Group A, Section B

We chose "A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali" by Gil Courtemanche.
Summary: Bernard Valcourt is a documentary filmmaker from Quebec, who is in Kigali, Rwanda attempting to set up a TV station in the capital just days before the genocide begins in 1994. He spends his time hanging around the pool at the Mille-Collines Hotel surrounded by aid workers, Belgian businessmen, Rwandan officials, hotel staff, prostitutes, etc. As the conflict between the Tutsis and the Hutus progresses, Valcourt befriends some of the locals who confide in him, and begins to fight on their behalf using his documentary to broadcast their testimonies to the world. He forms relationships with people who want to enjoy and celebrate life in spite of the tragedy that is consuming their lives.

We chose this because we thought it would be interesting to see this international event through the eyes of a Canadian instead of an American. It is critically acclaimed, and sounds like a pretty incredible story.
274 pages. It's also supposedly going to be made into a movie.

Other choices:

"A Map of Glass" by Jane Urquhart: Sylvia Bradley meets Andrew, a historical geographer, who dies, and a year later meets Jerome, a photographer who finds Andrew's body. She tells Jerome the ancestry of Andrew's shipbuilding/timber industry family of the 19th century.

"Pattern Recognition" by William Gibson: Cayce Pollard strives to find patterns and meanings within a mysterious collection of video moments called "the footage," that was released to the internet by an unknown source. She is hired to find out who released the footage, taking her in and out of danger and eventually conincides with her desire to reconcile her father's disappearance during the 9/11 attacks.

"Shoeless Joe" by W.P. Kinrella: aka "Field of Dreams," the movie. Enough said.

"Runaway: Stories" by Alice Munro: Collection of short stories telling the lives of various characters.

we decieded on Banana Boys by Terry Woo. Mainly because it focuses on Chinesse Canadians, which is something we havent and will not discuss with our current syllibus. It centers around five boys who grow up together then seperate, and are brought together again by one of thier friends sucicides.

Section A, Group C
Our group chose "Safety of War" by Rob Benvie. This is a book about David, a man with a boring job and an obsession with old war movies. He ends up at a New Age wilderness retreat where a supernatural expirement accidently raises a horrible creature. This creature could be " a) the Devil, b) David’s deceased father, c) George C. Scott as General George S. Patton in the movie Patton, or d) all, or any, of the aforementioned." With this beast unleashed on Canada, carnage ensues. This novel has been described as "a hellride of exploded symbolism and beery misadventures, murders and tragedies, laughs, puzzles and meditations on valour and sacrifice in a world short on true heroes." The novel is 300 pages and was published in 2004.
We chose the book because it was published by Coach House Press in Toronto. We noticed that a few of the other authors we will be reading have at some point been published by Coach House, so this would fit in with an underlying theme in the syllabus. Also, we were intrigued by the experimental style of many of Coach House's books and the fact that they tend to publish lesser known authors.

Other books we considered:
"Your Secrets Sleep With Me" by Darren O'Donnell, also published by Coach House. This novel takes place in Toronto after the CN Tower has been destroyed by a tornado. Because of the paranoid state of the US, many Americans are seeking refuge in Canada. The book discusses the collision and conflict of Canadian and American youths in Toronto.
"A Complicated Kindness" by Miriam Towes
This novel is about 16 year old Nomi who is struggling to find her place in her community and her family. After her sister and mother disappear, Nomi shaves her head, stops attending school, begins using drugs, and slowly falls into depression.
"Banana Boys" by Terry Woo
This novel tells the story of four Asian youths in Canada who are trying to stay in touch with their heritage and culture while going to college in Canada. Traditional Asian culture and traditions is contrasted with the typical lifestyles of college kids in North America.

