Quill and Quire

Fiction: Novels

Watermelon Row

By Michael Holmes

The great novels of the gutter (think Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer, Burroughs’ Naked Lunch, and Kerouac’s Subterraneans) share the following characteristic: their narratives move from despair to hope, from fallen state to redemption. If ... Read More »

February 23, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

One-eyed Jacks

By Brad Smith

Toronto in 1958 is the setting for this fast-paced quest novel. Tommy Cochrane is a washed-up boxer with an aneurysm that prevents him from ever fighting again. When Tommy returns to Ontario, he finds out ... Read More »

February 23, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

★ Heroes

By Ray Robertson

Set against the backdrop of American minor hockey and suburban Toronto, Ray Robertson’s second novel, Heroes, is a pleasurable read, even for the non-sports fan. Peter Bayle is an Etobicoke-born philosophy grad student who, in ... Read More »

February 23, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Touched

By Jodi Lundgren

Jodi Lundgren’s debut novel is the story of a slow motion freak-out, a young woman’s flailing descent into mental illness. It’s a powerful, even painful read – not only because of Lundgren’s skill at conveying ... Read More »

February 23, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

★ Afterimage

By Helen Humphreys

It is daunting to review a book as accomplished as Helen Humphreys’ second novel, Afterimage. One scarcely knows how to do justice to prose of such sharp beauty, characters of such astonishing complexity, settings so ... Read More »

February 23, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

The Straw Man

By Daniel Poliquin

Beautifully translated by Wayne Grady, The Straw Man is a dazzling novel, mixing historical narrative (it begins in 1759) and magic realism. Poliquin, author of Black Squirrel and Obomsawin of Sioux Junction, weaves a tale ... Read More »

February 23, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels