The Unexpected Twists and Turns

Messin' With Male Stereotypes

noreply@blogger.com (AKAmamma) — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 00:20:00 +0000

Last week as part of the Residual Reading series, Wanda O'Connor introduced two visiting writers to read from their new releases at Drawn and Quarterly. Authors Marguerite Pigeon and Natalee Caple have penned stories with women leads in traditionally male-dominated genres. The first to read was Pigeon who has written a political thriller set in Central America, while Peterborough-based Caple gave an inspired reading from In Calamity's Wake, a fictionalization of the life of Calamity Jane.

Pigeon, a former journalist, has drawn on her past work in Central America to create Open Pit, a story of five Canadian human-rights activists who are taken hostage by a former revolutionary in El Salvador. This transpires just as NorthOre, a Canadian gold-mining company, has begun mining operations. The revolutionary is not interested in any kind of ransom. Instead, he wants NorthOre to cease operations so that his family's remains can be exhumed from the mining site. While the other four activists find the kidnapping traumatic, 50-year-old Danielle Byrd, the main character, finds the situation eerily familiar, as she worked as an embedded journalist during El Salvador's decade-long civil war.

After the reading, Pigeon said that publishers did not initially warm to Open Pit. The fact that it was a political thriller with a woman lead was not easy. "I had to up the political and thriller aspects to find a publisher," said Pigeon. For many of us who have worked in Latin America, women human rights activists are pretty common, as are Canadian mining companies operating in countries with questionable human rights records. It would appear that Open Pit has a highly realistic premise, an added plus for any political thriller.
So why the reluctance to have a woman main character? Was it because a woman in a non-traditional role is not a sure sell or is it because the public is not yet aware of the many spheres women successfully work in?

Natalee Caple might argue the latter. The author of In Calamity's Wake wrote her PhD dissertation on Calamity Jane, and in her research, discovered a lot of things she'd long suspected. "Women occupied a wide range of jobs in the West," said Caple. However, this fact is not reflected in pop culture. Instead, when we think of women in the wild west, the saloon hooker with a heart of gold and the long-suffering farmer's wife are the two stereotypes that immediately come to mind. This might also explain why a cowboy film or theme is not always a popular choice. The lack of diversity makes for a highly predictable story. However, according to the author, cowboys were not all white."The West was a lot more diverse than we are led to believe," said Caple. There were apparently people of colour in frontier towns, and in Deadwood, South Dakota, a town long-associated with Calamity Jane, there was even a Chinese quarter.

Trying to rectify long-held misconceptions is a gutsy undertaking, but not for Caple. In Calamity's Wake is the 37-year-old's seventh book. To move completely away from the male-dominated west scenario, Caple has made bad-girl Calamity Jane and her fictional daughter Miette the two main characters, with male characters playing only supporting roles.

What's next for this trailblazer? "I'm going to write a book about women pirates," said Caple. "There were a lot of those too." I guess they just never made their way into pop culture.

At any rate, a more diversity of women characters is always welcome in fiction, especially the anti-hero.

Other book-related posts:
Susceptible by Geneviève Castrée
Studio Saint-Ex by Ania Szado
Bombay Wali and other stories by Veena Gokhale
The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier
Gay Dwarves of America by Anne Fleming
One Good Hustle by Billie Livingston
The World is Moving Around Me by Dany Laferrière
The Return by Dany Laferrière

Wild by Cheryl Strayed

My Mother, the Nazi Midwife and Me by Gina Roitman

noreply@blogger.com (AKAmamma) — Sat, 18 May 2013 01:27:00 +0000

Gina Roitman: Photo by Lynn Hatwin

We've all heard stories from our mothers, stories that made us feel uncomfortable or that we rolled our eyes at. As young girls, the tales were often too far removed from our own experiences to have any meaning.

It's usually much later in life when these stories carry much more significance for us. These stories tell us who we are and add a few more pieces to our own identity puzzle.

Writer Gina Roitman has just released a chilling documentary featuring some incredible personal discoveries. She has spent the last eight years filming her investigation into a tale that her mother began telling her when she was very young.

Gina Roitman grew up in Montreal, but was born in Germany in the years following the Second World War. Her parents were Holocaust survivors whose family members had all perished in concentration camps. Roitman's mother often told her young daughter stories of the atrocities of Nazi Germany. But young Gina was living in a different country at a different time, and as can be expected, she wasn't all that interested in her mother's stories. She also refused to believe that all Germans could be as horrible as her mother said, something that infuriated her mother.

Around the world, many people believe that after World War II ended, the Nazis suddenly disappeared. But as we see in the documentary, this was not the case.

Roitman's parents met at an overpopulated Displaced Persons camp outside Passau, Germany, in the US military zone. When Roitman's mother became pregnant, she insisted that her daughter be born at a birthing centre, and not in the camp. Too many Jewish babies were inexplicably dying there; a murderer was ostensibly afoot. The mother said that she had saved Gina's life.

For Roitman, this was just one of her mother's paranoid stories. Then, many years after her mother had died, Roitman discovered the work of Anna Rosmus, a German historian who had investigated the treatment of Jews in Passau in the 20th century. It was then that Roitman heard the story again of the mysterious deaths of Jewish babies at the Displaced Persons camp at Pocking-Waldstadt where her parents had lived.

In My Mother, the Nazi Midwife and Me, a one-hour documentary, Gina Roitman returns to Passau for the first time in her life to meet Anna Rosmus, investigate her mother's claims and ultimately discover some important parts of her own identity. This is a moving documentary that should not be missed. The footage and stories are haunting.

To see a trailer of the film click here.

My Mother, the Nazi Midwife and Me will be showing on Saturday, May 18 on the CBC Documentary Channel.

Other documentaries:
5 Broken Cameras by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
Detropia by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
Finding Dawn by Christine Welch
The Fruit Hunters by Yung Chang

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Susceptible by Geneviève Castrée

noreply@blogger.com (AKAmamma) — Thu, 16 May 2013 00:57:00 +0000

Susceptible
Geneviève Castrée
Drawn and Quarterly

Susceptible is Geneviève Castrée’s first full-length English-language graphic novel. The multi-disciplinary artist and Quebec native has crafted a moving tale about Goglu, a bright, dreamy little girl who has a less than ideal start in life. As the title implies, she is sensitive, but Vulnerable would have also been a fitting title.

The reader meets Goglu still in the womb asking about whether sadness can be inherited from one generation to the next. The little girl is born to a 19-year-old Quebec mother and her English-speaking logger boyfriend in 1981. Her father played a very minor parenting role before moving to British Columbia, “a mythical kingdom where dads go to disappear.”

Her mother like droves of other young people in the early eighties had gone out west to make some quick money during the Alberta oil boom and experience her first adult adventure. Her mother, Amère, which aptly reflects her bitterness, returns to Quebec alone to give birth, but family support is not forthcoming. The youngest of 16 children, Amère didn’t receive much herself in the way of parenting.

Goglu is a latch-key kid from the time she starts school. Her mother sets an alarm clock so that the six-year-old knows when it is time to get ready and catch the bus to school.

Amère is a struggling single mother who still parties like most 20-year-olds, but strictly on the weekends. She eventually meets her significant other, Amer, and they move in together, but Amer in no way assumes any fathering responsibilities, and he resents Goglu. The weekend parties continue, and too ashamed to invite friends over to her house, the girl finds herself alone, a lot. As a teen, Goglu is troubled by her mother’s increasing dependence on alcohol.

At her South Shore school, Goglu is an outcast, an odd duck among a bunch of suburban kids. But in high school, she makes friends through that great equalizer—drugs. She struggles to finish high school, as she starts to use harder drugs, and then eerily finds herself in her mother’s previous predicament, the one that ruined “her bright future.”

Geneviève Castrée shows genuine talent as a graphic novelist and has created a compelling story. Particularly innovative is the circular panel she uses to illustrate an intense argument with her mother. We can all attest that arguments tend to be circular in nature, often returning to the original accusations.

Of all the books I’ve read in the last few years, I found Susceptible the most heart-wrenching. Goglu, like many unwanted children, internalizes her mother and stepfather’s resentment, which unsurprisingly results in her own anger, depression and self-imposed alienation.

Although it would be easy to point the finger at Amère for being a poor mother, she too was an unwanted child. As a single-parent with few resources, she chose to live with another wage-earner to make life and decision-making a little easier. In her desperation, she not only chose a man she didn’t love, but also one who had little patience for her daughter.

A lot of people will find this a harrowing read, but for many this will be validation for their own experiences growing up in cash-strapped homes with ill-equipped parents. Susceptible should be on the bookshelf of every teacher, guidance counsellor, social worker and planned parenthood advocate.

I applaud the publisher for taking this risk on a story that could potentially help a lot of people, both young and old.

This has been cross-posted at Rover Arts.

Other reviews
Studio Saint-Ex by Ania Szado
Bombay Wali and other stories by Veena Gokhale
The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier
Gay Dwarves of America by Anne Fleming
One Good Hustle by Billie Livingston
The World is Moving Around Me by Dany Laferrière
The Return by Dany Laferrière

Wild by Cheryl Strayed

The Goodtime Girl by Tess Fragoulis

Studio Saint-Ex by Ania Szado

noreply@blogger.com (AKAmamma) — Sun, 12 May 2013 00:05:00 +0000

The gift of a book can change the course of a child’s life,” writes Ania Szado in the acknowledgments of her recent historical novel Studio Saint-Ex. Szado is referring to The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, which she received as a gift at age 11. This is when the seed of Studio Saint-Ex ostensibly was planted.

Ania Szado has researched the life of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry while he was writing The Little Prince in 1943 and has created his character and that of his estranged wife, Consuelo, based on widely known historical facts.

The Saint-Exupérys are in essence insta-characters, torn from the pages of history. Studio Saint-Ex is a fictionalization of their lives when they were living in New York as expats during the Nazi occupation of France.

Into the storyline, Szado has inserted her own original character, 22-year-old Mignonne Lachapelle, an ambitious young fashion designer, who meets Antoine de Saint-Exupéry through the French community. As can be expected, the young woman falls in love with the legendary writer.

