Tuesday, December 21, 2021

SNUFF

 Chuck Palahniuk. SNUFF.

600+ eager men await the call for their turn to participate in a world-record gang bang video. The rumour is that someone will die.

I read it for the style. Each chapter is the voice of a different character and POV. The studs, identified by number, each have a symbol. The boy carries roses. The old anchor man. The autographed dog guy. The has-been porn star. The wrangler, Sheila, has a clipboard. The waiting woman, Cassie Wright. The running joke stitching each chapter together is the perversion of movie titles used to sell porn videos. 

True to what Palahniuk has made such a successful career out of, the sticky smelly claustrophobic room is a wasteland of emotional, intellectual, and spiritual poverty. Very convincing.




THE NOEL DIARY

 Richard Paul Evans. THE NOEL DIARY.

A successful writer inherits his estranged mother's house and goes home to Salt Lake City to prepare it for sale. And maybe to do some digging, to try to find out what happened. Why his father abandoned them. Why his mother rejected him. While he is there, he meets a young woman looking for her birth mother and the two research together after finding the missing mother's diary in the dead mother's house.




THE FLOOD

Ian Rankin. THE FLOOD

Because of our recent "atmospheric rivers" and catastrophic flooding, it would be easy to think that it was this title which attracted me. But no. It is the author. It seems much of a popular writer's early work gets re-issued to catch the wave. 

This novel is described in the writer's updated intro as "literary" so that too attracts me. How will it differ from his popular crime fiction, especially my fav character, Rebus?

Hmm. I have to think about that. Alex, the mother, and Sandy, the just coming-of-age teen boy, in a Scottish town which has lost its one industry, coal. 

Alex is a single mother in her early thirties who has survived the town's gossip about bad luck, witchcraft, and the mystery of her pregnancy. Who is the father? How did her own father die? Is incest involved? 

This was the first of a three-book trend for me in this post-writing pre-holiday season. The subject of identity and the role an absent or unknown parent plays in a young person's growth. 




Tuesday, November 9, 2021

A THOUSAND MORNINGS

 Mary Oliver. A THOUSAND MORNINGS. Penguin, 2012.

A gift, in so many ways.



DAD WORE A FEDORA AND SLEEVE GARTERS

 Salli Pustanyk Rice. DAD WORE A FEDORA AND SLEEVE GARTERS. Friesens, 2021.


My friend Salli RIce has published her genealogy and personal interview research on the life of her late father Andy Pustanyk of Fort St John, BC. So well researched and loving too. Makes me wish I had met him. 



Sunday, August 1, 2021

THE UNSWEPT ROOM

 Sharon Olds. The Unswept Room. Knopf, 2005. 


I have heard of the wonders of this poet's work for years and this is the first time I have found one of her books. Nothing disappoints. All the poems are challenging. Many are disturbing. My favourite is "Wilderness" about looking at the stars.




Wednesday, July 21, 2021

THE HANDMAID'S TALE

 Margaret Atwood. THE HANDMAID'S TALE. McClelland & Stewart, 1985, Emblem, 2017.


My first time reading this Atwood speculative novel. Took it slowly, 50ish pages per day. All internal dialogue, which the mock historical notes at the end indicate are transcriptions from old over-taped cassettes. The dystopian society is built/reproduced in detail, with not a lot happening outside the authorized sex (troilism), the illicit sex, the suicides and hangings. Such a believable nightmare, with the Underground Femaleroad and the codeword MayDay (m'aidez) symbols of hope.




Sunday, July 18, 2021

HOW TO WRITE HAIKU

 Paul Janeczko. HOW TO WRITE HAIKU AND OTHER SHORT POEMS. Scholastic, 2004.

Elementary school level instructions on writing short poems. I find this very useful, getting down to the basics. Lots of examples. Lots of encouragement. 




DISTRICT and CIRCLE

Seamus Heaney. DISTRICT and CIRCLE. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2006.

Could not resist buying this hardcover Heaney, published a decade after he was awarded the Novel Prize for Literature. A photo of some mysterious machine, a turnip shredder, on the cover. You can tell from the topics of the poems that he has been travelling a lot. Flying over rotting glaciers, driving through Mennonite fields in winter, yet still seeing in them, there, images of his home. At first I suspected he was doing an homage to Whitman, in anti-Romantic fervor, celebrating the machine, the human-built world. He does dedicate several to other poets and writers--Wordsworth, Rilke, Seferis, Cavafy, Hughes, Dorothy Wordsworth, Neruda, Auden. A roll call of heroes. But he always returns to the trees, the birds, the bog. 



