Story Of A Nation - Defining Moments In Our History

by Margaret Atwood (Contributor)

Inspired by history, Story of a Nation is a beautifully illustrated collection of original stories from some of Canada's most celebrated and best-loved authors. Twelve of the country's finest writers, including Margaret Atwood, Roch Carrier, Timothy Findley, Antonine Maillet, Alberto Manguel and Michael Turner, when presented with the question, What are the great events in Canadian history responded by travelling into the past to discover the moments, both familiar and unexpected, that shaped our nation.Drawing on their skills as master storytellers, the contributors to this collection offer wonderfully imaginative accounts of what it's like to make history. Margaret Atwood casts her eye back to 1759 and brilliantly captures the journal entries of a frightened French woman, trapped in Québec City as the English forces attack. In "The First of July," David Macfarlane's youthful narrator loses himself in the papers of an elderly neighbour, and through the records of her past, experiences the heartbreaking, stunting loss of war. In Thomas King's hilarious story, "Where the Borg Are," a young boy named Milton Friendlybear offers a Star Trekkian reinterpretation of the Indian Act, linking its significance to the fate of the universe. And revisiting an occasion of huge national pride, Michelle Berry tells the story of a four-year-old girl caught up in the excitement of the 1972 Summit Series, hopeful that the passion of hockey will hold her crumbling family together.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Canada, Anthologies

304 pages, Hardcover

First published September 11, 2001

About the author

Margaret Atwood was born in 1939 in Ottawa and grew up in northern Ontario, Quebec, and Toronto. She received her undergraduate degree from Victoria College at the University of Toronto and her master's degree from Radcliffe College.

Throughout her writing career, Margaret Atwood has received numerous awards and honourary degrees. She is the author of more than thirty-five volumes of poetry, children’s literature, fiction, and non-fiction and is perhaps best known for her novels, which include The Edible Woman (1970), The Handmaid's Tale (1983), The Robber Bride (1994), Alias Grace (1996), and The Blind Assassin, which won the prestigious Booker Prize in 2000. Atwood's dystopic novel, Oryx and Crake, was published in 2003. The Tent (mini-fictions) and Moral Disorder (short stories) both appeared in 2006. Her most recent volume of poetry, The Door, was published in 2007. Her non-fiction book, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth ­ in the Massey series, appeared in 2008, and her most recent novel, The Year of the Flood, in the autumn of 2009. Ms. Atwood's work has been published in more than forty languages, including Farsi, Japanese, Turkish, Finnish, Korean, Icelandic and Estonian. In 2004 she co-invented the Long Pen TM.

Margaret Atwood currently lives in Toronto with writer Graeme Gibson.

Associations: Margaret Atwood was President of the Writers' Union of Canada from May 1981 to May 1982, and was President of International P.E.N., Canadian Centre (English Speaking) from 1984-1986. She and Graeme Gibson are the Joint Honourary Presidents of the Rare Bird Society within BirdLife International. Ms. Atwood is also a current Vice-President of PEN International.

Reviews

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn’t like a few of the stories, but I much enjoyed others. An interesting way to meander through some Canadian history.

[Angela · Rating 2 out of 5]

It pains me to give Story of a Nation two stars, but it doesn't really deserve more than that. It's a gorgeous book that clearly has a high production value and a star-studded cast of contributors...but I didn't enjoy any of its dozen stories.

I admit that I typically don't like historical fiction, nor do I care much about my country's history. But the stories seemed lackluster. I learned a few things (never heard of Arthur Lipsett or Rochdale College, or Ginger Goodwin, or Viola Desmond, or knew the reasons why Newfoundland joined Canada so late), so in that regard the book can be considered a success. Each story is accompanied by several archival photos, which were well-curated and add interest to the text. The stories seem to be arranged more-or-less chronologically, beginning with the struggles of a French Protestant settler in New France and ending with Thomas King's Indigenous-lens comparison of European colonizers and Star Trek baddies. There are stories of World War I, World War II, the Klondike Gold Rush, and the 1972 hockey tournament between Canada and USSR, just to name a few.

The introduction by Christopher Moore (no, not THAT Christopher Moore) states that "Novelists succeed with history when they use their freedom of invention to the hilt, to construct voices and characters, memories and mythologies" (2). Unfortunately, this rarely happened in Story of a Nation. The selections by Margaret Atwood ("The Bombardment Continues"), Antonine Maillet ("The Great Disturbance According to Bélonie"), and John Ralston Saul ("D-Day") are dreadfully boring. I can forgive a few bad stories—after all, most collections have a few losers—but there are no clear winners here. Some of the contributor's notes and concepts are intriguing (Thomas King's "Where the Borg Are" and Hal Niedzviecki's "Very Nice, Very Nice"), but ultimately the writing falls short of my expectations...in King's case there are two obvious editorial errors, never mind the constant allusions to Star Trek. Timothy Findley ("The Banks of the Wabush") has the best writing, but chose a cliché topic and paced it poorly. Dionne Brand ("One Down") and Roch Carrier ("Gold and Sawdust") were the best at giving a human voice to significant historical moments, but even their contributions were merely above average.

So...basically, I can say a few positive things about some of the stories. Which is a shame, because I'm always looking for amazing Canadian content. Wouldn't consider any part of this worthy of re-reading, except for maybe "Gold and Sawdust."

[Kathleen McRae · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read

[Katie W · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of the stories are 5 stars. Especially The First of July and Where the Borg Are