How Should A Person Be? by Sheila Heti

August Leave a Comment

I’ve been a fan of Heti’s writing since The Middle Stories in 2001. With those strange and sometimes whimsical stories she seemed to be edging up to conventional structures only to more fully write against them. Her first novel, Ticknor (2005), was a remarkably tight, intense book that once again blurred the lines between genres and conventions (in particular the literary novel and the biography). It’s one of my favourite books of the last decade. And then in 2007 I read her interview with Dave Hickey in The Believer, in which she said, “Increasingly I’m less interested in writing about fictional people, because it seems so tiresome to make up a fake person and put them through the paces of a fake story. I just—I can’t do it.” It seemed to me a repudiation of what made her fiction striking, challenging, and fresh. On the surface it would seem that… Continue Reading →

One Bird’s Choice, by Iain Reid

August Leave a Comment

In the United States, roughly sixteen percent of the population lives in multi-generational households. I couldn’t find the statistics for Canada, but I have heard that the numbers are comparable. The financial crisis didn’t hit us as hard here in Canada, but this trend goes back further than that, and I’m not surprised to hear that it’s growing. In 2005 I found myself having to move back in with my mother and stepfather for a while. I’d dropped out of grad school, my partner of seven years had left me for someone else, and I was so broke that not only was I about to lose my apartment, but I’d been suffering from serious depression and malnutrition in no small part because I couldn’t afford to feed myself and was too stupid to visit the food bank (too stupid, not too proud; it didn’t even occur to me). I lived… Continue Reading →

Some Changes For the New Year

August Leave a Comment

I’m discontinuing my “Reading 20XX” series, starting immediately. It’s not because I agree with Mr. Beattie’s opinion on “challenges” and quantity tracking or what have you (though I very much do agree with his call to read better). I think that paying attention to the numbers, and participating in things like the Canadian Book Challenge simply appeals to a kind of quirk, a kind of geekiness, that Mr. Beattie doesn’t have. It’s much more prevalent in fans of science fiction, fantasy, video games, and so on (and I qualify, in a, er, qualified way), and I don’t think there’s a right or wrong in it. It’s an impulse to classify, to organize, to manage and compartmentalize. In my case it manifests temporally; even my bookshelves are organized (when they are organized) to reflect when a book came into my life, or when in that author’s career that book appeared. I… Continue Reading →

2010 Notables

August Leave a Comment

The end of the year is almost upon us, and I find myself fifteen (yes, fifteen) reviews behind schedule here at ye olde blog, and with two freelance projects on the go for the holidays, it looks like I won’t be getting caught up until the new year. So instead, here are the books that really stood out for me this year. The list is not in any particular order. The Waterproof Bible, by Andrew Kaufman Clever, light in tone, and yet broad in its emotional appeal, I had more fun with The Waterproof Bible than with any other title this year. I’m definitely going to track down All My Friends Are Superheroes. It was so short that I lingered longer than perhaps I should have, not wanting to let go. Always a good sign. I’ve got a review of this in the works for the blog. Cities of Refuge,… Continue Reading →

Some Short Fiction

August 2 Comments

Back in the fall of 2002, when I was an undergraduate going into my final year at the University of Waterloo, I realized that, while I was doing okay for money that term, things were going to be tight once Christmas was over. I’d worked two jobs in high school (at one point working sixty hours a week on top of being a full time student, and maintaining a solid B+ average) and had been so burnt out by the experience that there was no way I would be able to get a job and deal with the workload of being a fourth year university student. I saw an ad for a short story contest, and decided that I would get a little bit of cash by winning that. There’s no way I could manage that level of hubris today, but back then I was kind of like that sometimes.… Continue Reading →

Rebecca Rosenblum’s Frosh Questionnaire

August Leave a Comment

There are questionnaires that float around the Internet. I’m sure you’ve seen them. Facebook and Livejournal in particular are overrun with them. They are sometimes very, very long, and ostensibly reveal personal things about whoever has filled them out, but there’s also a distance implied. Most people fill them out, pass them on, and then later claim to hate them. I’m going to let you in on a little secret: if you catch me at just the right time, I kind of love them. Rebecca Rosenblum has recently filled one out, apparently based on a series of “getting to know you” emails that were passed around when she was in her first year of university (we didn’t do that at my school; we actually stood in the common area of our dorm and our don made us introduce ourselves and give a little spiel). Not long after, Amy Jones, who… Continue Reading →

#25 – The Bloodlight Chronicles: Reconciliation, by Steve Stanton

August 1 Comment

I know I’m jumping the queue a bit—my next review was supposed to be of William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition, and I’m already a dozen books behind—but I just finished this book tonight, and I really need to get this one out right away. Regular readers of this blog will know that I’m a fan of cyberpunk fiction, as evidenced by my recent rereading of William Gibson’s work. I’ve also enjoyed every ECW book I’ve ever read, right back to Yashin Blake’s Nowhere Fast, which I reviewed for The Globe and Mail in the summer of 2004. When I heard that ECW was going to be publishing science fiction and fantasy novels, starting with a cyberpunk novel, I knew I had to check it out. I asked for an ARC (an uncorrected proof, or advance review copy, for those not in the biz), and they sent one along. Given all that,… Continue Reading →

William Gibson Interviews

August Leave a Comment

I thought I’d bring a couple great interviews with William Gibson to your attention. The first is from the Vice blog, and the second (and better) one is in Wired. While I’m at it, I should let you know that my review of his latest novel, Zero History, appeared in the September issue of Quill & Quire (print only), which should still be available on select newsstands throughout the country.

Not Dead (Yet)

August 1 Comment

This is just a quick note to let everyone know that I’ve neither died nor drifted off into space. I have been very busy reading and writing, sometimes even for money. Which means I’ve got a backlog of reviews for the blog, though some are already in early drafts (yeah, I’m even doing drafts now). Here’s what you can expect hopefully in the next few weeks: Pattern Recognition, by William Gibson Spook Country, by William Gibson What Boys Like, by Amy Jones Before I Wake, by Robert J. Wiersema The World More Full of Weeping, by Robert J. Wiersema The Lady in the Lake, by Raymond Chandler The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman Five Days Apart, by Chris Binchy I’ve also written some reviews for publication in the last few months, which has been really fun. I’ll let you know when those see print. Anyway, still here, still reading, still… Continue Reading →