As history would have it, the couple had an open marriage, and this serves as Mignonne Lachapelle’s promising point of entry into their lives. At the same time, the ingenue is trying to forge a name for herself in the fashion industry, just as there is an upsurge in demand for high-fashion items in New York.

In her first job as a designer’s assistant, Mignonne is ordered to drum up business in the French community, where fashion trends are started. As the wife of an exalted figure among expats, Consuelo is considered influential and, consequently, a highly prized potential client. While Mignonne proposes items from her clothing line to Consuelo, she is also trying to seduce her husband. The wife is wise to this and plays along, continually turning the situation to her own advantage.

Although initially the story has great narrative force, it quickly loses momentum and becomes predictable. What saves the book is some particularly inspired writing by Ania Szado on the art of garment design.

As tempting as it may be to use historical figures as the basis of a novel, history still imposes some rather severe limitations, particularly on this storyline. Szado states in the book’s Afterword that some sources suggest that Saint-Exupéry’s extramarital relationships were “exclusively platonic.”

Consequently, the love triangle serves as little more than a tease to readers, reducing the focus of the novel to the aspirations of the young fashion designer. In the end, the story becomes completely implausible when Mignonne manages to co-opt Saint-Exupéry’s work and catapult her own career.

Studio Saint-Ex is a forced fit. Ultimately, Saint-Exupery’s name and The Little Prince, among the best-selling books of all time, are used to draw in readers, but the story is too farfetched and contrived to take seriously.

This has been cross-posted at the Globe and Mail.

Other reviews
Bombay Wali and other stories by Veena Gokhale
The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier
Gay Dwarves of America by Anne Fleming
One Good Hustle by Billie Livingston
The World is Moving Around Me by Dany Laferrière
The Return by Dany Laferrière

Wild by Cheryl Strayed

The Goodtime Girl by Tess Fragoulis

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Irish Writer Colm Tóibín With Eleanor Wachtel

noreply@blogger.com (AKAmamma) — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 12:42:00 +0000

The Blue Metropolis Literary Festival has grown tremendously in popularity since its inception in 1999. Not only have pre-festival ticket sales soared, but so has the festival’s ability to draw internationally acclaimed writers. On Thursday night, the Blue Metropolis International Literary Grand Prix was presented to Colm Tóibín before a sold-out crowd at the Bibliothèque Nationale. The prize and $10,000 purse are awarded each year to a world-renowned author in recognition of a lifetime of literary achievement. The Irish writer is no stranger to literary awards, having won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Man Booker Prize, among many others.

Best-selling Canadian author and jury member Claire Rothman Holden told the audience how the jury had selected Tóibín over the other illustrious contenders, which included Barbara Kingsolver, Orhan Pamuk and Rohinton Mistry. It was in part the writer’s versatility. In addition to being a novelist and short story writer, he is an essayist, poet, literary critic, playwright and journalist. “It was also the ease with which he writes, and the fact that he has accomplished all of this before the age of 60,” said Rothman Holden.

After the formal award presentation, Tóibín was joined on stage by Eleanor Wachtel, the host of CBC Radio’s “Writers and Company.” It might be assumed that a man named one of Britain’s top 300 intellectuals would be a snob, but this was not the case. With a keen sense of humour, he spoke frankly with Wachtel about his recent work, Broadway play, religion and family.

Although the Enniscorthy native is best known for his novels The Master and Brooklyn, it was his most recent work, The Testament of Mary that seemed to most interest Wachtel. Tóibín chose to breathe new life into the tale of the mother of Christ, something he was surprised no one had tried before. Instead of the meek and mild version we’re all familiar with, Mother Mary is imbued with a fierce intelligence, in spite of being illiterate. In addition to being incurious about what her son is doing, she refers to the disciples as a group of misfits and leaves his crucifixion before he dies. The premier performance of the Broadway production of "The Testament of Mary" was performed last Monday night in New York, and as can be expected some religious groups were up in arms. Nevertheless, the author showed genuine enthusiasm for the standing ovation his play received, the instant reaction a novelist never sees from someone reading his book.

On the topic of religion, the audience learned that Tóibín had once entertained the thought of joining the priesthood. “My family thought it was funny,” said the writer. The second youngest of five children had even considered something grander. “If I’d joined the Church then I wanted to be a Bishop,” said Tóibín. He admitted, however, that in spite of being a sucker for stained glass and enjoying Bach’s religious music, he just couldn’t bring himself "to believe any of it.”

A recurring theme is Tóibín’s work is family. His university-educated father was a teacher, local journalist and historian. His death when the writer was only 12 was devastating. “It was one of the first things to surface in therapy,” said the author. “After a death, everyone acts as if nothing has happened, life goes on and the whole issue becomes unmentionable. It’s like having half your face bitten off, but still having to smile.” The author made a number of thought-provoking statements about the truth of our interior lives, our secret selves, and how these thoughts can sometimes only be validated through reading experiences similar to our own.

His wise words were more than worth the admission price. As I walked up the steps of the auditorium listening to other people’s excited chatter about what they had just heard, there was a rush to get out of the doors, but it wasn’t to go home. A larger than usual crowd was milling around the display tables with Tóibín’s books, smiling and looking exhilarated.

This has been cross-posted at Rover Arts.

Other related posts
Drawn & Quarterly Presents Alison Bechdel
Joyce Carol Oates on her Life and US Politics
Bombay Wali and other stories by Veena Gokhale
One Good Hustle by Billie Livingston
The World is Moving Around Me by Dany Laferrière
The Return by Dany Laferrière
5 Broken Cameras by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
Detropia by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady

Wild by Cheryl Strayed

The Goodtime Girl by Tess Fragoulis

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Bombay Wali and other stories

noreply@blogger.com (AKAmamma) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Bombay Wali and other stories
Veena Gokhale

A former Bombay journalist, Veena Gokhale has penned her first collection of 12 short stories set almost entirely in India. While her stories set in Bombay will impart a genuine taste and flavour of India familiar to Indophiles, there is a definite departure from traditional India in this collection, giving a sense that change is in the air. The author throws in a few surprises, such as a story set in Japan in the last third of the book, serving as a type of aesthetic contrast, in addition to a tale about a young Canadian woman who finds moving spiritual enlightenment in Kathmandu. For anyone who loves stories about the Indian subcontinent, this collection offers some gems that are both evocative and visually pleasing.

The title story, “Bombay Wali,” also the collection’s longest, brings together a number of young professional women eking out an existence in Bombay. Renuka’s dreams are shattered when she has her bag slashed and money stolen outside a bank. Too ashamed to tell her father, she entertains the idea of robbing a bank, a plan suggested by her friend Gulnar on a girls’ night out. In desperation, Renuka agrees to take part. For their disguise, six burqas are purchased, and then the plans abruptly change. This leads to a less than satisfying ending to an otherwise original and engrossing tale. “Bombay Wali” is a welcome shift from the traditional portrayal of Indian women.

Equally audacious is “the Room,” which opens with a young couple, Suj and Vikram, smoking an illicit substance. As their relationship becomes more intimate, Suj resists the pressure to take a key for a room from Vikram’s unsavoury friend so that the couple might be alone. Although Suj is portrayed as more sexually open than her friends, as the reader witnesses, the stakes are still high for even the most minor displays of public affection.

My favourite in the collection is “Zindagi Itefaq Hai” (Life is Chance). Vishwanath Iyer is an investigative journalist at The Disquieter, a small-time Bombay rag. As fate would have it, page two of his report, which contains a key quote, is blown out the window and into the alleyway. Unable to retrieve his page two, Vish rushes to the station where his source, a judge, is catching a train. Both humorous and realistic, this story is easy to visualize, “The station was a tide of bodies, a cacophony of sounds – human and mechanical, a solid flow of heat-resistant energy. Nevertheless, the announcer’s steady voice, talking alternatively in Marathi, Hindi and English, managed to prevail over the chaos.” In spite of its somewhat weak ending, “Zindagi Itefaq Hai” feels like the beginning of a very entertaining full-length novel.

Other noteworthy stories include “the Tea Drinker” about an adolescent boy who befriends a rich social outcast and “Freire Stopped in Bombay,” which details the ravages of hunger on a poor student who is too proud to borrow money. In addition, despite its pedestrian title, “Middle Age Jazz and Blues” is the most beautiful story in the collection. At a jazz concert, middle-aged single Feroza is struck by the vision of the love of her life, who died tragically.

As is usually the case, some stories are not as interesting as others. However, in spite of some vague references to “things” and “stuff,” a handful of heavy adverbs and some unconventional dialogue tags, Veena Gokhale shows genuine promise as a short story writer and future novelist. Let’s hope she chooses to write more about the Bombay newspaper world.

This has been cross-posted at Rover Arts.

Other reviews

One Good Hustle by Billie Livingston
The World is Moving Around Me by Dany Laferrière
The Return by Dany Laferrière
5 Broken Cameras by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
Detropia by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady

Wild by Cheryl Strayed

The Goodtime Girl by Tess Fragoulis

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Drawn & Quarterly Presents Alison Bechdel

noreply@blogger.com (AKAmamma) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 08:44:00 +0000

It was still light out on Friday night when I left wearing rubber boots to see Alison Bechdel at the Ukrainian Hall, an event sponsored by Drawn and Quarterly and the Institute For Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies at McGill. As I trudged through the slush of the late spring snow and dodged spraying mud from passing cars on St-Denis, I wondered what Bechdel would talk about, even though I knew she really didn't have to do much to please the crowd. The syndicated cartoonist of the long-running comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For and critically acclaimed graphic memoirist has legions of adoring fans. The evening's presenter even told the crowd that a video of Bechdel rescuing an earwig from the kitchen sink garnered more than 7,000 views.

In the end, however, it was not her talk that was the most interesting, but the Q&A at the end. Both of her groundbreaking graphic memoirs Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic and Are You My Mother?: A Comic Drama were more widely read than I had ever imagined. It was also interesting to see her reaction to personal questions that appeared to hit a little too close to home.

No one can deny that authors speaking in public have some expectation of privacy, so why wouldn't Bechdel?

