This exceptional book is hard to describe – a stream-of-consciousness memoir, perhaps, featuring electrifying honesty. There are questions like why does she write? There are letters to a silent sister. And there is profound melancholy when acknowledging the suicides of her father and sister (Page 31: “I was crazy with grief, guilt and dread”). But there are very funny excerpts about a European trip in 1988, and hilarious observations about the current domestic life in her multi-generational Toronto home. Bottom line- this is a powerful story that is both heart wrenching and joyful, in other words, Ms. Toews at her best.
Category: Memoir
Landbridge – Y-Dang Troeung
Simply put, this is an exceptional book that is heartbreaking to read. Ms. Troeung was born in a Thailand refugee camp, one of the last Cambodian refugees admitted to Canada in 1980. This is an autobiographical story of her life in Canada and Hong Kong with frequent trips to Cambodia to research the genocidal history. So it is about refugee histories, about refugee survival, to research the lives of the lost during the Cambodian genocide. And it is deeply personal, in part because letters written to her son Kai are included. Tragically, Ms. Troeung died of cancer in 2022. Overall, this is a work of outstanding humanity and honesty, a must-read book.
Superfan – How Pop Culture Broke My Heart – Jen Sookfong Lee
A non-linear memoir of Ms. Lee’s search for a Chinese-Canadian identity, where pop culture (Anne of Green Gables, Bob Ross, etc.) is used as an escape from her fractious family life and as a means of fitting in. She has provided a candid account of her struggles and failures; her insights are tender, often hilarious and always profound.
The Spoon Stealer – Lesley Crewe
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.
Invisible Boy – Harrison Mooney
Subtitle: a memoir of self-discovery. Harry/Harrison is a black child who is adopted by a white evangelical couple in Abbotsford, the BC bible belt. What follows is indoctrination by home-schooling and church fundamentalism, tent revivals, and demon possession and oppression. What is African is explicitly evil. What an adopted Black child learns is shame, confusion and suspicion, and thus is rendered invisible. Can mixed race adoptions ever be successful? Thanks Amy, for this thoughtful memoir.
East Side Story – Growing Up At The PNE – Nick Marino
This is a sentimental history of the Pacific National Exhibition site, in particular its working class East Side aesthetic. The story is based on personal experiences as a summer employee at the fairground as a 12–17-year-old, plus interviews to obtain anecdotes and historical information about the 17 days of the fair, plus year-round Playland activity and sporting events and concerts at the Empire Stadium and Coliseum. Overall, the PNE was a place for scammers and dreamers.
Pageboy – Elliot Page
This memoir is subject to the general caveat of a story based on memory. Nevertheless, what is striking in Page’s writing is the brutal honesty. There is shame and self-disgust, fear and panic, confusion and angst that is accentuated by having a public persona as an actor. The book is presented with a non-linear timeline, consistent with memory. There are two dominant narratives: coming out as queer in 2014 at age 28, and then acting on severe gender dysphoria to be transmasculine. Overall, a well-written journey of love, discovery and eventual strength.
The Magician – Colm Toibin
Thomas Mann was a favourite author of my great German Canadian friend Thea, so I decided to read this biographical portrait of the Nobel Prize-winning author by Toibin, the magnificent Irish writer. Mann’s life, separate from his writing, is fascinating, evolving from a German nationalist in WWI to become an internationalist and anti-Nazi figure. Conflicted relationships abound within his troubled family and within his homeland. Overall, an epic story of a complex man.
Permanent Astonishment – Tomson Highway
Highway is a fine novelist (Kiss of the Fur Queen) but this is a memoir, subtitled “Growing up Cree in the land of snow and sky”. Born in 1951, he grows up in remote Indigenous communities in NW Manitoba. The Indian Act declared that status Indian children MUST be sent to residential schools, so at age 6, he is flown to Guy Hill Indian Residential School in The Pas. Over the next 9 years, he describes academic challenges to learn English, but he does NOT experience institutional cultural genocide and has only a brief experience with sexual abuse at age 11. Overall, his residential school experience is positive even for a two-spirit individual, so an important perspective.
What David Read 