What Makes Families Tick

2019-03-17T17:28:36-04:00

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

What Makes Families Tick2019-03-17T17:28:36-04:00

Mavis Gallant’s “Saturday”

2019-02-23T19:39:07-05:00

The image of the father in this story, unable to sleep, counting his sons-in-law instead of sheep, makes me smile. The way that he matches his memory of their faces with the litany of names, his uncertainty about the fifth, his debates over which of them is married to

Mavis Gallant’s “Saturday”2019-02-23T19:39:07-05:00

Mavis Gallant’s “The Remission” (1979)

2018-11-17T17:23:59-05:00

Here, Eric inhabits a room like Carmela’s in “The Four Seasons”, in the Unwins’ home: the kind “assigned to someone’s hapless, helpless paid companions, who would have marvelled at the thought of its lending shelter to a dying man”. And Eric is dying, like the father in “The End

Mavis Gallant’s “The Remission” (1979)2018-11-17T17:23:59-05:00

Shadow Giller: Eric Dupont’s Songs for the Cold of Heart (2012; Trans. Peter McCambridge, 2018)

2018-11-17T16:06:21-05:00

Shadow Giller review contents: In Short, a 300-word and spoiler-free summary, intended to have a broad appeal; In Detail, elaborating on one aspect of the book which I found remarkable (perhaps only interesting for others who have read the book or who have an interest more mechanical aspects of

Shadow Giller: Eric Dupont’s Songs for the Cold of Heart (2012; Trans. Peter McCambridge, 2018)2018-11-17T16:06:21-05:00

Shadow Giller: Emma Hooper’s Our Homesick Songs (2018)

2018-10-31T12:24:36-04:00

In Short presents a 300-word and spoiler-free summary, intended to have a broad appeal; In Detail focuses on one aspect of the book which I found remarkable, which might interest those who have already read the book or those with an interest in the mechanics of writing; In Other

Shadow Giller: Emma Hooper’s Our Homesick Songs (2018)2018-10-31T12:24:36-04:00
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