Review: February by Lisa Moore

February by Lisa Moore is the Book Club pick for February. Released in 2009, it recently won the 2013 Canada Reads competition on CBC, championed by comedian Trent McClellan, who argued that it is a book for all Canadians, despite its very specific subject matter of a widow dealing with the loss of her husband, who died when the Ocean Ranger sank off the coast of Newfoundland in 1982.

After reading the novel, I find myself in agreement with McClellan. Helen's grief and experience following the 1982 tragedy is indeed a story that all Canadians should read. As she wrestles with her own understanding of the events of February 14, 1982, and the 26 years in between then and now, Helen presents a version of Canada and Canadians that will resonate with every reader. She recalls her marriage, how she met her husband, when her children were born, how her children handled the loss of their father and, heartbreakingly, how the Ocean Ranger came to sink and what Cal, her husband, might have been doing at that exact moment. Moore writes these passages carefully and poignantly and it is impossible to read without feeling a small piece of the heartbreak that Helen feels.

Moore's writing is as beautiful and brilliant as ever. She tells the story well, revealing pieces at a time, mimicking the way that Helen resolves her own understanding of the accident that killed her husband.

A great read, and in the future, I will read everything that Moore writes without hesitation.

February's Pick: February

Even though it's well into the month, I am still going ahead with my February Book Club pick: February by Lisa Moore. I didn't pick it just for the title, however: it is also the Atlantic representative for this year's Canada Reads debate, which starts today. For a primer, check out Book Riot's brief synopsis of the book and Lisa Moore.

I don't think I will finish February before the end of the Canada Reads debate, but I will certainly tune in. Check out the Canada Reads page at CBC.ca for broadcast details. There are myriad ways to catch the action, so there's really no reason not to listen.

Canada Reads 2013 Heats Up

Each year, CBC's Canada Reads is an engaging public debate about which book all Canadians should read. It is usually a fiction title, though last year was the first for non-fiction. This year, Canada Reads is taking another direction: Regional faceoff. The country has been divided into five regions, and one book from each region will be featured in February's showdown. The voting public had a chance to provide input into a top ten list for each region, and from there a top five was chosen; on November 29th, regional representatives will select a single nominee from each region.

The top five lists are excellent - by any measure, they would make incredible reading lists. However, not everyone can be a winner. Here are the top fives from each region:

BC and Yukon

Bow Grip - Ivan E. Coyote
Everything Was Good-Bye - Gurjinder Basran
Indian Horse - Richard Wagamese
Monkey Beach - Eden Robinson
Obasan - Joy Kogawa

The Prairies and North

The Age of Hope - David Bergen
The Diviners - Margaret Laurence
The Garneau Block - Todd Babiuk
Late Nights on Air - Elizabeth Hay
The Trade - Fred Stenson

Ontario

Away - Jane Urquhart
The Day the Falls Stood Still - Cathy Marie Buchanan
The English Patient - Michael Ondaatje
Far To Go - Alison Pick
Fifth Business - Robertson Davies

Quebec

The Beautiful Mystery - Louise Penny
Ru - Kim Thuy
Solomon Gursky Was Here - Mordecai Richler
The Tin Flute - Gabrielle Roy
Two Solitudes - Hugh MacLennon

Atlantic

Annabel - Kathleen Winter
Anne of Green Gables - L.M. Montgomery
February - Lisa Moore
No Great Mischief - Alistair MacLeod
The Town That Drowned - Riel Nason

You may be asking yourself about some of the bigger names in Canadian literature - Margaret Atwood, Douglas Coupland, Alice Munro, Timothy Findley, Yann Martel, Stephen Leacock, etc. Well, the entry requirement for this year's list was that the book could not have been part of a previous Canada Reads competition - winner or finalist. The result is a list that is missing a few major authors. But our reading culture is so deep that it matters not - any of these books would be a fine addition to the Canada Reads Pantheon.

Now, for my picks. I was very happy that several of my top ten choices made it to the list: Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson, The Diviners by Margaret Laurence and Fifth Business by Robertson Davies. I have to root for those three for the regional winners, even though there are a couple that I would not mind seeing on the final list instead: Late Nights on Air is excellent, The English Patient is brilliant, and Obasan is a classic of Canadian literature. My picks for Quebec and Atlantic are Solomon Gursky Was Here and No Great Mischief; no disrespect for Montgomery or MacLennon, but I feel that they are already part of a great list of books that Canadians already read. Some new classics need to be placed at the fore.

Speaking of new classics, it is very interesting that there are several new books on the list - The Age of Hope and The Beautiful Mystery were released just this fall, and Ru was released in English earlier this year. It will be intriguing if any of these make the final list, as it will have not only the rest of the list to contend with, but the bulk of history that stands behind it as well.

November's Pick: Alias Grace

For November's book club selection, I am going back to the future with Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace. I must confess, I have started this one already; it is a long read, but thus far, it is vintage Atwood, with beautiful prose and complex, intriguing characters.

Who makes for a better character than an accused murderess who may or may not be criminally insane? And a real person, to boot. Alias Grace is the story of Grace Marks, a teenager who was convicted of murdering her employer and his housekeeper in 1843. You can read about the trial via the Toronto Public Library site, and you can read more about Grace Marks at thewhig.com.

