That Just Happened!

Well, after recieving fortification in the way of a quick visit and Starbucks drop, I have continued on with my quest to read for 24 hours (or so).  I have finished another book, which was great because it is a Governor General Winner and I can now cross it off my list.  So, as it is about half way in the Read-A-Thon and there is still a ways to go, I am going to post a mini-review for this book.

Bowering, George.  “Burning Water” 2007 (Won in 1980) New Star Books Ltd.

…Burning Water tells a straightforward, linear narrative, but it does so
from within the trappings of postmodernist fiction. The novel often breaks into
authorial asides, abandoning a scene in progress in favour of a sort of
third-person author’s journal. Many of Bowering’s characters are deliberately
unrealistic and function as historical puppets. They speak a dialect that is
half-antiquated and half-modern. Only Vancouver and Menzies gain any real
individuality, and their belligerent personalities chafe against the confines of
their duties to history as the Great Explorer and the Great Naturalist, leading,
eventually, to a murder. It’s not a murder that matches the historical record,
however, and readers who are uncomfortable with this type of storytelling would
do well to avoid Burning Water. However, those who are comfortable with
the self-doubting tactics of postmodern historical writing will find much to
enjoy here. –Jack Illingworth

Amazon.ca

As far as books about discovering Canada go, I have definitely read better ones.  I found this one a little hard to follow at first because there are a few paragraphs peppered through the novel that are actually about the person writing a novel about the main character.  In fact, ”Burning Water” is the novel the mysterious author is writing and we read it…oh heck, it sounds confusing just trying to explain it.  Plus we are more than a few hours in to the Read-A-Thon and I think it’s time for a fluffy book.

Either way, it seemed like there was a lot that wasn’t said, merely implied, and it was up to the Reader to figure out what it was and how it fits into the story.  There were also a few pages at the beginning of some of the chapters which had the Native’s perspective, but they sounded very British in their speech and I couldn’t really piece in the relevance to the story about British explorer George Vancouver.  All in all this wasn’t bad, but compared to others I have read it was a little lacking.  I am giving this book

Well, it is off to start the next book and perhaps do a little mini challenge.  I would also like this time to say thankyouthankyouthankyou  to the wonderful cheerleaders who are helping everyone to stay motivated.

That Just Happened!

Bambrick, Winifred.  Keller’s Continental Review.  The Riverside Press (1946). 

This is now the oldest book I own.  It took quite a bit of searching, but I finally found a place in the States that had a copy.  It should be noted that this copy came without its dust jacket and is an American printing.  The Canadian novel and original name was Continental Review.  I also could not find a synopsis of the book online, so I am going to have to write my own, for the first time in the history of my blog.

Continental Review  follows Herr Direktor and his company across the Continent putting on a Review.  The cast of characters is vast, yet they are like one big, happy family.  Suddenly, there lives are thrown into turmoil as rumours of war break out one the Continent.  The closeness they once experienced dissolves as the company is torn apart by prejudices, governments and an falling economy.  As much as the characters are feeling this external pressure, things are also changing within the company.  They experience love and loss all within the context of the oncoming war.  Meanwhile they continue to take their show on the road and perform 2-4 hour shows a day.  Herr Direktor fights for things to remain the same, but he loses his grip on his company and they go spiraling down.

Me.

This was an interesting book.  Reading it was like experiencing the Review itself, there were so many details.  The Review is a cross between performance art, burlesque and a circus.  The closest thing I can think to relate it to these days is Cirque du Soleil.  The Reader basically gets to watch each of the shows as they are presented.  The Reader gets a feeling of organized chaos and there is no feeling of judgment within the cast, or from the outside world.  The company is portrayed happily and every where they go they are loved.  It is not an easy life, being on the road, but it is a content one.  There are also a lot of lovers in this book.  One day they love each other and the next they are torn asunder.  It always comes down to love.   As the war approaches the Reader starts to feel the tension within the company as they are no longer allowed to travel as they did before.  It all comes to an interesting end and I liked how Bambrick gave a little review about where all the characters ended up.  It is not a happy story, by any means, but circus stories never are.  I find there is always an underlying sense of tragedy to them. 

I give this book 3 eh’s.  I liked the story, but I thought the author became a little too bogged down in the details at times.

Ondaatje, Michael.  Divisadero.  Vintage Canada (2008). Originally published in 2007.

In the 1970s in northern California, near Gold Rush country, a father and his teenage daughters, Anna and Claire, work their farm with the help of Coop, an enigmatic young man who makes his home with them. Theirs is a makeshift family, until it is riven by an incident of violence — of both hand and heart — that sets fire to the rest of their lives.

Divisaderotakes us from the city of San Francisco to the raucous backrooms of Nevada’s casinos, and eventually to the landscape of south central France. It is here, outside a small rural village, that Anna becomes immersed in the life and the world of a writer from an earlier time — Lucien Segura. His compelling story, which has its beginnings at the turn of the century, circles around “the raw truth” of Anna’s own life, the one she’s left behind but can never truly leave. And as the narrative moves back and forth in time and place, we discover each of the characters managing to find some foothold in a present rough-hewn from the past.

Breathtakingly evoked and with unforgettable characters, Divisadero is a multi-layered novel about passion, loss, and the unshakable past, about the often discordant demands of family, love, and memory. It is Michael Ondaatje’s most intimate and beautiful novel to date.

From RandomHouse.ca

I expected big things after having read Anil’s Ghost, but I felt that this novel just fell short of my expectations.  The book was split into three parts and it switches between Anna, Claire and Coop’s lives at first.  Anna is in France researching an author, Coop is getting involved in and then leaving the gambling scene, Claire is trying to reconcile the past with the present.  The first to parts of the book follow these three characters and explores how their lives have been affected by a traumatic incident in their past.  All of a sudden the third part of the book shifts and is about the author that Anna is researching.  It felt like a completely different book.

At the end, the original characters are not really revisited and the author’s end is inferred. I was disappointed that we didn’t get back into Anna, Claire and Coop’s lives as I found that was slightly more interesting.  I kept trying to look for parallels between the author’s story and the three character’s lives to try to determine why his story was the third part of the book, but I didn’t get it.   I feel like I was missing something that would make me go “Aha! Now it makes sense!”  Perhaps I was, or perhaps it just isn’t there.

I read this for my personal Governor General Award Winner for Fiction Challenge.  Because I found the first two parts interesting, and I am not sure I fully understood the book, I am giving this book…