Louise Penny. The GREY WOLF. Minotaur, 2024
Borrowed from a friend who had borrowed it from the library. No due date, making reading it so relaxing. Except that Louise Penny is one of those writers who keeps me up all night reading. This one is especially complicated, with settings ranging from Montreal, Ottawa, Three Pines, the monastery, the Labrador Coast, Isle de la Magdelan, Chicoutimi, Washington, DC, Paris, Rome, and the Chartreuse monastery. The plot is equally as complicated.
Clare Pooley. HOW TO AGE DISGRACEFULLY. Penguin, 2024
A holiday book club selection. Amusing. I copied some lines that made me laugh out loud. It took me a while to get into it. I felt no empathy for the two main characters. Daphne was rude which to me is not the same as funny. And Art is delusional about career and self. The writer eventually gets to the info that helps us understand. One takeaway: every senior needs a techie on call.
Anne Michaels. HELD. Penguin, Random House, M&S, 2023.
Winner of the Giller Prize for fiction, 2024. I bought this book because I felt guilty, having tried and never succeeded to get into her first novel, FUGITIVE PIECES. I will read it now.
HELD is like reading a novel-length poem. The Table of Contents is helpful because it forewarns the reader that the time line is not linear--from 1908 to 2025. At first there seem to be no recurring characters but certain objects seem to be passed down from earlier generations.
I read the whole novel aloud, just for the sound and the rhythm of it, and the giant challenging vocabulary.
Characters include returned soldiers, photographers, musicians, scientists including Marie Curie, suffaggets, and contemporary lovers.
Sometimes there was a bit too much abstraction--seemingly living inside someone else's head. But that's just me.
Waubgeshig Rice. MOON of the TURNING LEAVES. Random House, 2023.
A dystopia, set twelve years after the power went out, with small bands of Indigenous people living together and realizing they have to move if they are going to be able to feed themselves.
The group, 15-year old Nangohns, Elder Evan, JC, Cal, Amber, and Tyler set out to discover what lays beyond, looking for the land on the north shore of the big lake where their people were once from. The pace is slow, matching the speed of their walking. They stick to abandoned roads when they can, not knowing what they will encounter and if they will be safe. They manage their affairs by consensus, deferring to those with experience, with gender and non-binary equity, remembering to give thanks, make offerings, respect the help from the ancestors. They encounter good and bad people.
Thomas Merton. WHEN the TREES SAY NOTHING. Kathleen Deignan, Ed. Sorin, 2003.
I must have found this book on my impromptu trip to Seattle last fall. A beautiful cover, small volume with "good hand", and I've turned to it in this time of confusion and fear associated with American politics. I note that Merton documented an incident when the monastery where he lived in Kentucky was being circled by a military helicopter. I read this as a nod to the conspiracy theory that Merton was assassinated by US government agents while he was attending a conference in Asia, because of his vocal anti-Vietnam War position. But this is not part of this book. These are excerpts from his personal journals, observations of the natural world, and the gratitude he felt and the pleasure he gained by being able to have solitary time to write.
Alexander McCall Smith. IN the COMPANY of CHEERFUL LADIES.
Another ladies' meet up book club selection (from the FVRL collection). I have read one or two earlier titles in this series. Cosy. I always wonder what the people of Botswana think about them as this idea of creating characters and stories about people from other cultures has been debated here in Canada for many years. I really identified with Mma Prescious Ramo... the head of the detective agency, and her personal challenges--intervening in a young person's bad decisions, coping with a violent ex, solving mysteries the boring way (phone calls) and the wise way, by using her intuition and her contacts and her understanding of motivation and her ability to select talented employees.
Another part of my enjoyment is my recent immersion in Africa-set stories. My reading had been limited: CRY, the BELOVED COUNTRY, HEART of DARKNESS, OUT of AFRICA, and Maya Angelou's account of an unfortunate marriage to an Egyptian man. And M.G. Vassanji's The IN-BETWEEN WORLD of VIKRAM LALL. Oh yes, SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL. More recently, I enjoyed Prince Harry's account in SPARE of the solace he has found in the natural environment and press-free world, and in Trevor Noah's wonderful memoir BORN A CRIME. This is another perspective. Female. Entrepreneur. Working Class, with points of connection--pumpkins, shebeens, co-workers, crime, and finding suitable partners.
