The last book by a Canadian author that I read was Daniel Poliquin's L'homme de paille - it was quite enjoyable and humorously, though the writing style seemed a bit forced at times. (But maybe that was due to the translation? I read it in English.) It was a pseudo-historical, satirical novel set during the French-British wars in North America. Can anyone recommend another of Poliquin's works?
Canadian Literature
- Thread starter Stewart
- Start date
KevinfromCanada
Reader
I read his last, A Secret Between Us, and was not impressed. If you are looking for Quebec writers, translated into English, try Gaetan Soucey, especially Vuadeville.
promtbr
Reader
I have not read him, but after reading several posts in another forum (by some really well read folks) raving about Robertson Davies, and after reading his wiki entry, I can't wait to read his Deptford AND Cornish Trilogy and have added them on my (now famous
) TBR list...
Really surprised he has not been mentioned in this tread.
) TBR list...Really surprised he has not been mentioned in this tread.
KevinfromCanada
Reader
Davies is a little more sedate than most of the authors mentioned here -- and he is also in that "in-between" zone of not being recent enough to attract attention but not so far back that he is of historical interest. I've read both trilogies (as a journalist, I interviewed him in connection with both). For my taste, the Deptford Trilogy is much superior -- I reread it just last year and it held up very well.
KevinfromCanada
Reader
Those comparisons are quite fair and I meant no judgment in describing him as sedate. He is a very effective story-teller and probably deserves to be better read than he is. If you ever get the chance, check out the recent Folio Society edition of The Deptford Trilogy -- the artist (Peter Stuart) did an exceptional job of interpreting the book.
O Canada! A fine nation and a fairly decent people, it seems, if perhaps a little earnest. But why so little literature? Why so few books that have made a mark internationally? I would hazard even that a small country like Uruguay, at the mercy not of one but of two much larger neighbors, has produced better writers than Canada.
Of course, I haven't read a lot of Canadian writers, though years ago, in college, I did take a course in Canadian literature. It was my introduction to Margaret Atwood, perhaps Canada's most celebrated writer, to whom I took an immediate and visceral dislike, which has lasted to this day. Another Margaret, Margaret Laurence, whose novel The Diviners was also required for the course, was the only writer whose work I later sought out on my own. Sinclair Ross's As for Me and My House was okay, then there was something boring by one Rudy Wiebe and a few other forgettable books (which I have in fact forgotten).
Since then I have read excellent short stories by Alice Munro and enjoyed a few shorter pieces by Nancy Huston. I don't think I've ever read anything from French Canada.
So what's up with Canada? Is it that the country's history is relatively free of the violent upheavals that, in addition to sowing bodies left and right, often lead to good books? Is it that the good work is there but simply hasn't made it beyond the country's borders?
Of course, I haven't read a lot of Canadian writers, though years ago, in college, I did take a course in Canadian literature. It was my introduction to Margaret Atwood, perhaps Canada's most celebrated writer, to whom I took an immediate and visceral dislike, which has lasted to this day. Another Margaret, Margaret Laurence, whose novel The Diviners was also required for the course, was the only writer whose work I later sought out on my own. Sinclair Ross's As for Me and My House was okay, then there was something boring by one Rudy Wiebe and a few other forgettable books (which I have in fact forgotten).
Since then I have read excellent short stories by Alice Munro and enjoyed a few shorter pieces by Nancy Huston. I don't think I've ever read anything from French Canada.
So what's up with Canada? Is it that the country's history is relatively free of the violent upheavals that, in addition to sowing bodies left and right, often lead to good books? Is it that the good work is there but simply hasn't made it beyond the country's borders?
I could have asked the question myself. I was researching Canadian history recently and it seems that the French had a jump on the literary side of things, but there were a couple of parliamentary library fires early on that destroyed thousands of books(especially from the French). Hard to say what may have been lost although given the church rule they were probably mostly non fiction texts. The first novel written in North America was written in Canada--although the writer was British born and raised. Haliburton's the Clockmaker is the first known English Canadian novel...it is a very painful read.
I usually joke the US has Dorothy in Oz and Britain has Alice in Wonderland, all we have Anne in Green Gables. There is a noticeable lack of fantasy in Canadian literature. It extends into film and television, which is strange given that Canadians consume foreign culture without hesitation, so they aren't looking for something different. The usual excuse in the film realm is they lack the money to compete with the US(I am skeptical since even NZ and Australia have managed to produce popular genre efforts), but that isn't true of literature, so the lack of exciting narratives is a bit surprising.
When I was in school, we were forced to read works like the Stone Angel and the Diviners--I wanted to pull my hair out on many occasions. A shame we didn't have a Poe, or Melville, or Washington Irving.
Atwood talked about a garrison mentality in Canada--that it looks outward and doesn't examine itself closely. I found it interesting that she chose to set her Handmaid's Tale in the US, given that she herself remarked upon how Canada seems more interested in finding the differences between it and the US than examining itself. We have had religious fanaticism in Canada, so I don't see why she couldn't have set it here, unless she was forced to by her publishers. But I guess the US is just more glamorous and dramatic a setting.
For the most part Canada has been a resource extraction post--the Hudson's Bay Company controlled it for centuries, and when the British took over they played political games between the French and English especially during the American revolution.
Canada has had some remarkably violent incidents like school massacres, frontier murders, and the seal hunt could be the basis for a story. I am not aware of much in the way of fiction on these things. Usually the focus is on "documentaries." And there aren't many literary agencies in Canada-- most handle non fiction.
Another problem is that within Canada, there isn't much promotion of Canadian culture. Maybe we just feel intimidated by the US.
Quebec doesn't have the same problem but English Canada really feels it. The most successful English Canadian motion picture within the country is 1982's Porky's, a teen sex comedy written and directed by....wait for it...an American.
I believe the most successful domestic films of New Zealand or Australia are far more respectable.
I usually joke the US has Dorothy in Oz and Britain has Alice in Wonderland, all we have Anne in Green Gables. There is a noticeable lack of fantasy in Canadian literature. It extends into film and television, which is strange given that Canadians consume foreign culture without hesitation, so they aren't looking for something different. The usual excuse in the film realm is they lack the money to compete with the US(I am skeptical since even NZ and Australia have managed to produce popular genre efforts), but that isn't true of literature, so the lack of exciting narratives is a bit surprising.
When I was in school, we were forced to read works like the Stone Angel and the Diviners--I wanted to pull my hair out on many occasions. A shame we didn't have a Poe, or Melville, or Washington Irving.
Atwood talked about a garrison mentality in Canada--that it looks outward and doesn't examine itself closely. I found it interesting that she chose to set her Handmaid's Tale in the US, given that she herself remarked upon how Canada seems more interested in finding the differences between it and the US than examining itself. We have had religious fanaticism in Canada, so I don't see why she couldn't have set it here, unless she was forced to by her publishers. But I guess the US is just more glamorous and dramatic a setting.
For the most part Canada has been a resource extraction post--the Hudson's Bay Company controlled it for centuries, and when the British took over they played political games between the French and English especially during the American revolution.
Canada has had some remarkably violent incidents like school massacres, frontier murders, and the seal hunt could be the basis for a story. I am not aware of much in the way of fiction on these things. Usually the focus is on "documentaries." And there aren't many literary agencies in Canada-- most handle non fiction.
Another problem is that within Canada, there isn't much promotion of Canadian culture. Maybe we just feel intimidated by the US.
Quebec doesn't have the same problem but English Canada really feels it. The most successful English Canadian motion picture within the country is 1982's Porky's, a teen sex comedy written and directed by....wait for it...an American.
I believe the most successful domestic films of New Zealand or Australia are far more respectable.
Liam
Administrator
Lenz, my darling, come now. Be nice. (I wish there were people to remind ME to be nice, every once in a while).
Personally, I think that Canadian Literature is both great and interesting, but Keleg is pointing out a specific shortcoming--i.e. its relative absence of good fantasy. I can't really address this because I know nothing about Canadian sci-fi, but most of the modern Canadian "realist" writers I've read are awesome.
[Keleg: Atwood set her novel in Massachusetts because that was the original setting of the first "successful" Puritan colony; it was also where her own ancestors came from. Her "aunt" (removed from her by several generations, obviously) was accused of witchcraft and had to flee north, subsequently setting in Canada. I think Atwood is writing both history and family history, in A Handmaid's Tale].
I agree with you, somewhat, that Canada seems to be under-represented when it comes to film, but remember, quantity is not quality, and the few directors of note that your country does have are greater, in my opinion, than some of the ones we have here. (A small aside: Isn't James Cameron your countryman? Go watch Avatar and then report back!).
One of my favorite directors of all time is the quirky, incomprehensible, over-the-top Guy Maddin. Even the Criterion Collection team owns as much, having honored him with a beautiful release of his recent Brand upon the Brain! My favorite films from him are probably Archangel and the film-ballet Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary. I also thought The Saddest Music in the World was crazy & fun: i.e. crazy-fun!
David Cronenberg, one of the most respected auteurs in the history of film, is Canadian.
On the French side, we have Claude Jutra and the philosopher-animator Fr?d?ric Back, whose L'Homme Qui Plantait des Arbres is arguably one of the greatest animated films ever made.
Are you familiar with any of these? I'm sure that's only the tip of the iceberg--
I forgot to mention that fellow Canadians often get very sensitive about this topic. LOL
James Cameron was born in Canada and has one of those pioneering Scottish names except his cultural upbringing was almost certainly 100 percent non Canadian. He stated recently he doesnt even know the words to the national anthem. He doesnt consider himself Canadian. He left when he was 17, and probably spent his first 17 years reading US (comic) books and watching US tv shows (something that Atwood commented on with regards to herself in the intro to Survival).
An interesting anecdote I once read about Canadian tv. Ottawa believed television was going to be a fad, but they panicked when Canadians started to buy tvs to watch US shows--so they threw money at someone to start the CBC. The story goes that the first broadcast had the titles upside down. Other nations start tv networks because they want to, you know, create! But in Canada they did it to obstruct the US juggernaut.
As for Cronenberg--certainly Canadian, although one thing that is noticeable when it comes to fantasy in Canadian film is that you have a hard time finding a popular, mainstream type of genre film where the writer and the director both hailed from Canada. If you can cite one with a pioneering name it is most often a quirky, off the wall sort of fantasy. Bruce MacDonald's Pontypool, Don McKellar's Last Night...Ginger Snaps was a recent film that received quite a bit of acclaim, although it is generally classified as a dark comedy (inside Canada) with a visceral edge. I am not sure I would call it mainstream.
I like Cronenberg's early Canadian work although I would place him in a special category all his own. They are too visceral and disturbing to be mainstream. He also received a critical backlash over his work inside the country-even claimed he was kicked out of his apartment as a result. I can think of many foreign filmmakers where that sort of thing didnt happen when they tried making fantasy film within their own countries.
Cronenberg has commented about the lack of fantasy in Canadian film and the difficulties he had getting funding. He theorized that Presbyterian roots in Canada might be a factor. Not sure that explains it.
There was a recent zombie comedy made on the west coast, called Fido. It had your typical Western Canadian film elements like necrophilia and knocking US culture in the 1950s(we can ignore the fact that in the 1950s Canadians were mostly watching US cultural imports just like today). Perish the thought they would set it in Canada. UK's Hammer studios set a movie about zombie slaves inside a Cornish village. If they can do that-I dont see why we couldnt set something inside Canada instead of "anywhere USA." Clive Barker put the entrance to a monster realm inside Canada. How come a Brit can do it and we can't?
I have to admit right here and now-I hate quirky. I know we can do quirky. I am up to my eyeballs in Canadian quirky. I want to see us make something completely normal, serious and mainstream genre-wise without inserting jokes about having sex with corpses or wallowing in despair about the landscape. Just once.
