Book 5 (2013) 419 **** by Will Ferguson

2012 Giller Prize - about Lagos

Book 18 (2012) Alone in the Classroom** by Elizabeth Hay

I loved Hay's Late Nights on Air (one of my top 5 Canadian novels), but I can hardly remember what this is about.   It's about a school teacher in a one room prairie school, and a girl is murdered.

I heard her read at the Vancouver Institute this winter and she was marvellous.   The mind was fed and glowing for a week.   She was a broadcaster and has the power of voice as well as word. 

Prizes --
Giller Prize for Late Nights on Air

Book 6 (2011) The Sentimentalists (zero) by Johanna Skibsrud

A father and daughter story (I think) about a man broken by alcoholism and PST ecxerbated by the Viet Nam war.   It takes place in the Northern Ontario and US midwest. There is also something going on about a town being flooded by the building of a dam.  A very disappointing book.   I skimmed the last 75 pages just to see what really happened in Viet Nam.   Just some killing of civilians --- nothing to distinguish it.  

The writing style made me think of the writing style.   Almost the same as the narration in the old TV show The Waltons. 

Too bad, a great idea.  

2010 Giller Price winner.

Book 73 The Bishop's Man * by Linden MacIntyre

Don't bother with this book unless you like being frustrated.   For some reason, MacIntyre has used 10 times the amount of suspense that is necessary in a good novel and doesn't resolve the mysteries he sets up.   

On the positive side, he does portray the rationalizations of the church, the priests, and the parishioners regarding sexual abuse of children very well.   Also, the characters, esp. the priests and the protagonist Father Duncan, the ultimate passive personality, without whom the task of disqualifying, invalidating, and diminishing the effect of the abuse would not be possible, are believable.

I also admire MacIntyre for taking on the topic.   But I wouldn't recommend the book.

2009 Giller Prize.

Book 27 (2010) Late Nights on Air **** by Elizabeth Hay

 In my all time 5 best Canadian novels. How did I not read this before? READ IT NOW.  The characters working in a Yellowknife radio station, a fatal canoe trip in the wilderness, and how it affects the rest of their lives.

Hay won the 2007 Giller Prize for this book.

Book 37 (2010) Through Black Spruce **** by Joseph Boyden

It's hard not to gush about this book, it is so good.   I will steal words from others---fluent, powerful, lyrical, and assured.   This is a story of natives living on reserves, in the city, and in the wilderness, experiencing the degradation and success.   It is so well told that you never think 'what an imgination' you just believe it (compare People of the Book, which I was conscious of the writer's imagination).  The story is told in first person of two characters, a middle aged retired bush pilot and his niece.   I never thought oh this is a man writing in a woman's voice.

You cannot find a flaw or weakness in any sentence, phrase, word, or paragraph of this book.   I wish someone would read it aloud to me.

Boyden won the 2008 Giller Prize for this book.

Other books by this author reviewed on this blog:
The Orenda *****