This is my Country, What's Yours: A Literary Atlas of Canada - Noah Ricler [October/06]

It's offical, I finished this book at work last night! Since I have been posting about it all along, I am just going to post the last few chapters that I have not mentioned before and give it a rating.

Part TWO: THE AGE OF MAPPING

Chapter Six: The Company Store
In which the author reveals Canada in its three stages of work and, blaming the Hudson's Bay Company for much, travels the country from Newfoundland to British Columbia and seeks the counsel of Michael Crummey, Alistair MacLeod, Christy Ann Conlin, Leo McKay Jr., David Adams Richards, Alice Munro, Richard Wright, John Bemrose, Michael Ondaatje, and Michael Turner along the way.

This is the chapter that talked about my province, Nova Scotia. Christy Ann Conlin actually was raised very near to me, and I know people that know her, so this chapter hit very close to home. A lot of great authors, too. Michael Crummey is from Nfld, I have read River Thiefs by him, which was a very good novel. Alistair MacLeod is Nova Scotian, and I have read a lot of his short stories, but not his novel. Christy Ann Conlin has a novel called Heave which is really good, I got lots of people to read it back when it came out. Leo McKay Jr., I have not read before, but he is from Nova Scotia too. He talks about, in this chapter, where my boyfriend is from, so I could understand where he was coming from. David Adams Richards is from New Brunswick, and I have mentioned him before. Alice Munro, is a fantastic short story writer from Ontario. John Bemrose, I have Island Walkers, but haven't read it yet. I have, of course, read Michael Ondaatje, but never read Michael Turner. All in all, a good chapter.

Chapter Seven: Traces
In which the author meets writers of Saskatchewan's diaspora living in Toronto, the novelists Lee Gowan and Michael Helm and the poet Karen Solie, and then travels to the praire province itself, where he meets with Guy Vanderhaeghe, Jacqueline Baker, Martha Blum, Yann Martel, Michael Hetherton, Sharon Butala, and Gloria Sawai and discovers a land of ardour, subleties, and passages.

This chapter made me think of the fact that we are the second largest land mass, but have a very small population. This chapter, as well as others, shows why very well. Small farmers can no longer compete against the larger farms, so farmers are forced to struggle or give it up for another career. In this chapter, some of the authors go back to the farms that they were raised on, that has been in the family for a couple generations, but was not worth holding on to anymore. The last chapter talks about this too. A mine or something will be found, people will move in and make a town, but then everything dries up and suddenly, you have a ghost town. This is why Canada is so barren, well, that and that there are places where it is not practical to live anyways, because settlements set up where the money is, no money, ghost town.

Chapter Eight: Our Myths of Disappointment
In which the author ponders the importance of myths to all societies but decides that many of the nationally binding stories that Canadians tell themselves are insalubrious and reflect our distrust of authority, for good reason, and seeks out Ruby Wiebe, Guy Vanderhaeghe, Jack Hodgins, Joseph Boydon, Gil Gourtemanche, Wayne Johnston, and Antoinette Maillet, wishing, in some part of himself, that his notion is batty.

This is where my province comes in again, Richler looks at whether or not the Acadian deportment would be considered a part of this category. Antoinette Maillet, another one of those authors residing on my TBR pile, is an Acadian that has written novels about them. I actually found the book I had by her after reading this chapter, so I can read it soon.

PART THREE: THE AGE OF ARGUMENT
Chapter Nine: Making Things Up
In which the author travels to St. John's, Newfoundland, where he is received by Robin McGrath before gathering the novelists Michael Crummey, Lisa Moore, Michael Winter, and some friends of theirs in the convivial surroundings of the Ship Inn, discovering their new-found confidence as well as their plundering of life, and confronts them with ethical issues that pertain to all writers of fiction.

This chapter has some funny stories in it, a very enjoyable chapter. It looks at whether there really is fiction, or if things are really just the life of the authors rewritten.

Chapter Ten: Je me souviens - do quoi?
In which the author travels to Trois-Pistoles, in la belle province, wanting to converse with the separtist author Victor-Levy Beaulieu, eminece tres tres grise, and then descends to Montreal, where he invites the novelists Nadine Bismuth, Mauricio Segura, and Guillaume Vigneault to a long lunch, and asks them and Gil Courtemanche, Rawi Hage, Elise Turcotte, and Gaeton Soucy about the role of the novel in Quebec's distinct society.