New Zealand has done it. Australia has too. Great Britain has as well. I bet tiny Ireland has also(yep---well known Irish directors and writers--- it is a much much older country than Canada obviously, but it is next door to a much more powerful nation like we are and yet it still has maintained a cultural identity and produced mainstream genre content well received abroad. Quebec may not be as intense a conflict as N Ireland but it did get violent in the past. If it had cultural benefits they were only felt on the French side ). We really struggle in this area unless one of the creative brain people came from outside the country. We had a run of exploitation horror films in the 70s and 80s like Rituals(I am very fond of the Canadian written script btw), and Terror Train. Either the writer or director or both came from outside the country.
I know this is true of many countries but you can still name American or British or Australian born and raised directors who worked inside their countries or made mainstream normal enjoyable films about their countries. Not many here.
I have watched our efforts from the Mask 1961 to the National Film Bored of Canada's the Drylanders to Why Shoot the Teacher? to Deep Sleep. I will have nightmares for the rest of my life! I watched Night Zoo and was told that it proved Canada could make a typical mainstream action crime drama like Hollywood.
I think "non."
Claude Jutra. I saw Mon Oncle Antoine. I can't say its on my top ten. It is nice that the French side of things seems to be more on the ball (as an anglophone let me say that I think Quebec is the true Canada--they named the country, they colonized it, and Porky's is no longer the top grossing Canadian film within Quebec-they are doing something right). Although it's funny-Denys Arcand, celebrated Francophone director, once said that he thought the most perfect movie ever made was Jaws.
But on the English side--c'est dommage.
Back to literature: Honor? Beaugrand wrote some early fantasy, although he was mainly putting French folklore into print, not the same as what Washington Irving or Poe were doing across the border decades earlier. And I think Beaugrand wanted to "separate."
Has it really changed literature-wise? I know we have a few SF writers like Robert Sawyer, but he has commented himself on how difficult it is to market works within Canada. For a country that supposedly wants to be distinct from the US it sucks in the US cultural products without hesitation.
Not sure the Atwood explanation is satisfactory. The story is still about the modern takeover of the US government by religious fanatics, not one set in the remote past. I think the US casts a long shadow over us, past, present and future. It doesn't have to. We just seem drawn to do that.
Maybe we secretly yearn to go back in time and side with the US states against England. lol
Trivia note: in the 40s our government funded a radio series called Nazi Eyes on Canada. Orson Welles narrates a Nazi takeover of Saskatchewan and Vincent Price plays a British Columbian engineer who throws his Japanese slavemaster into a rock grinder. Essentially it is a science fiction alternate history scenario. The government only funded such imaginative works in war time.
James Cameron was born in Canada and has one of those pioneering Scottish names except his cultural upbringing was almost certainly 100 percent non Canadian. He stated recently he doesnt even know the words to the national anthem. He doesnt consider himself Canadian. He left when he was 17, and probably spent his first 17 years reading US (comic) books and watching US tv shows (something that Atwood commented on with regards to herself in the intro to Survival).
An interesting anecdote I once read about Canadian tv. Ottawa believed television was going to be a fad, but they panicked when Canadians started to buy tvs to watch US shows--so they threw money at someone to start the CBC. The story goes that the first broadcast had the titles upside down. Other nations start tv networks because they want to, you know, create! But in Canada they did it to obstruct the US juggernaut.
As for Cronenberg--certainly Canadian, although one thing that is noticeable when it comes to fantasy in Canadian film is that you have a hard time finding a popular, mainstream type of genre film where the writer and the director both hailed from Canada. If you can cite one with a pioneering name it is most often a quirky, off the wall sort of fantasy. Bruce MacDonald's Pontypool, Don McKellar's Last Night...Ginger Snaps was a recent film that received quite a bit of acclaim, although it is generally classified as a dark comedy (inside Canada) with a visceral edge. I am not sure I would call it mainstream.
I like Cronenberg's early Canadian work although I would place him in a special category all his own. They are too visceral and disturbing to be mainstream. He also received a critical backlash over his work inside the country-even claimed he was kicked out of his apartment as a result. I can think of many foreign filmmakers where that sort of thing didnt happen when they tried making fantasy film within their own countries.
Cronenberg has commented about the lack of fantasy in Canadian film and the difficulties he had getting funding. He theorized that Presbyterian roots in Canada might be a factor. Not sure that explains it.
