Twelve-year-old Will lives in Thunder Bay with his agoraphobic and eccentric mother, who states that if Will steps outside their home, he will die. So of course, Will’s curiosity compels him to leave his house and instead of disaster, he experiences a complicated freedom. This is a beautifully written story of family and friendship, with skateboarding!
Michael Christie also wrote Greenwood.
The Tamaki cousins have created a brilliant graphic novel about 5 days in New York city in 2009, experienced by three 19-year-old Canadian women. Initial euphoria is tempered by reality as friendships are tested. Overall, an immersive slice-of-life, in part a love letter to a great city. This book was a chance discovery at the October Word Fest, a true find.
Be advised: this is an emotional tear-jerker so have tissues nearby, especially for the end of the story. The book is presented in two parts. In 1968, 74-year-old Emmaline reads her poignant life story to a group of English women as part of a memoir-writing class. In the second half, Emmaline returns to Nova Scotia to confront her fractured family. Her personality is a fascinating blend of brassiness and abrasiveness, but also generosity. The core of the story, however, is friendship between women.
Sometimes a sentimental historical novel fits the bill perfectly. The time period is 1944-46. Kate survives a London bomb but then circumstances force her to live with a doctor friend, Claire. Complex issues complicate their lives: a murdered father and the return of Claire’s troubled husband from the war. This story is about friendship, promises, courage and independence. Key details are left unexplained, to make for a very satisfying plot.
This fabulous and long (670 pages) book concludes a trilogy: previous books were Beartown and Us Against You. Backman’s writing is both heart-warming and heart-wrenching. Two remote forest towns (in Sweden but could be Canada) are intense rivals in hockey and politics. There are two funerals, impending violence and intimidation, and a ferocious summer storm. Backman’s writing is often philosophical: what it means to experience fear, for example. Be warned, the story is very emotional with complicated relationships, especially within families; expect to experience extreme sadness (and tears) when confronting loyalty, friendship and loss.
Sam and Sadie first meet at ages 11/12 over a shared love of video games. Ten years later, they are creating video games. This is an insightful relationship book: a profound friendship is often complicated by human frailties. Sadie describes herself as “a dervish of selfishness, resentment and insecurity”, clearly significant barriers to having successful relationships. Creative ambitions, disability, success, and failure are all themes.
Simply put, this is a wonderful book about compelling and complex women in Montreal at the end of the 19th century. Men in the story are mostly inconsequential, despite some appallingly boorish behaviour. Marie and Sadie are best friends as children, but theirs is a classic love-hate relationship (“Every decent friendship comes with a drop of hatred. But that hatred is like honey in the tea. It makes it addictive”). Marie is spoiled and entitled; Sadie is subversive and dangerous. Ms. O’Neill‘s writing is enchanting with exquisite similes describing disparate worlds: life in a brothel, exploitive factory work (the Squalid Mile). Female relationships are infinitely complex with righteous anger, pettiness and jealousy, and a self-absorbed woman who has no empathy toward other women. Powerful feminist themes abound: the invisibility of marriage, sexual awareness leading to female empowerment. And finally, anticipate a late plot twist and an extraordinary ending. This is O’Neill at her best, a Montreal noir story.
Ms. Patchett is one of my favourite novelists (The Patron Saint of Liars, Bel Canto) but she also writes essays that previously were collected into the wonderful book This is a Story of a Happy Marriage. This is her second book of essays, some published previously in Harpers and the Atlantic. All are insightful glimpses into her life, from childhood to the current time. A favourite for me is the first essay about her three fathers, all different experiences, all with positive and negatives. Her writing is clear, focused, and honest – highly recommended.
(Amy seconds all of this!)
A superb relationship book: Allan and Byron have married the Winter sisters, Peggy and Annie, respectively. What is love and friendship in the face of manipulation? What is memory when confronted with dementia and suppressed recall? How much wilful disbelief accompanies work for someone who has criminal activities? This is a cracking good psychological thriller – highly recommended.
What David Read 