Canada 3x
Making a list will calm my mind, make me as cool as November in Nunavut. Please help me. I'm as open as the prairies of Saskatchewan to your suggestions.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Making a list will calm my mind, make me as cool as November in Nunavut. Please help me. I'm as open as the prairies of Saskatchewan to your suggestions.
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This is not a reply to "Canada 3x," but a comment on your June 2007 post which I discovered a couple of days ago when trying to find out if Don Robertson is still with us.
I was sorry to learn he'd died. I first became aware of him in about 1971 when "Praise the Human Season" was out in paperback in the convience store I managed. Still one of my favorite Robertson books.
A couple novels not mentioned in the comments you received then: "A Flag Full of Stars," possibly one of the most fun reads, and "Miss Margret Ridpath and the Dismantling of the Universe," also a fun read.
If you read both Robertson and Stephen King you'll eventually note that they give subtle "tips of the hat" to each other in their novels.
In "The Tailsman," by King and Peter Staub, the young male protagonist is traveling cross country and goes through a town in Paradise Falls. When I first read that, I thought, that's odd King would have the same name for a town in Ohio as Robertson did. But when the kid met a man with the last name Light (A name in Don's novel "Paradise Falls,") I knew it had to be a reference to Don's work.
In Don's "Harv," the trucker stops at a truck stop in Maine. The cafe is "Christine's" obviously a return of the compliment from Don to Stephen King. There are many such references in King's novels. Just the one in Robertson's novels, at least as far as I know. This sort of thing is fun to pick up as a reader.
I'm a 59 year old grandpa living in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.A. I work in the supermarket industry and write fiction when I can. In January I started a blog focusing on writing fiction.
Charles
http://writingprocess-charles.blogspot.com/
Have you read Monkey Bead by Eden Robinson? If not, I'm going to recommend that. It's a wonderful book and I wish more people would read it!
This year, I read The Road Past Altamont, by Gabrielle Roy, which I loved. I also really liked Pelagie of the Cart (don't know if this is available in English?) by Antonine Maillet. Others I've loved that you might not have gotten to yet: Green Grass, Running Water by Thomas King (this one was truly fantastic!), When She Was Queen by M.J. Vassanji, and Disappearing Moon Cafe by Sky Lee. Can't wait to see what you choose!
Charles,
In Christine, one of the characters is tracing down the history of the evil car and his investigations take him to Paradise Falls. I was so excited when I read that...wanted to call Stephen King up immediately and crow jubilantly that I'd noticed.
Robertson's books are kind of hard to find even in libraries.
Good luck with your writing...I'll stop by your blog.
Nymeth,
Monkey Bead...sounds good. When I first looked at the title, I saw Monkey Bread LOL.
Jenny,
Thanks for all those suggestions!
My favorite Canadian authors (other than Davies of course) are Margaret Atwood (must read "Oryx and Crake", "Robber Bride" and "Cat's Eye"), Barbara Gowdy ("Mr. Sandman", "Helpless" and "The White Bone") and Margaret Laurence ("The Diviners", "The Stone Angel").
Amber,
I grabbed The Diviners today at WTB? Looked for Oryx and Crake, but didn't see any Atwood but The Handmaid's Tale. Thanks for your help.
The Diviners is a Canadian book that I actually really really like! Might possibly love.....so I really hope you get to that for the challenge. And I think it's Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson, but then I'm looking for a copy too for the challenge and I haven't found it yet. You could always slum a little and try Louise Penny's mysteries,which both I and Geraniumcat really enjoyed (and my mother too.) (Uh oh. I see you T&C Inner Bookworm giving me a hard stare). Hmmmm, I'll have to think on a few others. If you haven't already, you have to read some Farley Mowat if you are going to be a reader of Canadian books!! The Dog Who Wouldn't Be, The Boat Who Wouldn't Float, are two of his funnier ones.
I'm joining you in this challenge, too!
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