BookCrossing friend janey-canuck noticed my blog had been posted to the Canada Reads group on Facebook (thanks to Kimberly Walsh at CBC). I guess I’d best get my act together and update my Canada Reads entries, eh? I’ve now read four, and am almost halfway through the last, Icefields. Just in time for next week’s debate.

If you like Canadian literature, stick around and read some of my other upcoming CanLit picks. In the upcoming weeks, I’ll be reading Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje (the 2007 GG winner), Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay (the 2007 Giller winner), As For Me and My House by Sinclair Ross, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler, and that perennial favourite, Anne of Green Gables (to celebrate Anne’s 100th birthday of course).

By the way, I’d love comments, but you have to register in order to make them—I’m trying to avoid comment spamming.

Book 29, From the Fifteenth District (1979) – Mavis Gallant
From the back cover:
“Set in Europe in the aftermath of the Second World War, the nine stories in this glittering collection reflect on the foibles and dilemmas of human relationships. An English family goes to the south of France for the sake of the father’s health, and to get away from an England of rationing and poverty. A displaced person turned French soldier in Algeria now makes a living as an actor in Paris. A group of selfish English expatriates on the Italian Riviera are incredulous that Mussolini and the Germans may affect their lives. A great writer’s quiet widow blossoms in widowhood, to the surprise and alarm of her children, who send a ten-year-old grandson to Switzerland to keep her company one Christmas. Full of wry humour and penetrating insights, this is Mavis Gallant at her most unforgettable.”

Other useful links:
Canada Reads page for From the Fifteenth District
the Wikipedia entry for Mavis Gallant
The Canadian Encyclopedia Article on Mavis Gallant

My thoughts:
I’m afraid I’m finding these stories rather dull. Though they’re wonderfully written, I’m slogging through them. So far, I’ve read:
“The Four Seasons” – Story about a young servant girl and her English ex-pat employers and how the English community is faced with the war that they hadn’t foreseen.
“The Moslem Wife” – I did like parts of this story of the relationship of two married cousins (and liked it better after hearing Mavis Gallant talking about it).
“The Remission” – A very long story about an expatriate community on the French/Italian Rivera. It was okay but a little boring.
“The Latehomecomer” – I didn’t have any idea that German prisoners of war were basically made into ‘slave’ labourers in France for years.
“Baum, Gabriel, 1935-( )” – I didn’t mind this one, but I just found it went on for a very long time. I guess I’m just not that fascinated by Paris of the 50s and 60s
“From the Fifteenth District” – This I found to be the most intriguing of the stories so far. A tale of ghosts haunted by the living. The concept is a nice twist on what we would expect.

I’ve now read the final stories:
“Potter” – Another very long story which I found annoying because I really didn’t like either of the main characters.
“His Mother” – This is one of the ones I liked the best of the collection. On the shorter side and giving a real snapshot as a mother of an émigre in an Eastern European city. Reminded me a bit of De Niro’s Game for some reason.
“Irina” – Another of the shorter stories. I liked the ending & I especially liked the description of women as parcels.

Overall, I really enjoyed some of Gallant’s language, especially her descriptive imagery, but since I found the characters and their situations kind of dull, I found it difficult to read. Perhaps these stories would have been better listened to than read—I find that with texts that have so little plot: I find it hard to concentrate on just the language and expression. I also found her characters and the stories blended into one another and were a bit ‘samey’.

From the back cover:
“Percival Leary was once King of the Ice, one of hockey’s greatest heroes. In the South Grouse Nursing Home, where he shares a room with Edumund “Blue” Hermann, the antagonistic and alcoholic reporter who once chronicled his career, Leary looks back on his tumultuous life and times: his days at the boys’ reformatory when he burned down a house; the four mad monks who first taught him to play hockey; and the time he executed the perfect ‘St. Louis Whirlygig’ to score the winning goal in the 1919 Stanley Cup final.

Now all but forgotten, Leary is only a legend in his own mind until a high-powered advertising agency decides to feature him in a series of ginger ale commercials. With his male nurse, his son, and the irrepressible Blue, Leary sets off for Toronto on one last adventure as he revisits the scenes of his glorious life as King of the Ice.”

Other useful links:
the Wikipedia article on the real original Ottawa Senators

My thoughts:
I really enjoyed this book, and of all the Canada Reads books so far I’d say it’s the most Canadian, what with all the hockey and ginger ale. If done well, I generally like it when an author has several different narratives going on and mixes a story of the past with the present and this book had a unique approach to accomplish that—the narrator is an old man who gets lost in his memories of the past. It was a little disconcerting at first to be in a kind of alternate universe with Maple Leaves, New York Americans, Ottawa Patriots, and South Grouse somethings (always called ‘Louses’) as NHL teams, but Quarrington did a great job of bringing the early years of professional hockey to life. As I’m a big hockey fan, I especially enjoyed the hockey descriptions. The ending was a bit strange and once or twice I was a little bored with the King’s reminiscences. The characters were great—memorable and realistic—and the scene of the monks skating on the frozen pond was fantastic. Pooker3 has a brilliant review on her BookCrossing journal for this book.

From the back cover:
“Not Wanted on the Voyage is the story of the great flood and the first time the world ended. It is a brilliant, unforgettable drama filled with an extraordinary cast of remarkable characters: the tyrannical Noah and his indomitable wife, Mrs. Noyes; the aging and irritable Yahweh; a chorus of singing sheep; and a unicorn destined for a horrible death. With pathos and pageantry, desperation and hope, magic and mythology, this acclaimed novel weaves its unforgettable spell.”

Other useful links:
Canada Reads page for Not Wanted on the Voyage
the Wikipedia entry for Not Wanted on the Voyage
Quill and Quire profile of Timothy Findley

My thoughts:
I loved this book. It was relentless and heart-wrenching, but wow, does Timothy Findley ever have an imagination! This book definitely deserves a second read. I loved the character of Mottyl and I hated Noah, Yahweh and all their patriarchal ilk. This would be a great book for discussion in a book group and I really wished that it had won Canada Reads. I’m in awe of an author who can write this way. I think it was Steve MacLean on the Canada Reads panel who said that Lucy was a secret weapon that he was waiting to be used, but I guess history just hasn’t been like that…