Quill and Quire

BOOK REVIEWS

Faking

By James King

Many novels are written around real lives, ranging from books that are near-biographies of major figures to concoctions based upon a bare historical mention, such as Jacqueline Park’s 1997 The Secret Book of Grazia dei ... Read More »

February 11, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

The Border Guards

By Mark Sinnett

The Border Guards belongs to an all-Canadian genre invented and polished by mystery writer Giles Blunt: the “ice noir.” Set among the Thousand Islands on the St. Lawrence, the book is about two very different ... Read More »

February 11, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

My Paris

By Gail Scott

My Paris is not for those who dislike grammatical experimentation. But for those who do enjoy playing with language, this memoir (billed as a novel) of six months in Paris in 1993 is a pleasure.The ... Read More »

February 11, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

★ Gloria

By Keith Maillard

The rich optimism of 1950s postwar America is sensually and eloquently evoked in Keith Maillard’s Gloria, the third book in his acclaimed Raysburg series.Behind the affluent facade of the West Virginia steel town of Raysburg, ... Read More »

February 11, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Mackerel Sky

By Natalee Caple

What does it mean to work for a living when money corresponds only to “the expectations of the people who handle it”? This is the question that drives much of Natalee Caple’s second novel, a ... Read More »

February 11, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

So Beautiful

By Ramona Dearing

This is Ramona Dearing’s debut collection, but she’s no novice. She’s made the requisite appearances in the literary mags and been flagged by Oberon’s Coming Attractions. Since 1997, she’s been in Best Canadian Stories three ... Read More »

February 11, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Short