THE HEART OF THE ANCIENT WOOD

Charles G.D. Roberts. THE HEART OF THE ANCIENT WOOD. Reprint, Formac, 2007. First published 1900. Another of the bundle from the Bookman sale bin. Chosen because I recognized the writer as a famous Victorian era Canadian poet and because the setting of this novel is in the woods of New Brunswick where my maternal relatives moved from--to Red River in 1869 and then to BC in 1891, after the railroad put an end to their shipping business. 

Written more than 125 years ago yet many themes are still relevant. The mother's wish to escape the hurtful gossip in the settlements. The fey child, talking to, living with the wild creatures. The dangers of vegetarianism. The conflict between hunter and environmentalist/conservationist. The emotional disruptions of adolescence. How out of tragedy some good can come. I really want to believe that the animals, with enough time, can become attuned to which humans are likely to harm them. There is a fair bit of ascribing human emotions to wild creatures. But I'm glad I read it.

THIS HUMAN DAY

 David Helwig. THIS HUMAN DAY. Oberon, 2000.

Poems, many nature-observant, learning a new home, PEI i believe. And others about Montreal. Bought this in a bundle from the Bookman sale bin because I once had coffee with the late Kingston writer, set up by a mutual friend, formerly one of his KP students. We did not hit it off. 

COEXISTENCE

Billy-Ray Belcourt. COEXISTENCE. Penguin, 2024.

A short story collection by a writer passionately defended for his novel A Minor Chorus on CBC Canada Reads in April. Will read that when I can get a copy. (Will also read the winner, A Cure for Drowning, by a local writer.)

I seldom read short story collections. I am not sure why. I did enjoy this one. Why? As the title suggests, glimpses into lives I cannot imagine. I suspect that the politics behind the collection is to correct centuries of erasure of non-binary lives and of an Indigenous POV in fiction. 

The stories that most moved me are: "My Diary", about hooking up with an old flame after twenty years, and "Various People", about Paul's attempting to cope with his mother's impending death. I also found the variety of glimpses into the creative process of different artists interesting. 

PICK A COLOUR

 Souvankham Thammavongsa. PICK A COLOUR. Knoph Canada, 2025.

Winner of last year's Giller Prize. I watched the ceremony and I watched a separate interview with the writer. I love her voice and the thoughtfulness of her responses to questions, her ability to speak about her writing process. I also love the book although it is unusual in several ways. 

It is a novel of character, a first-person stream of consciousness story of one day in the work life of Ning, a former boxer who now owns a manicure salon and lives above her shop. It is very gentle. It is very subtle. It weaves past and present, her former coach and former boss, and the differences now that she is in charge. It is left to the reader to pick up on things as closely as Ning notices and comments. It expects us to continue to live with the mystery. It expects us to see the small differences in Ning's thoughts between opening and closing time. 

I waited for a used copy to arrive at the Bookman. For now, it stays securely on my CanLit shelves. 

LET ME TELL YOU WHAT I MEAN

 Joan Didion. LET ME TELL YOU WHAT I MEAN. Random House, 2021. 

Reprints of previously-published articles from the 60s and 70s. Made me realize how completely I have cut off US culture. Martha Stewart. Tony Richardson, Brit. William Randolph Hearst. Robert Mapplethorpe. Vietnam. Nancy Reagan. I did enjoy the piece about Ernest Hemingway. 

THE PIECES WE KEEP

 Kristina McMorris. THE PIECES WE KEEP. Kensington, 2013.

March book club selection. Again, two separate stories, WW II and 2012?, but they do intersect. One theme, what is "blood memory"? How much of the past lives of our ancestors to we experience, through our dreams or though our dreams?  Vivian, an ambassador's daughter, meets Isaac in London. A German. Shares some facts with him. Later, he follows her back to New York, as part of a group of German spies. Their child and grandchild explore the story 60+ years later. 

My one hesitation: a seven-year-old boy takes a book from the school library, vandalizes the book by cutting out pictures that he somehow sees as being linked to his life. Nazi images, and an electric chair. The mother dismisses the non-scientific explanation. 

I did enjoy reading it. 

INVISIBLE BOY: A Memoir of Self-Discovery

Harrison Mooney. INVISIBLE BOY: A Memoir of Self-Discovery. Patrick Crean / HarperCollins, 2022. 

Borrowed from a book club friend. Local story, a Black child adopted into a fundamentalist White Christian family in Abbotsford, 20 minutes down the road. Mooney is a professional writer which was an unexpected treat to read this often sad and disconcerting story. I kept remembering former students at the age Mooney is describing himself and the reactions often seen in adolescents trying to figure out who they are and who they are meant to be, often without help, and, in this case, with a controlling parent seeming to work against the idea of his "finding himself". He describes his "clown" phase and his "joker" seeking laughs to help himself feel visible. 

I enjoyed the local references, the intersections with my own experience in the Fraser Valley (caught in the anti-abortion protest in Abbotsford, visiting Camp Squeah) and the details of church-hopping and different aspects of fundamentalist culture. I was previously unaware of the horrors of home schooling, using American materials, imposing family ideals. I must have confused it with distance education which at least requires that students follow a curriculum. I felt really bad for the boy so desperate to "earn" his mother's love. There was no such thing as "unconditional" or "reject the behaviour, love the child". The disappointment of searching for the birth parents is palpable. My greatest fear, of memoir written by someone too young to see more than his own POV is still there. A sequel will be welcome, after he has parented his own children.