Darren Greer’s Advocate (2016)

2020-10-22T12:25:06-04:00

"The past presses so hard on the present, the present is badly bruised, blood brims under the skin." These lines from Brenda Shaughnessy's poem “Nachträglichkeit”* fit beautifully with Darren Greer's new novel, Advocate: Not only because much of Advocate is preoccupied with memory, with what the characters carry with them

Darren Greer’s Advocate (2016)2020-10-22T12:25:06-04:00

Difficult Stories, Difficult Narrators: Five Novels

2020-10-22T12:25:41-04:00

Conflicted: that describes my first impressions after meeting Pillow in Andrew Battershill's Giller-nominated novel of the same name,and it also describes his perspective on the world. It's hard to be Pillow, to see all the angles which converge and diverge simultaneously on any single thought he has. For instance: "Pillow

Difficult Stories, Difficult Narrators: Five Novels2020-10-22T12:25:41-04:00

Zoe Whittall’s The Best Kind of People

2020-10-22T12:21:33-04:00

It begins with something extraordinary. "Almost a decade earlier, a man with a .45-70 Marlin hunting rifle walked through the front doors of Avalon Hills prep school. He didn't know that he was about to become a living symbol of the age of white men shooting into crowds." House

Zoe Whittall’s The Best Kind of People2020-10-22T12:21:33-04:00

August 2016, In My Bookbag

2020-10-22T12:21:51-04:00

In which I discuss some of the skinny volumes, which have nestled into my bookbag. (Meanwhile longer works, like Kathleen Winsor's Forever Amber and Greg Iles’ The Bone Tree, were left at home.) Patricia and Fredrick McKissack's Best Shot in the West tells the story of Nat Love, who was born into

August 2016, In My Bookbag2020-10-22T12:21:51-04:00

July 2016, In My Bookbag

2020-10-20T09:47:53-04:00

In which I discuss some of the skinny volumes, which have nestled into my bookbag. (Meanwhile longer works, like Timothy Findley's The Piano Man's Daughter and Greg Iles' Natchez Burning, were left at home.) Stephen Thomas' The Jokes is not funny-haha, but funny-hmmm. It's not meant to be funny-haha either, although many

July 2016, In My Bookbag2020-10-20T09:47:53-04:00
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