Opinions & Notes

Book Reviews

Book(s) Reviewed

  • Mean by Ken Babstock
  • River Suite by Joe Blades

Book(s) Reviewed

  • Wanting the Day: Selected Poems by Brian Bartlett
  • Later in Chicago by Fred Cogswell
  • Hey, Crumbing Balcony!: Poems New and Selected by Stuart Ross

Inherited Methods (p. 105-107)

Book(s) Reviewed

  • High-maintenance by Stephen Bett
  • Nothing Fell Today but Rain by Evan Jones
  • Criminal Mountains by John O'Neill

Biased Visions (p. 107-108)

Book(s) Reviewed

  • Tales of Court and Castle by Joan Bodger
  • The Painted Wall and Other Strange Tales by Michael Bedard

Two by Four (p. 108-109)

Book(s) Reviewed

  • Ground Works: Avant-Garde for Thee by Christian Bök
  • Exact Fare Only 2: Good Bad & Ugly Rides on Public Transit by Ian Cockfield
  • Stevenson Under the Palm Trees by Alberto Manguel
  • With Borges by Alberto Manguel

Book(s) Reviewed

  • Little Mercy's First Murder by Morwyn Brebner
  • The Waterhead and Other Plays by Aaron Bushkowsky
  • Breakout by Brian Drader

Native Inventions (p. 111-112)

Book(s) Reviewed

  • When Brer Rabbit Meets Coyote: African-Native American Literature by Jonathan Brennan
  • The Invention of Native American Literature by Robert Dale Parker

First Things (p. 113-114)

Book(s) Reviewed

  • Collected Poems of Elizabeth Brewster I by Elizabeth Brewster
  • The Year One by David Helwig

Book(s) Reviewed

  • The Devil's Paintbrush by André Brochu and Alison Newall
  • The Body's Place by Élise Turcotte and Sheila Fischman
  • Wild Cat by Jacques Poulin and Sheila Fischman

Quests for Truth (p. 116-117)

Book(s) Reviewed

  • Adrift by Julie Burtinshaw
  • Dust by Arthur G. Slade
  • Eye of the Storm by Janice L. Dick

Against the Grain (p. 117-119)

Book(s) Reviewed

  • On Abducting the 'Cello by Wayne Clifford
  • Karenin Sings the Blues by Sharon McCartney

Theatrical Rides (p. 119-120)

Book(s) Reviewed

  • True Mummy by Tom Cone
  • The Red Priest (Eight Ways to Say Goodbye) by Mieko Ouchi
  • One Good Marriage by Sean Reycraft
  • Einstein's Gift by Vern Tiessen

Book(s) Reviewed

  • Setting in the East: Maritime Realist Fiction by David Creelman
  • Victory Meat: New Atlantic Canadian Fiction by Lynne Coady
  • An Orange from Portugal: Christmas Stories from the Maritimes and Newfoundland by Anne Simpson

Margin, vanguard (p. 122-124)

Book(s) Reviewed

  • The Winter Gardeners by Dennis Denisoff
  • An English Gentleman by Sky Gilbert
  • Spells by R.M. Vaughan

21st Century Dreams (p. 124-126)

Book(s) Reviewed

  • Hive of Dreams: Contemporary Science Fiction From the Pacific Northwest by Grace L. Dillon
  • The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction by Edward James and Farah Mendlesohn
  • Open Space: New Canadian Fantastic Fiction by Claude Lalumière
  • Worlds of Wonder: Readings in Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature by Jean-François Leroux and Camille La Bossiere

Book(s) Reviewed

  • Les «Essais littéraires» aux ɉditions de l'Hexagone (1988-1993): Radioscopie d’une collection by Robert Dion, Anne-Marie Clément and Simon Fournier
  • Le Recueil littéraire: Pratiques et théorie d’une forme by Irène Langlet

Almost Reality (p. 128-129)

Book(s) Reviewed

  • Arresting Images—Crime and Policing in Front of the Television Camera by Aaron Doyle

Back to the Country (p. 129-130)

Book(s) Reviewed

  • Go Figure by Réjean Ducharme
  • The Whole Night Through by Christiane Frenette
  • Mile End by Lise Tremblay

Book(s) Reviewed

  • Mud City by Deborah Ellis

Book(s) Reviewed

  • Virtual Clearcut or How it is in My Home Town by Brian Fawcett

Book(s) Reviewed

  • The Riddle of The World by David French
  • Girl in the Goldfish Bowl by Morris Panych
  • Two Plays: Gentle Rain Food Co-op; One Man Masque by James Reaney

Primitive Impulses (p. 135-136)

Book(s) Reviewed

  • A Demon in My View: Stories by Len Gasparini

Book(s) Reviewed

  • The Wardrobe Mistress by Beatriz Hausner
  • Trains of Winnipeg by Clive Holden
  • Smoke/Screen: Poems on Cigarettes and Movies by Don Kerr
  • Girls and Handsome Dogs by Norm Sibum
  • Crowd of Sounds by Adam Sol

Ice Bound (p. 137-139)

Book(s) Reviewed

  • Historical Atlas of the Arctic by Derek Hayes
  • Working North: DEW Line to Drill Ship by Rick Ranson
  • The Spiritual History of Ice: Romanticism, Science, and the Imagination. by Eric Wilson

Book(s) Reviewed

  • Down the Chimney with Googol and Googolplex by Nelly Kazenbroot
  • A Noodle Up Your Nose by Frieda Wishinksy
  • Drusilla the Lucky Duck by Errol Broome
  • Things Are Looking Up, Jack by Dan Bar-el

Book(s) Reviewed

  • I Want to Go Home by Gordon Korman
  • The Zucchini Warriors by Gordon Korman
  • Lights, Camera, Disaster! by Gordon Korman
  • Son of the Mob by Gordon Korman

Beyond the Words (p. 142-143)

Book(s) Reviewed

  • Metaphors We Live By by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson
  • Past and Present of the Verbs to Read and to Write by Emilia Ferreiro
  • Production of Presence: What Meaning Cannot Convey by Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht

Book(s) Reviewed

  • Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town by Stephen Leacock and Carl Spadoni
  • Starbuck Valley Winter by Roderick Haig-Brown

Finding Voice (p. 145-146)

Book(s) Reviewed

  • Confidence by Melanie Little
  • In the Chambers of the Sea by Susan Rendell

Book(s) Reviewed

  • The Serpent's Part: Narrating the Self in Canadian Literature by David Lucking
  • Refractions of Germany in Canadian Literature and Culture by Heinz Antor, Sylvia Brown, John Considine and Klaus Stierstorfer

Book(s) Reviewed

  • Crucible of Cultures: Anglophone Drama at the Dawn of a New Millennium by Marc Maufort and Franca Bellarsi

Book(s) Reviewed

  • The Heroic Adventures of Donny Coyote by Ken Mitchell

Book(s) Reviewed

  • What My Body Knows by Lynda Monahan
  • The Dwelling of Weather by Hilary Clark
  • At the Mercy Seat by Susan McCaslin

Book(s) Reviewed

  • The Flea Market by John Moore
  • All My Friends Are Superheroes by Andrew Kaufman

Translating Drama (p. 153-154)

Book(s) Reviewed

  • Angels & Anger: Five Acadian Plays by Glen Nichols
  • Written on Water by Michel Marc Bouchard and Linda Gaboriau

Book(s) Reviewed

  • Hundred Block Rock by Bud Osborn
  • Keys to Kingdoms by Bud Osborn

Book(s) Reviewed

  • Les Partitions d'une époque. Volumes 1 et 2 by André Paiement

Book(s) Reviewed

  • Les Inutilités comparatives by Nicholas Daigneault
  • Les plus Belles Années by Yvon Pare
  • Amours et autres Détours by Luc LaRochelle

Essais critiques (p. 158-160)

Book(s) Reviewed

  • La Pensée inpuissante. Échecs et mythes nationaux canadiens-français (1850-1960) by Gérard Bouchard
  • Victor-Lévy Beaulieu. Un Continent à explorer by Jacques Pelletier

Book(s) Reviewed

  • En longues rivières cachées by Annick Perrot-Bishop
  • Femme au profil d'arbre by Annick Perrot-Bishop
  • Woman Arborescent by Annick Perrot-Bishop and Neil B. Bishop

Book(s) Reviewed

  • Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia by Sheldon Pollack

Locating Loss (p. 163-165)

Book(s) Reviewed

  • Writing Grief: Margaret Laurence and the Work of Mourning by Christian Riegel
  • Alien Heart: The Life and Work of Margaret Laurence by Lyall Powers

Mythopoeia (p. 165-166)

Book(s) Reviewed

  • A Gloss on Our Painted Gods by Eric Barstad
  • go-go dancing for Elvis by Leslie Greentree
  • Wayward by Ali Riley

Inside Scaffoldings (p. 166-167)

Book(s) Reviewed

  • Interference with the Hydrangea by Mari-Lou Rowley
  • Origins by George Whipple
  • On Order and Things by Stefan Psenak and Antonio D'Alfonso

Book(s) Reviewed

  • Awakening Lives: Autobiographies of Jewish Youth in Poland Before the Holocaust by Jeffrey Shandler
  • Citizenship in Transformation in Canada by Yvonne M. Hébert

Roman Mysteries (p. 169-170)

Book(s) Reviewed

  • An Inexplicable Story by Káca Polácková Henley and Josef Skvorecky

Colville and Kadlec (p. 170-171)

Book(s) Reviewed

  • Alex Colville: Return by Tom Smart
  • Inspired Halifax: The Art of Dusan Kadlec by Cynthia Mahoney

Book(s) Reviewed

  • The Harps of God by Kent Stetson
  • Tideline by Wadji Mouawad and Shelley Tepperman

Characters at Sea (p. 173-173)

Book(s) Reviewed

  • A Telling of Stars by Caitlin Sweet
  • Dreams of the Sea by Élisabeth Vonarburg

Book(s) Reviewed

  • A Thing of Beauty by Michel Tremblay and Sheila Fischman
  • News from Éduourd by Michel Tremblay and Sheila Fischman
  • The Blue Circus by Jacques Savoie and Sheila Fischman

Book(s) Reviewed

  • L'écrivain imaginaire. Essai sur le roman québecois 1960-1995 by Roseline Tremblay

Book(s) Reviewed

  • All Hell Can't Stop Us: The On-to-Ottawa Trek and Regina Riot by Bill Waiser
  • The Winter Years: The Depression on the Prairies by James Gray

Of Note (p. 179-179)

Book(s) Reviewed

  • Kameleon Man by Kim Barry Brunhuber

Of Note (p. 179-180)

Book(s) Reviewed

  • Sea of Tranquility by Lesley Choyce

Of Note (p. 180-180)

Book(s) Reviewed

  • The Second Life of Samuel Tyne by Esi Edugyan

Of Note (p. 180-181)

Book(s) Reviewed

  • Random Acts of Hatred by George K. Ilsley

Of Note (p. 181-181)

Book(s) Reviewed

  • Skin Whispers Down by Marilyn Iwama

Of Note (p. 181-182)

Book(s) Reviewed

  • The Haunted Hillbilly by Derek McCormack

Of Note (p. 182-182)

Book(s) Reviewed

  • Open House: Canada and the Magic of Curling by Scott Russell

Of Note (p. 182-182)

Book(s) Reviewed

  • Blind Night by Cordelia Strube