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21st out of 72 books
—
95 voters
Bottle Rocket Hearts
by
Zoe Whittall (Goodreads Author)
Welcome to Montreal in the months before the 1995 referendum. Riot Grrl gets bought out and mass marketed as the Spice Girls, and gays are gaining some legitimacy, but the queers are rioting against assimilation, cocktail AIDS drugs are starting to work, and the city walls on either side of the Main are spray-painted with the words YES or NO. It's been five years since the
...morePaperback, 189 pages
Published
April 1st 2007
by Cormorant Books
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Eve, the spunky 19-year-old protagonist of Zoe Whittall’s debut novel Bottle Rocket Hearts (2007), is a 90s rebel girl, screaming along with Kathleen Hanna as she rides her bike down Montreal’s Ste Catherines street in her silver spray-painted doc martens. Not despite, but because of her irreverent, dead-pan comments such as “I don’t have bad self-esteem, I’m realistic,” Eve is instantly a likable character who makes you root for her throughout Bottle Rocket Hearts; as the writer over at The Can...more
Zoe Whittall’s first novel is a simple story. Girl meets girl. Girl loses girl. Girl wins girl back again. Girl realizes aforementioned girl was no good for her in the first place. Girl leaves girl, once and for all.
Essentially, Bottle Rocket Hearts is a coming of age story set in Montreal in the mid-nineties, complicated by the sexuality of its protagonist. Eve’s in love for the first time with the wrong girl and she gets her heart broken. After a brief, precarious rapprochement, she patches i...more
Essentially, Bottle Rocket Hearts is a coming of age story set in Montreal in the mid-nineties, complicated by the sexuality of its protagonist. Eve’s in love for the first time with the wrong girl and she gets her heart broken. After a brief, precarious rapprochement, she patches i...more
Evie is a baby dyke, just coming out and discovering love and women in urban Montreal right around the time of the 1995 Quebec referendum. Bottle Rocket Hearts covers barely two years of Evie's life, but a lot happens to her in that time, as it does when you start exploring your sexuality, love, women and what it means to be yourself.
Whittall writes this story from Evie's perspective, first person perspective all the way through, which can make the writing somewhat hard to take. It sometimes com...more
Whittall writes this story from Evie's perspective, first person perspective all the way through, which can make the writing somewhat hard to take. It sometimes com...more
i wish i would have liked this better than i did. it covers topical ground that interests me a lot. the main protagonist is eve, a 19-year-old queer girl from the suburbs of montreal. she gets involved in the city's queer scene & starts dating a somewhat older woman. they are pursuing a non-monogamous relationship & eve is struggling to master her jealousy over her girlfriend hooking up with her glamorous, sophisticated ex on the side. she begins to realize that perhaps part of her jealo...more
I was nine in 1995. I lived west of Montreal and the city seemed like this big, far-off place my dad could magically navigate. I had no real concept of separatism (except that I would have voted a big NO and I knew my parents were worried), or homophobia, or alternative culture.
I am twenty-six now, and Montreal's become home. Reading Bottle Rocket Hearts was familiar; those throwaway mentions of places like Santropol or Foufs stir up my own experiences. I know this city, most of the time; love i...more
I am twenty-six now, and Montreal's become home. Reading Bottle Rocket Hearts was familiar; those throwaway mentions of places like Santropol or Foufs stir up my own experiences. I know this city, most of the time; love i...more
i drank this book in one huge gulp, because i am hungry for some portrayal of the life i've known as a queer girl weirdo. it was nice reading about peeps who blast team dresch on their walkmans during tense moments--JUST LIKE ME! GASP!--but ultimately i was left kind of unsatisfied. i really wanted to care about the characters, and i didn't. i really wanted to see what was so great about della, the main character's girlfriend, and also what was so awful about her. i got neither.
mainly the whole...more
mainly the whole...more
I would of given this book less stars if there hadn't have been an interesting twist in the end. I had a hard time liking this book because I felt it was all about painting cliche portraits of queer feminist radicals. I didn't feel any of the characters did anything in the book that was straying from this caricature, therefore it felt really unrealistic and trite. This might be an interesting book for someone who has never been involved in the queer/feminist/radical activist scene, but for someo...more
I came of age and came out in the early 2000s, and one of the things I value about this book is that it gently reminds its queer readers that the political debates we are having, the angsty and often indignant musings about identity, the awkwardness that sometimes ensues when our intellectual and political feelings about relationships don't match up with our lived experience of them-- these things aren't new. Bottle Rocket Hearts cautions us against thinking that each of us reinvent the politica...more
3.5 -- I quite liked this book. Whittall's prose is really lovely, and even though this is a story that has been told many times before, Eve's perspective of being a lesbian in Quebec during the 90's feels fresh and new. It's a story of girl meets girl, girl wanting to be with girl, girl who girl is n love with is a pathological liar, girl finally escapes and knows it's the right decision. It's a good story and the writing keeps the story fast paced and interesting.
However, Della. Oh my goodness...more
However, Della. Oh my goodness...more
Do not be fooled by this slender novel because Whittall packs in quite a punch! Set against the backdrop of Montreal's 1995 referendum, Whittall brings the reader into a world where rebellion is the norm and assimilation is not a guarantee. It is here that the reader meets Eve who is young and naive in this changing city. She wants more than anything to move out of her parents' house and start a life of her own. When she meets Della, Eve thinks that she has found the answer to her prayers. Della...more
This review originally posted at Christa`s Hooked on Books -- http://christashookedonbooks.blogspot...
I want to start off by saying that this book completely blew me away. I picked it up from the library, barely knowing anything about it and I ended up devouring it in a single sitting and spending days thinking about it.
From the very first page this book is filled with very real and raw emotion. Eve is struggling to figure out what's going on around her and her place in it. On a basic level her...more
I want to start off by saying that this book completely blew me away. I picked it up from the library, barely knowing anything about it and I ended up devouring it in a single sitting and spending days thinking about it.
From the very first page this book is filled with very real and raw emotion. Eve is struggling to figure out what's going on around her and her place in it. On a basic level her...more
I've been wanting to read this book since it came out, so when I joined the CanLit challenge this year it was good motivation to finally start reading. This is one of those times where I'm going to fall back on the publisher's blurb, because I've tried to summarise the book myself and failed miserably. This works much better:
In the year before the 1995 Referendum in Quebec, Eve wants nothing more than to move out of the bedroom community of Dorval and into the real city, Montreal, where she hope...more
In the year before the 1995 Referendum in Quebec, Eve wants nothing more than to move out of the bedroom community of Dorval and into the real city, Montreal, where she hope...more
I did not really enjoy this book. The characters bugged me a lot and I didn't find their emotions were well described. For example, when the bomb went off down the street, their window blasted in, they went to see it and then continued doing drugs.. Annoying. Um, your window just got blasted!
I found Eve's actions rather "flit float" and couldn't figure out her motivation for anything. She was involved in a lot of activism movements but I didn't feel she had passion for any of it.
I was leased sh...more
I found Eve's actions rather "flit float" and couldn't figure out her motivation for anything. She was involved in a lot of activism movements but I didn't feel she had passion for any of it.
I was leased sh...more
A little disappointing mostly because of how irritating the love interest is. Why is she with this person? She lies, insults, and cheats. (This is not a spoiler. You find this out right away, so it's not even a turning point in the plot.) She doesn't even sound attractive (although I'm not a lesbian, so I may be missing something here). It would make sense if she was unable to find anyone else, but it sounds as though the main character has choices.
it's not just that the relationship in this book has a lot of resonance for me given my most recent breakup. it's not just that Whittall writes about a world that, though i was not a 20 year old in montreal in 1995, is one i belong to. it's that this is the sort of novel where particular sentences/thoughts are so well expressed, you have to read with a pen so as to underline them. here are a few of my favorites:
"the trouble with deciding not to define anything, is that it usually means you have...more
"the trouble with deciding not to define anything, is that it usually means you have...more
I read this right after The Bone Cage, and found one parallel: this bucks Can lit territory and offers a very different feminine voice than I'm used to from Canadian female authors: it's franker, rougher, more direct, and a bit more masculine if that's not getting too stereotypical. I liked it and could have seen reading it (even dancing to it) with punk rock music and a whiskey at hand (sadly, neither music nor drink was available). It reminded me of the terrible insecurity of entering adulthoo...more
This book took me up and down, there were moments when I teared up because the writing was exquisite, and moments where reading the paragraphs felt like a chore. BUT it's an earnest, beautiful story of an intelligent, relatable, i've-totally-been-there 18 year old living and managing to survive in new, wild, world of Montreal in the 1990s.
