Quill and Quire

BOOK REVIEWS

The Fat Lady Struck Dumb

By David Waltner-Toews

In The Fat Lady Struck Dumb, his sixth book of poems, David Waltner-Toews convicts himself of “the crime” identified in one of his cheerfully reflective poems: “that a man can still be amateur.” Fortunately Waltner-Toews ... Read More »

February 12, 2004 | Filed under: Poetry

Shahnaz

By Hiro McIlwraith

Shahnaz, a first novel from Nanaimo-based author Hiro McIlwraith, is a troubling book, only in part because its major theme is the oppression of women in India. The novel begins in 1972 when Shahnaz, the ... Read More »

February 12, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Bafflegab

By Stan Rogal

Almost every page in Bafflegab, Stan Rogal’s second novel, contains an allusion or citation. Orphan Annie’s “leaping lizards!” aside, most of the sources are decidedly weighty. Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, and Stein (amongst others) are invoked as ... Read More »

February 12, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Belly Fruit

By Lynnette D’anna

The lines separating sex and violence are often blurred, a fact Lynnette D’anna uses to mixed effect in her latest novel. Belly Fruit explores the collisions between sexuality, obsession, art, and pain, veering in tone ... Read More »

February 12, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

When Eve Was Naked

By Josef Skvorecky

Writers of fiction often cringe when readers attempt to draw connections between the life of the writer and their art. Josef Skvorecky’s recently released story collection, When Eve Was Naked, however, not only perpetuates this ... Read More »

February 12, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Half-known Lives

By Joan Givner

It’s always entertaining for women to speculate about how differently the world might be ordered if men could get pregnant. Child care could become a public policy priority; there would certainly be shifts in the ... Read More »

February 12, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels