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M-Word Goose Lane Editions Kerri Clare I’ll admit that I was apprehensive when Carolyn suggested I choose The M Word: Conversations about Motherhood as my next book. Mother’s Day was on the horizon so this essay collection was a timely choice, but I am, in our modern parlance, child-free (or child-less, depending on your view). What business do I have reading a book about motherhood?

This book, I soon learned, is so much more than reflections on Baby Björn products, home versus hospital births and essays on the infinite joys of finally becoming a parent. The collection’s editor, Kerry Clare, writes in her introduction:

In fact, it seems that outside the zone are most of us, those whose relationships to motherhood are complicated – we’ve lost children, we never had the ones we longed for, the children we have are not biologically ours. We are the women who’ve had too many children or not enough, or we didn’t have them properly. Women for whom motherhood is a fork in the road, encountered with decidedly mixed feelings. There are those of us who made the conscious choice not to have children, and yet find ourselves defined by what we’re lacking instead of the richness of our lives.

The M Word touches all of these topics and more. Whether you’re a mother by choice or by circumstance, a woman without children by choice, circumstance or tragedy, or simply someone who has yet to decide which path to take, you’ll find yourself in one of these stories. And not always the ones you’d suspect.

Essay collections are often a hard-sell when I recommend a book, but this one has real appeal. These are not simply essays by mothers, they are essays by writers at the top of their games. An IMPAC award winner rubs pages with a National Newspaper Award winner, while Journey Prize nominees and GG finalists pop in and out of this anthology. These 25 voices are fresh, diverse in tone and, frequently, brutally honest.

While this book is light on the Atlantic content we usually highlight in this space, it does feature a powerful essay from Nicole Dixon, an award-winning short story author from Cape Breton Island. “Babies in a Dangerous Time: On Choosing to be Child-Free” meditates on the pressure women feel, all too often from other women, to pro-create:

You have to explain why you don’t want to have kids because people are never happy with the simple answer, ‘No, I don’t want kids.’ They look at you. They raise their eyebrows. They call you anti-kid or assume you’re barren. They tell you, actually say to you, as if they know your mind better than you do, ‘Oh some day? Don’t worry. You’ll change your mind.’

Dixon doesn’t apologize for her child-free status. She highlights, using a mix of personal prose and pop culture references, the times she’s pondered crossing over into motherhood, and the reasons that she’s decided to stay put.

Whether you’re a mother or not, almost a mother, or mother-like; female or otherwise gendered, this engaging book will make you think about the many ways we do or don’t become parents and the choices our parents made before us.

The M Word: Conversations about Motherhood
edited by Kerry Clare
$22.95, paperback, 310 pp.
Goose Lane Editions, April 2014

 

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Book awards season is on the horizon here on the Atlantic coast, so this feels like a great time to start exploring the best of what our region had to offer in 2014.

Many of the books given a nod for one of the eight Atlantic Book Awards short lists have already been featured in our pages. Those Splendid Girls: The Heroic Service of Prince Edward Island Nurses in the Great War by Katherine Dewar, Grist by Linda Little is on the Jim Connors Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction list, and Island Kitchen by Chef Mark McCrowe with Sasha Okshevsky for our own Atlantic Publishers Marketing Association Best-Published Book Award, to name but a few. The one book I hoped to see on someone’s short list was Just Beneath My Skin by Nova Scotian author Darren Greer.

Just Beneath My Skin Darren GreerHis name will be familiar to many. His first novel, Tyler’s Cape, earned critical acclaim, while Still Life with June won the ReLit Award in 2004. Greer’s latest novel is no exception to praise. Just Beneath My Skin is shortlisted for the Jim Connors Dartmouth Book Award at the 2015 Atlantic Book Awards and the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award at this year’s East Coast Literary Awards.

In this book, North River, Nova Scotia, is a gritty, hopeless place. The mill that powered the town’s economic engine is gone. Now pathetic men pass a bottle of cheap wine under the corner store’s awning, while down the road a women stares out the window, biding her time until cheque day. Its grey pall will be familiar to anyone who grew up in a similar space or, perhaps more aptly, has come home to visit a small rural town far past its prime.

Jake MacNeil returns to this low place not to visit but to claim his son, Nathan, from his alcoholic, abusive and, above all, angry former girlfriend. Over the next 24 hours there will be tears, painful personal introspection and a death.

It’s difficult to discuss the novel’s plot without giving too much away, but I can tell you that while I’ve painted a bleak picture above, Greer’s prose highlights a heart-wrenching beauty in this desperation:

It starts raining and Nathan comes along. It pisses me off to no end that Carla makes him go all the way downtown to pick up a carton of milk and doesn’t even bother to make sure he wears the right clothes. I call him over.

Hiyya Jake.”
“Heyya squirt.”

Nathan and I shoot the shit for a while, and then Johnny wants more wine and I have to leave. I can see the kid wants more from me – Christ it’s been six months since he’s seen me but I still have to put some time in with Johnny before he’ll let me off the hook. So I tell Nathan to go home and I’ll see him tonight. Poor kid. I look back at him once, standing there in the middle of the street, shivering in the rain without a jacket, holding the carton of milk for dear life. I feel such a wrench for him in my gut I feel like crying. Johnny’s looking at me, like he knows what I’m thinking and despises me for it, and so, to block him I think of something else, I whisper under my breath: the river flows only one way…

The story alternates between Jake and Nathan as narrators, and flows back and forth through time to flesh out the stories of their lives together and separately. Jake’s thoughts focus most on his strained relationship with his own father as he struggles to decide what kind of father he will be to Nathan. The boy, for his part, contrasts his fear of his mother with his hero worship for Jake, who he barely knows. Through this interplay of memories the reader sees how one generation’s memories lend themselves to the next.

I’m not often a fan of child narrators. Few authors can hit the right tone without dipping too far into a sickly-sweet innocence or a simplicity that fails to drive the plot in a meaningful way. Not so with Greer’s Nathan. He is precocious without appearing too adult, but just child-like enough to hope that the world will give him a fair shake. The shifts between Nathan and Jake’s views are staggered at first, but the interchanges speed up as the action of the plot kicks in.

Some readers will find the initial chapters a tad slow, but bear with this author. By the mid-point you’ll be unable to put this book down.

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Piau's Potato PresentAward-winning author Diane Carmel Léger is best known to French readers for her for her La butte à Pétard trilogy, which recounts the expulsion of her Acadian an ancestors from their village of the same name. The history of those 18th-century Acadians fills many of her novels and pictures books, and newest among them is Piau’s Potato Present.

A translation of La patate cadeau ou la « vraie » histoire de la poutine râpée, this young readers’ book tells the story of two seemingly opposed cultures coming together to help one another survive. What I enjoyed most about at was its ability to impart the compulsory moral of a children’s book and share local history, while remaining an entertaining read.

The story opens near the Petcoudiac River, several years after the expulsion of the local Acadian population known as Le Grand Dérangement. Young Christian Treitz, a Pennsylvania German immigrant and his family are shivering and starving their way through a harsh winter.

As he searches the forest for food he encounters an fur-clad Acadian man. When Christian’s hacking cough arrests his escape from the bear-like stranger, the man pats Christian’s back as his mother would to help clear his lungs. Their meeting is a friendly one, although brief as Christian’s brother Abraham appears with a musket to fend off the interloper.

Over the coming year Christian and the Acadian meet several times. They exchange French and German words, and the Acadian shares his supplies and offers advice about living near the river. As with their first meeting, their exchanges are by necessity short and sweet. The German settlers were wary that the expelled Acadians would return to take back their lands, and the Acadian is determined to stay out of the fray.

Readers will later learn that he is modeled on Pierre Belliveau, a historic figure who helped many of the early Monckton Township settler families survive the first year in Canada.

By the end of the story, the Treitz family is grateful for Belliveau’s help and strike up a friendship through the exchange of food.

Tamara Thiébaux-Heikalo, who is known for her whimsical yet realistic imagery, illustrated the book. Her rustic, watercolour pictures suit the story of a hard life on the land and lend a brightness to a story filled with many melancholy moments as the reader watches German settlers chased off the helpful Belliveau.

This story is situated in history, but doesn’t beat the reader over the head with it. Depending on the age of the children with whom you share this tale, Léger has made it simple for you to add in additional history to suit any age. For example, when Christian an Belliveau first meet the Acadian says his people were sometimes known as the French Neutrals, a reference to the Acadians who refused to take up arms for or against either side in the French and Indian War.

And in the back of the book you’ll find an note outlining the story’s historical context; French and German glossaries for the words used in the story; and, perhaps best of all, a recipe for those delicious, potato dumplings la poutine râpée.

Piau’s Potato Present
By Diane Carmel Léger & Tamara Thiébaux-Heikalo (illustrator), $12.95 (pb)
9782896820498, 79 pp.
Bouton d’or Acadie, August 2014

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BOOK TRAILER: Photobooth: A Biography from Meags Fitzgerald on Vimeo

Like the author of this graphic novel, I spent a lot of time playing in photobooths as a teenager. No trip to the mall was complete unless it was commemorated with a slightly sticky, chemical-smelling strip of four black and white images. But unlike me, Meags Fitzgerald cultivated her love for photobooths as she grew up and transformed it from a teenage crush into a calling and, perhaps, even her one true love.

The subtitle, A Biography, is misleading, as this graphic novel offers so much more. It is in equal measures a history of the booth in the Western world, the people behind its invention and evolution, and the author’s personal travelogue and autobiography. Across its three parts, the books slips back and forth in time and in story, chronicling the evolution of the booth and Fitzgerald, as a woman and an artist. This convention could be jarring in other writing styles, but as a graphic novel it works well and avoids overloading the reader with too many technical details about photobooths all at once.

Part one introduces the reader to the carefully rendered drawings of photobooths and their inner working that will fill each page. No detail is left out from the stylized lettering on the signage to the delicate folds in the cloth curtains. To Atlantic Canadian readers of a certain age, a few of these images bring back memories. In addition to the history of many booth makers and models, we also learn about the people who invented them and pushed the technology to evolve over the last century.

Interspersed with these history lessons are vignettes covering Fitzgerald’s early flirtation with photobooths. The stories feature the expected scenes, such as cramming into photobooths with friends and discovering discarded photo strips, and also the unexpected, a fight to save her collection from a mugger that left her bloodied and bruised. Through each spread, the author grows from an awkward teenager escaping into the secret world behind the photobooth curtain to young art student yearning to create more with her chosen medium. Part one sets the reader up with enough knowledge about the booths and Fitzgerald to follow the story, but the narrative really comes into its own in part two.

Digital booths, Fitzgerald tells us, are on track to completely replace traditional, chemical photobooths later this year. To her this shift isn’t just sad–it’s crushing. The anguish in some of her drawings as she deals with this inescapable fact is visceral and understandable for anyone who yearns for older, analogue technologies ways. She embarks on many small journeys and several massive expeditions to meet the people on the business and the artistic sides of photobooth culture and document the chemical photobooth scene before it disappears. Her travels take her to warehouses filled with old machines, conventions lead by entrepreneurs and artists attempting to buy up and revive the old ways, and even a side project as a volunteer photobooth technician.

It would have been easy for Fitzgerald to paint the whole experience in the glow of fandom, but she avoids that route, opting instead to invite readers into her head and heart. We see the author when she’s not at her best: dusty, tired and downtrodden on a train from France to Italy. We see her doubts about her own art and talent, and even the project that is the book the reader hold in her hands. The drawings reflect her state of mind as the light strokes of the expertly reproduced antique booths give way to darker, more abstract images.

The book ends on a high note, and for those who are truly interested in the nitty-gritty of photobooth history, a separate notes and citations section adds more depth to the technical discussions and the background behind the drawings. That Photobooth: A Biography was a labour of love for Fitzgerald comes through loud and clear and it was a fascinating read, perfect for a snow day.

Photobooth: A Biography
By Meags Fitzgerald
9781894994828, 280 pp.
Conundrum Press, May 2014

Are you taking on your own local reading challenge this year? We want to hear from you. You could see your story on AtlanticBooksToday.ca. Click here to contact us.

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Hello Sweetheart Elaine McCluskey

Hello Sweetheart will keep you reading, but be warned, this is not a warm and cuddly story collection. Throughout its 21 tales, the book introduces readers to gritty, hard luck characters trying to live their lives amid ambition and disappointment, dangerous spaces and people, drugs and death. But instead of scaring you away that should, most certainly, pull you in.

Elaine McCluskey, began her writing career as a journalist covering stories including the Ocean Ranger tragedy and the Gander air crash. Today she’s best known as the author of a novel, two other short story collections and for her stories published in literary magazines including The Fiddlehead, The Antigonish Review, The Dalhousie Review, Gaspereau Review, Room, Other Voices, Pottersfield Portfolio and Riddle Fence.

McCluskey’s beat reporter roots are clearly showing in this most recent collection. The stories are told from varying points of view, but one consistent note is the level of descriptive detail that invites readers to see beyond the action and dialogue into a character’s innermost thoughts:

Being in Bonnie’s presence was like being trapped in an airport with travellers whose flights had been cancelled for the second straight day, dirty, tired people ready to snap at the slightest provocation, people who felt wronged, and in those settings there was always one person who remained in good cheer, the person who took the setback as an adventure, the person who brought out a deck of cards and found blankets, the person who lifted everyone’s spirits, and that person was Bryce’s bride.

From The Wedding

This collection is packed with snapshots of characters’ past and present lives, and most feature a story within the story. For example, in Jaw Breakers, a Canada Games Gold Medalist laments his father’s missing sense of humour and his former glories in the pool while narrating his coaching session of a morning swim class populated by middle-aged moms and 9-to-5ers.