This is Quebec's chapter. In a time when Quebec wants to separate from the rest of Canada, this chapter was very interesting to read. I have to admit, I have not really heard of any of these authors, and those I have, never read before. So, this was a whole new learning experience for me. Now you know why I want to read some more Canadian authors, I am missing a lot of key ones.

Chapter Eleven: Home and Away
In which the author considers the changed nature of Toronto, the significance to the country of the events of the 1960s, and approaches an understanding of some of the ways in which Canada is "home," in the company of Russell Smith, Richard Wright, Austin Clarke, Barry Callaghan, George Elliott Clarke, Ann-Marie MacDonald, Michael Ondaatje, Katherine Govier, Dionne Brand, and Rohinton Mistry in Toronto; Madeleine Thien and Anosh Irani in Vancouver; and Yann Martel in Saskatoon.

The last chapter in the book, I have to admit, I was sad to see this book come to an end. I really enjoyed reading it. This chapter is particularly interesting because it looks at Canada as home. Many of these authors came from somewhere else, and it discusses where they see themselves and how it influences their writing. A great list of authors, some I have read and others that I really need to.

Concluding Remarks:
I could have finished this book long ago, but I decided to read it slowly and not rush through the experience. It really is an interesting look at Canada, the country that I call home, and I learned a lot. It is the sort of book that I will be reading again. It also has reawakened an interest in non-fiction that university sort of destroyed. I suggest this book to both Canadians and outsiders that want to know more about this large country. Now I need to find something else to post about!

5/5 - Could I really give it anything less?

More looks at this book.

To look into getting this book, click here

Also, Noah Richler is the son of one of Canada's finest authors, and it looks like one of his books just got rereleased. To see Mordecai Richler's book rerelease, click here. This is the only book I have read by him.

Some thoughts...

As I think I am making it pretty clear, I am reading This is my Country, What's Yours? by Noah Richler. And, today, I got to thinking how little part my neck of the woods has played in the book so far. It's weird how insignificant we have become, because, I live in Nova Scotia. Population-wise, yeah, we are tiny, but this is where it all began. The Maritimes were settled before anywhere else, and we get such little screen time in anything. The Maritimes finally appeared in the book in Chapter Six, and it was the three of them at once, and that was their chapter. It is sad that we are not really important anymore, considering that while Ontario has upsurped the power, Canada truly began in this part of the province and then spread out. It's rather sad, there are very few historical fiction novels even about life in the Maritimes and about the arrival of the settlers and things of that sort. I wonder, is it because no one cares or it doesn't sell? It just seems like a rather big part of Canadian history to totally ignore. And life on this end of the world is not boring, history-wise. So, makes you wonder, why has it been totally forgotten in literature. I am sure we come up again in Richler's book, but just makes you think sometimes. Probably more so because I live here.

Don't worry, I am on chapter 8 now, so before you know it, I will be done this book and will start to talk about something else!

More from Noah Richler

So, since the last time I talked about This is my Country, What's Yours?, I have read two more chapters. I haven't been home long enough today to make it three. I hope to correct that before the day is totally over with.

Anyways, first chapter I read:

Chapter Four: The Circle in the Square
In which the author travels to Inuvik, in the Northwest Territories; to Wanuskewin, Saskatchewan; around the city of Toronto, Ontario; and to France, meets the aboriginal storyteller Louis Bird, the poet Louise Halfe, and the novelists Robert Arthur Alexie, Eden Robinson, Tomson Highway, Joseph Boyden, and Lee Maracle, and discovers that in the hands of people it once helped oppress, the novel defends aboriginal culture and becomes the exponent of a prior, contrary view of life.
This chapter on aboriginals was very interesting. For starters, I have not really read any of these authors, so I have a pretty list of new books to read (there are excerpts included from certain authors in the chapters), and I also learned stuff. When you are in university, you learn lots of things, that's why until recently I wasn't reading a lot of non-fiction.