A proponent of "the personal is the political," Bechdel (pronounced Bekdel) writes and draws about very personal issues in great detail. In her first wildly successful graphic memoir Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, she chronicles her childhood and early adulthood in a rural Pennsylvania town and her complex relationship with her father, a funeral home director and high school English teacher. Her father is overbearing and at times violent, like many dads of that era, but he also lives a secret life. Just as the author is coming to terms with her own sexuality, she realizes that her father, too, is gay. It is around this time that there is a tragic accident and her father dies. However, the daughter sees it as a suicide.

Her second graphic memoir, Are You My Mother?: A Comic Drama, is equally as personal. Bechdel writes about her relationship with her very distant mother, who never fully gives her blessing to the memoir. It is also abundantly clear that Fun Home was not a family favourite. Are You My Mother? goes into detail about Bechdel's relationships and her psychotherapy with multiple references to Virginia Woolf, Adrienne Rich and Donald Winnicott. The book does not offer the same closure as Fun Home, but then making sense of our relationships with our mothers is often a work-in-progress.

Although Bechdel admitted at the Q&A that she was not pleased with the end-result of Are You My Mother?, it was nevertheless a critical success.

The talk and slide show of Dykes to Watch Out For were in fact short. The Q&A started like most other with a few timid questions until a sexologist came to the microphone to ask the author about the openness of her therapists to Bechdel's sexual orientation. The author was frank about her positive experiences. At any other Q&A, this would have been a cringe moment, but this time it wasn't. In fact, I nearly made a move to the mic myself. I had my own question. I wanted to know how the little Pennsylvania town where she grew up reacted to Fun Home. But clearly, I was not alone, as many more people quickly joined the line to ask a question. A therapist said that she used Are You My Mother? with her patients as a means to teach the heavy-handed writing of Winnicott. There was also a question from a teacher who taught Fun Home to his highschool English class. Bechdel said that the book was used in college English classes and that she always found it strange that students talked about her father as an actual character.

Then the question everyone was expecting materialized: What did Bechdel's mother think of Are You My Mother? The author took a step back and put her hand over her mouth before answering. Her mother was not happy. "I had to take her to Las Vegas," she said.

Then it was announced that there was enough time for two more questions for the last two people in line. The following person asked a question about the Bechdel test for films and then asked why neither of her siblings appeared in Are You My Mother? Again the author's hand covered her mouth. "Ahh, that's a bit of a hornet's nest," she said. "I can't talk about that." Then she waved her hand in the air and called an end to the question period, leaving one last person in line.

Alison Bechdel has truly espoused "the personal is the political" and her books have helped and validated the experiences of many, but I still think that her honesty and openness may have come at a very high personal price.

This has been cross-posted at Rover Arts.

Other related reviews:

Films for Girls - A Bechdel-Inspired Girl Positive Test
Joyce Carol Oates on her Life and US Politics
A Royal: Jackie Robinson
Alexander MacLeod: Mentor

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Gay Dwarves of America by Anne Fleming

noreply@blogger.com (AKAmamma) — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 20:19:00 +0000

There are a lot of great writers in Canada, yet there seems to be little meritocracy. While some great writers are widely promoted, others rarely get the attention they deserve. This is the case of the inventive, unique and moving Gay Dwarves of America (GDA) by Anne Fleming.

True, it could be that GDA is a collection of short stories, not always the first thing people reach for when they read. Or, as the title suggests, some of the stories are unconventional, even outlandish, maybe not exactly what everyone might be in the mood for. Nevertheless, the reader will be generously rewarded with this refreshingly original collection of short stories. Fleming strikes that fine balance between humour and realism, reeling us in with a few laughs only to show us a more serious issue we might never have considered.

The nine-story collection contains a wide variety of tales, from the stellar and almost mainstream "Thorn-blossoms," about an eccentric hockey mom who must contend with her once ambitious journalist mother, now stricken with Alzheimer's, to the experimental and self-explanatory, "Thirty-One One Word Stories."

In the middle of the spectrum, there are stories about a boy on a unicycle, a bearded parasitologist named Edna and a musical about a bunch of wannabe artists working in inventory at the back of an outdoor equipment store. This story includes a chorus of cashiers and of course (?), a love triangle with the cuckold in a coma.Yes, this is a laugh-out-loud book, but it also elicits a range of other emotions.

The title story, "Gay Dwarves of America," is about two college roommates who, on a whim, set up a chat room for gay men with dwarfism. However, when one of the roommates receives a serious email from a mother who suspects that her son, a little person, is gay, a distance develops between the two friends.

My favourite, "Puke Diary" is about the funny and harrowing events surrounding each family member's experience with vomiting. This even includes an entry on Sarah, the family's cat. My least favourite was the "Backstock: the Musical." Although original, I found it long and had to restart it a few times.

GDA is not a quick read and is best enjoyed over an extended period of time, and preferably not on your commute to work. The conspicuous lime green jacket attracted quite a few smiles and inquisitive looks on the metro. Or was it my giggling?

Anne Fleming's stories have been widely published in literary journals, and she has been shortlisted for both the Governor General's Award for Fiction and the Danuta Gleed Award. That said, although GDA might not be considered mainstream fiction, I'm still surprised that it didn't generate more buzz. Fleming is an original talent that shouldn't be missed.

This review has been cross-posted at Rover Arts.

Other book reviews:
One Good Hustle by Billie Livingston
The World is Moving Around Me by Dany Laferrière
The Return by Dany Laferrière

Wild by Cheryl Strayed

The Goodtime Girl by Tess Fragoulis

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Bone and Bread by Saleema Nawaz

noreply@blogger.com (AKAmamma) — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 12:46:00 +0000

As promised, here is my review of a book that I wanted to like but didn't, as it appeared in the Globe & Mail on Easter weekend 2013.

Bone & Bread
Saleema Nawaz
House of Anansi

Saleema Nawaz burst onto the Canadian literary scene in 2008 with Mother Superior, a widely praised collection of short stories. “My Three Girls,” a story from the collection, won the Journey Prize, while several other stories were published in established literary journals across the country. Bone & Bread, Nawaz’s first full-length novel, is based on the characters in “Bloodlines,” also a story in Mother Superior.

In Bone & Bread, Beena and her younger sister Sadhana live in a tiny apartment above a bagel store in Montreal’s Mile End. Their father, Vishram Singh, the bagel shop owner, dies suddenly, leaving the business to his younger and more traditional Sikh brother, Harinder. The Singh family in India had disowned their eldest son because of his marriage to a white American woman, Beena and Sadhana’s mother, in spite of her conversion to Sikhism.

After the father’s death, their apartment is set ablaze by neo-Nazis, and Sadhana soon shows signs of obsessive compulsive disorder. Tragedy strikes again when the mother dies, leaving the two young teens in the care of Harinder, the girls’ only living relative in Canada. Within a year, Sadhana is hospitalized for anorexia, an illness she battles her whole short life, while Beena finds herself pregnant. The child’s father, Ravi, a bagel shop employee, is nowhere to be found.

Beena tells their story from the present as an adult living in Ottawa with her now 18-year-old son Quinn. Sadhana, the actress, dancer and political activist, has died, and Beena must return to Montreal and empty her apartment. In the process, she uncovers evidence that raises suspicions about the circumstances surrounding her sister’s death. She also discovers that Sadhana had secretly contacted Ravi, a rising right-wing political star.

Bone & Bread is ambitious with easily enough material for two novels. Nawaz successfully portrays a strong yet tumultuous bond between the two sisters, and the author is equally adept at showing the extreme demands of caring for a loved one with anorexia. However, the economy of words and razor-sharp prose of Mother Superior are not to be found in this novel. Instead, there is effusive detail that adds little depth to the story and does not advance the plot. “She sent us an invitation in the mail, on crisp, cream-coloured cardstock, neatly handwritten in feathery script she could only produce with her fountain pen. Turquoise ink,” writes Nawaz of Sadhana’s preparations for a party that would serve merely to contrast the two sisters’ lifestyles. Most sentences are as heavily wrought.

Then there is the issue of the baffling similes and metaphors, leaving the reader momentarily distracted by what exactly is being evoked, “regret has simply become the shadow I would cast if I stood in the sun.” These distractions are unwelcome, especially when the storyline is confusing. With the narrative switching often from the backstory to Beena in the present reminiscing about the past, the novel needs all the coherence it can muster.

However, even these problems might have been overlooked if the author had chosen to show rather than tell so much of the story. The result is language that prevents the reader from experiencing the action first hand. Nawaz writes, “I sat back, watching Sadhana animate the conversation, expounding in her desultory way to Quinn, drawing him out, taking obvious pleasure, as she always did, in his quick mind, his willingness to listen.” Something as simple as dialogue might have made this scene clearer and more accessible to the reader.

While I was not immediately aware of the problems in Bread & Bone, I eventually realized that I was putting the book down every few pages to catch my breath and make better sense of it. Unfortunately, not everyone will be able to pick it up again.

Other reviews

The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier
Fanny & Romeo by Yves Pelletier and Pascal Girard
One Good Hustle by Billie Livingston
The World is Moving Around Me by Dany Laferrière
The Return by Dany Laferrière
5 Broken Cameras by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
Detropia by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady

Wild by Cheryl Strayed

The Goodtime Girl by Tess Fragoulis

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I Wanted To Like the Book But Didn't

noreply@blogger.com (AKAmamma) — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 22:47:00 +0000

Recently, I received a novel to review for a national newspaper. I was thrilled! The book in question was to be one of the 13 literary highlights of 2013, according to the National Post. It was also set in Montreal's Mile End, an area where I lived for nine years--another reason to love the book. The young Montreal-based author had also written a beautiful collection of short stories that I enjoyed. It would seem that I had every reason to like the book.

But I could only read a few pages at a time before I put it down. It was spring, the March break, daylight savings time, a change in seasons...I had plenty of reasons to be tired. But that had never stopped me from reading before. I always have at least one book on the go.

No, I was convinced that I just needed a longer stretch of reading time so that I could really get into the book, enjoy it. But I kept putting it down, and when I didn't put it down I grew frustrated with the author's often circuitous way of getting to the point. I started to look more closely at my source of frustration--too many heavy adjectives, long sentences, metaphors that left me dumbfounded. The story had plenty of tragedy, but it didn't feel dramatic.

First and foremost, I'm a reader, and four years ago when I learned that publishers and online magazines would send me books to review on my blog for free, I was ecstatic. But before I agreed to read anything, I researched the books and authors for some assurance that I was going to like what I read. (After all, I wasn't getting paid for this.) It was a wonderful world. I could choose almost anything that sparked an interest, and my research almost always paid off. In the vast majority of cases, I liked the books and wrote positive reviews.

I quickly discovered that when I read a book for review, I read differently. I followed every narrative thread, reread parts I liked, and took notes when the story slowed. When I finished a book, I mentally went through the story. If any doubt or questions arose, I re-read the book to make sure that I hadn't missed anything. In other words, I am fully aware that every novel is someone's labour of love and try to give the writer every benefit of the doubt.

I know a second read sounds arduous and work intensive, but this is my idea of fun. The second read allows you to see how the book is put together and gives you a much greater appreciation of the craft behind it. I almost always like a book more my second time through.

Rereading this particular novel for review was a slog for a number of reasons. For starters, it was easy to get bogged down in all the details that didn't advance the plot. In addition, I wanted to like the story but didn't. Finally, in all honesty, writing a negative review is a lot more work. You have to continually examine what is confusing and frustrating. Then, of course, you have to read passages yet again to make sure you got it right.

In my second read, I underlined everything I liked and disliked, and although I ended up writing an equal number of positive and negative remarks in the margins, I didn't change my mind. A book has to be exceptional to come across as "good," especially to a reader who will only read it once. I came away with a few strengths I hadn't previously considered, but my original criticisms were confirmed.

As I was preparing to write the review two weeks ago, the media hype for the book began. Then I started to fret and swear a lot. Not only was I going to write my first highly critical review, I was going to do it in a national newspaper. To make matters worse, in the tiny enclave of English-speaking writers in Montreal, there's only about two degrees of separation.

Fortunately, a fellow reviewer and writer urged me to be honest and give constructive criticism with proof to back up my opinions.

Well, I wrote it and submitted it two weeks ago. In the meantime, the Montreal Gazette, the Toronto Star and the National Post have all published favourable critiques. My review will be appearing soon. I promise to post it. After of course, I wash the eggs off the front of my house.

Other reviews

The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier
Fanny & Romeo by Yves Pelletier and Pascal Girard
One Good Hustle by Billie Livingston
The World is Moving Around Me by Dany Laferrière
The Return by Dany Laferrière
5 Broken Cameras by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
Detropia by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady

Wild by Cheryl Strayed

The Goodtime Girl by Tess Fragoulis

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Fanny and Romeo by Yves Pelletier and Pascal Girard

noreply@blogger.com (AKAmamma) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 11:42:00 +0000

Fanny & Romeo
Yves Pelletier
Pascal Girard
Conundrum Press

Unfortunately when the biological clock goes off, there is no snooze button, and thirty-something Fanny, a freelance graphic artist, knows this all too well. While she obsesses about having children, her pragmatic partner, Fabien, thinks that saving more money should be their first priority. Fanny’s dire need to nurture takes her down a comical yet realistic path in Yves Pelletier’s Fanny & Romeo. The Quebec director, actor and comedian of Rock et Belles Oreilles fame has teamed up with award-winning artist Pascal Girard to create this modern-day love story, set in a small Quebec town.

Many women who have worked on their careers in their twenties with the hope of starting a family in their thirties will readily identify with Fanny and her uncontrollable urge to reproduce. Fanny not only prepares Fabien a full breakfast but also packs the allergy-prone real estate agent a peanut-free lunch. To make matters worse, their bungalow looks onto a street inhabited by young boys playing road hockey, with an ever-present golden retriever bounding back and forth. It’s all too much for this wannabe mom.

Fanny needs an escape and goes to the video shop where she runs into none other than Cedric, her two-timing ex. He’s with his new girlfriend who, as fate would have it, is expecting a child, something the two-timer refused to do with Fanny. After picking up a few films with mothering themes, she heads over to her friend’s apartment, and by chance, meets the irresistible Romeo, a fluffy orange tabby her friend has taken in but must give away. Fanny is immediately smitten with Romeo, much to the chagrin of Fabien, who is allergic to cats. As expected, Fanny’s mothering instinct takes over, and the feline drives a wedge between the couple. Fanny goes solo until she learns that cats, too, are fickle creatures.

Yves Pelletier has penned a story that will resonate with many people. We all know someone who wanted children but for whatever reason had to settle for a dog or cat. Fanny’s obsession with Romeo, her doting on him, bathing him and taking him in a backpack to sit on Santa’s knee are funny, particularly because we all know a few crazed cat lovers who would do this if kitty would allow them. However, Pelletier has used a third-person objective narrator, which prevents the reader from knowing Fanny’s thoughts and, consequently, from establishing a connection with the character. As a result, Fanny’s character is flat when it could have easily been fleshed out with a few more thought balloons or some interior monologue. The author also relies on dialogue to give information and advance the narrative. This works in fiction, but a lot of this information could have easily been given in the graphic component. In the end, the story comes across as the first draft of a great idea.

In terms of graphic elements, Pascal Girard has produced some nice water colours, particularly some great establishing shots. But there is a heavy reliance on the six-frame page, which at times becomes monotonous. In addition, too many of the frames are medium close-up and medium-long shots, which further create a distance between the characters and the reader. A few more close-ups zeroing in on expressions would have added some variety and necessary detail. Finally, the architectural style of the bungalow, the town centre and the apartment of Fanny’s friend felt more like the South Shore of Montreal than a small town. Instead, the reader pieces this together by the sheer number of times Fanny unwillingly runs into Cedric.

Overall, Fanny & Romeo is a good story with solid graphics, but the reader can sense that the writer and artist did not work closely together on this. As a result, this album does not reflect the talent of either artist, whereas closer collaboration would have probably yielded something truly remarkable.

This was crossposted at the Montreal Review of Books.

Other reviews

The Accumulative Advantage: Something To Consider for Your Children
The Girl Who Hated Books
The Trouble With Marlene by Billie Livingston
Dead Time by Christy Ann Conlin
Review of the Hunger Games

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Images de femmes Turns 20

noreply@blogger.com (AKAmamma) — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 17:23:00 +0000

The all-woman art collective, Images de femmes, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year and will be featuring work by some 70 women artists. The official kick-off will be this Saturday, March 2, at 1:30 pm at the Mile End library with a reception and vernissage. In addition to a sister art exhibition across the street at AME ART until March 10, workshops given by local artists are scheduled throughout the week, which culminates with Rythmes de femmes, a celebration of women and music at the Rialto Theatre on Sunday, March 10.

While Images de femmes has always had a strong visual arts focus and a growing music component, in the past it has also featured literature and film.

At the vernissage in 1994, Governor General recipient, playwright and novelist Marie Laberge and internationally acclaimed playwright Abla Faroud read from their work. Award-winning documentary filmmaker, screenwriter and director Mireille Dansereau presented Les seins dans la tête in 1995 and Les cheveux en quatre in 1997. While documentary filmmaker and long-time Mile End resident Sophie Bisonnette showed Des lumières dans la grande noirceur in 1996, with the film’s star Léa Roback in attendance. In recent years, Bisonnette has been widely praised for Sexy Inc. Our Children Under the Influence, a documentary about the media's hypersexualization of children.

As one might expect, the idea behind Images de femmes arose around a kitchen table in the fall of 1992, when Claudine Schiradin and some friends discussed what Mile End women artists could do to celebrate International Women's Day. The abundance of cheap, spacious apartments attracted droves of young women artists. "But they had no venue in the Mile End where they could show their work," said local historian and long-time Images de femmes participant Kathryn Harvey.

The Mile End of the early 1990s was hardly the thriving artistic neighbourhood it is now. "It didn't have much identity at all," said the local historian. Empty storefronts lined Park Avenue, and north of St.Viateur, there were plenty of crack houses. "I can’t count the number of times I witnessed police cuffing some young dealer lying face down with a cop’s boot on his back," she said.

The Mile End's turning point came in 1993. Not only was the dilapidated YMCA torn down and rebuilt, but the Habs also won the Stanley Cup, filling cafés on Bernard and St. Viateur streets with screaming fans during the playoffs. There was also another important initiative. A citizen's action group, le Comité des citoyens du Mile-End (CCME) successfully convinced the city of Montreal to buy the old Anglican Church on Park Avenue and convert it into a library. This development project not only provided the neighbourhood with a library and meeting place, and but it also provided Images de femmes with a much-needed venue.

The CCME has been instrumental in assisting initiatives like Images de femmes. "Their work has made the neighbourhood the creative, vibrant place it is today," said Harvey.

CCME member Baska Séguin, artists Françoise Barraud and Nancy Héroux, and Josée Moreau from the city of Montreal were key figures in organizing the first ever Images de femmes. However, by 1996, the annual event had become so popular that they had run out of exhibition space. An obvious solution was to ask local merchants to display the work of up-and-coming artists.

"Residents of the Mile End did their socializing where they shopped, in doorways, and out on the street, having no other place to congregate," said the local historian. As a result, there has always been a strong relationship between members of the community and shop owners, who have always been more than willing to lend a hand to aspiring artists.

This tradition is alive and well today. A number of Mile End businesses still feature the work of local artists in their storefronts and shops. The first week of March is a great time to go for a walk in the hood and see the work of the next generation of artists.

For a listing of the Images de femmes events, "like" their Facebook Page or follow them on Twitter at @MileEndIdF. Tickets to the March 10 Rythmes de femmes are on sale at the Rialto ticket office or can be purchased at the door ($15 general admission, $10 for students and seniors).

Other related links:
Images de femmes 2010
Images de femmes 2011
Rythmes de femmes at Rialto Theatre 2011
19th Images de femmes 2012

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Alexander MacLeod: Mentor

noreply@blogger.com (AKAmamma) — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 00:54:00 +0000

Award-winning author Alexander MacLeod will be one of two mentors in the inaugural Mentorship Exchange Program between the Quebec Writers' Federation (QWF) and the Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia. The 2010 Giller Prize nominee will be coaching up-and-coming Quebec writer Josée Lafrenière, while Montreal Gazette Literary Critic and author Ian McGillis will go to Halifax to work with Nova Scotia writer Jessica Chisholm.

MacLeod believes that the exchange is a great idea and is pleased to be taking part. He will be mentoring Lafrenière on her work-in-progress. "I'm very impressed with her writing" said the bestselling author. "It's precise, careful and nuanced."

MacLeod's debut collection of short stories, Light Lifting, received rave reviews on both sides of the Atlantic. In addition to being shortlisted for the Frank O'Connor Award and the Commonwealth Prize, it received an Atlantic Canada Book Award. There's an emphasis on labour and physical exertion in this collection, but it also includes stories on parenting and boyhood friendships. The common thread throughout is the setting--Windsor, Ontario.

"My dad taught at the University of Windsor, so we spent most of our elementary and secondary school years there before heading back to our house in Cape Breton for the summers."

Photo by H. Crosby

The author's father, International IMPAC Dublin Award winner Alistair MacLeod, taught English and Creative Writing at the University of Windsor, which was a literary hub in Canada at the time. Alistair MacLeod taught alongside Joyce Carol Oates and her late husband Raymond Smith, the editors of the now legendary Ontario Review literary journal, which published work by such illustrious writers as John Updike, Margaret Atwood, Saul Bellow and Phillip Roth.

Did this have an influence on the young MacLeod?

"Yes, I think it certainly did," said the author, who is a proud graduate of the same university program. "The great Eugene McNamara recruited my dad to come to the school in the early seventies and then that excellent group... Joyce Carol Oates, Raymond Smith, W.0. Mitchell, John Ditsky, Adele Wiseman, Wanda Campbell, Ed Watson, Peter Stevens, and a whole host of year-long writers in residence came together to build this." The author said that he and his family knew what it was like to feel part of a vibrant literary community, attending readings and public events on both sides of the Canada-US border.

Alexander MacLeod will be in Montreal on Saturday, February 23, to give a one-day QWF workshop on fiction's position between the poles of poetry and raw journalistic narrative, with a focus on the micro- and macro-levels of storytelling. Unfortunately for many, the workshop was full within hours of being posted.

However, you can still catch the author's reading this Saturday at 7:30 pm at the independent Argo Books (1915 St. Catherine Street West).

MacLeod will be reading from Light Lifting and possibly something new....

This has been cross-posted at Rover Arts.

Other reviews:

One Good Hustle by Billie Livingston
The World is Moving Around Me by Dany Laferrière
The Return by Dany Laferrière
5 Broken Cameras by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
Detropia by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady

Wild by Cheryl Strayed

The Goodtime Girl by Tess Fragoulis

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It's Not All Black and White

noreply@blogger.com (AKAmamma) — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 22:58:00 +0000

It's Not All Black and White: Multiracial Youth Speak Out
St. Stephen's Community House
Annick Press

I think we can all agree that adolescence can be difficult at the best of times. Now try to imagine what it is like for the adolescent who doesn't look like the majority of his/her peers. It's Not All Black and White addresses what it is "really" like to grow up biracial or multiracial.

The youth contributors in this slim resource describe their own experiences of growing up mixed-race through hard-hitting raps, poems, interviews and personal essays. They are all members of the Youth Arcade Program at the St. Stephen's Community House, a social service agency that has served West Toronto for a half century.

This is a great resource for parents, teachers, guidance counsellors and community leaders. There's a particularly insightful interview with Carol Camper, the editor of Miscegenation Blues: Voices of Mixed Race Women. Racial slurs are the most obvious form of racism, but it's the indirect comments, dirty looks and thoughtless behaviour that can be far more harmful. Camper says, "Often people of colour will feel the insult, but they might not be able to describe what the problem is. This can often be more damaging than more obvious forms of racism because it affects how you feel inside. It is also harder to challenge, and it becomes very difficult to believe your gut instinct if you have felt insulted but you can't even explain why."

Karen Arthurton, a mixed-race parent raising a mixed-race child, draws on her own experience as well as her work with multiracial youth to give parents and caregivers 13 helpful tips for raising biracial and multiracial children, helping them to develop healthy self-esteem and a strong sense of identity.

There is plenty of food for thought in this book, and you may think twice before you ask "So where are you really from?" or tell a young girl that she "looks so exotic."

Other related posts:
The Accumulative Advantage: Something To Consider for Your Children
The Girl Who Hated Books
The Trouble With Marlene by Billie Livingston
Dead Time by Christy Ann Conlin
Review of the Hunger Games

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The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier

noreply@blogger.com (AKAmamma) — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 15:24:00 +0000

This review was initially published in the Globe and Mail.

The Last Runaway
Tracy Chevalier
Dutton
p.302

Author of the bestselling Girl With a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier has set her seventh book in her native United States, for the first time. The novelist, who has lived in Britain for 30 years, has chosen to write about the tumultuous pre-Civil War period.

Honor Bright is a modest, taciturn Quaker woman who emigrates from Britain to the United States with her adventurous sister, Grace, after deep personal disappointment. Her sister is to marry Adam Cox, a British Quaker who has settled in a village in Ohio. After a horrendous ocean voyage, the sisters arrive in the United States, and Grace unexpectedly dies, leaving Honor stranded in a foreign and seemingly inhospitable land, where “flowers look different … even when they have the same name.”

Honor is able to rely on her fine sewing and quilting skills to earn her keep with a small-town milliner, Belle Mills, until her sister’s fiancé can come for her. But Honor is a woman of principle and order, and later finds the living arrangement with Adam and his recently widowed sister-in-law, Abigail, insufferable.

In the end, she has little choice: She must return to England or marry. And the pickings are indeed slim in rural Ohio. In spite of an undeniable attraction to Donovan, a bad-boy slave hunter, Honor marries into an influential Quaker family, but with some reservations.

In 1850, Ohio was a free state. Yet, slave-hunters crisscrossed the state, capturing fugitive slaves for the generous bounties. In addition, whites were prohibited by law from harbouring or protecting runaways. However, an estimated 40,000 slaves made their escape to Canada through Ohio, where there was a network of approximately 700 safe houses, or “depots” as they were known in the Underground Railroad, with the Quakers playing a crucial role.

Honor’s in-laws are abolitionists, but because of past tragedy, they refuse to break the law to help anyone on the run. Honor, nevertheless, finds that she is incapable of refusing assistance to those who appear at the farm, and becomes involved in the Underground Railroad.

The Last Runaway is a fast-paced, satisfying read, with Chevalier continually adding riveting details to keep the narrative rolling. There is some particularly insightful writing about the traditional art of quilt-making, which is on par with Chevalier’s writing on fossils in Remarkable Creatures. In fact, thorough research appears to be the hallmark of her work, lending it greater credibility and depth.

Most impressive is her credible yet subtle flair for signalling the presence of fugitive slaves. I found myself backtracking to find out exactly how she did it. Honor has, Chevalier writes, “an inner barometer that measured the change in the surrounding area, as one senses the air swelling before a thunderstorm. … People’s being gave off a kind of cold heat.”

As in Girl With a Pearl Earring and Remarkable Creatures, the novelist presents strong women characters who are not afraid to take action. While fiction can always use more heroines with agency, I much preferred the plain-spoken, gun-toting Belle Mills to Honor. Honor’s harsh judgment of her new country and its people at times bordered on annoying self-righteousness. She was perhaps not the most flexible candidate for emigration. Nevertheless, I am curious to see how her character will be greeted on the other side of the Atlantic when The Last Runaway is released in Britain in March. And will British readers buy such an American tale?

For anyone interested in the Underground Railroad and the Pre-Civil War era, The Last Runaway is well worth your book-buying buck.

Other reviews

One Good Hustle by Billie Livingston
The World is Moving Around Me by Dany Laferrière
The Return by Dany Laferrière
5 Broken Cameras by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
Detropia by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady

Wild by Cheryl Strayed

The Goodtime Girl by Tess Fragoulis

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Bilingual Children: Reading

noreply@blogger.com (AKAmamma) — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 18:33:00 +0000

Last weekend, I tackled a chore I've been meaning to do for a long time: weeding through our large collection of books. My husband and I gave away many of our much-loved paperbacks in favour of more living space and less clutter. In our purge, I found a box of children's books that once belonged to yours truly. I laughed when I saw my own name in a child's scrawl on the inside cover. I'd misjudged the space and had to add the final "r" in Heather on the next line.

My five-year-old was thrilled with the new additions to his library and didn't seem to mind that they were in English. French is the dominant language in our home, as both my children attend a French-language school and their father is a French-speaking Quebecer. My son's first choice was Horton Hears a Who, possibly because it was bigger and thicker than the other books. He is already wise to the fact that a longer book means a later bedtime. Horton was a little too difficult for a kindergarten student and required some explanations in French to maintain his interest. However, the Dr. Seuss beginner's series produced two favourites this week. Unsurprisingly, The Cat in the Hat was a big hit. My son loves rhymes, yelling out the last rhyme on every page. But the best book for learning English was Go Dog Go! My son adored the detailed drawings, and I loved all the repetition of sounds that rolled off our tongues. This is a fun book that I'm sure we'll read many times in the future.

Something else happened this week. Even though we have a copy of Je Suis Fou de Vava [I'm Crazy About Vava] by Dany Laferrière, my son brought a copy home from his school library and asked me to read it. He also blushed when he handed it to me. I had the distinct impression that his teacher or the librarian had read it to the class because this time he knew exactly what it was about--Laferrière's boyhood crush on a girl called Vava. When I'd finished reading it, he immediately took it to his father and asked him to read it again. I can't say I blame him. It's a bright beautiful book. Frédéric Normandin's breathtaking illustrations have strong Haitian naive art influences.

My son has taken to English, unlike my daughter who is now 10. Even as a young child she refused to listen to stories in English, even if it meant she could stay up later. Fortunately, she started to make a genuine effort to learn a few years ago. Our trips to the States have helped her see that there are indeed cool people who speak English. Besides, now the world revolves around Katy Perry, Adele and Ellen DeGeneres, and English is top. She's even talking about taking intensive English in high school. But I still encounter resistance in getting her to read in English with me. I was hoping to move on to a thin volume in English after finishing our current night-time read: Aurélie Laflamme by India Desjardins. But, while reading in English is important, reading without my insistence is the goal. I still entertain hope that one day she will be a bibliophile.