Brian Moore. The STATEMENT. Plume, 1996.
Found at the hospital book sale. Hunting Nazi Collaborators in France in May, 1989. Explores reasons why the church gave asylum to PB, one specific wartime murderer of Jews, twice commuted, then re-charged with crimes against humanity. Explores corruption in church, police, and military.
The MARROW THIEVES,
a novel by Cherie Dimaline. Cormorant, 2017
My hesitations above tell you what you need to know
about the story. Frenchie is hiding out, moving from camp to camp in the bush
with Miig, the older leader, Minerva, the Elder, Wab and Chi-Boy, an emerging
couple, Rose, the love interest, and RiRi, one of four children. Frenchie has
lost his brother Mitch and their father; Miig has lost his husband Isaac.
Coincidence does play a part in the plot more than once. The group feels like
“prey”, “hunted” by government Recruiters. They fear being captured and sold to
the “schools” where the harvesting labs are located. Fear of the unknown and
suspicion dominate. Which strangers can be trusted? Individuals are angry at
what has caused climate change which has destroyed life as it was known. They
cope with their grief by telling “coming-to” stories about what they have lost
and how they arrived where they are now. There are some beautiful poetic
descriptions and the plot is engaging. Will they or won’t they be captured?
Will he or won’t he get the girl? Well worth reading.
As part of my Substack newsletter One Lonely Writer, my series on RECONCILE THIS1, I look at how The Marrow Thieves contributes towards RECONCILIATION.
Jeffrey Eugenides. MIDDLESEX. Vintage, 2002.
This is a book club selection which I gave notice that I did not intend to read. I bought a copy several years ago thinking it was about a place in England. It is not. It is about the immigration experience in the USA, and later generations of a Greek family coping with gender-identity issues. Not that I object, but I do object to the "trends" manipulating my reading choices.
It annoys me when gender issues (diversity) are implied to be "caused" by abuse. In reading interviews with this writer, he makes it clear that the specific type of "intersexuality" depicted in this story is a genetic condition which is more likely to materialize with incest, each partner bringing part of the damaged gene with them, and that the condition was not visible at birth. Changes occurred to the body with puberty.
The discussion at the September book club was basically a consensus, that the story was too long, too complicated, covering at least three generations of a Greek immigrant family to the USA. People did appreciate the depiction of the afflicted/divergent character's feeling rejected and needing to leave the country to find a private non-judgmental society that would not reject him.
I am not sorry that I did not read it, but it was partly because I was still reading the 600+-page The Secret History. And I really do hate long books. I am a slow reader.
Donna Tartt. THE SECRET HISTORY. Knopf, Penguin, 1992
629 pages. Much too long. Way too many words. A coming-of-age story of a group of Classics students at a Vermont university getting a bit too involved in their studies. Constant smoking and drinking. Constant peer pressure to comply as the price of admission/acceptance. Plot and character. The final few pages offer a bit more insight as a survivor looks back.
I am glad I read it as this title makes many lists of 100 Best... I will count it as 3 books.
George Saunders. LINCOLN IN THE BARDO. Bloomsbury, 2018.
Finished reading this experimental novel, winner of the Man Booker Prize, 2017, on August 26, 2024. Sought it out because I've been following Saunders' Substack column Story Club, on reading and writing, and because Abraham Lincoln has always been my favourite famous American. The first time I ever had to give a speech in school, I spoke about him. It was back during the Civil War centennial, and all the media in our home, Readers Digest and National Geographic, were full of it.
I had to look up the meaning of "bardo"--which seems to be not a building but rather a Buddhist tradition of a transitional state where souls await their final placement.
