novel
Vancouver International Writer's Festival: Richard Ford
Date: Monday, May 28, 2012 - 7:30pm - 9:30pm
Location
Frederic Wood Theatre
6354 Crescent Road UBC
Vancouver, BC
Canada
49° 16' 4.9548" N, 123° 15' 25.2756" W
See map: Google Maps
Richard Ford's latest novel, Canada, tells the unforgettable story of Dell Parsons, a young man spirited across the Montana border into Saskatchewan. Here he is taken in by Arthur Remlinger, an enigmatic man whose own past exists on the other side of the border. Dell struggles to understand what his future can be even as he comes to understand the violence simmering below the surface in his new life. Haunting and spectacular in vision, Canada is a novel rich with emotional clarity and lyrical precision, and an acute sense of the grandeur of living.
Why the storytelling model doesn't work
Driving along on Tuesday, I heard CBC-Radio's Jian Ghomeshi interview U.S. performance artist Laurie Anderson. She's opened a new show in Calgary at the annual High Performance Rodeo. "Politics is all storytelling," she said. "They're doing what I'm doing. If you like their story, you'll probably vote for them."
Lynn Coady tackles the male psyche in 'The Antagonist'
The Antagonist
(House of Anansi Press,
2011;
$32.95)
If this review were a sports headline it would read "COADY IN THE TIME OF CROSBY." At least that's what I imagine some media factions coming up with between the six of them over a three thousand dollar power lunch at The Keg Mansion as we learn that a book about a hockey thug's lexical revenge has just been shortlisted for the Giller Prize.
Coady, who calls Edmonton home now made a huge entry into fiction in 1998 when her book Strange Heaven was nominated for a Governor General's Award. She also won the Air Canada Award for most promising writer under 30. Her last major literary undertaking was The Anansi Reader which she edited in 2008 for the press's 40th anniversary.