Fill in The Gaps

I somehow neglected to post about it, but some time ago I posted my Fill In The Gaps reading list over here.

February by Lisa Moore

On Valentine's Day in 1982, a terrible storm hit the coast of Newfoundland. An oil rig called the Ocean Ranger sank, causing the death of 84 men. Lisa Moore's new novel February explores the psyche of Helen O'Mara, whose husband Cal was on the boat. The narrative is divided into short sections, dropping in on a moment in Helen's timeline and then doubling back or moving forward with graceful fluidity to visit another one. Such are the poignant details of these moments that it's possible to pick up the threads and weave together the at times heartbreaking story of Helen's life.

Moore does an excellent job of capturing the pain of Helen's loss and the difficulty of being left alone to raise three children. The narrative also touches on the lives of Helen's fatherless children, especially her son John, who is surprised to discover he will soon become a father. Moore's prose simply dazzles with its understated emotions and evocative use of colourful images. The two are often juxtaposed to wonderful effect, as in a scene about the now grown-up John:
“And Jane Downey had hung up on him. There was just the platform and the giant boulders and the pale yellow dress of the Japanese child and the red candy ring catching the light.” (33)

The beauty of Lisa's Moore's prose is often startling. Reluctant to reach the last page, I drew out reading February for as long as possible to savour its beauty.

Thanks to @houseofanansi and the House of Anansi Review Crew for the chance to read and review an advance copy of this book!

Things I've Been Reading Lately

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga (Free Press)
I was in the mood for a page-turner, and that's what I got. Balram Halwai, the narrator and main character, explains how he left the "darkness" in rural India for the "light" of the cities and eventually became a successful business owner in Bangalore. His tale is a compelling story and kept me hooked until the end, but something about the narrative set up for the novel kind of bothered me. The narration is given over seven nights, all told in long letters that Balram is presumably writing to a Chinese politician. To me this narrative frame seemed a bit gimmicky, and at the end I still saw no real reason for its existence. I think the best parts were somewhere in the middle, when this frame fell away and the real story emerged. Winner of the Man Booker Prize in 2008.

The Man of My Dreams by Curtis Sittenfeld (Random House)
Someone asked me what I was reading recently and I was a bit embarrassed to reply "The Man of My Dreams." I had expected that the title might be some kind of ironic play on words, but no, it really was about a girl searching for the man of her dreams. Not really sure why some editor didn't change the title. I picked this up because of my love for Sittenfeld's first novel, Prep, and while I can't say that I was as wildly enthusiastic about this one, it was still a good read that I had a hard time putting down for three days. The narrative drops in on Hannah, the main character, at several points in her life between the ages of 14 and somewhere in her late 20s. Hannah is self-conscious, neurotic, depressed, and often seems to say the wrong thing, but there's still something likable about her. Less precocious and somehow more depressing than Prep, but still worth the time.

Stripmalling by Jon Paul Fiorentino (ECW Press)
This is Jon Paul Fiorentino's first novel (he's published several books of poetry and a book of short fiction), and of course it's hilarious, much like JPF himself. The protagonist, Johnny, works in a strip mall. But he has bigger aspirations: he wants to be a writer and eventually starts writing a novel called Stripmalling. Self-referential but not annoyingly, over-theoretically so, Stripmalling is a hybrid of novel and graphic novel, a pastiche of diary entries (mid-life crisis reports), letters, interviews, and confessions. It's very clever and very good fun.

Jack by Mike Spry (Snare Books)
I really liked these poems. They're quirky, narrative-driven, honest, confessional, and funny. There are recurring characters and themes that give the collection a real sense of continuity that keeps you reading. My favourite was a long poem in the middle called "Skate Betty," which starts and ends with the image of the narrator's four year-old son holding up a photograph, and in between tells the story of the narrator's relationship with the girl in the photo: "My mum would often ask about you./'Where's your little girlfriend?'/'She's not my girlfriend, Mum.'/'Why isn't she your girlfriend?'/'Because she has a girlfriend, Mum.'/'Well that's just silly.'" And each section of the poem takes its title from a song by The Smiths - what's not to love?

Book Trailers

Word is that in times of recession, the use of social media as a publicity tool is becoming even more popular.

Well, of course. Makes sense.

Maybe this means we'll start to see more video book trailers (well, in some cases mock book trailers) for literary press books, such as:
Sina Queyras' Expressway (Coach House)
Jon Paul Fiorentino's Stripmalling (ECW Press)
Sean Stanley's Etcetera and Otherwise (Tightrope)

This is a new concept to me, but apparently I'm behind the times, because there's already a wikipedia entry for book trailer.