Canada Reads 2009: The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant by Michel Tremblay
Filed under: Canada Reads — Ibis at 11:22 pm on Friday, January 23, 2009

The Canada Reads blurb for the book:
The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant is a colourful, loving portrait of life in a Montreal neighbourhood, explored through an enchanting chorus of voices.

One by one, the characters inhabiting the cramped apartments on la rue Fabre emerge: Albertine, sister-in-law of the fat woman of the book’s title, who dreams of a more glamorous life; Marie-Sylvia, who runs the Arc-en-ciel restaurant across the street; Béatrice and Mercedes, two ‘chippies’ who ply their trade under the disapproving gaze of prudish neighbours; Duplessis, Marie-Sylvia’s fickle and always ravenous cat; and a number of pregnant women, who struggle to make ends meet while their men are either unemployed or away at war.

Their stories are relayed in the breezy, comic tones of the gossip the women exchange on the no. 52 Mont-Royal streetcar. Deftly translated into English by Sheila Fischman, Tremblay’s depiction of his childhood neighbourhood is fond but never sentimental. He describes the poverty in matter-of-fact detail and his dialogue is true to the district’s frank, expressive language.

Tremblay allows each of his characters to shine, and fashions a novel that hums with the hustle and bustle of everyday life in a big city.

Published in 1978 as La grosse femme d’à côté est enceinte, the novel was published in English translation by Talonbooks in 1981.”

Other useful links:
the Canada Reads page for The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant

My thoughts:
Before – I’m very optimistic about this one. My mother was born in Montreal in November of 1942, so the “fat woman” of the title might just as well be my grandmother (of course I know that she’s Tremblay’s mother but you know what I mean).
During (30.01.09) – I’m enjoying this so far, despite my general aversion to the paragraphless style. I’m about halfway through and I have a bad feeling that something awful is going to happen to Duplessis (who reminded me immediately of Mottyl, the cat from Not Wanted on the Voyage). Twice so far I’ve wanted to rap Sheila Fischman on the knuckles for saying “should of” instead of “should have”. Aaaack!
After – Loved this book. It seemed so effortless but was in fact extremely complex and multilayered. I really got used to the “megaparagraphs” and came to like the style by the end of the book. So far, it’s my pick to win.

Canada Reads 2009: The Outlander by Gil Adamson
Filed under: Canada Reads — Ibis at 10:16 pm on Wednesday, January 14, 2009

The Canada Reads blurb for the book:
“Gil Adamson’s beautifully written debut novel plunges readers into the action at the outset: The year is 1903, and Mary Boulton is being chased by dogs and her vengeful brothers-in-law under a moonlit sky.

Following this gripping opener, Mary embarks on a journey from the Prairies to the southern end of the Rockies. She encounters many intriguing characters along the way, including fellow outsider William Moreland, who is based on a real-life figure plucked from Albertan newspapers.

While she struggles to avoid starvation in a harsh and unfamiliar landscape, Mary must also contend with the dark memories that threaten to overtake her mind, in this tale of survival and liberation.

The novel’s blend of historical detail and meticulously crafted, lyrical fiction has garnered much praise since it was published in 2007. The Outlander recently won the ReLit Award for best novel and the Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award.”

Other useful links:
the Canada Reads page for The Outlander

My thoughts:
Before – I’ve heard good things about this book & Nicholas Campbell seems to like it a lot.
During (18.01.09) – It took a while to get into this book—I didn’t really find it interesting until the appearance of the Ridgerunner guy and now he’s disappeared again, I’m somewhat bored. I don’t really like Mary Boulton as a character and I’m not sure why the author keeps calling her “the widow”: it seems an unnecessary affectation.
(22.01.09) – Another long, dull part in the middle. More not liking the characters much. A little disappointed with the Frank Slide disaster description (I can’t help but compare to Hugh MacLennan’s Barometer Rising).
After – Well, I liked parts of this book and some of the writing, but overall I wasn’t thrilled. I’ll be quite interested to see what Campbell has to say about it. I guess I never really got grabbed by any of the characters, especially Mary.

Canada Reads 2009: The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill
Filed under: Canada Reads — Ibis at 10:40 am on Sunday, January 11, 2009

The Canada Reads blurb for the book:
“Over the course of this epic novel, Aminata is transformed into a storyteller extraordinaire. She spins the astonishing tale of her remarkable travels from Africa to America and back again. Along the way, a sojourn in Nova Scotia illuminates a long-neglected chapter in Canadian history.

Aminata’s autobiography — or, in her words, “ghost story” — begins with her idyllic childhood in West Africa. Happy times are cut short when she is abducted at age 11, placed in chains, taken across the sea and forced into slavery at an indigo plantation in South Carolina.

But Aminata is a survivor and this is just one chapter in her remarkable life story. In a fitting twist for a book featured on Canada Reads, Aminata discovers that literacy just might be her ticket to a new life.

Following its release in 2007, Lawrence Hill’s compelling blend of history and fiction won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and was awarded the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book in 2008.”