Saturday, July 17, 2021

MONKEY BEACH

 Eden Robinson. MONKEY BEACH.



This morning I watched Monkey Beach which I had PVRd so that I could FF the ads. How I hate ads, but how thankful I am to have been able to see this relatively new movie at home on my own schedule. Also, seeing it, makes me determined to re-read the novel (twenty years later).

I was curious as I always am to see literature set in Canada adapted for the screen. Here, the setting, Kitamaat, BC, and the waters nearby, is portrayed like another beautiful character in the story—the town, the rainforest land, the teeming waters, and the beaches where they meet.

I have been a fan of this story ever since I was honoured to review an advance coverless copy the year this Eden Robinson first novel was released (2000). She had previously published short story collections, Traplines and Blood Sports; later, a lecture about culture and literature, The Sasquatch At Home, and has since written the trilogy, Son of the Trickster, Trickster Drift, and Return of the Trickster.

My review of Monkey Beach has more than once elicited requests from readers for permission to copy and to include in a class reading list. I remember my two points were:  1) The title does not help me locate the story in Canada as I never associate monkeys with this land, and 2) I wondered whether the writer, seeking elder approval or blessing, self-censored? As a hangover from the taboos of the days when ceremony and ritual were outlawed and people were forbidden to talk about them? Perhaps it is a nod to cultural respect, but it puts the writer in an uncomfortable position of writing one book for two different audiences.

The film makes the lack of communal cultural rituals more obvious. The only community gatherings seem to be basketball and swim-meet competitions. The other gatherings are nuclear family, and the teaching seems to be one on one--the education of a gifted shaman. This seems to leave an impression of individualism. For some readers, it leaves an impression of ‘mental illness’ and a fear that young people seeking help in times of grief and transition are left to flounder inside their own heads.

By self-censoring, omitting necessary information about living cultural traditions, the story can seem to lack a feeling of hope for readers who are unfamiliar with the enduring strength of culture. The film does nod to the on-going disputes among individuals within one community based upon competition between traditional and converted. Will I still feel the same way when I read the novel for a second time? Will I have learned a bit since, in the meantime, after the TRC?

The cast in Monkey Beach the movie is fantastic. I have been an Adam Beach fan since he was eight years old. The cinematography is great, especially the water scenes. And the FX are an improvement on the novel as the “troll” vision has become a mini-dancer in Sasquatch-like regalia. The omission of the Elvis theme is also an improvement as it tightens up the story. We don't see much of Lisa's time in Vancouver but losing herself in the city is understood to be her attempted escape from the losses and the awakenings she does not yet feel ready to face.


OLD POSSUM'S BOOK of PRACTICAL CATS

T.S. Eliot. OLD POSSUM'S BOOK of PRACTICAL CATS: The Illustrated Old Possum. Faber, 1940, 1974.

I must have been inspired by the last cat book, and a recent discussion about T.S. Eliot, to pick up my own copy of this book which inspired CATS, the musical. Read it out loud just for fun. 




Thursday, July 15, 2021

I COULD PEE ON THIS

 Francisco Marciuliano. I COULD PEE ON THIS and OTHER POEMS BY CATS.

Read this while waiting. The photographs are great. The writing suggests a "fulfilling of contractual obligations". 




Friday, July 9, 2021

MORAL DISORDER

 Margaret Atwood. MORAL DISORDER. Seal, 2006.


Linked short stories about Tig and Nell and the challenges of relationships in the 21st century. It always surprises me, although we were born in different decades and lived in different provinces, how many experiences Atwood writes about are ones I have had myself.

Enjoyed the stories. Two novels await. 


Read July 2021

ALL THE ELEMENTS

 ALL THE ELEMENTS: SEVEN POETS FROM SOOKE


A Canada Day gift from a friend in Sooke. Illustrated with sketches. "Home Is ..." is my favourite. 


Read July 2021

HOW TO BE FAMOUS

 Caitlin Moran. HOW TO BE FAMOUS. Harper, 2018.


Another gift from a while back which I didn't look into because the title didn't appeal. Now that I was looking for something light, I found it. A teenage girl describes her first job as a writer in the music industry, London, her sex life, the perils of slut-shaming. Not for the prudish, but it did make me laugh out loud more than once. A romp. 



Read June 2021

THE SPIRIT OF ZEN

Solala Towler. THE SPIRIT OF ZEN: Teaching Stories on the Way to Enlightenment. Watkins, 2017.

Another gift to raise my spirits. 

Physically, this book 'has good hand' (feels lovely to the touch) as well as looks beautiful, with black and white photos which add to the mystery. The stories are told like koans, designed to be contemplated, "to show the deficiency of logic and to provoke enlightenment". Also, designed to be debated, and to show the teacher-student relationship. A little like HST's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, there is only one female in the entire book. Instead of a hotel maid, this one is a prostitute helped across a river and the subject of an argument. Unfortunately, this mono-culture did not make me feel as if there were any place for me in this collection of seekers. But I'm keeping the book.

Read June 2021

INNOCENT GRAVES

Peter Robinson. INNOCENT GRAVES: An Inspector Banks Mystery. Penguin, 1997.

I love the Banks character, the Yorkshire setting, and Robinson's writing. In this one, the body of a teenage girl is found in a church graveyard. 



Read May 2021


THE TRUE SECRET of WRITING

Natalie Goldberg. THE TRUE SECRET of WRITING: CONNECTING LIFE WITH LANGUAGE. Atria, 2013.

I special-ordered this N G, and the new haiku book which has not yet arrived (7 months later). Always find reading her so inspirational. 


Read January 2021

FIRST WIVES CLUB COAST SALISH STYLE

 Lee Maracle. FIRST WIVES CLUB COAST SALISH STYLE: Short Stories. Theytus, 2010.

This is the third or fourth book I've read by this local BC writer Maracle who is almost as intimidating as Margaret Atwood. Enjoyed the stories. 



 Read June 2021

THE MOUNTAIN BETWEEN US

Charles Martin. THE MOUNTAIN BETWEEN US. Broadway, 2010.

A surprise gift from a friend which jolted me out of the lockdown doldrums and back to reading for pleasure. 

A plane crash in the mountains outside Salt Lake City, a doctor and a woman survive the crash but are lost in the snow. 


Read June 2021


THE MAIDEN BELL

 John Pilkington. THE MAIDEN BELL. Severn House, 2005.

Set in Berkshire, 1593. Murder as a community commissions a new church bell, built on site. 


Read June 2021


Thursday, July 8, 2021

LONGMIRE

 Craig Johnson. Walt Longmire Mysteries. Viking

The COLD DISH

The DARK HORSE read late 2019

JUNKYARD DOGS read July 2021

AS THE CROW FLIES  The last page is pure poetry. Read in May, 2021

A SERPENT'S TOOTH read in June, 2021

ANY OTHER NAME read in May, 2021












TIME AND TIDE

 Edna O'Brien. TIME AND TIDE. Plume, 1999. 


Inspired to turn to my TO READ pile of O'Brien by her commentary in the Hemingway PBS biography. 

This book follows an Irish woman making it on her own, with two sons, in London. 



Read May 2021

MEDICINE WALK

 Richard Wagamese. MEDICINE WALK.


Reread this favourite for the U of M Book Club. Enjoyed it even more this time. Miss him. 



Reread April 2021

GUARDIANS OF BEING

 Eckhart Tolle . GUARDIANS OF BEING. Art by Patrick McDonnell. New World, 2009.

Awareness and joy. Another gift.


Read April 2021.

WASHINGTON BLACK

Esi Edugyan. Washington Black. Harper Collins, 2018. 

Thoroughly enjoyed this big novel set in early 1800s in the Caribbean, America, the Arctic, Nova Scotia, and England. 


Read March 2021

WESTWIND

 Ian Rankin. Westwind. Orion, 1990, 2019.

Bought this without realizing that it is not a Rebus story. 


Read January 2021

HOME BODY

 Rupi Kaur. Home Body. Simon & Shuster, 2020.


Very inspiring. 


Read January 2021

LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE

Celeste Ng. LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE. Penguin, 2017.

Read this in January for the U of M Book Club. Enjoyed the story of alternative and dysfunctional families living in a designed community in Cleveland (one of the few American cities I have visited). Changes were made for the television adaptation. 


Read January 2021

Monday, January 4, 2021

STRANGE AFFAIR

 Peter Robinson. STRANGE AFFAIR. M & S, 2005.

My seventh Robinson title. From the blurb, I wasn't sure whether I had read it before or whether I just remembered some details from the tv adaptation. Alan Banks' businessman brother Roy contacts him and then disappears. Have not read it before. Great read, with ALan trying to find out what his brother was involved with and Annie trying to find out why a girl with Banks' address in her back pocket was murdered. People trafficking, white slavery. 



HOW DEEP IS THE LAKE

Shelley O'Callaghan. HOW DEEP IS THE LAKE: A Century at Chilliwack Lake. Caitlin, 2017. I have owned this copy for some time and decide...