Ok, so it took me a little while to read this.
There were some parts where I was like "that's my poster! why is she giving it to some character in her book that sounds way cooler than me!" -- you know, sibling-esque reactions to someone borrowing your stuff.
There were parts where I thought "oh, this is the femme-teen coming of age story where I did the butch-teen coming of age" -- and I found that really cool, another perspective...very different but with some cross over.
There were parts where I...more
There were some parts where I was like "that's my poster! why is she giving it to some character in her book that sounds way cooler than me!" -- you know, sibling-esque reactions to someone borrowing your stuff.
There were parts where I thought "oh, this is the femme-teen coming of age story where I did the butch-teen coming of age" -- and I found that really cool, another perspective...very different but with some cross over.
There were parts where I...more
At the end of summer around these parts peaches are finally ready to eat. They are big and sweet and so juicy you have to eat them over a sink. Thats what this book felt like. Lines so rich with flavour, literary juices running down your chin and making a mess of your shirt. I'm not going to give you any examples of the lines that I ate up so greedily. Go read it for yourself. Oh, don't forget the bib.
Eve is on a mission to comprehend herself and the complicated world around her in Bottle Rocket Hearts. She appears to be striving for an understanding of her sexuality, independence and originality, but mostly, unconditional love. Zoe Whittall covers a vast array of social issues with cheeky and valorous prose, never once coming off like an after-school special (all though our protagonist self-admittedly grew up on them in the suburbs of Montreal). I felt an immediate connection with the skitti...more
Downed this in one sitting! Delicious. Zoe Whittall does for Montreal what Armistead Maupin did for San Fran. Reading Bottle Rocket Hearts felt like a trip to Montreal - except I instantly got to hang out with the in-crowd. This is my kind of novel. I can't wait to check out more of her work.
Sweet coming of age queer story with Montreal as a great backdrop.
I thought the referendum just seemed thrown in there, but a lovely little tale most can relate to, queer or otherwise. An easy read.
I thought the referendum just seemed thrown in there, but a lovely little tale most can relate to, queer or otherwise. An easy read.
This is a great piece of Canadian fiction. It is one of the few works of Can Lit with a queer woman at the centre of the plot. Whittall is definitely a good story teller. Her writing is tight yet descriptive.
I enjoyed the historical fiction aspect of the book. At the same time that the main character is going through her own romantic and growing troubles, the 1995 Referendum in Quebec is going on. The book takes place in Montreal so the lives of these characters are saturated in those events.
T...more
I enjoyed the historical fiction aspect of the book. At the same time that the main character is going through her own romantic and growing troubles, the 1995 Referendum in Quebec is going on. The book takes place in Montreal so the lives of these characters are saturated in those events.
T...more
A strong debut, Zoe Whittall's Bottle Rocket Hearts gives us the naive and complicated life of a nineteen-year-old university student amidst the backdrop of the 1995 Quebec Referendum.
Baby Femme coming of age in Montreal. Sloppy polaymory. The compulsive liar we've all been in love with. Apathetic natural food store shop girl. So much to love about this book. Pick it up.
Gen X alert! Whittall has a thing for constructing emotionally damaged characters that can't /possibly/ be understood by the outside world. I'm always more drawn to the 'normal' people that surround them.
I fell in love - with people, places, and stories that weren't mine. I miss Eve (protagonist), and think about her at least once a week. That's good writing.
One of the top forty books nominated for the 2011 Canada Reads. While it did not make it into the top 5, I'm happy to add it to my TBR pile. Purchased from McNally Robinson November 27, 2010 because I couldn't wait for Santa.
