A Thousand Farewells

Nahlah Ayed's A Thousand Farewells: A Reporter's Journey from Refugee Camp to the Arab Spring (Toronto: Penguin/Viking, 2012)

This non-fiction book appealed to me because Nahlah Ayed is an Arab-speaking journalist who was born is Winnipeg and attended my Alma Mater, the University of Manitoba. A Thousand Farewells documents her seven years working for the CBC, living in and reporting from the Middle East, from about 2005 to 2012, up to the Tahrir Square protest in Egypt and the beginning of "the Arab Spring."

Ayed's account is eye-opening to me. I know next to nothing about the geography and the human history of this troubled region. News reports seem catastrophic, confusing, and predictably pessimistic. The best I can hope to do is to assist, or support my government's assistance, in whatever way is realistic and to try to do no harm. (For example, by not bombing, which hurts innocent individuals, property, and the economy.)

In A Thousand Farewells, Ayed attempts to explain to the uninitiated, across cultures, the events, the issues, their historic origins, the current context, and the way they impact individuals. She communicates her understanding of her mandate as one verbalizing and then writing first drafts of history. She stresses her credo that "People are not quotes or clips, used to illustrate stories about war and conflict. People are the story, always." And she does not stint on sharing facts about the stresses and physical threats of living in, rushing towards, war zones. An existence, as they say, like the pinball in the machine, moved by, responding to, the actions of others. Subsuming any semblance of a personal life to the demands of career and calling.

Ayed's account is by no means prescriptive. She shares what she knows, gathered from observation, experience, interviews, and reading. Several motifs and themes stand out for me. That the Middle East is not a place of homogeneity. That there are many different groups, including many different Muslim groups. That many of the conflicts and rivalries have ancient roots. That in some ways, religion is the opiate, encouraging people to accept the status quo. That the status quo includes fewer rights for women. That when refugees flee, they are "voting with their feet." That when colonial powers interfere, it almost always makes things worse. That equating democracy with majority rule will be problematic (as religious extreme parties may be voted in to replace dictators or military rule). That the focus will be on "human rights" for everyone, including the right to citizenship. That any successful change must come from within.

Ayed witnessed events which helped her feel optimistic. In Egypt, people lost their fear and assembled and voiced their opposition to a dictatorship. And, during one of the protests, she saw Muslims protecting Christians and Christians protecting Muslims, taking turns while the other group prayed.

Reading A Thousand Farewells has made me both a better Canadian and a better citizen of the world. 

Shadow Tag

Louise Erdrich Shadow Tag 

I finally found some Louise Erdrich books in Bellingham last year, gifts again. I read 3. The Painted Drum. (My favourite. Like that old John Buchan book, The Path of the King, about the spirit which transfers with a family object, the sacred duty which comes along with sacred possessions.) The Round House. The Bingo Palace. I noticed a definite development in style as LE has been publishing for over 20 years. I love the books because they meet my preference of Canadian or almost Canadian.* These stories are set on a reservation in North Dakota, very close to my home of Manitoba. LE now lives in Minneapolis and owns the Birchbark Bookstore. 

I picked up this Shadow Tag book at a library book sale and read it quickly in order to be able to pass the complete stack along to another avid reader. Shadow Tag is a sad and disturbing story of a marriage gone wrong, between a painter Gil and his model Irene. There are interesting subtexts about the modelling relationship (posing ensures distance, the gaze is a way of seeing and not seeing at the same time.) About George Catlin and the portrayal of First Nations in art. About alcohol as a means of controlling others and evading personal responsibility. And about the Jungian idea of our "shadow" and of healthy (embracing) and unhealthy (detached, projecting) relationships with it. Interesting, but, wherever a bad marriage and children are involved, predictably sad.

* (Other "almost-Canadian" writers, whose territory borders Canada: David Guterson, Snow Falling On Cedars (set in Pacific NW, filmed in Greenwood, BC). Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping and Gilead, set in Idaho. Housekeeping was filmed in Nelson, BC. Gary Snyder, grew up in the Skagit Valley. Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems, The Back Country. The Practice of the Wild. Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums, Desolation Angels, set in the Cascade Mountains, south of Hope, BC. Richard Ford, Canada, set in Montana and Saskatchewan.

Persuader

Lee Child Persuader 

Scrabble-playing friend BK says he reads & enjoys Lee Child. I had never heard of this British-born American writer although it seems he has been on the NYTimes best seller lists for years. That same night I was offered a Lee Child as a door prize, at the Giller Glitter evening, so I assumed it was fate. Since then I've read 4, 3 of them, including this one, gifts. The Affair. The Hard Way. Personal. I groan when I receive one because I know it will mean 3 days lost, sitting, turning pages obsessively, to see what Jack Reacher does next. I also find that I cannot remember later which book was about what. The Affair was set in the US South, Carter Crossing, Mississippi, near a base, and a sexual assault cover-up. Personal was a revenge plot about a sniper in Paris & the G8 in London. The Hard Way? Starts in NYC, a ransom pick-up gone wrong. Persuader is set in NE US, Portland, Maine perhaps, about a carpet import business, a son who was kidnapped previously, Reacher infiltrating the family home on a cliff. An undercover DEA operation which turns into an ATF operation, because the Persuader is a weapon. 