There was a recent zombie comedy made on the west coast, called Fido. It had your typical Western Canadian film elements like necrophilia and knocking US culture in the 1950s(we can ignore the fact that in the 1950s Canadians were mostly watching US cultural imports just like today). Perish the thought they would set it in Canada. UK's Hammer studios set a movie about zombie slaves inside a Cornish village. If they can do that-I dont see why we couldnt set something inside Canada instead of "anywhere USA." Clive Barker put the entrance to a monster realm inside Canada. How come a Brit can do it and we can't?
I have to admit right here and now-I hate quirky. I know we can do quirky. I am up to my eyeballs in Canadian quirky. I want to see us make something completely normal, serious and mainstream genre-wise without inserting jokes about having sex with corpses or wallowing in despair about the landscape. Just once.
New Zealand has done it. Australia has too. Great Britain has as well. I bet tiny Ireland has also(yep---well known Irish directors and writers--- it is a much much older country than Canada obviously, but it is next door to a much more powerful nation like we are and yet it still has maintained a cultural identity and produced mainstream genre content well received abroad. Quebec may not be as intense a conflict as N Ireland but it did get violent in the past. If it had cultural benefits they were only felt on the French side ). We really struggle in this area unless one of the creative brain people came from outside the country. We had a run of exploitation horror films in the 70s and 80s like Rituals(I am very fond of the Canadian written script btw), and Terror Train. Either the writer or director or both came from outside the country.
I know this is true of many countries but you can still name American or British or Australian born and raised directors who worked inside their countries or made mainstream normal enjoyable films about their countries. Not many here.
I have watched our efforts from the Mask 1961 to the National Film Bored of Canada's the Drylanders to Why Shoot the Teacher? to Deep Sleep. I will have nightmares for the rest of my life! I watched Night Zoo and was told that it proved Canada could make a typical mainstream action crime drama like Hollywood.
I think "non."
Claude Jutra. I saw Mon Oncle Antoine. I can't say its on my top ten. It is nice that the French side of things seems to be more on the ball (as an anglophone let me say that I think Quebec is the true Canada--they named the country, they colonized it, and Porky's is no longer the top grossing Canadian film within Quebec-they are doing something right). Although it's funny-Denys Arcand, celebrated Francophone director, once said that he thought the most perfect movie ever made was Jaws.
But on the English side--c'est dommage.
Back to literature: Honor? Beaugrand wrote some early fantasy, although he was mainly putting French folklore into print, not the same as what Washington Irving or Poe were doing across the border decades earlier. And I think Beaugrand wanted to "separate."
Has it really changed literature-wise? I know we have a few SF writers like Robert Sawyer, but he has commented himself on how difficult it is to market works within Canada. For a country that supposedly wants to be distinct from the US it sucks in the US cultural products without hesitation.
Not sure the Atwood explanation is satisfactory. The story is still about the modern takeover of the US government by religious fanatics, not one set in the remote past. I think the US casts a long shadow over us, past, present and future. It doesn't have to. We just seem drawn to do that.
Maybe we secretly yearn to go back in time and side with the US states against England. lol
Trivia note: in the 40s our government funded a radio series called Nazi Eyes on Canada. Orson Welles narrates a Nazi takeover of Saskatchewan and Vincent Price plays a British Columbian engineer who throws his Japanese slavemaster into a rock grinder. Essentially it is a science fiction alternate history scenario. The government only funded such imaginative works in war time.
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Okay, despite my slightly snotty questions, the Canadians, true to their peaceable form (murdered seal pups notwithstanding), didn't come out guns a-blazing in response.
As I suggested, I enjoyed Laurence's--Laurence, Lenz, Laurence--The Diviners. It was a while ago, though, and about all I remember is that the narrator, a native of a prairie province, hated Vancouver, as she felt hemmed in by the mountains. I'm not sure why this detail has stayed with me; maybe because it was, at the time, such an unusual opinion. I then tried The Stone Angel but couldn't get into it.
A final question: do Canadian bookstores have separate sections for Canadian fiction or is all fiction grouped together?