Chapter Five: House and Garden
In which the author travels to Vancouver and is astonished that the West Coast is such a tense and febrile place, and has taut conversations with the writers Nancy Lee, Timothy Taylor, Eden Robinson, Michael Turner, Lee Henderson, Douglas Coupland, and Zsuzsi Gartner in a city still negotiating terms with Bad Mommy Nature.
This chapter also has authors in it that I have never read before. I am going to now! For example, there is this serial killer that killed women and buried them at his pig farm; Nancy Lee has a short story about it. And then there is a park in the area where two bodies of unidentified children were found, two authors from the list talk about it. It is an inside look at why the authors write about the things that they write about, which appeals to me. I also got an inside look at how Douglas Coupland, one of my favourite authors, thinks. It was a very interesting chapter. And, so far, he has travelled to places that I have never visited, so you learn a lot about new places.

I am enjoying this book so much that I made a list of all the authors that he interviewed. Now, I am going to try and read at least one book by about half of them or so. I would say all of them, but I want to read other things too. I have no time frame, it is just an interesting goal and a way to witness some Canadian authors that I may not have read otherwise. We will see how that goes. All I know is that I am all for a sequel!

Book Talk

Back in September I talked about two non-fiction books that I was very interested in, This is my Country, What's Yours? by Noah Richler and Heat: How to Stop the Planet From Burning by George Monbiot. I have both of them now, and have been reading them. I thought instead of just posting about them all at once, I am going to talk about them as I go along. Why? Because I think both of them are very interesting books!

So, let's start with the Noah Richler book. It sort of vanished for a while, and I only found it yesterday. I am just about to start chapter 4, so not very far into it yet, but now that I know where it is, I am sure you will see me read more of it.

Anyways, the chapters have explanations about what they are about, so I will show you what I just read about:

Chapter One: The Virtues of Being Nowhere
In which the author, seeking to understand the psycho-geography of the country, travels to Iqaluit, Nunavut; Don Mills, Ontario; and Steinbach, Manitoba; encounters the novelists Margaret Atwood, Jane Urquahart, Colin McAdam, Barbara Gowdy, Lawrence Hill, Paul Quarrington, Lee Henderson, Wayne Johnston, Miriam Toews, M.G. Vassanji, Rohinton Mistry, and Douglas Coupland, and discovers Nowhere has three stages.

My Thoughts on the Chapter:
Awesome list of authors, I know who most of them are, so it was interesting to hear what they thought about "Nowhere". It's rather funny, in Canada, you can be pretty much anywhere and feel like you are in the middle of nowhere. It is just the way the country has built up. A very interesting chapter about living in Canada.

Part One: The Age of Invention
Chapter Two: Stories and What They Do
In which the author recalls a bygone conversation with the Ghanian novelist B. Kojo Laing that suggested that stories do battle, prompting him to wonder whether the novel is sometimes a bullying thing and to seek illuminations from the poet Robert Bringhurst in the woods of Quadra Island, B.C.

My Thoughts on the Chapter:
I learned a lot from this chapter. The author really travels to odd places. Before I get much further I need to get a map of Canada, because I don't know where all the smaller towns are.

Chapter Three: Igloolik, 1822
In which the author accepts an invitation from his friend John MacDonald to attend the Inuit Festival of the Return of the Sun in Igloolik, Nunavut, where he remembers a conversation he had in London with the anthropologist Hugh Brody and converses with several Inuit, including Leah Otak, Louis Tapardjuk, and the filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk, and discovers oral stories about First Contact that compel him to make the case that the novel served settlers' interests better than creation myths did the Inuit's.

My Thoughts on the Chapter:
This has been my favourite chapter so far, because while I know where Nunavut is, when I was in school and learning all about Canada, it was still part of the Northwest Territories, so I have never studied it when it is alone. Also, we discuss the Natives of Canada in great detail in school, still did in university, but we hardly ever talk about the Inuit. Just from this chapter I think I learned more about them than all my schooling. The Creation Myths and how technology has changed their way of life is very interesting.

Then, today, I plan to read Chapter Four:

Chapter Four: The Circle in the Square
In which the author travels to Inuvik, in the Northwest Territories; to Wanuskewin, Saskatchewan; around the city of Toronto, Ontario; and to Frace to meet the aboriginal storyteller Louis Bird, the poet Louise Halfe, and the novelists Robert Arthur Alexie, Eden Robinson, Tomson Highway, Joseph Boyden, and Lee Maracle, and discovers that in the hands of peoples it once helped oppress, the novel defends aboriginal culture, and becomes the exponent of a prior, contrary view of life.

The next non-fiction book that I am concentrating my time on is Heat. It is not out yet, sadly, so I am not allowed to say much about it. I was just wondering, what do you guys think about global warming? Do you think it is our fault or was going to happen anyways? Feel free to say whatever you want. Then, I think it is on the 17th, I will talk about what George Monbiot has to say on the subject. I just need to sort of talk about it or I will forget parts of it by the time I can post about it.

Anyways, if you are interested in either of these books, click here for Heat and here for Noah Ricler's novel. (Yes, I found it now, it is a McClelland book, not a Random House one. I should pay more attention to these things.)

Another New Book

Since I know there are a few Canadians lurking around reading my blog, I thought I would talk about the book that I got in the mail today. It is called This is my Country, What's Yours? A Literary Atlas of Canada by Noah Richler.

This is another book that looks really really interesting, but I don't know if I would have ever heard of if it wasn't for the Random House new release email. I have not read it yet, obviously, but it smells so new! I pulled it out of the envelope and was like: "New Book Smell!"

Anyways, I am very loyal to Canadian authors, a lot of my favourite authors are Canadian and I try to read as many new ones each year as I can. So, when I was reading the blurb to this book, which I will post momentarily, I thought that this was a much more interesting way to look at Canada and their authors. It is also supposedly a television documentary, I know I read that somewhere, that might be interesting to watch.

From the flap:

Stories are the surest way to know a place, and at a time when the fabric of the country seems daily more uncertain, Noah Richler looks to our authors for evidence of Canada's true nature. Over three years, Richler criss-crossed the country and met with a veritable who's who of Canadian literature, interviewing close to one hundered authors from Cape Spear to Inuvik about places, ideas, and arguments pertaining to this fortunate but uncertain country.

Bold in it propositions, sensitive in its debates, and wid-reaching in its scope, THIS IS MY COUNTRY, WHAT'S YOURS? reveals the wonders and variety of a country in which stories do battle and explains why they reveall higher truths than our official histories do. In the course of his travels, Richler sees a Canada that has been throught Ages of Invention, Mapping, and Argument. He considers the aggressive role the novel played in the settling of Canada, its rise in aboriginal hands and shows the stories our best authors have written to be deeply and inherently political. Travelling from Newfoundland to the Northwest Territories, he studies the role that work has played in the development of the country and learns of our Myths of Disappointment. He encounters not one but several "distinct societies" and considers the role of the city in our current exhilarating age. The result is a journey through the reality of Canada, but also its imagination, at a critical point in the country's evolution.

THIS IS MY COUNTRY, WHAT'S YOURS? is an impassioned literary travelogue and a vivid portrayal of our society, a homage to the work of Canadian authors and to the idea of writing itself.

Anyways, I think this book looks interesting, and I hope someone other there will read this and go, hey, that looks good!

The authors that are included in this book that I have heard of or read are:
Margaret Atwood
John Bemrose
David Bergen
Austin Clarke
Douglas Coupland
Michael Crummey
Sheldon Currie
Katherine Govier
Barbara Gowdy
Tomson Highway
Jack Hodgins
Wayne Johnston
Thomas King
Mary Lawson
Ann-Marie MacDonald
Alistair MacLeod
Antonine Maillet
Yann Martel
Rohinton Mistry
Lisa Moore
Alice Munro
Michael Ondaatje
David Adams Richards
Carol Shields
Miriam Toews
Jane Urquhart
Guy Vanderhaeghe
M.G. Vassanji
Thomas Wharton
Rudy Wiebe
Richard Wright

And that is just some of them... others I have either heard of and don't know why or never heard of before ever. Also, see that list? I own at least one book by each of the authors listed.

I'll be sure and post when I finish it! And I was going to link it to Random House, but for some reason, I can't seem to find it by searching. (This is not the cover I have, but close enough).