|
As noted by Quill & Quire, Frances Itani is an award
winning writer. Most recently, she won the Tilden/Saturday Night/CBC Literary
Award for two consecutive years; an impressive feat as the stories are submitted
to the jurors for evaluation anonymously. Now, Itani expands her control
of the short story medium, with her new novel, LEANING, LEANING OVER WATER,
a series of connected short stories.
Almost all the narration is by Trude, the middle child of the King family.
She has been told that her position in the family makes her the family collector
and teller of stories. The stories she recounts crystallize crucial moments
during the life of her family, the people around them, and the social climate of
pre-Quiet Revolution Quebec.
The stories begin after the father has moved his family to a rural area on
the Quebec side of the Ottawa River, where he has taken a job painting
fleur-de-lis on tin trays in a nearby factory. For the children this means they
grow up in delightful wilderness surrounded by people and customs which are
completely new, but leaves their English speaking, non-swimming mother in
isolation. The family is cut off from much of the world, but there is much of
the world around them. They learn of their individuality through the cultural
differences they find between themselves and their nearest neighbours, the Roman
Catholic family down the way. They learn about sex and despair first hand
through the few adults around them. And they are constantly exposed to life and
death, and miracles through their constant contact with the river itself.
The Ottawa River ( the "water" referred to in the title) borders
the King family abode and wends its way through every story in the novel --
always rushing past, bringing with it joys and sorrows, its power never to be
underestimated, nor taken lightly -- underscoring the frailty of life lived on
its banks.
|
|
Requiem
Bin Okuma, a celebrated visual artist, has recently and quite suddenly lost his wife, Lena. He and his son, Greg, are left to deal with the shock. But Greg has returned to his studies on the East Coast, and Bin finds himself alone and pulled into memories he has avoided for much of his life. In...
|
|
Missing
Missing is based on a true story. Luc Caron lives in northern France during World War I. One day, he sees three airplanes fighting in the sky. Luc watches in horror as a plane flips over and the pilot falls to his death. Luc is the only witness. The Greenwoods own an apple farm in Canada. Their...
|
|
Remembering the Bones
Georgina Danforth Witley has never felt she has led anything but an ordinary life. But here she is on her way to meet the Queen. Born on April 21, 1926, the exact same day as Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, Georgie is one of 99 privileged Commonwealth subjects invited to an 80th-birthday lunch at...
|
|