Quill and Quire

Fiction: Novels

All Hat

By Brad Smith

This novel gives good genre: advance publicity for All Hat describes it as country noir, and the shoe – or cowboy boot – fits. Set in the rusted farmbelts of Niagara and Northern Lake Erie, ... Read More »

November 26, 2003 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

A Good Man

By Cynthia Holz

It is the year 1989, and Izzy Schneider, age 78, has flown back to Toronto from his bungalow in Florida to attend the funeral of his best friend Phil Lewis (born Fishel Lubinsky), age 66, ... Read More »

November 26, 2003 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

★ Ascension

By Steven Galloway

It is no doubt advisable to resist tightrope tropes while reviewing a novel that has at its heart a Transylvanian wire-walker. However, in Ascension, Steven Galloway performs a feat deserving of big top applause. In ... Read More »

November 26, 2003 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

(untitled)

By Ken Sparling

From its non-title to its long stretches of white space, Ken Sparling’s novel without a name announces itself as “experimental fiction.” Sparling has long been a student and champion of literary minimalism, and he takes ... Read More »

November 26, 2003 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

The Corner Garden

By Lesley Krueger

A novel narrated by a 15-year-old girl is an obvious candidate for young adult readers, and Lesley Krueger’s third novel, The Corner Garden, has strong crossover potential. Anyone offering this rich, complex novel to a ... Read More »

November 26, 2003 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Sea of Tranquility

By Lesley Choyce

Ragged Island, Lesley Choyce’s fictional community off the Nova Scotia mainland, has survived centuries of various economic catastrophes through the entrepreneurial inventiveness of its inhabitants. Recent ventures include Phonse Doucette’s shoot-’em-up junkyard and Moses Slaunwhite’s ... Read More »

November 25, 2003 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Working Class Zero

By Rob Payne

One of the challenges facing the contemporary novelist is to capture the complexities and absurdities of modern life without boring the reader. Rob Payne manages to do this and make us laugh too. In Working ... Read More »

November 25, 2003 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels