What are we reading? 13th April 2022

[MK]

Who has an 'in' at the Guardian? Isn't it time for the next iteration of 'What we're reading?' Comments are now closed on the April issue.

[AB76]

Praire life is a fascinating topic for a southern englishman used to gentle hills and a climate in the wet and cool side for 60% of the year, blessed by few extremes

In The Stone Angel Margaret Laurence describes the prairie towns of Manitoba, with the freezing snowbound winters and the dusty, sun baked summers leaving very little in-between.

A bit like with WO Mitchell's fiction, i can picture these outposts of progress on the vast canadian plains, huge territories that dwarf even the largest western european nations, sparsely populated by British settlers, with smaller settler groups of Volga Germans (Mennonites) and Ukrainians

[AB76]

MK wrote: "Who has an 'in' at the Guardian? Isn't it time for the next iteration of 'What we're reading?' Comments are now closed on the April issue."

our hush will be doing her best i'm sure to keep them honest!

[Shelflife_wasBooklooker]

MK wrote: "Who has an 'in' at the Guardian? Isn't it time for the next iteration of 'What we're reading?' Comments are now closed on the April issue."

Hello MK, you can always find new and old issues of the series via this link: https://www.theguardian.com/books/ser...
The May one is out now.

Berkley wrote (#277):

After a quick scan, it looks like this might be the only book of his that's been translated into English. The tractor manufacturer seems to be doing better with the Anglophone market: they have a whole web-page in English!

Ha, yes. I did not know of Hürlimann until last year either, though that is not necessarily an indicator of how well-known he is! I enjoyed this one. Hopefully, I will feel energized enough to write reviews again at some point. Surprise, surprise: I can't recommend moving to people who amass books!

[MK]

Shelflife_wasBooklooker wrote: "MK wrote: "Who has an 'in' at the Guardian? Isn't it time for the next iteration of 'What we're reading?' Comments are now closed on the April issue."

Hello MK, you can always find new and old iss..."

Thanks - I'll look.

[Andy]

And the Birds Rained Down by Jocelyne Saucier translated from the (Quebec) French by Rhonda Mullins.

An unnamed photographer is searching for survivors of the North Ontario fires of the early part of the 20th century, etched in the memory of local people but relatively unknown to outsiders.
The Great Matheson fire of 1916 took more than 200 lives, completely destroying several settlements. The Great Haileybury fire of 1922 is referred to as one of the ten worst natural disasters in Canadian history, and had a similarly destructive effect.

Rather than collecting images, it becomes apparent that the photographer is after capturing experiences from the few survivors that remain alive, in 1990s.
As the novel opens she has managed, with the help of a lonely woman who runs the Matheson Fire Museum, to track down just one known survivor, supposedly living in a shack in an unpopulated forest. Though the survivor turns out to have died, she stumbles on a strange community of feral old men, also survivors. Once their wilderness lifestyle is understood, Saucier plunges deeper into each character, each of their voices tied to a larger story; horrific accounts of the great fire surface, and the smell of the smoke seems to emerge from the page.
Through Saucier’s photographer, we are therefore presented with an oral history of the fire. Her investigative work makes for stories of incredible resilience, survival, but also some dead ends, though these frustrations only add to the fable-like quality of her quest.
As well, it is an evocative portrait of old age, characters determined to squeeze every last bit of adventure from their lives.

I note that it was adapted as a movie in 2020, its French title is Il Pleuvait des Oiseaux, and IMDb scores it quite highly at 7.4. I wondered if anyone had seen it and might recommend it?

[AB76]

Andy wrote: "And the Birds Rained Down by Jocelyne Saucier translated from the (Quebec) French by Rhonda Mullins.

An unnamed phot..."

am interested in quebecois authors and culture, especially after reading the novel (The Revolution Script by Brian Moore)about the 1970 Quebec Crisis, which i think you would like Andy, i will make a note of this, thanks, even if its Ontario located

[[deleted user]]

Hello everyone. Sorry to have abandoned you for a while. I'm still juggling, so it will take a few days to catch up here and put up a new thread. I hope you're all well and ensconced in gripping reads.

Meanwhile, tomorrow's edition of This Cultural Life (Radio 4, 7.15 to 8pm) is devoted to Penelope Lively, who will be in conversation with John Wilson.

[Berkley]

AB76 wrote: "Berkley, you mentioned reading The Stone Angel as a set book at school, , was this novel quickly part of the north american set texts after being published in 1964? or was this school in the 1990s..."

I'm Canadian, and this would have been 1978 0r 1979 in my first or second year at our little local university in Corner Brook, Newfoundland that had started up only a couple of years earlier. I doubt it was ever taught in the States unless perhaps as part of a Canadian literature course (if they have those down there).

[giveusaclue]

Lljones wrote: "Anyone need a cat?

"

No comment!!

[AB76]

Berkley wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Berkley, you mentioned reading The Stone Angel as a set book at school, , was this novel quickly part of the north american set texts after being published in 1964? or was this school ..."

ah, that explains it, where in canada are you? I should know i think but i seemed to think you were in Washington state, dunno why.

I have found almost all classic Canadian literature very engaging, although i have next to no real experience of canada or canadians( unlike with my aussie or south african reading, there is no canadian infuence on my life (friends/family etc)other than a relative who settled in Alberta for about 6 years in 1920s

i think its a fascinating country and i've never been bored with iys politics and culture from my distant island over here, obviously as a schoolboy Wolfe and Quebec was seared into my memory and i've always been interested in the french-canadian culture too.

my favourite canadian novel is either Swamp Angel or Barometer Rising. The former due to its wonderful descriptions of BC and its style, the latter due to its historical setting and the city of Halifax. Inexplicably i have Two Solitudes by Maclennan burning a hole in my pile for 6 years....when its so highly recommended!

[MK]

AB76 wrote: "Berkley wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Berkley, you mentioned reading The Stone Angel as a set book at school, , was this novel quickly part of the north american set texts after being published in 1964? or ..."

Thanks to your post, I just took Burden of Desire off my shelf. I remember when on a Maritimes trip, we (mother, sister, brother-in-law & me) stopped by Bedford Basin which is behind the port of Halifax. Be sure and take a look if you are ever in the region - the basin is huge. On that trip my mother told me that it was a mass of 'cheek by jowl' ships interned during the war awaiting its end.

I recommend .

Also if there are any lists of especially books located in Quebec with an emphasis on history, I would really like a link.

My mother's parents emigrated from Quebec to Central Maine. She was the first child born in the USA.

[Andy]

AB76 wrote: "Andy wrote: "And the Birds Rained Down by Jocelyne Saucier translated from the (Quebec) French by Rhonda Mullins.

An..."

Sounds like a good swap AB. Cheers.

[Gpfr]

Georg wrote: "I must have liked this enough once to keep it for an eventual re-read. I could remember nothing about it.

Elizabeth and Her German Garden..."

No hurt feelings here!
But I read the tone of the book quite differently.

[Andy]

MK wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Berkley wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Berkley, you mentioned reading The Stone Angel as a set book at school, , was this novel quickly part of the north american set texts after being published..."

A shout for the work of Quebec fiction MK. Qcfiction.com.
They’re an indie publisher who do some really good stuff. Have a look at their website.
I’ve read a few, but best of all The Unknown Huntsman.

[Andy]

Just venting my frustration at my current annoyance, and past year or so.
People who misuse ‘literally’. More specifically those who speak in the media and do so.
On Radio 4 Zahawi just said how are steamed PM ‘literally worked every hour’ during the pandemic.
A football commentator said in the week how ‘the crowd behind the goal were literally sucking the ball into the net’.
Am I pernickety or just easily upset? ( I don’t expect any replies.. but feel at least, that posting has calmed me..)

[AB76]

Andy wrote: "Just venting my frustration at my current annoyance, and past year or so.
People who misuse ‘literally’. More specifically those who speak in the media and do so.
On Radio 4 Zahawi just said how ..."

it sits alongside the use of the word surreal as an annoyance of mine Andy

[AB76]

MK wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Berkley wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Berkley, you mentioned reading The Stone Angel as a set book at school, , was this novel quickly part of the north american set texts after being published..."

Contemporary-ish Quebec is covered in "The Revolution Script" by Brian Moore covers the 1970 crisis in Quebec where the FLQ kidnapped two politicians and killed one

[AB76]

MK wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Berkley wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Berkley, you mentioned reading The Stone Angel as a set book at school, , was this novel quickly part of the north american set texts after being published..."

have you read the Maclennan novel i mentioned about the explosion?

[scarletnoir]

Georg wrote: "Elizabeth styles herself as somebody special/superior (as opposed to ordinary/boring). In the end she came out,for me, as a typical member of her class, the landed gentry. Spoiled, entitled, arrogant, ignorant, looking down at anybody and everybody who does not belong to their circle, counting the poorest not even as human beings."

