubt that margaret atwood is good at what she does, but i've never been crazy about her.  i've read a few of her novels and while enjoyable, there was nothing about them that really spoke to me.  that saying, i loved this book.

perhaps it was due to the fact that i just read 'the odyssey', but i found this novella a brilliant retelling of homer's epic poem from odysseus' wife's perspective.  as one critic put it, penelope is the perfect atwood heroine and i couldn't imagine a better author to tell this story.

atwood's penelope is very sly and sarcastic as she tells her story from the underworld.  atwood has brilliantly made penelope's (spoiler alert for the odyssey!) 12 hanged maids a sort of vaudevillian chorus that pop up to sing witty and dark and sardonic interludes.  

i'm not sure if i would have enjoyed this as much had i not been familiar with 'the odyssey', but in my mind, atwood has pulled herself out of the humdrum and into the sublime.

"whale music" by paul quarrington

strangely enough, this classic of canadian lit is out of print and my library did not have it. i had to get it on an inter-library loan all the way from medicine hat.

"whale music" is the story of desmond howl. once a hugely successful musician, des now wears little more than a bathrobe and spends his time in a california mansion reminiscing about the glory days while composing the titular opus.

this is classic paul quarrington. funny, seamless transitions from present to past, fully realized wonderfully human characters... mr.quarrington may be my new literary boyfriend.

"the ravine" by paul quarrington

poor phil mcquigge. once a successful television writer and producer, he now spends his time drunk-dialling and writing an autobiographical novel. his wife is leaving him, he can't connect to his daughters and he feels guilt over the mysterious death of his former show's star. he narrows his life's misery down to a childhood incident in the titular ravine and embarks on figuring out the missing pieces of the event.

paul quarrington is incredible. his writing is effortless, flowing seamlessly from past to present. he has an uncanny ability for dialogue, directly transporting his readers to a specific time and place. the aspect of meta-fiction is also interesting as quarrington is writing about a writer who is writing a book.

a great and quick read. definitely recommended.

"late nights on air" by elizabeth hay

regrettably i had to speed through this book as it was due back at the library with 200+ holds on it.

this book is beautiful. very meaty, but absolutely outstanding and deserving of its many accolades. i had to carefully read it, often pausing after particular sentences to let the words sink in; be absorbed. after my last rather vacuous read, this was a welcome change. elizabeth hay's prose is majestic and complex. she gets inside each of her characters and offers profound insights into their lives and personalities. my strong interest in heading to the northern part of canada was reawakened and satisfied.

set in yellowknife in the 1970's, the story follows the people who work for the local radio station. fabulous.

"the luck of ginger coffey" by brian moore

poor ginger coffey. the guy just can't get a break. he immigrates from ireland to canada with his small family in hopes of a better life and ends up with a shitty job, a tiny apartment and a wife who leaves him for their only friend in montreal. despite his inumberable obstacles and hardships, ginger's optimism rarely wanes and is the impetus for the novel, propelling the title protagonist ever forward.

this book won the governor general's award in 1960. it was a quick read.

"king leary" by paul quarrington

the winner of this year's canada reads, "king leary" is a gem of canadiana that i'm grateful is being rediscovered. of course panelist dave bidini, author of many an ice-sport related book of his own (including a stellar collection of short story hockey erotica), would choose this tale of an aging hockey star as he remembers his days of glory from a small town ontario nursing home.

i couldn't think of anything i'd rather do less than read about hockey, but paul quarrington's storytelling is hilarious and vivid and flows seamlessly from past to present.

percival leary, the "king of the ice", was a hockey great in the early days of professional hockey. now, he shares a room with the cantankerous blue hermann, a former newspaperman who, coincidentally, spent much of his journalistic life, chronicling leary's career. the plot follows the two, along with their bizarre nurse, iain, as they embark on a trip to toronto where leary is to film a commercial for his drink of choice, canada dry ginger ale. however, this plot is secondary to leary's recollections of his career in professional hockey and the zany characters of his past.

a quick and enjoyable read, "king leary" is a wonderful reprieve from the often dire and isolation-themed annals of can lit.