Quill and Quire

Reviews

Second Sight

By George Szanto

George Szanto won justifiable praise in 1990 for The Underside of Stones, his first in a planned trilogy of novels set in the fictional landscape of Michocuaro, Mexico. The novel offered a probing of privileged ... Read More »

November 22, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Self-Titled

By Geoffrey Brown

The trick to reading Self-Titled, Ottawa writer Geoffrey Brown’s second novel, is to surrender to the work’s possibilities. But be warned: Brown takes his readers on a demanding verbal midway ride, giving words to thoughts ... Read More »

November 22, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

A Short Journey by Car

By Liam Durcan

Uncommonly ambitious, Liam Durcan’s debut story collection is also unusually mixed in quality. Beginning authors tend to underimagine their fictional worlds and remain cautious in style, arriving at neither bold achievement nor outright failure. But ... Read More »

November 22, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Short

The Worthwhile Flux

By Corey Frost

Corey Frost, a veteran of Montreal’s spoken word scene, spent a decade writing, performing, and collecting the bits and pieces that make up The Worthwhile Flux, his second book. The book encompasses prose, photos, and ... Read More »

November 22, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Short

The Nine Planets

By Edward Riche

Two big new novels from young, male Newfoundland authors appeared in bookstores this season, and they could hardly have less in common. Michael Winter’s The Big Why, despite its dabblings in high art and unorthodox ... Read More »

November 22, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Venous Hum

By Suzette Mayr

Venous Hum offers none of the soothing comfort evoked by the connotation of a rhythmically beating heart. Instead, Alberta author Suzette Mayr’s latest novel weaves an outrageously comical yet surreal tale of broken hearts, burning ... Read More »

November 16, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels