Reviews

Always Give a Penny to a Blind Man

While fans of Eric Wright’s murder mysteries will welcome this partial autobiography by the creator of Inspector Charlie Salter, others will appreciate it as an immigrant’s story, full of poignancy and humour. Wright was born ... Read More »

February 10, 2004 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography

We Could Stay Here All Night

By Debbie Howlett

Reading We Could Stay Here All Night, a collection of 12 linked stories by Montreal writer Debbie Howlett, is like consuming a designer martini – it’s small and flows like silk, but packs a punch.The ... Read More »

February 10, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Short

A Fine Daughter

By Catherine Simmons Niven

Little Cypress, the small prairie town where Catherine Simmons Niven sets her debut novel, is the sort of place where first impressions determine one’s role in the community. The time is the 1950s, and Fran, ... Read More »

February 10, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Semi-detached

By Cynthia Holz

When my father retired, my mother used to quote the wife of baseball great Casey Stengel: “I married him for better or for worse, but not for lunch.” Barbara, the heroine of Cynthia Holz’s new ... Read More »

February 10, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

★ Summer Gone

By David Macfarlane

David Macfarlane lost me for a while, and I can tell you where: on the front page of The Globe and Mail Arts section, where he writes a column to open the week. Maybe it’s ... Read More »

February 10, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Balloon

By Tim Wynveen

One of the themes of Tim Wynveen’s second novel – his first was the Commonwealth Prize winner Angel Falls – is intergenerational resentment. It therefore seems appropriate to mention that, as a nominal member of ... Read More »

February 10, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

A History of Forgetting

By Caroline Adderson

Caroline Adderson’s deeply thoughtful new novel uses a group of contemporary characters to raise some of the most difficult questions of our age: where did the hideous potency of Hitler’s Final Solution come from, and ... Read More »

February 10, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Pilgrim

By Timothy Findley

Strange and ambitious and engaging are the adjectives that come most readily to mind after reading Timothy Findley’s new novel, Pilgrim. The eponymous hero is encumbered with a mythic, folkloric liability. Pilgrim can’t die, no ... Read More »

February 10, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Footsteps in the Clouds: Kangchenjunga a Century Later

By Pat and Baiba Morrow

This fall, when temperatures start dropping, I know I’ll start dreaming of travel. Fortunately, people like me, who cannot get away this year, will be able to choose from a variety of entertaining new travel ... Read More »

February 10, 2004 | Filed under: Reference