Not a book for me, then - thanks for the review. I have commented before on books where the author seemed to take for granted the entitled/privileged status of some protagonists as if it was perfectly OK for the mediocre rich to 'do well', though others don't share the same sensitivity (or touchiness?) regarding that issue. Interesting that the billionaires in the current UK cabinet think that others won't have a problem coping with energy bills rising by 100-150%... it seems that the lower orders will have saved so much during the COVID lockdowns that they'll be able to stump up easily!

[[deleted user]]

Apropos Canadian writers, does anyone here rate Carol Shields? You don’t see her mentioned much any more, but I used to enjoy her novels as they came out. I thought the opening scene of The Stone Diaries was perfectly beautiful. The long final scene in Larry’s Party was a tour de force - a roomful of people all conversing round a dinner table, with no linking narrative, just the spoken words to identify who was talking. Being a sucker for romances with a melancholic turn, my favourite was The Republic of Love. I don’t remember the plots, just the sense of well-crafted stories about characters I liked. I don’t remember anything at all about her early novels.

[AB76]

Russell wrote: "Apropos Canadian writers, does anyone here rate Carol Shields? You don’t see her mentioned much any more, but I used to enjoy her novels as they came out. I thought the opening scene of The Stone D..."

havent read any of hers, might have a browse, thanks Russ

[Gpfr]

Russell wrote: "Apropos Canadian writers, does anyone here rate Carol Shields?..."

Yes, I do. And somebody else here - maybe Lass?

[Lass]

@ Gpfr…you called?! Yes, I definitely rate the late Carol Shilelds. Still have most of her novels, and short stories, including my signed copy of Various Miracles when she appeared at the Ed Bookfest in ‘97, where else! A gentle, charming, friendly woman.

Another novelist of a similar vintage I enjoy is Shena Mackay. Plenty to recommend, but Dunedin, and The Orchard on Fire spring easily to mind.

[Lass]

Carol Shields’ final novel, Unless, was very moving.

[Gpfr]

Lass wrote: "Carol Shields’ final novel, Unless, was very moving."

Yes, I agree. As well as that, I've got her short stories, Larry's Party, and A Celibate Season written with Blanche Howard. I've read The Stone Diaries, but I must have borrowed it from the library.

I don't know Shena Mackay - I'll check her out.

[MK]

AB76 wrote: "MK wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Berkley wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Berkley, you mentioned reading The Stone Angel as a set book at school, , was this novel quickly part of the north american set texts after bein..."

Thanks, Barometer Rising must be just a little less fanciful than Burden of Desire (whose author - Robert MacNeil is the MacNeil of PBS's MacNeil/Lehrer Report).

Wikipedia has an extensive piece about Hugh MacLennan.

Belated trivia alert (MacNeil)!

[MK]

Does anyone here wonder where that book (insert title here) came from? Yesterday as I was putting Burden of Desire back on its shelf I noticed America's Black Sea Fleet: The U.S. Navy Amidst War and Revolution, 1919-1923 which I had lforgotten about. It seems (from the blurb) that the US had destroyers homeported in Constantinople following WWI. Onto the TBR pile it goes. And boy, wouldn't it be nice if there had been a few foreign ships in the area when Putin so recently went overboard. Wishful thinking, I know.

[AB76]

Sci-fi and dystopia novels fall into two categories for me, ones where i read avidly chasing the answer to a mystery, others where i become jaded with the setting.

I'm not naturally a fan of fantasy/Sci-f-/dystopian fiction but i have read some great examples of the latter two(anything by Phillip K Dick), very few fantasy(only Tolkein).

While Warner's The Aerodrome started well, its dystopia felt so totally strange and rather sleazy that i ditched it, there seemed something deeply odd at the heart of the tale, clammy and claw like

Harrison's The Quiet Earth (1981), is very readable, if a little nerdy and has me scampering to find why all human life in North Island, New Zealand seems to have vanished at 0612 on a Saturday in summer. I havent finished it yet and i'm oddly out of theories, though its well poised, finished a chapter where the narrator roams the Wellington Parliament buildings in bright sunlight, observing over a hundred years of settler history, rendered useless by a freak "event"

[giveusaclue]

MK wrote: "Does anyone here wonder where that book (insert title here) came from? Yesterday as I was putting Burden of Desire back on its shelf I noticed [book:America's Black Sea Fleet: The U.S..."

I quite like the idea of Putin going overboard!