The Joy of Writing

Last year I used Twitter to document my reading. Very unsatisfying. I aim to read about one book per week, over 50 each year. (I am a very slow reader.) I've been exceeding my own expectations ever since the e-zine I reviewed for lost its funding. Meaning, I've had more time to read for myself, for pure pleasure, without having to make notes, re-read, and write afterwards. However, on reviewing my 2015 list of books read ( http://booklistsjmb.blogspot.ca/2016/02/2015.html ) I found that some things - titles authors plots characters - have escaped me. Cannot for the life of me remember what I read. So perhaps, a monthly roundup, or a post for each book, will help.

Pierre Berton The Joy of Writing 

I started the year reading a book I received as a gift -- Pierre Berton's The Joy of Writing. I saw the late Canadian writer and pundit once at Sechelt. So tall. And I have read many of his popular history books. Niagara. The CPR Illustrated. Klondike. Although my favourite is his Drifting Home, about a canoeing/rafting trip with family in the Yukon. This Joy of Writing is worth it for the title. It is a disguised memoir, he says, about his career. Although it made me feel even more that you get an agent who gets you published as long as you are famous and many people will recognize your name from your journalism or media career. Sour grapes, I know. Thank goodness for new media, when we unknowns can do it for ourselves. The line I remember most from the book, 30-odd days ago, is "Save everything!" Which is somewhat unfortunate because I was in the midst of moving from my dream house where I lived and wrote for 20 years and was really having trouble sorting and tossing, especially paper.

Summer Fun

Summer Fun

Sixty years ago this month, the two runners who had already broken the 4-minute mile barrier raced each other at the Empire Games in Vancouver. They were this close when John Landy did a shoulder check and Roger Bannister passed him on his blind side, and won the race.

Fifty years ago today, the Beatles touched down in Vancouver and played Empire Stadium. I remember hearing about it on the news.

Yesterday, I visited Hastings Park for the first time and stroked off two things from my Bucket List – the PNE and riding the merry-go-round. It was a great day, good weather, sunshine with a nice breeze, lots of trees and shade, lots of food, Superdogs. Without having to buy gas, pay for bridge toll, parking, or admission, and without the stress of driving in rush-hour traffic. Bonus. Thank you, Care Transit. A perfect day.

Work In Progress - The Rocking Girl

The Rocking Girl

I've been working on a novel set in British Columbia and Ireland. I've managed the third major revision, pushing it last week in order to run off a copy to give to my first beta reader, my writer friend Marilyn Meden, who was here for a summer holiday visit. She gave me valuable feedback. As we were discussing the protagonist, Wyn, and the “arc” of the story, I heard myself insisting that the novel is not about the relationship, it is about Wyn, and her development. And that I need a title which tips the reader to that fact, that it's about Wyn. Then it came to me. The Rocking Girl. And with it came the concept for the cover – a statue of a rocking girl, in the yoga, not the fetal position. Wyn is an artist and the Rocking Girl is one of her pieces to which other characters refer. Thanks, Marilyn.

Work In Progress - Research

Work In Progress - Research

Kindred Spirits

Sometime, call it luck, call it preparation, call it synchronicity, the universe sends you a little present. You know, a surprise gift which overwhelms you? Such is my reaction to the discovery of the blog Social Bridge (wordpress)  by Jean Tubridy from Tramore near Waterford, Ireland.

Like me, this Jean loves poetry and gardens and Van Gogh and art in general. She loves the ocean while I, a prairie girl living in the mountains, am a triple earth lover, with an exaggerated fear of water. That may have something to do with being a fire sign. Although the beaches she writes about seem to be near some of the genealogy research I've been doing, around Kinsale. And on the bus tour I took last summer which included Belfast, Dublin, Kilkenny, Waterford, I took a picture of the Norman tower in that last city (where our stop seemed mainly focused on a souvenir shop). Jean's passion for Yeats I also share, although the poet of my dreams is Leonard Cohen who I first heard sing at a concert at university my first year.

Jean writes about losing aged parents. I moved from the prairie province of Manitoba to BC when my mother was ill. Within four years, she was dead. One of my first finds in my new home was this framed copy of someone's calligraphy exercise, of “Crossing the Bar,” Tennyson's famous poem about grief, which Jean's mother asked to be read at her funeral. This piece of art, black ink, teal blue and gold paint, still hangs on the wall in front of my computer. 

I'm not sure exactly how I stumbled upon her blog. I do check out “bridge” references. This blog is called Earthabridge. And I have been doing weeks and weeks of Ireland research for my latest fiction project. The three saints, especially Bridget (which must be part of Tubridy.) Searching for Art. Genealogy. History. Sacred stones. Sacred wells. Sacred sites. Yeats and Heaney. Geology as it relates to eskers and bogs. The name Tubridy even came up again in a research paper on a specific esker which appears in my story.

I don't know this woman but I wish I did. And in many ways, I feel as if I've known her all my life. Finding her blog, like I said, feels like a gift from the universe, a link to the other side of the world. As if a crack has opened up and let light into my life.

J.M. (Joan Margaret) Bridgeman