Other useful links:
the Canada Reads page for The Book of Negroes

My thoughts:
Before – I do believe this is the longest of the Canada Reads selections. I’m hoping it will go relatively quickly though since I really want to be able to finish all the books in time.
During (13.01.09) – Well, it is going fast. I stayed up until perhaps 3 or 4 in morning the day before yesterday and until 2 last night reading Aminata’s story. I think this is largely due to the trick of the author in laying out the plot as a journey home: the people A. meets, the ones she has relationships with, her experiences are all of secondary importance to the drive to return from whence she came. We become obsessed with knowing if and how she’s going to make it home to Bayo and what she’ll encounter when she gets there. Supporting this primary reunion plot are the three minor ones (the separation and possible reunion with Chekura, Mamdu, and May).
Other things that have crossed my mind so far: I like Aminata, but she seems kind of emotionally flat. Is this on purpose (a product of either her early upbringing or her continual traumas? a result of narrative distance)? Or perhaps this is Hill’s inability to quite sync with a woman’s perspective? I’m just not sure. The language of both the narration and dialogue often seem too contemporary to be a true representation and this sometimes pulls me away from the story with question marks hanging over my head (“a work in progress”??? what 18th Century person would come up with that???). Compare Octavian Nothing by M. T. Anderson.
After – Well, it was enthralling to the end & I did enjoy the journey. It did seem more like an author’s concoction rather than a real life history though. I’m happy that Aminata got to meet with her daughter May, but I was a little disappointed that she didn’t make it back to Bayo.

2008 in Review
Filed under: Years in Review — Ibis at 12:10 pm on Thursday, January 1, 2009

Number of Books Read: 45
Number of RABCKs & Trades received (Thanks to all you generous BookCrossers!): 8
Number of Bookrings & Rays Participated in: 4
Number of Bookrings & Rays Started: 1
Number of Books Released Into the Wild: 8
Number of Books Caught in the Wild: 1
Earliest Written: Athenaion Politeia (The Athenian Constitution) by Aristotle (c. 335 BCE)
Most Recently Published: I Am America and So Can You! by Stephen Colbert (October, 2007)
First Book Finished in 2008: Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson
Last Book Finished in 2008: Roughing It in the Bush by Susanna Moodie

Canadian Challenge Books of 2008:
Not Wanted on the Voyage by Timothy Findley
From the Fifteenth District by Mavis Gallant
Winter Studies and Summer Rambles by Anna Brownell Jameson
As For Me and My House by Sinclair Ross
Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Roughing It in the Bush by Susanna Moodie

Top Books of 2008:
Not Wanted on the Voyage by Timothy Findley
I’ve Got a Home in Glory Land: A Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad by Karolyn Smardz Frost
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Winter Studies and Summer Rambles by Anna Brownell Jameson
Lorna Doone by R. D. Blackmore
The Subtle Knife by Phillip Pullman
Cymbeline by William Shakespeare
Lucrece by William Shakespeare
Roughing It in the Bush by Susanna Moodie

Other Books I Enjoyed in 2008:
Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson
King Leary by Paul Quarrington
Icefields by Thomas Wharton
84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay
As For Me and My House by Sinclair Ross
Meteorologica by Aristotle
Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare
Roman Literature and Society by R. M. Ogilvie
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith
Ruling Passion by Reginald Hill

Worst Books of 2008:
(neither were actually bad per se, only I had very, very high expectations and was disappointed because I didn’t thoroughly enjoy them)
From the Fifteenth District by Mavis Gallant
Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje

Complete List of Books Read in 2008:

  1. Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson
  2. The Subtle Knife by Phillip Pullman
  3. Not Wanted on the Voyage by Timothy Findley
  4. I’ve Got a Home in Glory Land: A Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad by Karolyn Smardz Frost
  5. I am America (And So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert
  6. The Labours of Hercules by Agatha Christie
  7. King Leary by Paul Quarrington
  8. 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
  9. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
  10. From the Fifteenth District by Mavis Gallant
  11. Icefields by Thomas Wharton
  12. The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street by Helene Hanff
  13. Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay
  14. Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje
  15. Lucrece by William Shakespeare
  16. “I” is for Innocent by Sue Grafton
  17. Winter Studies and Summer Rambles by Anna Brownell Jameson
  18. The Miserable Mill by Lemony Snickett
  19. The Passionate Pilgrim by William Shakespeare
  20. The Phoenix and the Turtle by William Shakespeare
  21. As For Me and My House by Sinclair Ross
  22. The Penalty Box by Deirdre Martin
  23. Chasing Stanley by Deirdre Martin
  24. One For the Money by Janet Evanovich
  25. Lorna Doone by R. D. Blackmore
  26. The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
  27. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares
  28. Meteorologica (Meteorology) by Aristotle
  29. Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare
  30. Roman Literature and Society by R.M. Ogilvie
  31. Dark Tort by Diane Mott Davidson
  32. Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
  33. Snobbery with Violence by Marion Chesney
  34. The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman
  35. “J” is for Judgment by Sue Grafton
  36. The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
  37. Ruling Passion by Reginald Hill
  38. Cymbeline by William Shakespeare
  39. Two for the Dough by Janet Evanovich
  40. “K” is for Killer by Sue Grafton
  41. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
  42. “L” is for Lawless by Sue Grafton
  43. The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith
  44. The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare
  45. The Athenian Constitution by Aristotle
  46. Roughing It in the Bush by Susanna Moodie