"Showstoppingly Exquisite Writing": Toronto Star on Freedom in American Songs

Over at The Toronto Star last week, Emily Donaldson said some kind words about Kathleen Winter's newly released short story collection The Freedom in American Songs.

"What unites these tales is the loneliness and isolation that besets their female characters," writes Donaldson. "Winter’s uniqueness as a writer lies...in her resistance to conventions such as narrative arcs and neat endings."

Donaldson is especially fond of the collection's opening "Marianne Stories," which chronicle the misadventures of a young woman who has moved from the city to a rural Newfoundland fishing village.  The complexity and beauty of Marianne as a character is that she "embraces her outsider status knowing it lets her see things others don’t." Yet Marianne also paradoxically yearns to belong, so that, as Donaldson puts it, "the simple achievement of building a fire that burns the same white smoke as her neighbours" becomes a cause for elation. 

 Donaldson calls the writing here "showstoppingly exquisite." 

The Toronto Star loves Diane Schoemperlen's By The Book

A very intelligent review of Diane Schoemperlen's By The Book appeared in The Toronto Star today, courtesy of James Grainger. 

Calling Diane "a relentless literary experimentalist who challenges the conventions of the short story and novel formats" Grainger goes on to show why even, in her most radically challenging work, Diane has won "a wide and devoted readership in a marketplace increasingly hostile to “difficult” or “challenging” texts."

So what sets By The Book, her most formally adventurous work since the Governor General's award-winning novel Forms of Devotion, apart from the current experimental crop?

Grainger has some ideas, and we couldn't agree more:

One of the reasons for the popularity of Schoemperlen’s inventive work, which incorporates elements of collage, fragmentation, and other postmodern tropes, is that she seems to be having so much fun creating it. Her fiction also avoids turgid academic language in favour of playful re-imaginings of such mundane sources as romance advice columns, devotional texts, catalogues, and lifestyle questionnaires....Schoemperlen wants us to consider the randomness, absurdity, and militant certainties not only of another era’s texts and images but of our own, which will one day be judged as quaint as those of the Victorians. By the Book is a challenging read, but it never talks over or under the readers’ head, which should endear it to Schoemperlen’s fans and to adventurous readers unfamiliar with her work.

We've talked before about the undeniable weirdness of this book, its beauty and distinction  as a printed objet d'art, but perhaps this is the best way to view By The Book: as the work of a restlessly creative mind that above all else is reveling in having fun, and moreover a brand of fun that the reader is free to participate in. Like Douglas Glover says of By The Book, "none of the conventional words cover it for they miss the fantastic wit, the energy of humour, the divine ability to find comedic ore in the print detritus of our culture." The book is yours to discover. 

Andrew Steinmetz is a busy, busy man...

Still in the whirlwind of the Weston Prize shortlist, Andrew Steinmetz has been all over the internet discussing his acclaimed book This Great Escape and writing life in general.

You'll be able to catch him in person as part of Biblioasis' big Toronto launch at the Garrison tomorrow night, but until then, here's a few ways to get your This Great Escape fix:

The Toronto Star published their wonderful review of This Great Escape today:
"With extraordinary emotional intensity, Steinmetz reclaims this son, friend, actor, cousin, for us all. His close-up of an almost-famous man challenges easy assumptions about who deserves a biography … beguiling."

Open Book Toronto featured Andrew in their Weston Words feature last week, in which he talks about his reaction to the award nod, his favourite non-fiction books and his future projects.

He also chatted with CBC Books on All in a Day back in September and the LPG's Writer's Block about books that have influenced his work, his work space, and his reasons for writing.

If you're in the Toronto area, head to The Garrison (1197 Dundas St. W.) tomorrow (Thursday) night for the big Biblioasis launch where you'll be able to catch Steinmetz live, as well as Cynthia Flood, Lucie Wilk, Mauricio Segura, Norm Sibum, Alexandra Oliver and Richard Norman.

We'll also have music from Massey Harris, and a chance to win a beautiful limited-edition leather-bound copy of David Mason's The Pope's Bookbinder, to be drawn in November.

Not enough Biblioasis for you? You'll also have the chance to proclaim your love in t-shirt form with our brand new (and already in great demand) South Detroit shirts. Get yours for only $15 at the launch.

spiderwebs, bats, and plastic torso not included