Quill and Quire

Reviews

A Broken Bowl

By Patrick Friesen

As the end of the millennium approaches, where will serious Canadian writers position themselves in the coming mass-media onslaught of predictions and summations? With his new book, Manitoba’s Patrick Friesen places himself firmly in the apocalyptic ... Read More »

February 23, 2004 | Filed under: Poetry

Party Favours

By Jean Doe

Weird town, this Ottawa. A town where older reporters call younger reporters “my young friend” and shadowy sources say things like “time is of the essence.” A town where the women are either leggy or ... Read More »

February 23, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

A Drifting Year

By Dany Laferriere

Like all of Dany Laferrière’s autobiographical novels, there’s a whimsical nonchalance, a combination of simplicity and circumspection, that tends to underwhelm readers. Perhaps this has to do with the kind of temporality that Laferrière explores ... Read More »

February 23, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Down Among the Dead Men

By Dany Laferriere

Like all of Dany Laferrière’s autobiographical novels, there’s a whimsical nonchalance, a combination of simplicity and circumspection, that tends to underwhelm readers. Perhaps this has to do with the kind of temporality that Laferrière explores ... Read More »

February 23, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Kondor

By Gregory Ward

Kondor, Gregory Ward’s third novel, is a thriller set primarily in contemporary Germany and centres around business and political motifs. Ward is a polished stylist who hooks the reader in the first chapter and doesn’t ... Read More »

February 23, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

The Projectionist

By Michael Helm

Toss Raymond, the narrator of Michael Helm’s first novel, The Projectionist, is the kind of hero that takes a while to warm up to. But immediately unlikable heroes are something of an honoured literary tradition ... Read More »

February 23, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels