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Nuannaarpoq: Thomas Wharton’s Every Blade of Grass
In all of his literary fiction, Thomas Wharton speculates on one question: what is a book? Answers are as various as books themselves. Wharton imagines fantastic books: books as pinwheels and books nested inside books until they were too tiny even to read. Audio-books and graphic novels stretch books in the direction of the purely…
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TRB Live: October
With TRB Live I’m going to be posting monthly roundups of literary events you might enjoy. Get in touch with me (@kathmcleod) or the TRB (@TorontoReview) on Twitter if you’d like to suggest an event to include next month. Toronto The Coach House Books Fall Launch ushers in autumn with the launch of six new books: Lisa Robertson’s 3 Summers, Jordan…
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CanLit Canon Review #19: Leonard Cohen’s Beautiful Losers
In an attempt to make himself a better Canadian, Craig MacBride is reading and reviewing the books that have shaped this country. Leonard Cohen’s second and final novel, Beautiful Losers, published in 1966, is experimental and difficult. It is also mesmerizing, though, because of its swoon-worthy writing and enthusiasm for filth. You get this: “Come…
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CanLit Canon Review #17: Margaret Laurence’s The Stone Angel
In an attempt to make himself a better Canadian, Craig MacBride is reading and reviewing the books that shaped this country. It’s the day after you finish it, when you’re tying your shoes and see it on the coffee table, that you realize The Stone Angel has done something to you, that it’s now a…
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Canada Reads 2013: And the winner is…
It was the last day of Canada Reads 2013, the last chance for actor Jay Baruchel and comedian Trent McLellan to pitch their chosen books as the one all Canadians should have on their nightstands. And at 10:53 am, after a lively and sometimes venomous debate, the winner was declared: February, by Lisa Moore. “I…
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CanLit Canon Review #10: Gabrielle Roy’s The Tin Flute
In an attempt to make himself a better Canadian, Craig MacBride is reading and reviewing the books that shaped this country. The Tin Flute, Gabrielle Roy’s debut novel, explores poverty, war, and Montreal, and it romanticizes none of them. The book centers on the 10-member Lacasse family, which is trapped by poverty in the suburban…
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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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Short Forms: When Social Media and Short Fiction Intersect
Listen to the author read this piece: [audio: issue3/syms.mp3] When my short story “Jenna on Twitter” was published by Joyland Magazine last year, I was pretty pleased with myself. It’s a story about a woman with a crush on a gay male singer who fantasizes while watching his YouTube videos. She uses her iPhone to…
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Bookishness: Week of March 19, 2012
Strike Toronto Public Library workers are on strike as of 5 p.m. last night. I am currently deep in horrifying imaginings of a library-less world. Hoping a resolution is swift, for everyone’s sake. What your favourite author had for lunch The power of the Internet to answer the big questions: Megan Fishmann on life as an author-groupie, then and…
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The In-Between World of a Toronto Reader in Slovenia
Five years ago, in a café, in a town called Izola, by the rippling waves of the Adriatic, I settled into a comfy wicker chair on the sun-drenched patio, ordered a cappuccino, and complimented the waiter on his nipple. He was less happy than I felt he should have been. I later replayed the exchange…