Quill and Quire

Reviews

★ Certainty

By Madeleine Thien

As I read Madeleine Thien’s first novel, I was reminded time and again of Anne Michaels’ Fugitive Pieces, another work set largely in Canada but taking as its canvas the memories and unresolved legacies of ... Read More »

June 1, 2006 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Pure Inventions

By James King

The world of Pure Inventions is complex, intriguing, and quite beautiful in its rendering. It is a world that straddles two cultures within the life and body of a Japanese-American protagonist, Hiroshi. But it is ... Read More »

June 1, 2006 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Reparations

By Stephen Kimber

Stephen Kimber’s first novel, Reparations, takes a bold step forward for Halifax fiction and Canadian literature in general by confronting the still unresolved issue of Africville’s demise. In the early 1960s, the city razed the ... Read More »

June 1, 2006 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Liar

By Lynn Crosbie

Toronto-based writer and teacher Lynn Crosbie’s latest book is a long poem chronicling the disintegration of a relationship. As such, Liar is generically related to such high-profile works as Anne Carson’s The Beauty of the ... Read More »

May 30, 2006 | Filed under: Poetry

Black

By George Elliott Clarke

George Elliott Clarke is one of Canada’s most prominent literary citizens. His work to date has garnered praise and prizes galore. And justly so. The problem with being a prominent literary citizen, however, is that ... Read More »

May 30, 2006 | Filed under: Poetry

Momentary Dark

By Margaret Avison

Coming on the heels of Always Now, the monumental three-volume edition of Margaret Avison’s collected works, and the awarding of the 2003 Griffin Poetry Prize to her previous collection, Concrete and Wild Carrot, the bar ... Read More »

May 30, 2006 | Filed under: Poetry