Zee fingers are crossed.

Related posts
Identity and Raising Bilingual Children
Books for Children Age 4 to 7
The Trouble With Marlene

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The World is Moving Around Me: A Memoir of the Haiti Earthquake By Dany Laferrière

noreply@blogger.com (AKAmamma) — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 13:14:00 +0000

The World is Moving Around Me: A Memoir of the Haiti Earthquake
Arsenal Pulp Press
By Dany Laferrière
Translated by David Homel

This review/interview was initially posted on the Montreal Review of Books.

At 4:53 pm, on January 12, 2010, Dany Laferrière was waiting for his lobster with two dinner companions at the restaurant of the Hôtel Karibe. The award-winning Montreal writer and Haitian ex-pat was in Port-au-Prince for the international Étonnants Voyageurs book and film festival. As he bit into some bread, he heard a terrible explosion. At first, he thought it was a machine gun, while later others would say it was a train. When the cooks ran out of the kitchen, he assumed that a boiler had exploded. Laferrière and his companions fled the restaurant and lay on their backs in the hotel courtyard when the earth began to shake “like a piece of paper whipped by the wind.” They heard the roar of cement buildings crumbling and then saw a cloud of dust rising into the late afternoon sky. In his memoir The World is Moving Around Me, Laferrière writes that it was “as if a professional dynamiter had received the express order to destroy an entire city without blocking the streets so the cranes could pass.”

Exactly three years ago, Haiti was leveled by a massive earthquake, and while the international media was quick to give us an overall picture of the devastation through harrowing footage and dire statistics, it largely ignored the resilience of the Haitian people, something that the writer makes abundantly clear in his memoir. “The people of Haiti are champions in difficult situations, at ease in exceptional circumstances,” Laferrière told me at an interview on an overcast December afternoon at the Café Cherrier. “They’ve been doing just that for 200 years, since Haiti’s Independence.”

The World is Moving Around Me is made up of a series of first-person vignettes. Laferrière zeroes in on poignant details of the aftermath, bringing this cataclysmic event down to a human scale. At the Hôtel Karibe, he and the other hotel guests slept outside on the tennis court after the initial quake, enduring another 43 tremors through the night. With limited means of communication, the author only realized the unfathomable depth of the disaster when he heard song in the early hours. A large crowd of people had formed in the street to sing, using song to assuage their pain. Nearby the hotel, a woman spent the night speaking to her husband and three children trapped beneath crumbled concrete, each of them eventually falling silent except for her squalling baby. In the end, only the smiling infant was pulled from the rubble. In the hours that followed, news trickled in of the destruction of the Presidential Palace, the courthouse, and the taxation and pension office.

After overcoming the initial shock, survivors had to contend with not only their guilt but also their fear of not finding their loved ones. Fortunately, Laferrière’s friend arrived at the hotel, offering to drive him to see his mother and sister, whom he had been unable to reach. On their way, the first thing they saw on the side of the road was a woman sitting with her back to a wall selling a dozen mangoes spread out in front of her. The mango vendor is a prime example of what the author refers to as the Haitian resilience—a woman who returns to selling mangoes, her livelihood, the day after a massive earthquake. “The mango vendor became the symbol of renewal after the earthquake.” Laferrière told me over coffee. “That was the point when people started to pick themselves up.” The human side of the reconstruction had begun.

This statement, however, is in stark contrast with the message the powerful western media delivered in the wake of the disaster. Apparently, Haiti was “cursed,” and the headlining statistics supported that label: 318,000 deaths, 300,000 injured, and 1 million left homeless. But the author convincingly argues that this type of reporting only undermined the efforts of Haitians to rise to their considerable challenge. In the vignette A Semantic Battle, he writes, “But it [‘cursed’] is not the right word, especially when you see the energy and dignity displayed by the nation as it faces one of the most difficult tests of our time .... All some commentator has to say is the word ‘curse’ on the airwaves and it spreads like a cancer.”

The media presented a panoramic view of the disaster, while Laferrière chose to tell the story as it unfolded around him, fleshing out the tiny details to give a beautifully layered, thoughtful account of his own first-hand experience. “In this type of situation, no one sees the entire situation,” he told me at our interview. “We only see the situation and the people in the immediate area. I understood this right away and didn’t try to give an overall picture.”

Laferrière’s memoir delivers much more food for thought about the human condition in the wake of a natural disaster than the superficial accounts broadcast by our up-to-the-minute media, with its barrage of statistics and horrific images. I asked Laferrière about his approach to literary reportage. “I wanted to see how a writer could describe an event that he was so closely involved in,” the author said. “And do it with aplomb, paying the event the respect it deserves and approaching it as art, while adhering to the principles of reporting.”

I also asked Laferrière how it fit into his body of work. He said, “I wrote it precisely because it was in line with my work. For me, it was fundamental, a way of making sense of the earthquake.” And that is exactly what the World Moving Around Me allows the reader to do—make sense of the earthquake. It also serves up a compelling argument for why we need more long-form journalism.

Other reviews:

The Return by Dany Laferrière

5 Broken Cameras by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
Detropia by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
Finding Dawn by Christine Welch
The Fruit Hunters by Yung Chang

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My Fourth Anniversary

noreply@blogger.com (AKAmamma) — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 23:02:00 +0000

My kids making a gingerbread house

It's hard to believe, but today is the fourth anniversary of the Unexpected Twists and Turns.(The link is to my very first post: Ice Cleats Anyone?) Not only have I written over 400 posts, but I have exceeded my expectations in terms of pageviews. I have EL James and Fifty Shades of Grey to thank for that. I guess I used the right keywords, title and embedded links for my review to rank high in the search engine results, because I certainly got a lot of hits and comments.

You may have also noticed that I did not write as often this year and that I reviewed a lot more books, show, films, etc. As some of you already know, I began blogging when my son was but a babe, and my daughter was in kindergarten. Blogging was a great way to connect with people while staying home with my kids. Today, my son is in kindergarten, and my daughter is a pre-teen in fifth grade. Needless to say, I feel a little more comfortable leaving them with a babysitter for a night on the town. This year, I also started writing for a group of talented people at Rover Arts. They are the ones responsible for sending me some great books as well as tickets to review shows here in Montreal. If you'd like to subscribe to The List, Rover's weekly listing of things to do in Montreal, click here.

Yesterday, on a trudge to pick up my daughter's friend.

Over the next year, I will continue to blog at about the same frequency, as we now have homework, chores, piano lessons, and then there will be swimming lessons in the spring. Yep! We're busy. The themes may change slightly, but you can be sure that there will be more on books and films, plus a few posts on my neighbourhood.

I'd like to thank you all for your support, especially my email subscribers who have been reading my posts since the very beginning. Cheers!

Here's a list of my most popular posts this year:
Review: 50 Shades of Grey
Success: Don't Be That Guy
Montreal: 200,000 People Demonstrate
The Year of the E-book: Fifty Shades of Grey and Oprah
The Return by Dany Laferrière
Ru by Kim Thuy

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Mister Roger and Me by Marie-Renée Lavoie

noreply@blogger.com (AKAmamma) — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 01:36:00 +0000

Mister Roger and Me
Marie-Renée Lavoie
House of Anansi Press

For children, cartoon characters not only offer entertainment, but also provide a vision, however skewed, of the outside world. And although many might refuse to admit it, cartoon heroes often serve as early role models. This is the case in the endearing story of Mister Roger and Me, the translation of Marie-Renée Lavoie’s award-winning debut novel.

Set in the early 1980s, the story follows the life of Hélène through those seemingly endless pre-teen years. The eight-year-old decides she wants to be called Joe because she assumes that life as a boy is better. It isn’t because she is the second eldest of four daughters, but because Hélène is enthralled with the cartoon heroine Lady Oscar, a military captain in Maria-Antoinette’s palace guard who conceals her female identity behind a heavy coat laden with medals and military insignia. For Hélène, Lady Oscar epitomizes courage, strength and adventure.

Although our young protagonist tries to emulate Lady Oscar, her neighbourhood offers little in the way of romantic windswept settings. Her working class neighbourhood is populated with psychiatric outpatients roaming the streets, welfare recipients and her obese neighbours, the Simards. However, to Hélène, her surroundings are merely humble, not grim, and inspired by Lady Oscar, she strikes out to find an adventure in her tiny world. But instead of fighting for justice during the French Revolution like her heroine, Hélène lies about her age and says that she’s 10 to get herself a paper route, and when that isn’t enough, she takes on a second. At the same time, a new boarder moves into the Simards’ basement, a man by the name of Mr. Roger.

The new neighbour whiles away his day drinking beer in a worn-out armchair, and much to the chagrin of Hélène’s mother, Mister Roger swears like a sailor. But beneath his rough exterior lurks a kind heart, and the ailing senior dispenses wise advice to Hélène, in addition to serving as the neighbourhood source for home remedies. The senior and father of three grown children is a godsend who watches over Hélène and saves her from a fate that would have left lasting scars even on Lady Oscar.

The Original French

Lavoie has beautifully captured those bright shiny pre-teen years before the sordid side of human nature makes its unfortunate appearance. The brilliant use of Lady Oscar as a narrative device successfully reels the reader back to those tender years when performing an honourable deed was worth every last joule of energy. Another wise choice was the use of the first person narrative, limiting the reader to the world as seen through the eyes of a young girl. However, while the author has made some great choices, there are a number of passages with long-winded, heavy sentences that warranted a second read, interrupting the flow of the story.

Originally published under the title La Petite et le vieux in French, Mister Roger and Me was a risky undertaking, as many will immediately shy away from a story about a relationship between an old man and a young girl. But the odd pairing of characters works in this book; Hélène and Mr. Roger complement each other. The outgoing innocent child needs Mr. Roger’s guidance, while Hélène’s optimism offers Mr. Roger some hope in the final years of his life. Both funny and touching, Mister Roger and Me will remind readers of a time not long ago when we were far more trusting of our neighbours.

This review was originally posted in the Fall 2012 edition of mRb.

