Category: Canadian Literature

February by Lisa Moore

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february

The Ocean Ranger went down and it looks like no survivors. The whole bloody thing went under.
The on the Seaforth Highlander saw the men in the water. One is always haunted by something, and that is what haunts Helen. The men on the Seaforth Highlander had been close enough to see some of the men in the waves. Close enough to talk. The men were shouting out before they had died. Calling out for help. Calling out to God or calling for mercy or confessing their sins. Or just mentioning they were cold. Or they were just screaming. Noises.
…And then all the shouting was just for company. Because who wants to watch a man being swallowed by a raging ocean without yelling out to him. They had shouted to the men in the water. They had tried to reach the men with grappling hooks. They say them and then they did not see them. It was as simple as that. (excerpt from the book)

The book is about this Canadian tragedy and shows us how Helen, wife of one of the workers on the rig, is affected by this.  …that’s the enigma of the present. The past has already infiltrated it: the past has set up camp, deployed soldiers with toothbrushes to scrub away all of the NOW, and the more present. There was no present.

A  must read. Winner of Canada Reads 2013.

419 by Will Ferguson

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Winner of the 2012 Giller Prize. Thrilling and suspenseful. When Laura Curtis, a lonely editor in a cold northern city, discovers that her father has died because of an internet money swindle, she sets out to track the culprits down—and corner—her father’s killer.  It is a dangerous game she’s playing, however, and the stakes are higher than she can ever imagine.

Riveting and culturally astute, this is a great read.419_cover

Indian Horse

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Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese

Winner of the Canada Reads People’s Choice award and the First Nations Communities Reads program and short-listed for the International IMPAC DUBLIN Literary Award.

Richard Wagamese is an Ojibway from the Wabaseemoong First Nation in northwestern Ontario. He is the author of four novels, including the award-winning Dream Wheels. His autobiographical book For Joshua was published to critical acclaim, and One Native Life was selected as one of the Globe & Mail‘s Top 100 Books of the Year. He lives outside Kamloops, British Columbia.

This story comes highly recommended by a number of my male students who love hockey. It is hockey that becomes the catalyst that changes the life of Saul Indian Horse, growing up in a northern Ontario residential school.

Excerpt:

‘My grandmother had always referred to the universe as the Great Mystery.

“What does it mean?” I asked her once.

“It means all things.”

“I don’t understand.”

She took my hand and sat me down on a rock at the water’s edge. “We need mystery,” she said. “Creator in her wisdom knew this. Mystery fills us with awe and wonder. They are the foundations of humility, and humility, grandson, is the foundation of all learning. So we do not seek to unravel this. We honour it by letting it be that way forever.”‘

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The Orenda

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I awake. A few minutes, maybe, of troubled sleep. My teeth chatter so violently I can taste I’ve bitten my swollen tongue. Spitting red into the snow, I try to rise but my body’s seized. The oldest Huron, their leader, who kept us walking all night around the big lake rather than across it because of some ridiculous dream, stands above me with a thorn club. The weight of these men give their dreams will be the end of them.

Although I still know little of their language, I understand the words he whispers and force myself to roll over when the club swings towards me. The thorns bite into my back and the bile of curses that pour from my mouth make the Hurons convulse with laughter. I am sorry, Lord, to use Your name in vain.

This is plight of a Jesuit priest in the opening scene of Joseph Boyden’s newest novel, The Orenda. It is an ancient story, but it is now told with fresh insight and, happily, a new perspective. History is rough and raw and this story is no exception. The story revolves around a kidnapped princess, a Jesuit missionary and an elder in the Huron nation. Their worlds collide but Boyden keeps the emotions raw as he steers us into the truth.

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The Best Laid Plans

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Terry Fallis writes a political satire that is funny and sophisticated. For an inside look at the workings of local politics, this is the book for you.

Chapter One excerpt:

After an impressive hang time, I plummeted back to the sidewalk, my fall broken by a fresh, putrid pile of excrement the size of a small ottoman. I quickly scanned the area for a hippo on the lam.

Before I quite literally found myself in deep shit, my day had actually been ripe with promise.