[AB76]

The Quiet Earth was a bit disappointing in the end....the conclusion(which i wont reveal), was a let down, i expected more but certainly a thought provoking novel

next modern-ish novel to follow this is a recommendation from Andy, Sjon's Red Milk

[AB76]

Just started The Truth About St Kilda:An Islanders Memoir by Donald Gillies, based on notebooks recalling his youth on the island from 1900s to 1930

One thing about the religion on the island i hadnt gathered from my visit in 1999 or subsequently was that the locals were all Gaelic speaking Protestants, affiliated to the Free Church of Scotland(Presbyterian), that was the largest Presbyterian church in the Highlands in 1851.

Gaelic to me, well Scots-Gaelic always seemed connected to the Catholic church but St Kilda, like most of the Northern Hebrides was almost 100% Protestant, with a significant Gaelic speaking congregation

[Berkley]

AB76 wrote: "Contemporary-ish Quebec is covered in "The Revolution Script" by Brian Moore covers the 1970 crisis in Quebec where the FLQ kidnapped two politicians and killed one."

I'm just old enough to remember reading about the "October Crisis", as it's called, in the newspaper as 8 or 9 year old late in 1970. At one point they had an artist's drawing of the interior of some building associated with the story - perhaps the place where they found one of the victims, I forget now. I suppose there must have been a ban on taking photographs for some security reason.

I hadn't known about thisBrian Moore book, thanks for bringing it to our attention. There is a more recent (2010) novel by a Québecois writer, Louis Hamelin, called (in the English version) October 1970: A Novel (original French title: La Constellation du Lynx ). I've had my eye on it for a while but now I'm thinking I might try the Moore one first.

I've read MacLennan's Two Solitudes and found it both a good novel in itself and of special interest as one of the earlier fictional treatments of the whole French/English question in Canada. MacLennan also had a novel dealing with the revolutionary separatist or nationalist movement in Quebec, just a few years before it exploded into violence with the October Crisis: Return of the Sphinx (1967). I read this decades ago in school and remember liking it very much at the time.

[Berkley]

Gpfr wrote: "Lass wrote: "Carol Shields’ final novel, Unless, was very moving."


Yes, I agree. As well as that, I've got her short stories, Larry's Party, and A Celibate Season written with Blanche Howard. I've read The Stone Diaries, but I must have borrowed it from the library.

I don't know Shena Mackay - I'll check her out."

MacKay is new to me as well. I should be getting to Shields pretty soon as I move deeper into the 1990s in my so-called (by me) contemporary reading.

[Tam]

Berkley wrote: "Gpfr wrote: "Lass wrote: "Carol Shields’ final novel, Unless, was very moving."


Yes, I agree. As well as that, I've got her short stories, Larry's Party, and A Celibate Season written with Blanch..."

I can recommend both 'Larrys Party' and 'Unless'. Though they were read many years ago. I also liked 'A Thousand Acres' by Jane Smiley. I read a whole lot of American 'continent' based novels in a fairly short period of time. I think around the time that I last visited the US. They were pretty much all interesting. The only one I didn't get on with was 'The Shipping News', by Annie Proulx, so perhaps that says something about me. They both won prizes though it seems...

[Tam]

Tam wrote: "Berkley wrote: "Gpfr wrote: "Lass wrote: "Carol Shields’ final novel, Unless, was very moving."


Yes, I agree. As well as that, I've got her short stories, Larry's Party, and A Celibate Season wri..."

Which reminds me of Anne Carson, who I have had several historical pointers leading me to think that I should read her work, but being an essentially quite lazy person I never got round to it. Has any one here read any of her work, including poems, and got any recommendations as to where to start?

[[deleted user]]

Tam wrote: "...The only one I didn't get on with was 'The Shipping News', by Annie Proulx..."

Oh dear - I loved it, a downbeat story in a bleak landscape in which two lonely people getting into middle age find they are not too old for love. On the other hand, I never found another by AP that I liked.

[Tam]

Russell wrote: "Tam wrote: "...The only one I didn't get on with was 'The Shipping News', by Annie Proulx..."

Oh dear - I loved it, a downbeat story in a bleak landscape in which two lonely people getting into mi..."

Ha... I was trying to remember the factors that I didn't like about it, and I think it was a sense of claustrophobia, and I don't think that the bleakness helped at all, the 'coldness', and insularity of the circumstances, just drained something out of me somehow... Though 'A Thousand Acres' I remember as being pretty bleak as well... Well we are all different... Have you any thoughts, knowledge, about Anne Carson perchance?...

[Robert]

AB76 wrote: "Just started The Truth About St Kilda:An Islanders Memoir by Donald Gillies, based on notebooks recalling his youth on the island from 1900s to 1930

One thing about the religion on the island i h..."

