Canada Reads x2

It's not that I haven't been reading, it's just that I haven't been blogging.

The Canada Reads books have been steadily streaming into the library and I have finished numbers 2 and 3- they could not have been more different. I am going to somehow tie them together into one blog post though.

First up... Fall on your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald, the most successful of the Canada Reads novels, as one of Oprah's Picks and for the numerous awards it has won. The novel tells the story of the Piper family, beginning with the marriage of Materia Mahmoud, a Lebanese whose father moved to Cape Breton and established a successful grocery business, and James Piper, a piano tuner, many years her elder. The couple, their daughters and other members of their small community form the centre of this tumultuous novel. The story has everything you would not wish upon any family: a disowned daughter, unhappy marriage, violence, rape, incest and the list continues.

Unfortunately, the plot weighs down the novel. I kept thinking nothing worse could happen and then it did and then it did again. I am not afraid of 'heavy' novels, some of my favorites are, but Fall on your Knees just didn't hold up for me. The depth wasn't there, I didn't see where all the shocks were central to the plot or character development. In Clara Callan, which had some similar plot lines, Clara's rape was a turning point in her relationship with her sister and a major turning point in the plot; but, it didn't overwhelm the book and I wasn't shocked by it. And past the plot, it didn't have anything to offer me.

On an entirely different note, Nikolski by Nicholas Dickner (translated by Lazer Lederhendler) is the story of three twenty-somethings as their lives diverge, converge or come as close to converging as one can in a small Montreal marketplace. The debut novel is eccentric, wonderfully written and in many ways among the more pan-Canadian novels I have read yet. It manages to span many, many provinces and regions; mostly thanks to Noah's Chipewyan mother who is constantly traveling the middle of the country in her mobile home, but also from the Atlantic coast (loads of fish imagery), to Montreal and all the way to furthest West Coast.

The novel is about wandering spirits, youth dealing with the decisions of their parents and all the wayward meanderings of a quirky, well passed along story. So far it is easily my favorite of the Canada Reads books.

That is 3 down, 2 to go. I am waiting on the others to arrive from the library; in the meantime I have started Michael Crummey's newest, Galore.

-Katy

No Great Mischief

This summer, amongst much media attention, a re-enactment of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham was cancelled in Quebec City. It has been 250 years, since the Battle set us on a course to become Canada, a British and not French colony; yet, this event still divides us. And it doesn’t only divide French and English Canada; it divides English Canada within itself.

One of the many myths, anecdotes, stories and rumours, told in Alistair MacLeod’s No Great Mischief, is the story of the Scottish role in during the infamous battle. As the story goes, while British troops, supported by the 78^th Fraser Highlanders, were attempting to secretly dock their boats along the St. Lawrence they were stopped by French sentries. Luckily, one of the Scottish Officers, being familiar with French as he had previously fought on the other side, was able to allay the sentries concerns by pretending to be a French supply ship. The British were able to land and win the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, the Seven Years War, Canada and eternal bragging rights over the French. All thanks to the Scots!

Despite their contribution, General Wolfe, who would lose his life fighting this battle, had infamously said that it would be ‘no great mischief,’ if many Scots were to die on the Plains of Abraham. And there we have the title of Alistair MacLeod’s award winning novel, as well as just one of many stories that is told recurrently throughout the novel.

No Great Mischief is told from the point of view of Alexander MacDonald, or ‘ille bhig ruaidh’ as he is affectionately known by his family. MacDonald’s sprawling story traces his family’s heritage from their first arrival in Canada, “the land of trees,” in the late 18^th century to his present day attempts to bring his eldest brother home to Cape Breton.

The story follows Alexander as he is visiting his eldest brother in Toronto and uses flashbacks and story telling to bring the reader through Alexander’s life. Born and raised in Cape Breton, largely by his grandparents after the untimely death of his parents, Alexander and his twin sister have a much easier existence than their older brothers. He goes to university, with the intention of becoming an orthodontist, but the plan is temporarily put on hold when one of his cousins dies in a mining accident and he has to step in to replace him. The summer working underground becomes a defining moment for the story, as it is used to fill in the details of his present relationship with his oldest, alcoholic brother.

The story is funny and touching and it is easy to see why MacLeod has garnered so much critical acclaim. The Canadian Encyclopedia refers to him as “a chronicler of the landscape and people of Cape Breton,” an apt description as the novel often relates to the interaction between people and the landscape. Often with negative results, the sea, the forest, the mines, are all intricately woven within the story of the MacDonald family.

A good beginning for the project!

Up next: Larry’s Party by Carol Shields

- Katy