I love the experimental nature of the style of this book. The "damn the rules" attitude. The presentation of voices as if they are dialogue in a stage play. The presentation of citations as if nothing more need be said of the jaundiced view of people and politics then and now.
I love the idea of exploring attitudes towards death, burial, and the afterlife. Not one who is too interested in abstractions myself, and not of a faith group which puts much stress on an afterlife, I have not thought much about what happens after death. Our family prefers cremation; we have chosen a return to nature rather than solid physical memorializing of lost loved ones. So Saunders' imaging of Lincoln's dilemma is interesting. Visiting the mausoleum in private. Opening the coffin. Holding the body. Believing his son is still present; feeling when the soul departs. Very affecting, as is the juxtaposition of the president's grief with the grieving of families having lost and doomed to lose more loved ones in the years of civil war yet to come.
A sad story leavened by the delusions and denial of several waiting souls, and the devious nature of one group, mostly impoverished and/or lower class, destined for the other place.
Joanna Goodman. The HOME for UNWANTED GIRLS. Harper, 2018.
Ladies Only Book Club pick. Not wild about the style which is too much telling and weak on matching POV and life experience. [words and images used which the POV character would not know of] But the history and the emotions kept me hooked. The history of Quebec's funding orphanages run by nuns, and switching them over to asylums because the federal grants were greater. Unconscionable. And the lifetime, a whole generation, of mother and daughter longing for each other. And the damage done by loss of agency, hypocrisy, lies, forced labour, restricted access to the world, and abuse is heart-breaking. Maggie got pregnant at 15. Not sure who the father was as an uncle had raped her after her own father separated her from Gabriel, the love of her life. Elodie did not get adopted.
Elodie = Melody without the M. I wish I knew that sooner as I had no idea how to pronounce the name.
T. Greenwood. THE HUNGRY SEASON. Kensington, 2010.
A loaner from a writing group friend. The story of a family in crisis. Sam Mason, a writer; Mena, his actor wife; and Finn, their sixteen-year-old messed up son. All are grieving the loss of Finn's twin sister, Franny. They drive from San Diego to Vermont for the summer where they are disturbed by Sam's agent, Monty, and by an academic/stalker, Dale. Suspense surrounds the mystery of what happened to Franny and what will happen when needs collide. This one I stayed up all weekend to finish.
Laurie Elmquist. WHERE'S BURGESS? Orca, 2018.
My first ever "middle years" book which I bought at the library book sale because I have met the writer. Reece copes with change and losses--his missing frog, his parents' trial separation.
Peter Robinson. IN A DRY SEASON. Penguin,1999.
I so miss Inspector Banks. I wish the television programs would return. Sometimes I cannot remember if I have read a title before of if I just saw it on TV.
This story moves back and forth between the present, 1990s Yorkshire, and the past, WW II, when a Land Girl arrived to help out on a farm. The plot begins when, in a dry season, a reservoir or a man-made lake dries up and in the drowned village which emerges, a body is found.
July 19, 2024
Bonnie Burnard. A GOOD HOUSE. Harper, 1999.
The story of an ordinary small town family from the 1950s to the 1990s.
p. 152 "[H]e now believed that guilt could not exist without intention."
July 14, 2024
Chief Robert Joseph. NAMWAYUT: WE ARE ALL ONE. A PATHWAY TO RECONCILIATION. PageTwo, 2022.
Reading this man's life story puts me in awe. What a wonderful person he seems to be. I was aware of the great work his books and his training company do although I still worry that the idea of Reconciliation is used as a way to help companies and corporations convince Indigenous groups to partner with them. There seems to be no suggestion of how Indigenous values may be able to influence resource extraction and land development decisions.