The comic novel Tight Little Island (Compton Mackenzie?) takes place during the Second World War when a ship carrying whiskey runs aground between two islands, one Presbyterian, one Catholic, all fishermen, all thirsty.

[Robert]

giveusaclue wrote: "Lljones wrote: "Anyone need a cat?

"

No comment!!"

My sister says that her Burmese/ American Shorthair mix has become very lively, too... our late, cold spring may make them restless.

[[deleted user]]

Tam wrote: "Russell wrote: "Tam wrote: "...The only one I didn't get on with was 'The Shipping News', by Annie Proulx...Have you any thoughts, knowledge, about Anne Carson perchance?
..."

I"m afraid I have no knowledge of Anne Carson. I actually had to look her up. She seems very distinguished, a potential Nobel laureate.

[Lljones]

Robert wrote: "My sister says that her Burmese/ American Shorthair mix has become very lively, too... our late, cold spring may make them restless..."

"...late, cold spring" may be an understatement in these parts. Something has Mario stirred up. He's driving me crazy!

[Lljones]

Checking in late (for me) tonight...more on Annie Proulx, Jane Smiley, Carol Shields, et al., tomorrow!

[Gpfr]

Tam wrote: "Russell wrote: "Tam wrote: "...The only one I didn't get on with was 'The Shipping News', by Annie Proulx..."

Oh dear - I loved it, a downbeat story in a bleak landscape in which two lonely people..."

I didn't like The Shipping News either. I borrowed Accordion Crimes from the library but didn't get very far with it. I did like her memoir, the account of building her house, Bird Cloud.
I didn't know Anne Carson either - I have now read 1 of her poems, so a little less ignorant!

[AB76]

Berkley wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Contemporary-ish Quebec is covered in "The Revolution Script" by Brian Moore covers the 1970 crisis in Quebec where the FLQ kidnapped two politicians and killed one."

I'm just old eno..."

thanks for those tips Berkley....Maclennan's novels can be hard to find in the UK, though how i found Two Solitudes in the NCL version i dont know as i remember an article lamenting its unavailability in the UK about 15 years ago.

Moore was Northern Irish, so has the outsiders eye on the 1970 crisis and of course as he wrote it barely 12 months after the crisis, it is almost a work of history too.

Not that Paul Rose and the FLQ goons have got any more significant in the last 50 years mind you, though i did watch the documentary by the son of Paul Rose recently called "The Rose Family" and i found it quite biased towards the heroes of the FLQ, a very bad piece of journalism, though full of interesting home video and photos from the crisis. At least the hulking, one eyed Rose did admit the FLQ responsibility for killing Pierre Laporte, Quebec politician, though not personally. (NB> Paul Rose was one of the FLQ terrorists involved in the kidnappings, from a working class Quebecois background)

[Gpfr]

I've been in Iceland crime novel-wise:
Ragnar Jonasson, The Girl Who Died
Arnaldur Indridason, 3rd in the Konrad series, La Pierre du remords. Haven't found English title - not translated yet?
Some supernatural elements in both, which I'm not necessarily keen on in general, but I liked them both.
I've also got 2 Arni Thorarinsson books waiting.

[Gpfr]

I'll have to get out some summer clothes - temperatures of up to 28° forecast here in Paris over the next few days.

[FrancesBurgundy]

Russell wrote: "Tam wrote: "...The only one I didn't get on with was 'The Shipping News', by Annie Proulx..."

Oh dear - I loved it, ..."

Me too Russell, nor did I find any others of hers that I liked. A call went out on the local NextDoor group over lockdown for a copy of it for a Zoom book group so I gave mine away, but replaced it from a charity shop as soon as I could. Must have another re-read!

[Georg]

FrancesBurgundy wrote: "Russell wrote: "Tam wrote: "...The only one I didn't get on with was 'The Shipping News', by Annie Proulx..."

Oh dear - I loved it, ..."

Me too Russell, nor did I find any others of hers that I l..."

I abandoned it about half way in. Not sure why, because I didn't dislike it, rather the opposite. Somehow I just lost interest.

[Lass]

@Tam, @Russel and co….re Annie Proulx, I enjoyed Postcards, and The Shipping News. Have signed copy of Close Range. Met her at a Bookfest. Was a little daunted as had heard her previously having a bit of a “ stooshie” with someone on the Beeb. However, she was charming and entertaining., so needn’t have worried.

Jane Smiley, too was a pleasure to hear speak. I think I still have Some Luck in the house. @conedison, formerly of the original T L & S Guardian page was a fan of her work.