Tag: Canada

Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies

Noopiming, an Ojibwe word meaning ‘in the bush‘, is narrated by Mashkawaji, an entity frozen in a lake who, over the course of the book, is visited by seven characters. Mashkawaji describes these characters as making up their being: the Elder Akiwenzii, Ninaatig the maple tree, the Elder Mindimooyenh, a recovering alcoholic called Sabe who is also a sasquatch, a caribou called Adik, and two young lovers, Asin and Lucy. Each of these characters, Mashkawaji tells us, represents a specific part of them: Akiwenzii is the will, Ninaatig the lungs, Mindimooyenh the conscience, Sabe the marrow, Adik the nervous system, Asin the eyes and ears, and Lucy the mind. The book begins with a poem, a single line or sometimes three on each page for 32 pages, that introduces Mashkawaji and the seven component characters, and is a meditation on place and time, on connection and nature. It is a strange and unsettling start for a person raised in the western European tradition of storytelling.

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Posted on by Jan Hicks 0

Her Body Among Animals

Paola Ferrante’s Her Body Among Animals is a collection of short stories that examine women’s place in western society, the artificial limits placed on us because of our gender, and the impact of the type of toxic masculinity that draws heavily on a past where women had fewer rights. Science Fiction mingles with folklore, horror and pop culture to document the surreal and complex worlds of the characters.

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Posted on by Jan Hicks 2

The House on Ashley Avenue

I’ve had this short story on my e-reader for a while and have kept meaning to read it sometime around Hallowe’en. I failed to do that again this year, so instead it has become an end of year read, something quick to see out the old year.

Ted and Dawn Weston have recently lost their parents, who briefly lived at 17 Ashley Avenue in Toronto’s exclusive Rosedale area. Charles Courtney and Sally Wakefield go to the house as insurance investigators subcontracted by the City council to put to bed any suggestion that the Weston house might be haunted. The Weston siblings, having heard rumours of this nature and being nonplussed by the accidental nature of their parents’ deaths, have called in a psychic to contact the recently deceased.

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Posted on by Jan Hicks 2

Split Tooth

Split Tooth follows the fortunes of an unnamed Inuk girl from Nunavut, Canada. Her story is a first person narration, combining prose chapters with poetry and art. The novel begins in 1975, with a memory of the drunken violence of adults in the girl’s household. It moves into memories of sexual abuse by adults in the community in positions of trust. The front of this And Other Stories edition includes the words, “This book contains disturbing information surrounding child sexual abuse. Reader discretion advised.”

This is a book I technically didn’t choose. It came as part of my subscription to the publisher And Other Stories. I debated with myself whether to read on. It’s important, I know, that everyone has a voice, that we learn about the experiences of others, and the particular experiences of the oppressed, but it can be exhausting to read nothing but misery. Split Tooth isn’t entirely about misery, though. There are miserable things in the novel, but there are also moments of joy: the change from winter to spring and the arrival of the scents of nature, children set free from houses to play in the 24-hour sunlight; friendships forged; love shown. I did read on.

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Posted on by Jan Hicks 11

Feminist City: Claiming Space in a Man-made World

In its flap copy and its cover blurbs, Feminist City is framed as a treatise on how urban spaces have ended up so gendered and how a different way of thinking about cities and the people who live and work in them might make them safer and more accessible for everyone, but particularly for women. Having read and appreciated the force of Caroline Criado Perez’s book on the gender gap in data, Invisible Women, I was hoping for something similar about urban geography in Leslie Kern’s book. Spoilers: I was disappointed.

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Posted on by Jan Hicks 4

Industrial Roots

Industrial Roots is a collection of short stories from award winning Canadian poet, author and translator Lisa Pike. I received an advance copy of the collection from the publisher, Héloïse Press, in exchange for a fair review.

Pike captures the world of working class Canadian women in Ontario through their voices, employing slang, vernacular and standard English to bring the women to life. In some ways, the narrative voices put me in mind of Flannery O’Connor’s writings, in others the Anne novels of L M Montgomery. There’s a robustness to the exchanges between characters and the way the women telling the stories relate them that lifts them from the page and allows the reader to be in the scene with them.

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Posted on by Jan Hicks 0

Twenty Books of Summer readathon

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I have 149 books that I own on my to read list. 78 of those are physical books that teeter in a pair of piles in front of one of my bookcases. When I read that Sandra (A Corner of Cornwall) and Paula (Book Jotter) are doing the 20 Books of Summer readathon hosted at Cathy’s blog 746 Books (I thought my to read pile was bad!), I decided this was the thing that I needed to focus my mind and get 20 of those books read. Continue reading →

Posted on by Jan Hicks 19

The Break

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Read 01/03/2019-07/03/2019

Rating 5 stars

The Break is set in the North End area of Winnipeg, Manitoba, an area with a large First Nations and Métis population. It tells the story of a family of Métis women and the abuse they experience and witness at the hands of First Nations, Métis and white men. It’s an incredible debut novel and worthy of the list of accolades at the front of the book. Continue reading →

Posted on by Jan Hicks 3