Let me check my Post-ITS;
p 95 That reconciliation challenges the concept of European superiority and that other people want to become like Europeans and instead accept that Reconciliation means "allowing all of us to be who we authentically are" & to come together and celebrate our differences."
p. 96 "We are more than driftwood. We are an ocean." Stresses the importance of learning to know and love the self and the environment first.
p. 149 aware of the additional challenges faced by women and girls. Violence. Physical, sexual, and emotional.
p. 169 suggests that focus on specific issues around land use and claims is a way of NOT addressing the substantive issues--racism, colonialism, fear, and violence.
p. 178 All the people that come to Canada, every race and religion, "they all have a story to tell. We [IP] like to applaud ourselves for being open to these newcomers despite the wall we have created of wrongful assumptions, prejudice, and racism. This wall exists because we have lost sight that everybody has a story." We caution newcomers: "Be true to yourselves. Do not lose your soul in assimilation in the name of 'being Canadian'. Bring your foreign languages and your ancient rituals and practices with you. We are not frightened nor challenged by your diversity and resourcefulness."
p. 179 "We have to begin to know that we are not just us alone. ...that we are not just responsible for ourselves, but to everybody else. We have to begin to know that we have to stop the politicization of our responses and become human beings in our ability to listen and learn from each other."
p. 220 Decolonization means: "Finding our home, living in our own skin, embracing who we are, and honouring our authentic selves are all a critical part of this, so it doesn't matter how much prejudice or wrongful assumptions come your. way.
You know who you are.
Your values and principles are right there with you. You have a sense of dignity and belonging that will never fade."
Although these words seem directed towards Indigenous Peoples, they also apply to the rest of us. We all have to know what is important to us, and what we are not willing to permit and tolerate any longer, when we see abuses imposed upon others, including the Indigenous People of Canada.
July 9, 2024
Gordon Sinclair Jr. COWBOYS and INDIANS: The SHOOTING of J.J. HARPER. M& S, 1999.
I cannot believe that I did not add to these few updates.
Read Sinclair's account of the Winnipeg Police handling of the shooting on the street of a First Nations political leader in late 1980s. I've had the copy for ever, but avoided it because of memories of the incident when I was working in Stony Mountain--the distraught nature of other peace officers when seeming discrimination seems to result in death. My own "Winnipeg" novel In Your Dreams and friends who are also writing about policing issues in the prairie city meant that this was the time to read it.
Sinclair, a Free Press columnist, was dogged, pursuing the story even when warned off by supervisors.
My takeaways include: poor selection of police candidates--screening for previous impulsive and bullying behaviour; poor training of officers especially about the "use of force" protocols; poor understanding of citizens about "use of force" protocols; poor supervision of officers, going so far as recommending "lies"; no discussion about ways for dedicated law-abiding officers to counter "the thin blue line's" expectation of loyalty above all else to each other, not to the people they are hired, trained, paid to serve. Also, there is no discussion about attitudes towards Indigenous citizens vs attitudes towards others. Or about the causes of crime among disadvantaged groups, and the police role in that and related social issues.
Carol Rose Goldeneagle. BONE BLACK. Nightwood, 2019.
I was looking on the cover for some clue, but the only hint
is “a novel”. It seems to me more like “horror”.
This is the type of novel found in the basement rooms of
men who carry automatic rifles into mosques and elementary schools. Justifications
for violence as a solution to their emotional challenges. Shooters who are
angry, convinced of their own superiority, rationalizing their criminal acts in
whatever arguments best suit their distorted views. Living out their fantasies
of revenge and vigilantism. Targeting. Entrapment. Death. Dismemberment. Disposal.
At first I respond to the title as a reference to the main
character’s career as a potter, with bone black a glaze she creates for
herself. And to the Saskatchewan setting, someone who knows and loves the land,
including the Qu’Appelle Valley. Then, I notice the unpolished style. Almost
total telling. Slip-sliding between tenses and POVs. Then I begin to think
about the characters. Is this husband for real? I ask, Where is the
protagonist? There is no character with whom to identify or even really to care
about. The main character’s level of moral reasoning is so low as to be
non-existent. The level of self-awareness is delusional. The idea that she is
grieving, and that being an artist and being pregnant somehow give her a pass?
Not to me.
I don’t even want to think about what a detrimental effect
this story would have on reconciliation, were too many people to read it. The
worst fears realized. That nothing is sacred, and that she does not even
realize her desecration.
Joan Clark. THE BIRTHDAY LUNCH. Knopf, 2015.
Fourth selection for the book club. Maritime writer; set in Sussex, New Brunswick. Lily is run over by a speeding truck as she returns to her sister's car carrying 2 strawberry ice cream cones. The family rallies--her husband Hal, an antiques dealer; their children Claudia, a librarian, and Matt, a lawyer; the sister Laverne, a high school teacher who lives down stairs. Details of the complexity of arrangements, the checklist. The return of the lost brother. The secret lover. Past mistakes. A surprising love. The conflict centres around the competition between husband and the mean-spirited sister-in-law, which concludes on the final page. Laverne has renovated her suite in the shared house to copy a favourite Dutch Master painting. Too much insignificant detail for my taste, but I enjoy the crafting of story around ordinary lives.
Billy Collins. QUESTIONS ABOUT ANGELS. William Morrow, 1991, U Pittsburgh, 1999.
On the day a friend was moved into Palliative Care, I received word that the request I submitted for any books by Billy Collins some years ago has resulted in this arrival. Lovely putti on cover, medieval brown. Recognize two favourites: "Questions About Angels" and ."Forgetfulness"-- "No wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted / out of a love poem that you used to know by heart."
Morrison, Toni. RECITATIF. Knopf, 1983. Intro by Zadie Smith, 2022.
A find at the library book sale. An experiment by Morrison to try to tell a story about two girls, Twyla and Roberta, without specifying which is Black. The intro includes Morrison's explication of fascism, the steps in erasing a people.
I'm always surprised how the American experience of racism feels so different to our issues here in Canada. And how the Black struggle for equality in the USA has no reference whatsoever to Indigenous Americans.
Although my one complaint is always against titles which have no meaning to the majority of readers or book buyers (almost seeming like a deliberate attempt to make people feel stupid) this book must make up part of my racism research library.
Robinson, Peter. THE HANGING VALLEY. McClelland & Stewart, 1989.
The joke's on me. Bought at the library book sale, but the final pages missing. Could not find a full copy in library or bookstore. Luckily, the plot ended fairly completely.
This is such an early Peter Robinson. And I love the title, a geology term. A body found near a waterfall, close to a B&B where another unsolved murder happened ten years earlier. Banks is still married; Gristhorpe is still his boss. A trip to Toronto is part of the investigation.
Loved it. Miss this writer.
Harmel, Kristin. THE BOOK OF LOST NAMES. Gallery, 2020.
Found in the condo library. Another book set in France during WW II, about forgers who help people, especially Jewish children, escape to Nazis to freedom in Switzerland. Eva, an octogenarian widow living in Florida, sees a book she once knew and used in a article in a New York paper and flies to Germany to retrieve it. Flashes back to her early life in Paris, the flight to Southern France, her decision to use her art talent to work on forged documents. The hardest part for me was the mother's deliberate undermining and guilting of her daughter's actions. And the sentimentality. And the immaturity of the main character, although that too could be realistic. It seems the history is relatively fact-based.
Giordano, Paola. The SOLITUDE of PRIME NUMBERS. Penguin, 2008.
Third book I've read for the Ladies Meet Up Club. A first novel by a young Italian writer about the coming-of-age of two young people who experienced trauma in childhood. The impact of home life and trauma on adolescents, and on how it may delay adolescence well into the so-called "adult" years. Alice was injured in a ski accident. Mattia lost his sister. Alice is obsessed with photography and is anorexic. Mattia is obsessed with numbers. Set in Italy and in Denmark? where Mattia goes to university and stays to work.
So glad it is not about numbers, and that the ending is not sentimental.
William Deverell. KILL ALL THE LAWYERS. Ballantine, 1994.
Firstly, I ask myself: Why do I spend time reading about characters I do not like and do now care about? It is well-written. Amusing. Complicated plot. Literary allusions. Characters with quirks (twitchers and witches). A frustrated writer. Irony. Complicated relationships. But really, I don't want to know about wealth, blackmail, and collusion between judges, lawyers, police, FBI, and gangsters.
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex. SPARE. Random House, 2023.
Loved this book, especially the "boy's" voice and the details. I'm writing him a letter.
Kristin Hannah. COMFORT & JOY. Ballantine, 2020/2005.
A second book club selection. The title alludes to a Christmas carol but the protagonist's name is Joy and one of the locations is called the Comfort Lodge, a derelict fishing lodge/B&B somewhere in Washington State.
The book hooked me instantly when Joy hops on to the last seat available in a charter flight to Hope, BC. But the plane crashes and Joy takes the opportunity to "walk away" from her depressing life of betrayal by husband and sister. We are never quite sure what happens next. Mystery. Tension. What will happen? What has happened?
Mairuth Sarsfield. NO CRYSTAL STAIR. Moulin, 1997.
A gift from my cousin who knows I like to read CanLit and that I love Montreal. Old Montreal. Didn't realize that this had been a Canada Reads pick about 20 years ago. Ratings on Goodreads range from 2 to 5 out of 5 stars. I enjoyed the story of one woman's hard life. Marion Willow is a widow in her 30s trying to support her children and raise them well during 1940s Montreal. There are many provincial and world war references and many quotations from Black poetry, as well as references to liberty in pre-WWII Europe and pleasures of booze and jazz which brought American tourists to Canada. The subtleties of racism and the challenges of parenting in an openly anti Black and anti female society are made clear as are learning to recognize and to cope with ones own prejudices.
Val McDermid. BROKEN GROUND. Grove, 2018.
Karen Pirie, still grieving the death of her partner and under new attack from a supervisor, is called in to investigate a cold case, a body in a bog, estimated to have been there for about 25 years. A plant in her office causes problems. The urgency of moving before being ordered not to works while confirming Karen's problems with authority, grandstanding, and favouritism. Another great weekend spent with Val.
Joseph, Bob with Joseph, Cynthia F. INDIGENOUS RELATIONS: INSIGHTS, TIPS & SUGGESTIONS TO MAKE RECONCILIATION A REALITY. Indigenous Relations Press, 2019.
Good tips on what to do and not do when meeting with Indigenous people. Aimed mainly at businesses wanting to work with communities, but some info at the end to help individuals apply to their own situations. Recommended readings.
The positive attitude, the belief that reconciliation must and can happen if we all work towards it is what I most enjoyed.
Helene Tursten. AN ELDERLY LADY IS UP TO NO GOOD. Soho, 2018. Translated from Danish.
A library book borrowed from a reader friend. The title says it all. And explains what I do not like about the book. Not interested in the motives behind crime, attempts to justify. The title character, Maud, has a large apartment in a building her family previously sold. She has interactions with neighbours and local businessmen. She travels. She can feign dementia. She is impulsive. Not anyone I would want to live near. Or become.
Joanne Ramos. The FARM. Doubleday, 2019.
First selection for a new book club I am trying out. Set somewhere outside New York, Mae runs a residence for surrogates carrying and birthing babies for other women. Chapters flip between the three or four surrogates we get to know, beginning with Jane from the Philippines and the two women who run the business end of things. Mae runs Golden Oaks with a strict law about health and nutrition. Ate recruits women for her from the city. The conflict is between emotions, parental responsibilities, and business ethics.
Lee Child. BLUE MOON. Delacorte, 2019.
A find at the thrift store, perfect for these spring days busy with taxes and cleaning. Jack Reacher is always good for a lost weekend.
A franchise. You know what to expect. Heavy on plot. No character development. A trendy topic--criminal gangs, Albanian and Ukrainian; bankruptcy-inducing medical costs. I loved the title too, a not so subtle reminder that good does not often win. That there are few ethically positive saviours like Jack with the skills and training and moral reasoning that allow the stacked body-count to block out the high-rise buildings. Mission accomplished. It is a kind of romance, the dream of rescue from the POV of the white knight.
