By JK, on January 24th, 2009 As I currently make my way through the last of this year’s Canada Reads nominees, with the encouragement of the last KIRBC meeting, I thought I’d take a gander at last year’s surprise winner King Leary. Of course from a publishing point of view, it was an interesting story that demonstrates the power of Canada Reads; when King Leary was selected it was out of print, but the CBC nomination and win rocketed it into bestseller status.
Interestingly, what happens within the novel itself is pretty much the opposite, for King Leary is the story of the titular former hockey star’s descent into madness and infirmity (just like King Leary’s Shakesperian namesake). A winner of the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for humour, most of the novel’s humour stems from the curmudegeonly remarks of the narrator (for example: “The director has apparently been taking Hitler lessons. He is screaming at everybody and has created an atmosphere of intense hatred and mistrust. Apparently this is crucial to the making of television adverts.”) He is self-centered, caught trapped in the past, and unabashedly vociferous with his opinions. Quarrington is bang on in Quarrelsome old man mode, and this voice is what distinguishes the book [...]
By JK, on November 23rd, 2008 My first exposure to George Elliott Clarke was when I saw him read from George & Rue at Acadia during my fourth year. But of course “read” is far too mundane a term – he performed. He breathed life into the words on the page – they jived, grooved, and swam through the auditorium. As a case in point, Whylah Falls has been released as an audio book with an original jazz score, and the book’s introduction also includes a discography of what Clarke was listening to as he wrote (everything from John Coltrane to Bob Dylan to Blue Rodeo).
Normally when I read poetry I dabble in it before bed – it takes me weeks (or sometimes months) to get through a whole book. I read Whylah Falls in two days. Part of the motivation to keep reading was that Clarke has resurrected the epic poem (with a generous tip of his hat to one of my other favourite poets, Walt Whitman). All the poems of Whylah Falls become part of a greater story – of X and Shelley’s romance, of the murder of Othello and his family’s attempt to recover. Clarke offers a dramatis personae at the beginning of [...]
By emilyjay, on November 11th, 2008
I finished this novel just this afternoon, and given that a large part of it is devoted to conveying the devastation of WWI, it seemed an appropriate day to read and remember. Charles Frazier has a blurb on the back cover of the book, and I will borrow his words, since I could not do better myself. He writes that “Itani’s writing is clear-headed and sure-handed; her characters will not leave you”. The accuracy of his description struck me since there is indeed a competence and a clarity and an eloquence to Itani’s writing that is neither too sparse nor too overwrought. She is lyrical without being contrived, emotional without being overly sentimental, and clear without sounding too clinical. The result is really forceful prose that is all the more powerful for its believability.
The plot centres around a young deaf women named Grania, following her through her childhood, her education at a school for the deaf in Belleville, and her relationship and marriage to a hearing man named Jim. When he departs to serve in the war, the story splits and follows each of their lives as they struggle through the unanticipated ferocity and magnitude of the first world war. The metaphor [...]
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