“Oh, I just don’t have time for fiction.” “I want to read about the Real World.” “Novels are a waste when you could be learning something.” Sentiments like these have infuriated me countless times because my reader’s heart belongs to fiction. I collect quotes like these that I imagine tossing out
Donez Xiques' Margaret Laurence: The Making of a Writer Dundurn Press, 2005 There are many biographical and critical works about Margaret Laurence. If you're interested in her writing, you might appreciate the pioneering works of Clara Thomas, her 1969 biography, named for her subject, or The Manawaka World of Margaret Laurence (1975).
E.M. Forster's The Longest Journey (1907) When I started reading The Longest Journey, I was reading Keith Oatley's novel, Therefore Choose, which also opens with a scene at Cambridge. He writes: "If one were to go back a hundred years, the clothing would no doubt be different but the young men would
Louise Doughty’s A Novel in a Year (2007) Pocket Books - Simon & Schuster 2008 Feeling indecisive about where to jump in with Louise Doughty's fiction (news about her appearance at the festival this year brought her work to my attention), I gravitated towards her one non-fiction book. If you're
Michael Winter's This All Happened: A Fictional Memoir House of Anansi, 2000 Gabriel English was also the protagonist of Michael Winter's short story collection One Last Good Look. I realized this after I had finished this novel and felt a little badly. As though I'd arrived significantly late for an
