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CanLit Canon Review #9: Hugh MacLennan’s Two Solitudes
In an attempt to make himself a better Canadian, Craig MacBride is reading and reviewing the books that shaped this country. Two Solitudes, Hugh MacLennan’s 1945 masterpiece, sets out to do nothing less than explain Quebec to the rest of Canada and harmonize the dominion for future citizens. MacLennan attempts this with a generations-spanning soap…
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Visions of Conservative Triumph: Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises
Reviewed in this essay: The Dark Knight Rises, directed by Christopher Nolan. Running Time: 164 minutes. With a quarter of a billion dollar budget, nearly three hours of screen time, and creative carte blanche, one could not but hope for a masterpiece from Christopher Nolan’s long awaited The Dark Knight Rises. One is sad to…
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Michael Ondaatje and Teju Cole chat with Dionne Brand at the Kingston WritersFest
To kick off the 2012 Kingston WritersFest last Wednesday, Michael Ondaatje and Teju Cole took to the stage of the Kingston Grand Theatre. Following opening remarks by Merilyn Simonds, the festival’s artistic director, Teju Cole began with a reading of two passages from his novel Open City. Set in New York several years after 9/11,…
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Bookishness: October 1, 2012
A PhD in Pictures Matthew Might’s visual explanation of what, exactly, a PhD involves. Whitman in tights Selections from The Graphic Canon: Volume 2, a collection of classic works of literature re-imagined in graphic form. Boyless wonder? What critics are saying about The Casual Vacancy: a roundup of reviews of J.K. Rowling’s latest. … Writers’…
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Kelli Deeth’s Interview with Anakana Schofield
Kelli Deeth interviews Anakana Schofield, author of Malarky (Biblioasis, 2012). 1. What were your first images or intimations of Philomena? My first whiff of Philomena (Our Woman) came in a short story years before I commenced Malarky – she was a voice, much older and much crankier than Our Woman, though similarly confused about her…
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On Goldstein’s Novels of Ideas: George Eliot’s Middlemarch
This piece continues a series of reviews highlighting highlighting philosopher-novelist Rebecca Newberger Goldstein’s list of the best “novels of ideas”. George Eliot’s Middlemarch was the second entry on her list. Reviewed in this essay: Middlemarch, George Eliot. Penguin Classics, 2002 (Originally published: 1871-1872 (with the first single volume set appearing in 1874 and further revisions…
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Bookishness: September 24, 2012
Milk, spinach, books Loblaws will be carrying the titles shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Non-fiction (finalists will be announced tomorrow). Speak Celebrity A blog for those who “enjoy… poetry more when it’s slightly tainted with fame, glitz, and glamour.” The artless dodger OCAD responds to student criticism over blank-paged art history…
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A look inside the best basketball team ever: Jack McCallum’s Dream Team
Reviewed in this essay: Dream Team by Jack McCallum. Ballantine Books, 2012. The Dream Team is one of the most iconic teams in sports history. It was packed with household names like Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Charles Barkley, not to mention Michael Jeffrey Jordan: the centerpiece of the team and just maybe the most…
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All Men Are Liars by Alberto Manguel
Reviewed in this essay: All Men Are Liars by Alberto Manguel. Translated by Miranda France. Penguin, 2012. Continuing the perspectivist tradition of Wallace Stevens’s “13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” and William Faulkner’s four ways of looking at the Compsons, essayist and novelist Alberto Manguel gives readers five ways of looking at an enigmatic…
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Bookishness: September 17, 2012
Two dots The New Yorker was temporarily banned from Facebook due to Female Nipple Bulges (FNB). Jay is for Just beautiful typographic birdhouses. Meet with the Writer in Residence at TPL Toronto Public Library will be accepting submissions from literary fiction writers until September 29 for meetings with Writer in Residence Farzana Doctor. Hindsight “Not interested in…
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The Wit and Wisdom of Misha Glouberman
Reviewed in this essay: The Chairs Are Where the People Go by Misha Glouberman and Sheila Heti. Faber and Faber, 2011. You can tell the publishers weren’t quite sure what to do with Misha Glouberman and Sheila Heti’s book The Chairs Are Where the People Go because the explanatory subtitle, “How to Live, Work, and…
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The Nightmare: On Life is About Losing Everything
Reviewed in this essay: Life is About Losing Everything by Lynn Crosbie. House of Anansi, 2012. Last year I wrote a blog post about how rotten I felt getting older. I laid bare my fear of being alone and acknowledged losing the power that youth gives women. I quoted Anne Sexton: “Live or die, but…