While the settings vary, there is a strong Maritime flavour to these stories. A Newfoundland dialect pops-up on a bus bound for Saskatchewan and notable Halifax landmarks rise in the view of a docking cruise ship.

I’m a big reader of short story collections because the genre lends itself well to travel and hectic work weeks, but I often wonder what happened to the characters after their limelight shifts to the next story. One of my favourite aspects of this book was McCluskey’s ability to transport a character from his feature story into another as a bit player, giving those who are particularly likely to capture the reader’s interest a little more life. I’d recommend this book to anyone who wants to bring a little piece of home on their next journey.

Hello Sweetheart
By Elaine McCluskey, $19.95 (pb)
9781926531991, 198 pp.
Enfield & Wizenty, September 2014

Are you taking on your own local reading challenge this year? We want to hear from you. You could see your story on AtlanticBooksToday.ca. Click here to contact us.

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The Bay Bulls Standoff Chris Ryan Flanker Press

One of the best parts about being the editor of Atlantic Books Today is the steady stream of great regional books passing through our office. When The Bay Bull Standoff  by Chris Ryan (Flanker Press) landed on my desk in December, I’ll admit I was intrigued to read an account of this story that I remember first seeing in, of all places, a morning newspaper in Montreal back in 2010.

Ryan’s story offers his recollection of an eight-day, armed standoff between Leo Crockwell, a 55-year-old electrical technician, and the RCMP that played out in the fishing community of Bay Bulls, Newfoundland and Labrador.

The story begins with what the author describes as “an altercation with his younger sister,” which ended with Crockwell following his mother and sister out of the home the three shared while carrying a rifle. What followed was a week many in Newfoundland, especially the town’s 1,200 residents, will remember forever.

The book is broken up into chapters covering each of the eight days, which helps the reader follow the story as it unfolds. But what makes it unique is its stylistic approach. Rather than telling the story in a narrative form, Ryan takes a documentary-like stance by recounting the events of each day through the dialogue of the people he encountered during the standoff.

As an avid birdwatcher, Ryan had the scopes and binoculars to keep a close eye on the Crockwell family home from an SUV parked nearby in an elevated gravel pit. Ryan, his brother Joe, and a large cast of locals discuss the events of the standoff as it plays out, drawing readers into the action. Ryan openly admits in an author’s note that the dialogue is “as valid as memory allowed” and that some “has been changed, added to or altered for the benefit of the reader,” but for the most part it feels very natural.

The constant coming and goings of the many bit characters who punctuate the book can get a little confusing at times, but overall the story is presented in an easy to follow fashion. The action waxes and wanes, and some of the scenes featuring Ryan and his brother mulling over the situation can get a little dry, but there’s more than enough here to keep you reading. When RCMP officers send in a remote Explosive Disposal Unit robot to flush Crockwell from the house or, their final salvo, shooting 227,000 liters of cold water into the house to freeze him out, the reader has a front row seat in the SUV with Ryan and Joe.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and Ryan’s ability to capture the small-town vibe in Bay Bulls during the standoff that made national news and inspired a folksong or two. While its most likely audience is those living in the tiny satellite towns surrounding St. John’s, it can easily capture the interest of those outside the region.

The Bay Bulls Standoff
by Chris Ryan, $19.95 (pb)
9781771173551, 211 pp.
Flanker Press, November 2014

Are you taking on your own local reading challenge this year? We want to hear from you. You could see your story on AtlanticBooksToday.ca. Click here to contact us.

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KimI’ve always believed that New Year’s resolutions are a bit cliché, but if you’ll bear with me for just a few sentences, I’ll tell you why I’m about to make one. First a confession: I didn’t read enough Atlantic Canadian books this year.

The number wasn’t zero, but it wasn’t so high that I’d be proud to write it here. I’m happy to say that both Linda Little’s historical novel Grist (reviewed in our fall 2014 issue) and Megan Gail Cole’s short story collection Eating Habits of the Chronically Lonesome (which you’ll find reviewed here) have brightened my evenings and weekends in the last few months, along with books by Ann-Marie MacDonald (profiled here), John Boileau and others. But it doesn’t feel like enough. 

That’s why, as we head into 2015, I’m declaring here and now that this will be my year to read regionally, and I invite you to join me. Beginning next Friday, I’ll read 26 Atlantic Canadian-published or authored books over the next year and review each one here in the columns section. 

I hope you’ll check in to see what I’m reading, and that you’ll join me by making your own commitment to read locally. Please let us know which local books you’re choosing this year in the comments section of our website, on Facebook and Twitter.

Happy New Year!

Are you taking on your own local reading challenge this year? We want to hear from you. You could see your story on AtlanticBooksToday.ca. Click here to contact us.