Ten Good Canadian Reads in 2023 #CanLit

2023-10-30T10:34:05-04:00

This year, I’ve been reading backlisted titles I’ve missed along the way. These are mostly well-known titles by established writers, which is why they’re still occupying library space; of these ten, only the two from small presses (named) might be difficult to find overseas. They also lean towards international

Ten Good Canadian Reads in 2023 #CanLit2023-10-30T10:34:05-04:00

Marion Poschmann’s The Pine Islands (2017; Trans. Jen Calleja 2020)

2020-09-29T17:31:26-04:00

Marion Poschmann’s The Pine Islands (2017; Trans. Jen Calleja 2020) was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2019. The jury describes it like this: “A quirky, unpredictable and darkly comic confrontation with mortality.” Her first book was published in Germany in 2002 and, since, her work has been

Marion Poschmann’s The Pine Islands (2017; Trans. Jen Calleja 2020)2020-09-29T17:31:26-04:00

On lonely characters (including Felix in Devin Krukoff’s Hummingbird)

2018-12-18T15:50:34-05:00

There are a lot of lonely characters in CanLit: just think about all that snow, how starkly a single shape stands out in relief against the “great northern woods and in the empty places of the earth”. (I’ve recently read Louis Hémon’s snow-soaked 1921 classic, Maria Chapdelaine, translated by

On lonely characters (including Felix in Devin Krukoff’s Hummingbird)2018-12-18T15:50:34-05:00

Margaret Millar’s The Fiend (1964; 2016)

2017-07-26T13:34:30-04:00

From the outset, The Fiend has a creepy element which readers hadn't yet experienced in the fiction Margaret Millar had published theretofore. "She was about nine. Having watched them all impartially now for two weeks, Charlie had come to like her the best." You're afraid to ask, aren't you: why

Margaret Millar’s The Fiend (1964; 2016)2017-07-26T13:34:30-04:00

Margaret Millar’s A Stranger in My Grave (1960)

2017-05-23T16:24:06-04:00

Here, the figurative language of Millar's 1950s novels (like Vanish in an Instant and  Wives and Lovers) is replaced by a cleaner style which often focuses on extremes. "But Fielding’s pity, like his love and even his hate, was a variable thing, subject to changes in the weather, melting in

Margaret Millar’s A Stranger in My Grave (1960)2017-05-23T16:24:06-04:00
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