Other Reviews
Song of Roland by Michel Rabagliati
Mid-Life by Joe Ollmann
5 Broken Cameras by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
Detropia by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
Finding Dawn by Christine Welch
The Fruit Hunters by Yung Chang
Review of the Juliet Stories by Carrie Snyder
The Day of the Crows directed by Jean-Christophe Dessaint

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Review of The Song of Roland by Michel Rabagliati

noreply@blogger.com (AKAmamma) — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 15:02:00 +0000

The Song of Roland
Michel Rabagliati
Conundrum Press

We’ve waited three long years for the English translation of Michel Rabagliati’s internationally acclaimed Paul à Québec, his sixth album in this semi-autobiographical series. As in Rabagliati’s previous stories, the author addresses a milestone in Paul’s life.

Our protagonist is your average middle-class nice guy, a husband to Lucie, and a father to Rose. In short, Paul is someone readers can readily identify with. Paul, now almost 40, moves with his family from their urban apartment to a modest home, just as he is hitting his stride in his career as a graphic artist. In other words, life is good. But on a long holiday weekend with Lucie’s parents and extended family, Paul inadvertently discovers that his father-in-law Roland is sick.

While The Song of Roland is about Roland’s life and legacy, this intergenerational portrait is also about family, love, and coping. Of course, the story will bring many readers to tears, but Rabagliati expertly negotiates the theme of death by adding moving family memories and generous doses of humour to keep things light and the narrative moving.

The old-school federalist and quintessential self-made man, Roland is also a likeable character. Born into poverty, he came of age in the prosperous post-war era and achieved relative wealth through hard work and determination, back in the day when success did not require a higher degree. His political views differ from those of his offspring, who came of age at the height of Quebec nationalism. But for all his hard work in life, Roland’s new rank among the dying is unbearable for the former executive, and true to the Kübler-Ross model, Roland proves to be a stubborn, difficult patient for hospice staff at the beginning of his three-month stay.

Rabagliati’s treatment of time in The Song of Roland is nothing short of masterful. As anyone who has lost someone can attest, the final months and days are excruciatingly long, and time indeed moves very slowly. To illustrate this, the author decelerated time segments by increasing his number of frames. In his beautiful broad ink brushstrokes, Rabagliati shows us Paul’s final drive to bid farewell to his father-in-law in no less than 22 frames, adding highly realistic yet extremely banal detail, such as Paul fastening his seatbelt, turning right onto Sauvé East, taking the Louis-H.-Lafontaine tunnel, and even passing by IKEA. The author successfully draws out the sequence while maintaining the reader’s interest.

The Original French Cover

In terms of graphic elements, the most stunning is Lucie’s nightmare, foreshadowing her father’s death. Rabagliati contrasts a sequence of luminous open spaces in which an adolescent Lucie and her father are clowning around on a summer’s day with that of Lucie walking alone in a dark dense forest with short teeth-like branches. Amid the darkness, Lucie comes across a small structure awash in light with a tiny Virgin Mary statue on the forest floor and then comes face to face with the shadowy grim reaper wielding a shot gun. Another poignant visual is the floral pattern created by Roland’s final injection of morphine.

The Song of Roland has been hailed as Rabagliati’s mid-career masterpiece and with good reason. This is his best yet. But the dramatic change in title for the English version will certainly raise some eyebrows. Why the sudden shift in emphasis from Paul to Roland? Could it be the new publisher? Anyway, diehard Paul fans who have patiently waited for the translation will not be disappointed. Once again Rabagliati, the storyteller, gives us another highly realistic and riveting chapter in Paul`s life, while Rabagliati, the artist and craftsman, skilfully brings his readers close enough to the action to make them feel personally involved in the story.

This review was first published in the summer 2012 edition of the Montreal Review of Books.

Other Reviews
Mid-Life by Joe Ollmann
5 Broken Cameras by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
Detropia by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
Finding Dawn by Christine Welch
The Fruit Hunters by Yung Chang
Review of the Juliet Stories by Carrie Snyder
The Day of the Crows directed by Jean-Christophe Dessaint

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5 Broken Cameras by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi

noreply@blogger.com (AKAmamma) — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 11:49:00 +0000

Adeeb (centre) and other demonstrators

Winner of the People's Choice Award at the RIDM, 5 Broken Cameras is an intimate look at the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as seen through the lens of Emad Burnat, a Palestinian farmer and amateur videographer living in Bil'in, West Bank. In his attempt to create a visual record of the border conflict that unfolds over six years, he has a series of five cameras destroyed. This is just one narrative thread that runs through this autobiograpical film, brilliantly edited by Israeli video activist Guy Davidi.

In 2005, Burnat purchases his first camera to film the birth of his fourth son Gibreel. This event coincides with the arrival of Israeli surveyors who are laying the groundwork for a barrier through the village's olive groves. The barrier, a combination of barbed wire fence, a concrete wall and watchtowers, is ostensibly to protect the expanding Israeli settlements from snipers and suicide bombers. But the barrier also appropriates the Palestinian olive groves, the villagers' means of subsistence. Local Palestinians begin peaceful weekly protests, often resulting in violent clashes with Israeli soldiers. As can be expected, the conflict intensifies, the army closes in and the resistance movement swells to include Israeli and foreign sympathizers, all of which Burnat doggedly captures on film.

But 5 Broken Cameras also chronicles many personal events that run parallel to the struggle, taking the edge off the escalating violence and giving this conflict a much-needed human element. Burnat's friends, Adeeb and Basseem, the de facto resistance leaders, are key figures in the story. In addition to risking bullets in their verbal confrontations with Israeli soldiers, Adeeb is shot in the leg, while Basseem, the gentle giant, eventually meets his fate with a gas grenade. Burnat also films multiple arrests. The most poignant was his brother being apprehended by police, while both his mother and father tried in vain to stop the police vehicle.

Another narrative thread involves Burnat's son Gibreel. He grows from a joyful toddler whose first words are "cartridge" and "army," to a child with hardened eyes learning about heroes. Burnat, himself, also undergoes a few changes in the course of the film. His hair greys, he gains weight, and at the end of the film, he is involved in a near tragic accident that is unrelated to the conflict. Ironically, his life is saved at an Israeli hospital, and the Palestinian Authority refuses to pay him any compensation.

There are a few scenes, however, that appear staged for the sake of creating a stronger family narrative. The first scene that comes to mind is Burnat's wife putting Gibreel to bed and singing him a lullaby, and the second involves Burnat's wife telling him that his filming is jeopardizing their lives. These scenes may well have happened, but they appear to have been filmed after the fact. In addition, not all the footage used was Burnat's, as it was explicitly stated in the credits. Footage was also taken from Davidi's work and that of another unnamed cameraman.

In spite of this, Davidi's editing is first-rate. In an interview with Box Office, we learn that he had to go through over 1,000 hours of footage, and then do the final edit with Véronique Lagoarde to create this 90-minute film. The challenge, he says, was "to create a balance between the violence and the nice moments, the delicate moments." And I must add that without these delicate moments, 5 Broken Cameras would have come across as just more horrifying coverage of the conflict in the Middle East, and I would have left after 10 minutes.

In the end, 5 Broken Cameras is a gripping tale that gives us a much more nuanced story of the intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Unsurprisingly, the film has won awards at both Sundance and the IDFA, the world's largest documentary film festival.

This review has been cross-posted at Rover Arts.

Other reviews
Detropia by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
Finding Dawn by Christine Welch
The Fruit Hunters by Yung Chang
Review of the Juliet Stories by Carrie Snyder
The Day of the Crows directed by Jean-Christophe Dessaint
M60: Faux Pas

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Detropia by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady

noreply@blogger.com (AKAmamma) — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 22:23:00 +0000

Artists moving into Detroit

Detropia
Directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady

Director Heidi Ewing grew up four miles from Detroit. After each visit home, she would invariably find herself telling friends in New York just how bad things were in the Motor City. Then she and fellow director Rachel Grady made a trailer for a film about the city. "Turned out there were other people also interested in Detroit," Ewing told the Huffington Post. The award-winning directors of Jesus Camp and The Boys of Baraka quickly received funding from PBS and the Ford Foundation. In October 2009, they started filming the highly acclaimed Detropia, which was presented at the 14th annual Rencontres internationales du documentaire de Montreal.

The demise of Detroit is old news. We've been hearing about it for decades. In fact, a friend familiar with the area recently said that the purpose of building the Renaissance Center (RenCen) was to revitalize the downtown--that was in 1976. Even so, the last decade of globalization and outsourcing has decimated Detroit, and the film makes it abundantly clear that the extent of the devastation has to be seen to be believed. The Motor City reportedly has 100,000 abandoned homes and 25% of its population has left in the past decade. Detropia is intended to be a wake-up call to the world of what can happen to our cities if we continue to make decisions for purely economic reasons.

Ewing and Grady take us to the streets, showing us the city through the eyes of a handful of tough Detroiters who are unwilling to give up on their city. The cinematography is nothing short of stunning. The dilapidated homes, derelict hotels and rundown movie theatres are in stark contrast to the vintage footage of Detroit in its heyday, when it was the world's car capital and home to a burgeoning middle class. A haunting musical score is intercut with scenes from Detroit's Opera, which clings to life from support from the Big Three automakers.

The scenario may sound grim, and it is. Through local UAW President George McGregor, we see the status of what remains of the automotive industry. He chairs a meeting where management "offers" workers a sizeable cut to their hourly wages. There's also retired school teacher Tommy Stephens who runs the only blues bar left in East Detroit. He keeps the money-losing operation open with the hope that the plant up the road will soon be bustling once the electric car is perfected. The two represent the doomed hope of many North Americans--that manufacturing jobs will soon return to this side of the world.

But Detropia also offers hope. The film follows twenty-something Crystal Starr, a video blogger and urban adventurer when she isn't working in a café. Starr films herself breaking into abandoned buildings and houses, and imagines for her viewers what life was like when the city "was bangin." Visiting the ruins of cities like Detroit, known as ruin porn in Tumblr culture, has begun to draw a new kind of tourist to the city, not to mention scores of artists who are attracted to Detroit's low-cost of living and dirt-cheap real estate. I must admit that my initial interest in Detropia stemmed from seeing "the Ruins of Detroit," a brilliant photo essay by Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre.

