This is the companion books to The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, and is even better. A wistful love story about the power of unrequited love. This is a magnificent, albeit sad, read.
Category: Book themes
For Today I Am A Boy by Kim Fu
An intriguing first book by a writer I encountered at WordFest, Kim Fu. The story is about 4 siblings in a Chinese-Canadian family, 3 sisters and Peter with emerging trans-gender issues. Beautifully written about a complex issue.
A Sunday At The Pool At Kigali by Gil Courtemanche
Full disclosure – this is a disturbing book and not for the faint-hearted. The book details the events in early 1994 in Rwanda: the AIDS epidemic and mainly the Hutu-led genocide against the Tutsis. Amidst much death and brutal violence is a love story, the tender relationship between a Canadian journalist and a Rwandan woman who is Hutu but looks like a Tutsi. Issues of identity are crucial in the genocidal purge of “cockroaches”, the term the Hutu use to describe Tutsis to justify their extermination. Indifference from the UN and Western powers is described in detail, along with rampant corruption. This is a powerful book: how can love exist in this Rwandan hell?
American Gods – Neil Gaiman
American Gods – Neil Gaiman (the author’s preferred text). This is a fascinating book about America, an imaginative fantasy with old gods and new gods and their conflict. How can you not love a book with a central character named Shadow? Gaiman’s writing reminded me of Stephen King’s The Stand (this is meant to be a compliment). Gaiman readily acknowledges that reaction to this book has been mixed: some readers love the book and some hate it! Mark me down in the “loved the book” camp.
A Good Death – Gil Courtemanche
A Good Death – Gil Courtemanche (perhaps best known for A Sunday At The Pool In Kigali). This is a very well-written story of a dysfunctional large family in Montreal. The patriarch has always been a mean—spirited nasty individual who now has had a stroke with the onset of Parkinson’s. Some members of his family speculate that everyone would be better off if he died. The question of how his death might be facilitated becomes an important theme. His eldest son states that “you can only kill individuals that you love or hate. In this case, the son has never loved his irascible father but can’t hate him because of his illness. This dilemma is resolved in an interesting ending.
The Things They Carried – Tim O’Brien
A tough war story about soldiers in Viet Nam. A chapter about the author’s reaction to being drafted is brilliant. A central theme is keeping the dead “alive” with dreams and stories. Powerful storytelling (this book came from a “50 books that everyone must read” list).
The Wondrous Woo – Carrianne KY Leung
This is a really excellent coming-of-age story of a Chinese-Canadian family in the late 1980s-early 90s. It is essentially a story of sibling relationships with strong emotions like alienation and grief with some magic was well. An intriguing story line: after the death of their father, two of the children acquire special gifts/abilities, but the third sibling does not. This “magic” is accepted without explanation or even much discussion: it is what it is, and this is very satisfying to the reader. (thanks Steph, for this recommendation).
Nobody Is Ever Missing – Catherine Lacey
A brilliant story about a 28 year-old woman who flees her husband and her NY life, to go to New Zealand. She continues to be lost. The writing is amazing, long disjointed sentences to mirror her aimless thoughts. And the ending is intriguing.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18490560-nobody-is-ever-missing
Holding Still For As Long As Possible by Zoe Whittall
Another book from the CBC list; also Whittall was at a Walrus Talks panel discussion at Blue Metropolis. This is a relationship book about 20-somethings that is not preoccupied by drugs. Notably, there is a central trans-gender character, and this characteristic is treated without emphasis, just as it should be.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6606825-holding-still-for-as-long-as-possible?from_search=true
What David Read 