Lilian Nattel's Blog, page 21
January 21, 2012
January 19, 2012
Early Review from a University Student
Tammy at For the Love of Reading has posted an early fabulous review of Web of Angels. I'm so excited–more so because she's a student in Alberta who has taken the time to share her enthusiasm. Thanks Tammy!
Filed under: Literary Tagged: reviews
January 18, 2012
Hilarity
The other day I wanted to watch Antiques Roadshow on PBS. What you have to realize is that we have one TV, in my bedroom, and that it's 12 years old. I got a converter box so it can receive a digital signal, and the box is hooked up to an indoor antenna, which looks something like this. No cable. Wind, rain, and leafiness of trees affects the signal.
So when PBS wasn't coming in, I knew what to do. Just move the antenna around a bit. I turned it south-east, angling it in just the right way. No signal. I really wanted to watch Antiques Roadshow. I was tired, and it's a show I can watch with my kids, who were also tired, and wanting to cuddle in front of the TV. The alternative was The Berenstain Bears or, worse, Alvin and the Chipmunks.
So I employed my advanced antenna technique, revolving it, flattening it, lifting it in the air. And that did it! All I had to do was stand about an arm's length from the TV, my face to the wall, holding the 3 foot high antenna in front of my chest. No–it wasn't exactly what the moment called for. I was ready to give up.
But my younger d offered to hold it for a while. She's a TV enthusiast and, given where the TV is, she doesn't have as much opportunity to enjoy it as she'd like, so she suggested she'd take the first shift and then we'd take turns.
I sat the bed with my other d, and looked from the TV, perfectly tuned in to PBS, to H, who was standing stalwartly holding the antenna in the air. It was so low tech, so 1960′s (I remember thumping the old TV). I started to laugh, and my kids began to laugh, until we laughed so hard tears were streaming down my face.
You can't get that for $30 a month on basic cable.
Filed under: Fun Tagged: family life, laughter
January 16, 2012
January 15, 2012
Author Interview with Sheila Dalton
Sheila Dalton, the author of The Girl in the Box, has generously given of her time to answer some questions.
1. How would you summarize The Girl in the Box?
A mute Mayan girl held captive in the Guatemalan jungle is rescued by a psychoanalyst she later kills. The doctor's lover, Caitlin Shaugnessy, needs answers, and sets out on a turbulent journey to discover what led to the tragedy.
2. What drew you to write about Guatemala and the Mayan tragedy of the 1980′s?
A trip to Guatemala I took with a friend in the seventies, during the Civil War there. We saw many things that affected us deeply, and learned more about the genocide on our return to Canada. Generally, I am interested in other countries and cultures, and I feel empathy for those whose lives are touched by political violence. I also met a young Guatemalan man in Canada who told me about how people were forced to take sides even if they were apolitical, and how many, Maya in particular, were caught in the middle. Though my sympathies still lie with the Maya — the atrocities committed by the Guatemalan government were horrific –this spoke to my distrust of all political "isms". We have only to look at Communism– so idealistic, so seemingly humane, and yet how destructive in practice, to see how futile they are at solving social ills.
3. How did you do your research? How much time did you spend in Guatemala?
I spent four months in Central America, most of it in Guatemala, in the seventies, then went back in the eighties for a few weeks. My notes from those visits helped, but I also had an author from Guatemala, Caroline Kellems, read the finished manuscript,. She pointed out some mistakes and added some details. I also spoke with Guatemalan immigrants to Canada, and lawyers who worked with refugees.
Other parts of the book also required research. Part of the story is about the state of psychoanalysis in Canada. I needed to delve into that history, which is quite fascinating. Canada was involved in a lot of questionable practices and experiments in psychiatry in those years, even more so than other countries. I also had a very good friend who was an analyst, plus a sister who is a therapist, who helped, and I read a lot.
I've had a strong interest in psychoanalysis since my twenties, so it was a pleasure for me to attend a Self-Psychology conference as well as read professional journals I already subscribed to.
Autism and its treatments, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, neural damage, and other psychiatric conditions also had to be researched so that I could present Inez realistically. Most of this was done by reading, but I also had contact with a father of an autistic boy who read the ms.
I needed to know about psychiatric facilities for the criminally insane, so I visited Penetanguishene, plus did research at the library.
Part of the book takes place in Labrador, and I visited there to get a feel for the atmosphere. I have always wanted to go to Labrador, so it was a case of combining research with pleasure. I loved it there, though I'm not a winter person at all!
4. Was there a real person who was the source of your inspiration for Inez, the mute Mayan girl or did you imagine her wholly? If so, how did the character come to life for you?
Inez is entirely imagined. I wish I could tell you exactly how she came to life, but I can't. Sometimes brain processes can't be pinned down. I can tell you that she didn't come in a flash. Her gestation was slow, and she took her final form over a series of first drafts.
5. How do you combine writing with your work in the Toronto Public Library?
Writing while working as a librarian is hard, but not as hard as trying to combine writing with freelance editing, which I did for about ten years. I've spent a lot of holidays writing rather than vacationing, and though I made and kept a resolve never to put my writing before my child, I'm afraid I wasn't so conscientious about friends and family, including my husband. I really had to make sacrifices to pursue writing. But I've also had the pleasure of traveling to places that relate to whatever I'm working on. For instance, a few years ago I went to Morocco, and then later Devon, England, and these trips resulted in the historical fiction I'm currently writing, about a young British woman who loses her parents to the Barbary corsairs, who traded in Christian slaves.
But instead of a honeymoon, I went back to Guatemala with a female friend! It's a long story. I'm just lucky to have an incredibly understanding partner.
