You, Kwaznievski, You Piss Me Off

If John Lavery’s stories weren’t so thrillingly careening as to resist description by a single word, “frenetic” might be a good choice. But it’s not. You, Kwaznievski, You Piss Me Off is quick in pacing ... Read More »

December 17, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

What We All Long For

By Dionne Brand

Dionne Brand opens her latest novel with a wide shot of Toronto. A city at once mythic and ordinary, virtual yet earthily corporeal, it hovers above the 43rd parallel. Flight paths and Internet signals cross ... Read More »

December 17, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

The Spirituality of Wine

By Tom Harpur

Admirers of Toronto Star religion editor and columnist Tom Harpur, particularly those drawn by the massively popular The Pagan Christ, are apt to be somewhat disappointed by his new book. Oenophiles with a spiritual bent ... Read More »

December 14, 2004 | Filed under: Sports, Health & Self-help

Jacob’s Wound: A Search for the Spirit of Wildness

By Trevor Herriot

At the risk of mixing Biblical metaphors, Jacob’s Wound, the new book from prize-winning Saskatchewan writer Trevor Herriot (author of River in a Dry Land), is something of a coat of many colours. Composed of ... Read More »

December 14, 2004 | Filed under: Sports, Health & Self-help

The 60s: Montreal Thinks Big

By André Lortie, ed.

Every generation comes to love its grandparents’ taste, and the architecture and planning of the mid-20th century is far enough behind us to warrant a new look. Yet while modernism is back in vogue for ... Read More »

December 13, 2004 | Filed under: Art, Music & Pop Culture

Great Canadian Speeches

By Dennis Gruending, ed.

Some speeches are great in their own right. Some are made great by circumstances. Both types are well represented in journalist and former member of Parliament Dennis Gruending’s new book. Gruending has collected and edited ... Read More »

December 6, 2004 | Filed under: History

★ Canada’s House: Rideau Hall and the Invention of a Canadian Home

By Margaret MacMillan, Marjorie Harris, and Anne L. Desjardins

Now we’re looking good. A couple of years ago, a page turned in Canadian popular history. In retrospect, we can see that CBC Television’s Canada: A People’s History and Douglas Coupland’s Souvenir Of Canada books ... Read More »

November 29, 2004 | Filed under: Art, Music & Pop Culture

★ Redress: Inside the Japanese Canadian Call for Justice

By Roy Miki

Poet, teacher, and social critic Roy Miki has done Canadian history a remarkable service with his poignant, insightful, and brutally honest recounting of the century-long struggle for Japanese-Canadian citizenship rights. Miki approaches the story of ... Read More »

November 22, 2004 | Filed under: History

All Times Have Been Modern

By Elisabeth Harvor

Elisabeth Harvor’s second novel opens with protagonist Kay Oleski on the verge of realizing her first adolescent sexual experience when the moment is ruined by the unexpected return home of her mother. In the next ... Read More »

November 22, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Eleanor Rigby

By Douglas Coupland

There’s a brief moment in Douglas Coupland’s latest novel when he draws the reader’s attention to some peonies, cool and white and beautiful, placed in a room. They’re a fitting flower for a Coupland novel; ... Read More »