The library copy of this book is well worn. Tub read, judging by the wrinkly pages, supplemented by dog eared corners and oily crumbs tucked into the centre of the book. A coffee splash on the top edge of the pages becomes animated if you flip fast enough. The contents of Helpless justify handing this [...]

Exclusive is the best word to describe Michael Ondaatje’s GG winner, Divisidero, a book written by an English professor for English professors and PhD students as fodder for thesis arguments and literary criticism. Sans plot, the main focus of the piece is the use of intertextuality, symbols, sound patterning, theme, language and structure. A general [...]

Clara Callan has some interesting conceits at work. The entire text is made up of either letters or journal entries. The story is set in the late 1930s in an era of food lines and massive jobs losses. And, while it’s touted as a “masterpiece of fiction” by the publisher-I beg to differ. The biggest [...]

Sentimental. In literary circles, sentimental is not a compliment. Neither is the word melodrama. And yet we have a Giller Prize winner with both of these serious flaws dictating what Canadian literature exemplifies. To be fair, the melodrama lessens after one hundred and nine pages, but the sentimental murk that the narrative rests on does [...]

Ahh. Exquisite. Short stories by a mature story teller. Gaston mixes light and dark tones with the paradoxes of life to create a collection of stories each with its own surprise. Gargoyles is the most well-written, well observed book of short stories I’ve read since Richard Ford’s Rock Springs, both being collections worthy of creative [...]

David Sedaris has produced an odd little volume that takes the Animal Farm premise to the next level. Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk is structured as a book of very short stories about animals taking on various human social dilemmas which makes the narratives work on an allegorical level. The book is both strangely hilarious, and devastatingly [...]

One of the best of the Giller 2010 shortlisted books, Annabel is everything the winner, The Sentimentalists, is not. It has a strong sense of place, has a serious personal dilemma with larger social consequences, and the main character is an outsider on a journey of self-discovery. Although gender is the hook in this story, [...]

The cover celebrates this book of short stories as “wickedly wry,” and “often…flat-out funny.” So I was expecting Lorrie Moore or George Saunders. Hoping, more like it. It was on the Giller shortlist, so I should have some expectations. And they are generally good stories, but definitely not funny or wickedly wry. Wry, maybe. Selecky [...]