As I suggested, I enjoyed Laurence's--Laurence, Lenz, Laurence--The Diviners. It was a while ago, though, and about all I remember is that the narrator, a native of a prairie province, hated Vancouver, as she felt hemmed in by the mountains. I'm not sure why this detail has stayed with me; maybe because it was, at the time, such an unusual opinion. I then tried The Stone Angel but couldn't get into it.
A final question: do Canadian bookstores have separate sections for Canadian fiction or is all fiction grouped together?
I think it depends on the bookstore but I don't recall the Canadian lit section standing out in the ones I have been to. More often its author focused.
Funny about the mountains-I always thought living on the prairies would seem desolate without something sticking up in the distance!
Funny about the mountains-I always thought living on the prairies would seem desolate without something sticking up in the distance!
JTolle
Reader
Two poets who I have recently read and really loved are Canadian. Anne Carson and Michael Ondaatje.
Carson I've been reading longer than Ondaatje and has become, sans any doubt one of my favorite living poets. I'd probably place her right below Ashbery and Parra. Men in the Off Hours and The Beauty of the Husband would be my favorites since Autobiography of Red's anticlimax didn't settle well with me.
With Ondaatje I just finished his collection Handwriting, which despite my initial dislike turned out to be just a fucking unbelievably good set of poems. My favorite lines in the book are "Love arrives and dies in all disguises / and we fear to move / because of old darknesses / or childhood danger" Looking forward to reading The English Patient and The Cinnamon Peeler.
Now, having only read these two Canadian authors I have a limited ability to judge here, but, if the praise for authors like Davies, Munro, Atwood, Lewis and critics like Northrop Frye has any basis, then I'd say Canada has a lot to be proud of, with more to be proud in the near future.
Carson I've been reading longer than Ondaatje and has become, sans any doubt one of my favorite living poets. I'd probably place her right below Ashbery and Parra. Men in the Off Hours and The Beauty of the Husband would be my favorites since Autobiography of Red's anticlimax didn't settle well with me.
With Ondaatje I just finished his collection Handwriting, which despite my initial dislike turned out to be just a fucking unbelievably good set of poems. My favorite lines in the book are "Love arrives and dies in all disguises / and we fear to move / because of old darknesses / or childhood danger" Looking forward to reading The English Patient and The Cinnamon Peeler.
Now, having only read these two Canadian authors I have a limited ability to judge here, but, if the praise for authors like Davies, Munro, Atwood, Lewis and critics like Northrop Frye has any basis, then I'd say Canada has a lot to be proud of, with more to be proud in the near future.
Who do you mean by "Lewis"? The name is unfamiliar to me in literature - do you mean Margaret Laurence, by any chance?
Here are my mini-opinions of the others:
Robertson Davies - An excellent writer, very entertaining (in his way) novelist, except, for me, unpleasantly old-fashioned in a sort of snobbish upper-class old-Toronto way. Of course, that's a younger, lower middle-class Canadian perspective. You may find it great stuff. I enjoyed Fifth Business.
Alice Munro - A complete master of the short story and a good novelist. I admire her work beyond words. Mavis Gallant is an equally great Canadian short story writer, who started here but has lived in Paris since the fifties. She dazzles.
Margaret Atwood - Some people love her, some hate her. I think she's a very good writer whose work is weakened by a jokey self-consciousness. I love her first novel Surfacing and think her poetry is superior to her prose. I wish she'd write more of it.
Northrop Frye was a brilliant critic in his day and, I think, still has essentially important things to say about fiction, but post-modern teaching has less use for him now.
Margaret Laurence (?) Much-loved here for her honest novels of women and the Canadian landscape, she is centrally influential to the national literature since her first big successes with The Stone Angel, A Jest of God, and The Diviners (famously banned from some high schools for "blasphemy" and "pornography") in the 1960s and 70s. I'm always moved by her expression of the inner lives of her characters.
All this has made me want to go back to Canadian lit., which I've been neglecting.
Daniel del Real
Moderator
You hate more writers than the ones you love. What a terrible situation would be to be in your bones.