Quill and Quire

Fiction: Novels

★ Afterimage

By Helen Humphreys

It is daunting to review a book as accomplished as Helen Humphreys’ second novel, Afterimage. One scarcely knows how to do justice to prose of such sharp beauty, characters of such astonishing complexity, settings so ... Read More »

February 23, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

The Straw Man

By Daniel Poliquin

Beautifully translated by Wayne Grady, The Straw Man is a dazzling novel, mixing historical narrative (it begins in 1759) and magic realism. Poliquin, author of Black Squirrel and Obomsawin of Sioux Junction, weaves a tale ... Read More »

February 23, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Midnight Robber

By Nalo Hopkinson

Midnight Robber, the second book by Toronto speculative fiction writer Nalo Hopkinson, begins on Toussaint, a planet peopled by the descendants of Caribbean immigrants from Earth. The Midnight Robber is young Tan-tan’s favourite Carnival character, ... Read More »

February 23, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Film Society

By Gilaine Mitchell

Thousands of women regularly haul themselves off to small book club meetings; some, like the ones in Film Society, opt for video-watching gatherings. This is a sort of cultural phenomenon. It’s also a resource: so ... Read More »

February 23, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

The Accidental Indies

By Robert Finley

The Accidental Indies, by Robert Finley, bears reading at least twice, although in description it sounds very straightforward. It is about Christopher Columbus and his first voyage toward what we now call the Western Hemisphere. ... Read More »

February 23, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Media Therapy

By Larry Gaudet

We reviewers regularly exceed our word counts by begging Canadian fiction writers to up the literary ante. Enough already with the rural incest weepers, the featherweight urban satires, the well-worn immigration stories, we rail. Where ... Read More »

February 23, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels