Reviews

Alms

Alms is set in the 1980s in Toronto. Its sad-sack protagonist, Martine Craythorn, describes her people as “the late-century rich – back-patters and horse-laughers.” In an age of ambition and acquisition, Martine is obsessed only ... Read More »

November 20, 2003 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Dreaming in the Rain: How Vancouver Became Hollywood North by Northwest

By David Spaner

There’s a telling moment in David Spaner’s book on the history of Vancouver filmmaking when West Coast writer and director Bruce Sweeney arrives at the 2001 Toronto International Film Festival’s opening-night gala with his award-winning ... Read More »

November 20, 2003 | Filed under: Art, Music & Pop Culture

Aids Activist: Michael Lynch and the Politics of Community

By Ann Silversides

At a time when one of the largest annual gatherings in Toronto is the Gay Pride parade, it’s significant to recall that such an outpouring of support for the lesbian and gay community would not ... Read More »

November 20, 2003 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography

The Perilous Trade: Publishing Canada’s Writers

By Roy MacSkimming

If Roy MacSkimming wanted a pithy epigraph to begin his comprehensive history of the English Canadian publishing industry, he could always use the shopworn “Plus ça change, plus c’est la meme chose.” Since the industry’s ... Read More »

November 20, 2003 | Filed under: History

Immigrant Blues

By Goran Simic, Amela Simic , trans.

An unremitting, relentless nostalgia permeates Immigrant Blues, Bosnian poet Goran Simic’s first collection since his Sprinting from the Graveyard encapsulated the siege of Sarajevo in 1997. The new book records a more reflective struggle – ... Read More »

November 20, 2003 | Filed under: Poetry

The Man Who Mapped the Arctic: The Intrepid Life of George Back, Franklin’s Lieutenant

By Peter Steele

Whitehorse author Peter Steele is a biographer who has done his share of northern travelling. In The Man Who Mapped the Arctic, Steele turns his attention to one of the hardiest 19th-century Arctic explorers, George ... Read More »

November 20, 2003 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography

Shoshanna’s Story

By Elaine Kalman Naves

Elaine Kalman Naves brings a crisp, beguiling voice to her contemplation of her complicated childhood in Hungary, England, and Montreal. Born to Holocaust-survivors Shoshanna and Gusti, Ilushka (as she was then called) grows up against ... Read More »

November 20, 2003 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography

Looking for My Country: Finding Myself in America

By Robert MacNeil

This slim memoir focuses on the career of American newsman Robert MacNeil, most notably the former co-anchor of PBS’s MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. Born on the east coast of Canada, MacNeil has spent much of his life ... Read More »

November 20, 2003 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography

The Betrayer

By Michael Hennessey

Mention orphans and Prince Edward Island, and Anne Shirley immediately springs to mind. As Anne of Green Gables, Lucy Maud Montgomery’s creation has become an island industry. Mickey Casey – the nasty, drunken, murderous narrator ... Read More »

November 19, 2003 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

The Animal Sciences

By Ron Hotz

Ron Hotz distinguishes his first novel, The Animal Sciences, from other Canadian stories of dysfunctional characters and difficult loves by presenting it as a kind of scientific case study rather than as a deeply felt ... Read More »

November 19, 2003 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

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