Ewing and Grady have given us a powerful snapshot of Detroit at the end of the first decade of the 21st century, with all of its crumbling architecture and infrastructure. The film also provides a much needed picture of the human element, the Detroiters who refuse to leave, something that no statistic, headline or "expert" can deliver.

Detropia serves up some great food for thought about globalization, our shrinking middle class, and ultimately, the future of our cities.

This review has been cross-posted at Rover Arts.

Detropia is showing at Cinéma du Parc from November 24 to November 29.

Similar posts:
The Fruit Hunters by Yung Chang
Review of the Juliet Stories by Carrie Snyder
The Day of the Crows directed by Jean-Christophe Dessaint
M60: Faux Pas

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The Fruit Hunters by Yung Chang

noreply@blogger.com (AKAmamma) — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 13:26:00 +0000

The Fruit Hunters
Directed by Yung Chang

Noris Ledesma, Member of the Rare Fruit Council Int'l

A gray November day calls for an adventure! So why not follow passionate fruit hunters Noris Ledesma and Richard Campbell on their quest to find a “wani” mango in Bali and rescue a rare durian from the evil clutches of encroaching industrialists in the jungles of Borneo. Their noble mission—to obtain plant grafts to preserve the species for cultivation on the other side of the world. Yet, the dynamic duo’s obsession with rare fruit is by no means unique, as moviegoers discovered at the world première of The Fruit Hunters presented at the 14th annual Rencontres internationales du documentaire de Montreal. Among the ranks of fruit fanatics, the film features a driven fruit scientist who works tirelessly to create a banana resistant to a deadly fungus threatening the world’s crop, a fruit detective who studies paintings from the renaissance era to rediscover forgotten fruit and a well-known actor and fruit activist who spearheads a campaign to start a community orchard on coveted property in the Hollywood Hills.

Indigenous Guide in Borneo

Based on Adam Gollner’s best-selling book, The Fruit Hunters is a visually stunning, fast-paced Indiana Jones-style documentary that takes us back in history and around the globe, investigating our love affair with fruit. Although actor Bill Pullman adds some celebrity fire power to the film, there is no question that the star of the show is none other than the fruit itself, in all its myriad forms. From the very first scene, the object of affection is cast in a sensual and delectable light with a series of close-ups, enhancing the colour, texture and fullness of its star performers. A good thing the première was followed by a fruit-tasting event! And what better way to further enhance the natural beauty of fruit than by quickly switching to images of our mass-produced supermarket variety—the plain jane and insipid-tasting cousin of the real thing.

The Fruit Hunters takes a step away from the documentary in its strictest sense, using humourous re-enactments, highly detailed miniatures and a sprightly musical score. But these aspects add to the film’s playfulness and will remind many viewers of childhoods when both fruit and dreams of adventure were welcome distractions.

The film incorporates plenty of high stakes and irresistible hooks to keep the adventure rolling. Yet, it leaves viewers hanging as to the fate of Pullman’s Hollywood Orchard and whether or not Ledesma and Campbell’s white mango grafts bore fruit. Something tells me there might be a sequel, and I’ll be the first in line.

The Fruit Hunters will be opening on November 23, 2012 in Montreal and Toronto and on
November 30, 2012 in Vancouver.

Cross-posted at Rover Arts.

Related post:

Review of Wild by Cheryl Strayed

The Goodtime Girl by Tess Fragoulis
Cross-country running for kids
LACMA: Mom's Need Fun Too
Downtown Los Angeles With The Kids

Review of The Juliet Stories by Carrie Snyder

noreply@blogger.com (AKAmamma) — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 14:00:00 +0000

The Juliet Stories

Carrie Snyder

House of Anansi

Recently short-listed for this year’s Governor General’sAward for literature, The Juliet Stories is the most recent work by Carrie Snyder. This novel-in-stories spans the life of Juliet from the tender age of 10 to adulthood. The eldest of three children, Juliet is the daughter of naive left-wing parents who uproot their family from Indiana and go to Nicaragua to help the Sandinistas fight the Reagan-backed Contras in the early 1980s. The well-intentioned father, however, is much more interested in fighting alongside the Sandinistas in el campo than helping his wife and young family get acclimatized to the new language and culture. But Juliet’s father is not the only one with his focus elsewhere. Although her mother, Gloria, is busy with her family and chasing down a toddler, it appears that she would rather be strumming her guitar and showing off her beautiful singing voice at adult parties than being a mom. Gloria is quick to pass on some of her parenting responsibilities to the eldest Juliet, something that the daughter resents.

The three children slowly adjust to their new life in Nicaragua, but Juliet is always an outsider at school, or the girl who has the unladylike habit of sweating and throwing like a boy in gym class. There is a constant stream of Roots for Justice volunteers arriving from the United States to continue the struggle, and her father gets a little too involved with a few. The family endures some harrowing experiences, which include being stopped by a group of armed men in the hills and having their car stolen. This is around the time that the family discovers that Juliet’s brother Keith has cancer. The father stays behind to fight for the cause, while the rest of the family goes to live with the paternal grandmother in southwestern Ontario, where the brother undergoes treatment. Juliet is again an outcast at her new school, as she comes to terms with her brother’s illness and the fact that he is the exclusive focus of her mother’s attention. In the years that follow, the family disintegrates, and the parents move on to new partners.

Carrie Snyder has beautifully captured what many North Americans feel while living abroad as ex-pats, negotiating the invisible cultural lines only to find that in spite of their best intentions, integration and acceptance are part of a long complicated process. The entire family is marked by their experience in the Central American country, and it is where Gloria chooses to remarry, an event that Juliet finds exceedingly awkward. Throughout the book, Snyder gives an accurate depiction of the complexity and often contradictory emotions of mother-daughter relationships, possibly the book’s strongest point. When Gloria says that she cannot sing at her own wedding ceremony, Juliet does not buy the statement. “Parse the words, are any of them truthful, or would each sentence make better sense read in a mirror? Gloria is not a nervous woman; she has an icy reserve, a chill that permits her freedom to pursue, to leave, to choose at will, with control. She thrives on performance.” Yet, later at the reception when Gloria actually does sing and play her guitar, Juliet “experiences a shot behind the eyes, a burst of pride at her mother’s unexpected accomplishments.”

Fortunately, Juliet does not heap all her anger and blame onto her mother. The daughter is able to forgive her mother’s lack of attention when she discovers that she is pregnant after a one-night stand. Juliet learns from her aunt that she, too, was initially an unwanted pregnancy. Her father is more the target of Juliet’s wrath. After his death, the adult daughter wants to torch the farmhouse, the last place the entire family lived together.

Carry Snyder is someone we’re bound to hear more of in the future. She is a writer's writer. Her razor-sharp prose is insightful and rich throughout, but the stories set in Nicaragua are by far the best. This is the perfect book for anyone who has lived or traveled in Latin America or who is simply curious about what it was like to have revolutionary parents in the early 1980s.

This review was cross-posted at Rover Arts.

Other reviews:

Review of Wild by Cheryl Strayed

The Goodtime Girl by Tess Fragoulis
One Good Hustle by Billie Livingston (Long-listed for the $50,000 Giller Prize)
Ru by Kim Thuy (Short-listed for the $50,000 Giller Prize)
Dogs at the Perimeter by Madeleine Thien
Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter by Carmen Aguirre
The Return by Dany Laferrière
Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell
The Girl Without Anyone by Kelli Deeth

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The Day of the Crows directed by Jean-Christophe Dessaint

noreply@blogger.com (AKAmamma) — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 14:00:00 +0000

What better way to spend a rainy afternoon with the kids than seeing The Day of the Crows, an animated feature directed by Jean-Christophe Dessaint. Presented as part of the 41st edition of the Festival du cinéma du nouveau monde at the Théâtre Outremont, the much anticipated film, a France-Canada-Belgium-Luxembourg co-production, is based on the internationally acclaimed book Le Jour des corneilles by Quebec writer Jean-Francois Beauchemin. In addition to using the voices of actor Jean Reno and late Nouvelle Vague legend Claude Chabrol, the film was drawn almost entirely by hand, instead of the usual computer-generated images. As 24 images are required for just one second of animation, making a feature-length film is no small feat.

In The Day of the Crows, the central character is a young boy called simply “Son.” After the mother dies in childbirth in the wild, the infuriated father discards his infant son, but then reluctantly takes him back, raising him alone in the woods. Son, however, still sees his mother as a half -human half-fawn spirit. She and other anthropomorphized forest creatures are his only companions, besides his decidedly strange father. When Son is old enough to venture to the forest’s edge, he discovers a new world. His father warns him of the dangers of civilization, but when the elder falls ill, Son seeks help in the village where his father is eventually given medical treatment. This is where we learn of the father’s tragic past, and the grudge that some of the villagers still harbour against him. While the father recovers, Son stays with the doctor’s family, discovers love and learns the ways of the civilized world from Manon, the doctor’s daughter. Son eventually returns with his father to the forest, but his stay in the village has prepared him for his future survival.

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The Day of the Crows incorporates some beautiful painting and finely detailed characters, but Son, intended to be simple and devoid of any sophistication, is basic to the point of being bland, with few traits to make him endearing to young viewers. Artistically, the film was stunning with strong influences from Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, but there were some technical problems that might be the result of a poor film transfer. The colours were oversaturated, and there were details out of focus throughout the film. But probably the biggest problem was its length. In spite of all of its artistic merits, the film could have easily been edited by at least 20 minutes.

Had Day of the Crows been released 10 years ago, it would have been wildly popular. But with stiff competition from Pixar, Studio Ghibli, Dreamworks and Disney, and the technical innovations of the last decade, young viewers (and their parents) now expect much more than just beautiful artwork and music. They want to be dazzled and entertained from beginning to end, which Day of the Crows fails to do. However, for the purists or those curious to see what hand-drawn animation looks like, this is an enjoyable film.

This has been cross-posted at Rover Arts.

Other related posts
Cross-country running for kids
LACMA: Mom's Need Fun Too
Downtown Los Angeles With The Kids

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