Our group had four great suggestions as to different books our class might enjoy studying as our final novel. What we decided upon was a book by Ramona Dearing titled, "So Beautiful." It was published in March of 2004. It is a book of short stories; 168 pages in all. We fealt it would be beneficial to add another book writen by a woman, and also one more anthology of short stories; seeing as most of the curiculuum is novels all but one written by men. Dearing's stories cover great areas in Canada including settings in Labrador, Newfundland, and Vancouver. "So Beautiful" also recieved admirable reviews in the press.
"Dearing's greatest strength is her understated style. Entire lives lie under the surfacae of her sentences, and characters convey more in what they dont say than in what they do. Dearing also shows a startling cersatility for a new writer, with her stories covering verious territories, not only of Canadian geography, but also of social class, emotion and most of all IDENTITY. Equally impressive, Dearing refuses to provide easy answers for her characters problems. There are no feel-good endings here, no morally corrected resolutions to complicated situations. Instead, there are believable human tales. "So Beautiful" isnt a book that lays out what people should be, its a book that sums up what they are and what they can never be." - Peter Darbyshire, amazon.com

Group A, Section A

Our group considered 5 novels. "Critical Injuries" by Joan Barefoot is the story of a woman who, nearing the end of her life begins to take an introspective view on the years behind her. Steve Hamilton's suspense novel, "Blood is the Sky", is the fifth in a series following Alex McKnight, a former investigator living in Michigan. It involves a search for a friend's brother missing in Northern Ontario. The third book considered was "Sparrow Knights" by David Gilmour, an exploration of some darker themes like madness, neuroses, and general deparvity, as experienced by the main character. Our second choice novel was "Up in Ontario" by James Sherritt which explores the polarity of urban and rural lifestyle as seen in the life of the main character.

Our choice for our final book study is "Muriella Pent" by Russell Smith. It is the story of a Carribean "has-been poet" and a genteel woman of Toronto society. It is a satirical look at the Art world in Toronto. It is written through a collage of diary entries, letters, e-mails and newspaper articals. It has been describes as the best Canadian novel published in 2004 and was a finalist for the 2005 Toronto Book Awards. It is described as a "Post Colonial Comedy." We chose this selection because of its unique style of writing and because it was described as comedic and satirical and the other books in the syllabus have darker themes.

Section A Group F

Our group chose Douglas Glover’s prize winning book, Elle. We agreed that this book not only sounds like a great adventure, but captures some of Canada's history because it is based on a true story.

A young Frenchwoman and her forbidden lover are left for dead on an island in the St. Lawrence. Her wildness and taste for sin got them thrown from a ship. This is a true story of a young woman’s survival against the elements. Elle is a very sexual character and in every review I read there were references to her wild ways and free spirit.

REVIEW
“Elle is the winner of the 2003 Governor General's Award for Fiction. Based on details snatched from the margins of the historical record, Elle tells the story of a lustful young French woman abandoned on an island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence by the Sieur de Roberval, the leader of a disastrous attempt to colonize Canada. After surviving the onset of winter, Elle is found by an Inuit hunter, who becomes her lover, keeps her alive, and draws her into a bear-haunted dream world. Eventually, Elle crosses the frozen river and escapes the island, but what happens next defies concise summarization - Glover's imagination ferments his readings in history and shamanism into a profoundly intoxicating vintage.” Anne McDermod

Section B, Group E

Our group chose A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews. This book was the 2004 winner of The Govenor General's award, the most prestigious award a Canadian author can receive. It was also a member of the National Bestseller's list. In a review the narrator was descibed as "laugh-out-loud funny," her sarcastic,humor was also compared to Holden Caufield from Catcher in the Rye.
Our group thought a Canadian author, telling a
story set in New York City have an interesting
perspective.
This fictional novel is told from the point of view of a rebellious six-teen year old girl, named Nomi growing up in a Mennonite Community. She has been abandoned by her mother and sister and lives with her neglecting, but loving father. Nomi struggles under the strict laws of the Quaker-like community she feels trapped in, where dancing, drinking, rock'n'roll, recreational sex, swimming, make-up, jewelry, playing pool, going to cities or staying up past nine o'clock are all illegal. Nomi struggles to get through high school, "blunting her pain through drugs and imagination," haunted by memories of a happier past.