Bob Joseph. 21 THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT THE INDIAN ACT, Indigenous Relations Press, 2018
An excellent primer if you are just beginning to research for yourself. Very useful add-ons including the text of the apology in parliament.
Shelley O'Callaghan. HOW DEEP IS THE LAKE: A Century at Chilliwack Lake. Caitlin, 2017.
I have owned this copy for some time and decided to read it after reviewing the Caitlin catalogue. I don't think it lives up to the book blurb because I get no sense of awareness of the issue of land and Indigenous people. For example, the fear of and battle against expropriation, when what else was done to Indigenous land if not expropriated by the Crown? Did not they too feel the encroachment of all these uninvited neighbours, including American fishermen, church camps, and provincial prison camps? The opportunity to feel and express empathy seems lost. I also find the title poorly edited [missing ? and repeated word, "lake"] and not really indicative of what the book is about, which seems to be one family's attachment to a summer cottage grouping on the shores of Chilliwack Lake in the Cascade Mountains south of Chilliwack, BC. I was also confused by the switching between metric and feet measurements. The calculations of lake depth were done in feet while all other measurements seem to be in metric.
That said, I did finish reading it, for local history and geology and geography if nothing else. I have lived in this valley for over thirty years but I have never been to this lake. I did get that feeling of envy, of a family that holidays together, and couples that have the type of lifestyle that supports three weeks every summer getting away into the wilderness. That is not and has never been my experience. I was also looking for but had to go elsewhere to find out about the diverging course of the Chilliwack River, why it no longer runs through downtown Chilliwack, and for info about Sumas Lake, drained for land reclamation. If the grandfather worked for Water all his career, would he not have been aware of if not involved in the decision to divert the river, change watersheds, drain a lake, etc? I did learn in my research how Sumas Lake sometimes drained into the Nooksack and sometimes drained into the Fraser. Not Chilliwack Lake, but linked, because Chilliwack Lake water ended up in Sumas Lake. Many other changes over time, especially travel arrangements, are well documented.
N. Scott Momaday. HOUSE MADE OF DAWN. Harper & Row, 1966 & 1989. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Absolutely beautiful. Incorporates some pages from The WAY to RAINY MOUNTAIN. Abel returns to the reservation from war, from prison, from the city, and participates in ceremony.
N. Scott Momaday. The WAY to RAINY MOUNTAIN. UNewMexico, 1969. An anniversary edition. Read in honour of the writer who died recently. Watched a PBS doc on him last week.
I have read a lot of work by Indigenous writers and this is by far the most beautifully written. Kiowa story-telling techniques braided with memory and archaeology reports. Illustrated by the writer's father.
N. Scott Momaday won the Pulitzer Prize in 1969 for his HOUSE MADE of DAWN.
David Whyte. PILGRIM. Many Rivers Press, Langley, WA, 2014.
Another of my local writer finds on the trip to Bellingham and Seattle. Love the Irish connection.
Sigrid Nunez. THE VULNERABLES. Riverhead, 2023.
A friend gifted me this book saying it was "more my style" than hers. And she is right. I came to suspect that this writer has been reading my drafts--novels and memoir. She has a section called Interlude while I just finished a section called Intermission in my memoir.
Although presented as a novel, it really feels like a memoir. So convincing, the voice of the unnamed narrator, a writer experiencing writer's block, during the lockdown, while bird-sitting a pet parrot Eureka and his friend, a troubled youth she calls Vetch.
This is the first COVID lockdown story I have read. It brought back memories, and challenged some of the American experience which seemed different from ours. But I most enjoy the way the writer has made something out of nothing, and the glimpses she gives us into the writer's brain, filled with inspirational quotations from other writers and speculation about why we do what we do.
Margaret Atwood. OLD BABES in the WOOD. McC & S, 2023.
Short stories about memory and widowhood. On some list of the year's best. Well worth the read. A great way to start the new year.
Louise Penny. The GREY WOLF. Minotaur, 2024 Borrowed from a friend who had borrowed it from the library. No due date, making reading it so...