6. Who are your favourite authors and why?
I love Karen Connolly because the characters in her fiction, though in extreme situations, are believable and wonderfully drawn. I have many favourite authors, actually, and find more every day. Among Canadians, I also like Alyssa Neal, Pearl Luke, and, yes, Lilian Nattel! These three all write historical fiction, and do it very well. Their styles are subtle, their characters fascinating, and they are all able to weave a spell and take me into fascinating worlds I would otherwise never experience.
7. Is there anything else you'd like to add about The Girl in the Box or your process as a writer?
I wrote the Girl in the Box hoping it would be good enough to qualify as literary fiction, but also have popular appeal. I'm still not sure how well I've succeeded, but judging by the reviews on Amazon.com, general readers do seem to like the book. Other links: My book trailer and My website.
Thank you for your time, Sheila!
Filed under: Literary Tagged: Sheila Dalton, The Girl in the Box
Dignity and Solidarity
"If I were to register and cooperate… I would be giving helpless consent to the denial of practically all of the things which give me incentive to live," he said then. "I must maintain the democratic standards for which this nation lives. I am objecting to the principle of this order which denies the right of human beings, including citizens."
via Remembering Gordon Hirabayashi » Blog of Rights: Official Blog of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Those are the words of Gordon Hirabayashi, a Japanese American who at the age of 19 refused to obey the internment order. As a result, he spent several years in prison. When released he completed his education and ultimately became a professor of sociology at the University of Alberta. I'm gratified that my country was host to a man of such principles and spirit, but this is a cautionary reminder of how prejudice can un-citizen citizens.
For example, in Lowell, Massachusetts an Iraqi woman's restaurant was vandalized. Demoralized, she was thinking of shutting it down when a veteran's group rallied around her, vowing to fill every seat in the restaurant. This is the kind of solidarity that lifts the heart and inspires.
h/t Bouphonia
Filed under: Interesting
January 11, 2012
Momo by Emile Ajar
I loved this book so much I made my husband read it, which was no trial for him as he is still quoting it.
I first heard about Momo and its author, Emile Ajar (a pen name of Romain Gary's), in Litlove's book blog. The storyline intrigued me: Momo, an Arab boy, is raised by an elderly Jewish woman who is a former prostitute and holocaust survivor. Living in a French suburb inhabited by prostitutes and drug dealers, many of them immigrants from Arab and African countries, Madame Rosa fosters the children of prostitutes. They hide their children in homes like hers because their occupation nullifies their parental rights. The novel was written in the mid 70′s and takes place in 1970.
What makes Momo funny, poignant and singular is the first person narrative voice of the boy. I just flipped through the novel looking for something to quote, and there is something fabulous on every page. It's just that good. Here's the opening paragraph:
The first thing I have to tell you is that we lived on the seventh-floor walk-up, so you can take my word for it that Madame Rosa, with all the pounds she had to lug around her, had more than her share of daily life with all its sorrows and cares. She said so too, whenever she wasn't complaining about something else, because to make matters worse she was Jewish. Her health wasn't so good either, and I can tell you right now that if ever a woman deserved an elevator it was Madame Rosa.
This is such a skilful use of first person. Ajar writes from within Momo's perspective, and through Momo's malapropisms and interpretations of what he's undoubtedly overheard and observed, Ajar brings the broader environment to life richly, slyly, wisely.
This voice is the literary forerunner of the child narrator in Room by Emma Donoghue. I often don't like first person narration because it's either gratuitous (3rd person with the word "I" instead of he/she) or it's purposeless. This is a case of the perfect narrator magnificently executed. My only complaint about Momo is that it's out of print. (I got it from the library.) Who is going to re-print it? Someone must!
I also want to tell you something about the author. Romain Gary was a French author who was getting flack from lit critics claiming that he was passe. His solution? He began to write under the pseudonym Emile Ajar. Under this name, his work garnered great praise, but there was pressure for him to reveal who he was. So he leaked that Emile Ajar was the pen name of his cousin's son. The critics fell all over this, proclaiming the younger relative far better than the elder. He left a letter revealing all to be opened posthumously. To top it off, Gary received the Prix Goncourt, a French literary prize to be awarded only once during a writer's lifetime. He was awarded it a 2nd time as Emile Ajar!
And well-deserved, I say.
Filed under: Fun, Interesting, Literary Tagged: Recommended Reading
January 9, 2012
God and Resisting Temptation
God references slipped into tests decreased student's belief that they controlled their own destiny, researchers report, but made them more resistant to junk food temptation.
via God's Situational Effects « The Situationist.
The studies were done at a Canadian university (University of Waterloo) with engineering students, and the results were independent of the student's piety or religious beliefs. (See the link for more details.)
I wonder if the results would differ with, say, students in a writing program, or accounting students.
Filed under: Fun, Interesting Tagged: God and psychology
January 5, 2012
Wall Mural: Joy of Creation
Have mercy! I'm not an artist (at least not with paint) but I had so much fun with this. It was a challenge to photograph because the hallway is so narrow, but here goes:
Click on any photo to enlarge.
H's penguins
M's view of Toronto
my dragons
You have to click on this one to get the full view!
long view
It's fantastic to take time to be creative in areas that I'm not especially good at. There's something freeing about that because nothing rides on it. There's no payment to be had or missed, and no reviews except for mutual encouragement and the pleasure of progress, my own and others'. This was the best part of the holiday.
Filed under: Fun, Personal Tagged: creativity
Lilian Nattel's Blog
- Lilian Nattel's profile
- 133 followers
