Discovering Andrew Miller’s work, at this stage of his career, reminds me of the solid sense of anticipation that I felt upon reading Rupert Thomson’s Secrecy (2013). As authors of 8 and 11 novels respectively, I’m surprised that I hadn’t been tempted to read one of their books until
Vera’s sister-in-law sends tins of aspirin in her care packages, always with one pill missing. Nobody knows why, and, at the heart of it, this is what this forty-page-long story is all about. Nah, I’m making a joke. Actually, stealing one. Because it’s Vera who thinks it’s amusing to lend
The family stories in contemporary CanLit are not all that different from the stories and novels read by my grandmother’s generation. The women in my family did not read obsessively, no, but regularly, yes. What else was there to do in the evenings when your favourite show was in reruns
At first glance, it seems as though who is more – or less – Canadian matters in this story. Because I am Canadian, I latch on to the idea of whether Douglas’ father is more “reticent” than his mother, whether he is “cautious and single-minded”, whether I myself exhibit any
Language is important in “Orphans’ Progress”, specifically the relationship between English-speakers in Ontario and French-speakers in Quebec (predominantly Montreal, with a reference to Chicoutimi). It matters, immediately and lastingly, because the orphans, Cathie and Mildred, are the children of an English-Canadian man and a French-Canadian woman. Governor General's Award Winner