Wow, did this book get under my skin. I previously read Whittall's second novel, Holding Still for as Long as Possible, and although I enjoyed it, Bottle Rocket Hearts just packed such a more powerful punch. The characters were captivating, and the mid-'90s Montreal setting was fantastic. Don't think that just because this is a tale of queer culture during the time of the Montreal referendum that you won't relate, because above all it's a story about the insane roller-coaster that is first love...more
Pretty good. I learned some things about Canadian history, and I enjoyed the look at the 90s as well.
Writing was a little maudlin, but I write like that too when I attempt fiction, so I could forgive it. =)
Writing was a little maudlin, but I write like that too when I attempt fiction, so I could forgive it. =)
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Zoe Whittall has written two novels, Holding Still for as Long as Possible (House of Anansi, 09/10) now out in paperback and optioned for film. Her first novel, Bottle Rocket Hearts, was named one of the Best Books of 2007 by The Globe and Mail and Quill & Quire magazine. Now Magazine awarded her the title of Best Emerging Author of 2007. She has published three books of poetry, Precordial Thu...more
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“Della & I are drunk at the top of Mont-Royal. We have an open blue plastic thermos of red wine at our feet. It's the first day of spring & it's midnight & we've been peeling off layers of winter all day. We stand facing each other, as if to exchange vows, chests heaving from racing up & down the mountain to the sky. My face is hurting from smiling so much, aching at the edges of my words. She reaches out to hold my face in her hands, dirty palms form a bowl to rest my chin. I’m standing on a tree stump so we’re eye to eye. It’s hard to stay steady. I worry I may start to drool or laugh, I feel so unhinged from my body. It’s been one of those days I don’t want to end. Our goal was to shirk all responsibility merely to enjoy the lack of everyday obligations, to create fullness & purpose out of each other. Our knees are the colour of the ground-in grass. Our boots are caked in mud caskets. Under our nails is a mixture of minerals & organic matter, knuckles scraped by tree bark. We are the thaw embodied.
She says, You have changed me, Eve, you are the single most important person in my life. If you were to leave me, I would die.
At that moment, our breath circling from my lungs & into hers, I am changed. Perhaps before this I could describe our relationship as an experiment, a happy accident, but this was irrefutable. I was completely consumed & consuming. It was as though we created some sort of object between us that we could see & almost hold. I would risk everything I’ve ever known to know only this. I wanted to honour her in a way that was understandable to every part of me. It was as though I could distill the meaning of us into something I could pour into a porcelain cup. Our bodies on top of this city, rulers of love.
Originally, we were celebrating the fact that I got into Concordia’s visual arts program. But the congratulatory brunch she took me to at Café Santropol had turned into wine, which had turned into a day for declarations. I had a sense of spring in my body, that this season would meld into summer like a running-jump movie kiss. There would be days & days like this. XXXX gone away on a sojurn I didn’t care to note the details of, she simply ceased to be. Summer in Montreal in love is almost too much emotion to hold in an open mouth, it spills over, it causes me to not need any sleep. I don’t think I will ever feel as awake as I did in the summer of 1995.”
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She says, You have changed me, Eve, you are the single most important person in my life. If you were to leave me, I would die.
At that moment, our breath circling from my lungs & into hers, I am changed. Perhaps before this I could describe our relationship as an experiment, a happy accident, but this was irrefutable. I was completely consumed & consuming. It was as though we created some sort of object between us that we could see & almost hold. I would risk everything I’ve ever known to know only this. I wanted to honour her in a way that was understandable to every part of me. It was as though I could distill the meaning of us into something I could pour into a porcelain cup. Our bodies on top of this city, rulers of love.
Originally, we were celebrating the fact that I got into Concordia’s visual arts program. But the congratulatory brunch she took me to at Café Santropol had turned into wine, which had turned into a day for declarations. I had a sense of spring in my body, that this season would meld into summer like a running-jump movie kiss. There would be days & days like this. XXXX gone away on a sojurn I didn’t care to note the details of, she simply ceased to be. Summer in Montreal in love is almost too much emotion to hold in an open mouth, it spills over, it causes me to not need any sleep. I don’t think I will ever feel as awake as I did in the summer of 1995.”
11. Mai, 23:32 Uhr