Section B, Group D

Our group decided on a collection of short stories called "Ladykiller: Stories", by Charlotte Gill. The length of the book (230 pages) and the fact that it is seven different stories attracted us to it. The stories follow different couples in different troubled relationships. A summary by the publisher:

"She conjures compelling stories about escape, self-sabotage, and the power of unconscious desire. A couple plots against a crying baby in the apartment below as their dysfunctional relationship begins to veer off course. A hot-shot scuba-diving instructor falls for a teenaged girl in a perilous Lolita-like romance. Twin sisters travel to exotic lands in search of romance in order to rescue themselves from their own dark, intense bond. A woman reconnects with the son of her father''s mistress, and together they begin an obsession with the past. A medical student embarks on an affair with a professor and discovers revolution in disastrous consequences. An unfaithful man takes his girlfriend to his ailing mother''s for Christmas, only to find himself at the crossroads of sexual impulse and mortality."

We thought that the book sounded interesting in itself, and also that the different stories would keep it interesting!

Other books we seriously considered were "All My Friends are Superheroes" by Andrew Kaufman and Margaret Atwood's "Oryx and Crake".

Section B group F

Below is the description of "Unless" by Carol Shields, that was presented to our group by Renae Wallace. It won us over because it is a contemporary story and it is a novel by a woman with characters who are our age.

The other books we discussed were:

The Kappa Child, by Hiromi Goto, a post-modern Japanese-Canadian tale.

Runaway, by Alice Munro, a collection of short stories about contemporary Canadian women.

Bad News of the Heart, by Douglas H. Glover.

The Life of Pi, by Yann Martel, a story of an orphan's journey to Canada.

River Thieves, by Michael Crummey, a historical novel set in Newfoundland which chronicles the relationships between the early settlers and the native peoples(Beothuk)in the 1800's.

Renae Wallace
9/15/05
Canadian Literature

“But happiness is not what I thought. Happiness is the lucky pane of glass you carry in your head. It takes all your cunning just to hang on to it, and once it’s smashed you have to move into a different sort of life.” These lines are from the novel, “Unless” written by Carol Shields in the year 2003. This is the book I choose to bring to the class today because I think this is something we could all relate to in some way. This story is about a successful writer, whose daughter is a dropout from the society and because of this she becomes caught up in trying to discover why this happened to her daughter, turned her into finding where we could find meaning and hope. Some other themes that came up in this story were passion and wisdom.
There are many reasons for me choosing this book. However, the main reason for wanting this class to read this book is, because I think it is a story full of inspiration and it deals with everyday issues. This young girl was not a dropout from school but one from the society. And I think this is something that goes on around us everyday. We might not see the obvious, which is them going and begging on the streets like the character in this book, but they are being rejected in some way.
The outcome of the mother trying to find answers is what makes this story inspiring and I think it would be a good book for this class to read because it adds an emotional spin to the class. It is somewhat a Canadian tragedy. To me the main difference between this book and the others that we will be reading in class, is that it deals with the issue as it comes, it is not about retracing one’s life and it is also not an historical document. It deals with finding an answer and having an outcome.

Section A:
We also chose Douglas Glover's book, Elle. It was recommended to me by several people as a good and funny read. Plus, it's a bit naughty, which will make the reading go by faster.....

The rest of our reading is situated in the near-present day; this story is based on legends, and is set in the 1500s. It will be interesting to see what, if anything, we can deduce of the origins of aspects of Canadian culture from the story.

Our group chose "The Memory Artists" by Jeffrey Moore, which won the 2005 Canadian Authors Association Fiction Prize. The novel is 220 pages long and focuses on a character with the conditions of hyermania/synaesthesia (his memory is "unrelentingly exact") and his relations with his mother, who has Alzheimer's (she remembers too little!).
Other choices were:
"Bad News of the Heart" by H. Glover Douglas
"Our Story: Aboriginal Voices on Canada's Past"
"The English Patient" by Michael Ondaatje

Addendum to the previous comment: The Memory artists was chosen by Group E, section B!

Section A, Group D
"A War Against Truth." Paul William Roberts, the author, is a Canadian journalist who has spent years covering the Middle East and was in Baghdad when America first invaded Iraq. The book is not exactly fiction, but it is a completely different view on the war then what we are used to hearing, most notably because "he seethes so uncontrollably with anti-Americanism that his credibility collapses under the weight of accusations" according to Amazon.com. We all thought that was kinda cool.

I vote to read "A War Against Truth" by Paul William Roberts.