You really must read…

Thanks to Leona King for this re-view:

I’m not sure where I heard about Exercises in Style by Raymond Queneau (translated by Barbara Wright) but it sounded so quirky I had to read it. From my previous experience in the insurance industry it was a well known fact that if you placed four people on each corner of an intersection, presented an automobile accident at that intersection, then interviewed each of the four witnesses, you would hear four variations of that incident. Thus the premise of Exercises in Style. A very brief story of a minor confrontation on a Paris bus is interpreted by 99 different observers. It is witty and never boring and for writers an excellent exploration into the use of lanuage. You might even say it compares to The Elements of Style in a very odd but entertaining way. On first glance it seems simple and light-hearted. Serious study reveals exercises in grammer, character sketches, poetry, use of language, point of view, and the list goes on. Do have fun with this rather obscure little item.

Execises in Style
by Raymond Queneau
Published by New Directions Press, 1981, re-release by Calder Publications, Mar. 2008
(originally published in French in 1947)

Thanks to Darcie Freisen Hossack for this re-view:

I already know that Gail Anderson-Dargatz’s new title, Turtle Valley, is under the Christmas tree with my name on it. And hopefully, besides sating those who’ve been waiting anxiously, it’s a book to win over a whole new crop of readers for this author, who’s not only one of Canada’s finest, but most engaging.

While I wait to peel back the wrapping and act surprised though, I’ve been reading Dargatz’s Giller nominated The Cure For Death By Lightning and realizing what an uphill scribble it must be for any pen hoping to outdo such a beautifully told story.

In The Cure For Death By Lightning, Beth is a teenager growing up in the desperately beautiful Shuswap area, south of Kamloops, British Columbia. And while World War II rages overseas, taking away all but a few of the young men, it goes largely unnoticed by Beth, except for the flour her mother hoards behind her headboard, and the nightly blackouts that are little but an exercise. For Beth, a far greater war is at home with a father whose head wound from a previous conflict excuses every kind of abuse, while isolating Beth, and the entire family, from the community.

Told in a language as vivid and haunting as any artist’s brushstrokes, The Cure For Death By Lightning may be Dargatz’s finest work to date. A master at colouring in details that snatch the reader’s breath away, the prose is nevertheless controlled and without a note of excess or falseness. This is a title to be read again and again and again.

The Cure for Death by Lightning
by Gail Anderson-Dargatz
Originally published by Knopf Canada

It’s fitting to begin this new blog by re-viewing an old favourite of my own. When I was a sales rep, I sold books that were published by a small press in Livingston, MT. Many of the books produced by Clark City Press were excellent. I represented this company (through its Canadian distributor) and literally handsold their list to my customers, the booksellers and librarians of Southern Alberta and Saskatchewan, because I fell in love with the publisher and its books. Most of my customers also enjoyed reading these books and, in turn, handsold them to their own customers. Recently, when checking up on the availablity of Querencia, I was so pleased to see that this company was still in business. And, at that time (a month ago), Bodio’s book was still listed among their backlist titles. But upon checking again today I’ve discovered that this book, my favourite!, is no longer displayed on their website! Stephen Bodio’s own website does list the book as being in print and available from Amazon. Phew! And I was also interested to see that Bodio now maintains a blog.

Now, on to the book itself… What I loved about Querencia was the writing, pure and simple. I have reread this narrative book many times and still feel that it is fresh with every reading. And it’s also a beautiful love story - not only expressing the love Bodio had for Betsy Huntington, a woman who shared so many of his interests, moving with him from Boston to New Mexico, but also the love he had during that time for his surroundings, friends, food, and life in general. After reading it the first time, I wanted to move to Magdelena, New Mexico, he describes his space that well. It seemed to be heaven on earth. The title loosely means “that little, unspecified area in life’s arena where one feels safe, serene.” This is exactly the feeling evoked in me when I read Querencia the first time, and whenever I reread it.

Querencia
by Stephen Bodio
published by Clark City Press