Alias Grace won the 1996 Giller Prize and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Read more about Alias Grace here, and at Atwood's website, margaretatwood.ca.

Additionally, Alias Grace has made the Top 10 list (Ontario region) for the Canada Reads showdown. On November 14th, the list will be shortened to 5 for each region before a single representative will be selected.

Canada Reads Regional Top 10 Announced

The 2013 Canada Reads Top 10 was announced today. This year's edition will feature regional faceoffs, with the five books representing five regions of the country: Atlantic, Quebec, Ontario, Prairies/North, B.C./Yukon. Today, the top 10 selections from each region was announced. The lists will be shortened to 5, and then a representative from each will be selected. CBC has posted the entire list.

My selection for B.C. / Yukon

The lists are excellent thus far, a mix of old and new, traditional and experimental. One common factor is that the majority of the novels are set within Canada; there are a few outliers, such as De Niro's Game from Quebec's Rawi Hage or The English Patient from Ontario's Michael Ondaatje. I was pleased to see that my selections made the top 10s as well: Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson from B.C.; The Diviners by Margaret Laurence from Manitoba; Fifth Business by Robertson Davies from Ontario; and Galore by Michael Crummey from Atlantic. I didn't pick a Quebec novel, since none immediately came to mind when I was selecting, but two stood out as favourites: Solomon Gursky was Here by Mordecai Richler and Ru by Kim Thuy. Both would be excellent selections.

Others on the list that I would support are Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood, Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay, and, of course, Anne of Green Gables.

Which Canadian books do you think all Canadians should read? It will be an interesting debate this year, and the winner will surely start the debate about CanLit all over again.

Review: Unless

Carol Shields’ Unless is a story about hope, determination, and perseverance. The crisis of the novel is a mother telling the story of her daughter, who one day decides to leave home and live on the streets of Toronto, without a word of explanation or reason. Reta and her family are left to piece together the clues as best they can, and hope that one day they will get their daughter and sister back.

Reta is the narrator of the story, and, as a writer herself, conscious of what she reveals and what she doesn’t. As the story progresses, however, the reader sees more about Reta than perhaps she intended initially; she becomes more and more willing to accept blame and finds fault with her own tendencies until she becomes much too hard on herself. As readers, the sympathy felt for Reta is a work of genius by Shields. Reta’s daughter, too, is an enigma as we learn about her through her mother’s eyes. And the more we learn about the events that lead to her decision to leave home and live on the streets of Toronto completely cut off from her previous life, the more we see that Norah really is her mother’s daughter.

Of the Canada Reads 2011 nominees, Unless is, in my opinion, the most well-written - Shields’ superior skill is without question. The story is contentious, however, and there is an argument that the denouement is not quite the sum of its parts. But Unless is a journey of waiting and watching more than anything, which means that the eventual outcome does not need to be bigger than anything that came before. And I enjoyed it immensely.

Though the book did not win the coveted Canada Reads title, it is still a book that Canadians should read - not only for the message of goodness and hope that, I think, most Canadians inherently possess, but also because Carol Shields is one of our most gifted writers and teaches us about the English language through her writing.

Canada Reads Top 10

This year, CBC’s Canada Reads is taking a retrospective approach, selecting the best book from the last ten years rather than a general call for Canadian fiction. On Tuesday they released the top 10 finalists, based on suggestions from the public, with a top five to be revealed on November 24th. This year, I am venturing to read the top 10 books (regardless of which five actually make the cut) before the debate is aired sometime in February. Here’s the list:

The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis

The Birth House by Ami McKay

The Bone Cage by Angie Abdou

The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill

Bottle Rocket Hearts by Zoe Whittall

Essex County by Jeff Lemire

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Pattern Recognition by William Gibson

Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden

Unless by Carol Shields
Fortunately for me, I have read or own half of these books. Life of Pi is already in the bag, and I already own The Birth House, The Book of Negroes, Three Day Road and Unless (Incidentally, there is a giveaway contest on CBC right now asking you to predict the top five - guess which five I picked). The remaining five I will have to investigate further, but they all look interesting.

I will begin with Unless, and report on each book as I finish it. By the end, I will be able to determine if the panel got it right, not just about the winner, but about the top 5 as well. For more info, see the Canada Reads main page.

January's Pick: Nikolski

Fantastic Mr. Fox was pretty good, though the movie was better. I will attempt a full review at a later date, but for now let's reveal the pick for January: Nikolski by Nicolas Dickner. Published in French in 2005, it was translated into English in 2008 and subsequently won the Governor General's Literary Award for Translation. In 2010, it's becoming popular once again as it is a selection for this year's Canada Reads competition on CBC Radio One. It is a story about "three young people" who "follow their personal songs of migration". The back cover synopsis may seem overdramatic, but it actually worked, as it convinced me to give it a try (being $10 at Chapters right now doesn't hurt, either). It seems like a true Canadian tale, a coming together of unlikely compatriots to overcome the odds, and with a few jokes thrown in for good measure. I am looking forward to it.

Right now, however, I am in the middle of The Mistress of Nothing by Kate Pullinger, the current selection for the other Book Club I am involved in, the Chapters Rideau Book Club. So far, so good. I am enjoying it. I am looking forward to our book club meeting on February 24th at 7pm. All are welcome to attend - it should be exciting!