Tag: literature

We stripped the titles off on each book and let our imagination run with the images

Gail always knew she was different. Her friends didn’t seem to say as much, but something always felt off. They would flutter around in groups playing. Whenever she came near they dropped out of the sky. Why was that?

Her friends always sat a few branches higher, mumbling about where she was born when they thought she wasn’t listening. Charlotte Utilities wasn’t the nicest home, but what of it? Her father seemed nice enough.

Well he was until the day he approached her with this odd look in his eye. He had this odd branch in his hand. It glistened, she could still see it in her mind. It hurt to think about it, about what he did to her. Is that what everyone was chirping about?

But she was just like everyone else. Well as long as they didn’t get too close. As long as they didn’t touch her. As long as …

Gail looked around, everyone had taken off. Hurriedly she stretched her wings to follow. Why are they always doing that anyways?

Ed note: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, by Philip K. Dick, is a post-apocalyptic tale about a bounty-hunter on a mission to retire androids.

-Robin Stanford

 

This is the story of Death, the one we fear the most as he is the one who brings souls to the other side.

His task is simple, he decides to take a new, different approach. Instead of just taking Caroline to the other side with him, Death wants her to have one last moment of happiness, one she will remember forever. They end up having such a great time together and lose track of the hour. Though Caroline is not scared of the other side, Death did not bring a soul today and he must pay the price.he must bring one soul to the other side, every day, without exception. Today would be like any other day, except he must bring Caroline, the love of his life. He is unsure of how he will be able to perform such a task. After seeing her, h

Ed note: The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, is set in Germany during World War II. It is the story of an adopted young girl whose hobby is stealing books.

-Mathieu Demers

A Life Behind Fences is the story of one anonymous John Doe and his ordeal through a minimum security prison in Massachusetts. After being incarcerated for repeated petty offenses, John begins his trek through the judicial system of America.

Although mostly written in the first person, journal entries litter the book, providing a very personal connection between the reader and John. The first part of the book allows readers to take part in John’s steady coming to terms with his life behind the fence. But the story takes a surprising twist, when John is finally released from incarceration and back into society.

The second part of the book follows John’s re-introduction into society after a few years behind bars. His journey takes us through his attempts at finding housing, work and a partner. Upon meeting repeated obstacles and constant failure and rejection though, John ultimately relapses into a life of petty crime, and the book ends after his second arrest.

A Life Behind Fences is a ‘true-fiction’, a story told in real life that illustrates how the system treats its inmates and how it affects their chance at rehabilitation after doing their time.

Ed note: Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, is the famous story of Scout and her father, Atticus Finch, set in the deep American South.

-Jocelyn Beaudet

Facing the social and economic problems of a poverty-stricken India

Like many developing worlds, Mumbai is a city that straddles two realities. In our 21st century, it is quickly rising as a global superpower. Yet its reputation as a corrupted and poverty-stricken city continues to pollute its worth.

Behind the Beautiful Forevers is a telling tale of life, death and hope in the slums that continue to plague India.

Katherine Boo — a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist praised for her reporting of disadvantaged communities — divulges the conditions that hold this great nation back. She describes how tensions over religion, caste, sex, power and economic envy are rampant.

Boo immersed herself in the culture of Annawadi — a makeshift settlement on the marshy lands of Mumbai’s airport — for three years to illustrate the plight of slum dwellers in one of the world’s greatest unequal cities. In her book, she documents the lives of several Annawadians and describes how each tries to overcome their ruinous livelihoods as India begins to prosper. In an attempt to elevate themselves out of poverty and into the middle-class, some Annawadians turn to corruption, the very practice that churns the wealth of the political elite.

Behind the Beautiful Forevers is a non-fiction narrative that reads like fiction. Boo pays incredible attention to detail. Her use of imagery illustrates the severity of the situation. She describes Annawadi as an “urban armpit” tainted with filth and malodor, where 3000 people have packed into 335 lopsided huts. Her writing is compelling. It is utterly shocking once you are reminded the events which unfold are all true.

Boo includes a nice range of voices in her book, each story as unforgettable as the next. The two characters which stand out the most were Abdul Husain and Asha Waghekar, a perfect depiction of good versus evil. While at their core the two crave the same ambitions, their definition of a-means-to-an-end differs greatly.

Abdul is a reserved but enterprising teenager who finds “a fortune beyond counting” in the recyclable garbage that flows into Annawadi. He has made an honest life for his family by sorting through garbage, but jealousy is widespread in a decrepit slum. The Husains, being part of the Muslim minority, face a great deal of ethnic hatred due to their more advanced superior status. This hatred eventually leads to Abdul’s incarceration, when he is falsely accused of taunting a woman to suicide.

With Abdul’s story, Boo demonstrates the grotesque infringement on human rights that exists in these impoverished villages. ‘Innocent until proven guilty’ is not a belief many Mumbai officials operate by. Abdul is repeatedly beaten until he is forced to confess to a crime he did not commit and his mother is enticed to pay up if she wishes for the release of her son. Abdul is quoted saying, “The Indian criminal justice system was a market like garbage. Innocence and guilt could be bought and sold like a kilo of polyurethane bags.”

Asha though, is a strong-minded woman with a keen eye for financial opportunity, no matter how unethical. Driven by deep scars from a childhood of even graver poverty, Asha longs to be perceived as the most resourceful person in her slum and thus, strives to become a slumlord. She represents the embodiment of corruption, running scam businesses and holding the people of Annawadi indebted to her. Despite her many spiteful efforts, there is one irrevocable obstacle that continues to hold her back. Asha is a woman. She thus must prey on the support of powerful men to help elevate her status.

With Asha’s story, Boo exemplifies this rift in equality between men and women. Traditional values often undermine gender equality, especially in these small, poor villages where women are expected to leave the strategic decision-making up to men.

Behind the Beautiful Forevers highlights this competitive system of making more and more money in an age where India has seen an increase in capital. This system of lies, threats and ultimatums traps the people of Annawadi in old, unprosperous ways. With government intervention virtually non-existent, those with power will continue to benefit by exploiting the status of the poor.

Boo’s book is not for the faint of heart. Her goal is to illustrate the cruel reality of social inequality and she does so with precise, stomach-churning detail. Her book raises a critical question: How do you fix a feeble nation if the government is better at nourishing corruption than human capability?

Behind the Beautiful Forevers is available for sale at Chapters Indigo and at http://amazon.ca.

 

 

The poetry of Bite Down Little Whisper draws on literature, history and mythology

To savour Don Domanski’s rhythms and sounds, Bite Down Little Whisper is meant to be read aloud. Whispered—late at night on the bus home after a long day of class, or early in the morning when travelling through the underground city.

Domanski, who was born and raised on Cape Breton Island, but now lives in Halifax, is no stranger to accolades, specifically that of the Governor General Award. Over the years, this award has become one of the most prestigious in Canada awarded in both French and English in seven categories. Domanski’s Wolf-­Ladder, Stations of the Left Hand and Bite Down Little Whisper were all shortlisted for the award, and in 2007, All Our Wonder Unavenged won the coveted prize.

The book is divided into three sections: “Foresight by Earth,” “A Feral Trance,” and “The Light of Unoccupied Memory.” Every section touches upon science and mythology, the simple and complex, and the animate and inanimate.

With a glossary of terms at the back of the book, the reader is able to dive in further when the poet makes references to Taoism, Greek mythology, Egyptology, and the Celts. Not everyone may be familiar with the “painted child of dirt” from Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot by Alexander Pope, or “piquerism” which refers to the “sexual practice of perforating the skin of another person.”

Domanski never resorts to the cliché—his words are lesser known, but deliberate. A breath of fresh air with a side of Oxford.

Like a Vermeer painting, Bite Down Little Whisper focuses on the everyday life, the ordinary and mundane. Day and night, darkness and light in the immense and miniscule are recurring themes. From the space “between clouds the flickering self” to “the small field mice performing their black ops in weedlight,” Domanski combines the uncombinable and connects the unconnectable in the most logical way.

Such is the case in “First Folio of the Unwritten,” when the speaker compares the “thin space between butterfly/and pin between skin and star”. Or “In The Dooryard” where the speaker ponders about the rapture of children, then describes the millipedes below typing: “keep your feet on the ground,” in Times New Roman.

Sometimes, the speaker is singular in a poem, sometimes the plural “we” or “us” is used; it is never specified. Depersonalizing the speaker allows the reader to fill in the blanks with their own thoughts and memories. Domanski’s metaphors take on a different meaning with the act of re-­reading.

Bite Down Little Whisper is not a quick and easy read. It requires attention and the reader’s active participation in order to piece together the lack of punctuation, consecutive metaphors and the religious and mythological symbolism. But with a glossary of terms, and dictionary apps but a click away, there is no reason not to explore Domanski’s language.

Bite Down Little Whisper, which was shortlisted for the 2013 Governor General Award for English Language poetry is available for sale at Chapters Indigo.

 

 

 

 Lemony Snicket’s latest children’s graphic novel, The Dark, carries a universal message

Each morning, Laszlo opens the basement door to greet the dark, in the hopes it will never visit him in his room at night.

“Hi,” Laszlo would say. “Hi, dark.”

Until one night, the dark visits him — and answers back.

The chances are, you were afraid of the dark as a child. The Dark is a graphic novel about a scared child who represents any one of us — a young boy named Laszlo who spends his days trying to avoid the dark.

As Laszlo walks around his big, empty house, equipped with a flashlight, he acknowledges the dark’s presence in the closet, behind the shower curtain and especially in the basement, where the dark lives.

“Hi, dark,” he says, peeking at the top of the stairs into darkness. Laszlo has never been inside the dark’s room at night, and he hopes the dark will never visit him in his. One night, however, when Laszlo’s night light burns out, the dark has the chance to visit him. Laszlo has to face the dark head on, and learns to overcome his fear with the help of an unlikely ally.

Leave it to Lemony Snicket, known for his A Series of Unfortunate Events to come up with the most special way to tell a simple plot. The personification of the dark is creepy and unsettling, enough to make the reader feel nervous and intrigued, as if they themselves are facing the dark in Laszlo’s shoes.

Those familiar with Snicket’s writing style will recognize his voice briefly throughout the book. However, readers expecting A Series of Unfortunate Events-type of written-magic, might end up slightly disappointed. Unlike Events, the text isn’t necessarily witty, it is more simple and direct, but nonetheless beautifully written. He uses poetry-like short sentences, which keep the mood suspenseful.

Jon Klassen’s illustrations evoke the feelings of mystery and fear. His minimalistic style, in terms of both colour and detail, complement the tone of the book: dark, mysterious and foreboding. Sepia tones, mostly neutral colours and a lot of black are combined with the contrast of light and shadow to create an abandoned-looking setting. Klassen frames little Laszlo in relation to dark shadow, often with his flashlight providing the only source of light — the reader is able to get a sense of being succombed to darkness. The cover alone is enough to provoke a sense of dread.

The drawings that show the small Laszlo is his giant house allow the reader to see things from Laszlo’s perspective, and you can’t help but picture yourself as a child laying in bed, waiting anxiously for the morning light to appear again. But, as often is the case, after the dark comes the light. As Laszlo learns to overcome his fear, the tones become lighter and less gloomy.

In 40 pages, the writer and illustrator duo is able to provoke countless emotions from being unnerved to cheery; you can feel yourself smiling by the end of it.

The Dark is marketed as a picture book for children aged 4-8, but the message of the book can stick with anyone and might resonate more with adults — the dark is simply a metaphor for many of the fears we have in life. The biggest fear of all is the unknown. Snicket’s message: you can’t know good without knowing bad and you can’t enjoy the light without the dark.

The Dark, a Governor General’s Literary Award nominee, is available for sale at Chapters Indigo stores and online at amazon.ca

The satirical novel Super Sad True Love Story is the account of a mismatched couple in a dystopian world

Lenny Abramov is a loser. He’s aging, he’s balding, and he’s meek. He is the polar opposite of all the young, attractive, go-getting junior executives at his job and sometimes it seems like his very existence is an insult to a society that worships youth, vitality, and perfection above all. What makes it even more difficult for Lenny to cope with his increasing age and receding hairline is the fact that he works for “Post-Human Services” in a department that specializes in “Infinite Life Extension,” effectively reversing the aging process and granting immortality to HNWI’s (High Net Worth Individuals). While he gets older, his clients get younger.
This society, a dystopian not-too-far-in-the-future America, is the center stage of Gary Shteyngart’s best-selling novel, Super Sad True Love Story.

As you might have guessed from the title, this is in fact a love story, and Lenny’s life changes when he encounters the youthful beauty, Eunice Park. Lenny believes that Eunice is the only thing that can fill the void in his life and after a brief awkward courting phase, Eunice agrees to give him a chance (mostly so she doesn’t have to move back in with her parents).

The story is told through excerpts of Lenny’s old fashioned — real paper! — journal and Eunice’s email correspondences on her “GlobalTeens” social network account. Social networks in this world are pushed to extremes, giving us some of the more hilarious and thought provoking moments in the book. By holding your “apparati” (standard issue tablet/iphone hybrid) at people, you can see their credit score, their family history and their vital signs including real-time updates on their level of excitement and arousal.

The most popular application is RateMe Plus, where everyone grades each other on several metrics, the most important of them: “fuckability.” While Eunice can take pride in having an 800+ score on fuckability, Lenny’s abysmal score of 230 follows him around like an electronic scarlet letter, making him a source of mockery and revulsion wherever he goes.

Although the narrative centres on this unlikely love story, it is Shteyngart’s imaginative version of America that steals the show. Shteyngart presents us with a decaying empire indebted to external forces, a country whose collective vanity and misplaced pride blinds them from their inevitable and quickening demise. Everyone is obsessed with appearances, including the incompetent American government run by the Bi-Partisan Party who are too busy scrambling, making sure everything looks pristine for the annual visit from their Chinese creditors, to see the multi-national wolves circling their prey.

What’s truly fascinating is how eerily familiar this dystopian vision is to the America we watch every day on the news. Super Sad True Love Story is a cautionary tale of a world we might find ourselves living in tomorrow if we remain superficial and indifferent.

That being said, the book is anything but bleak. Shteyngart has a unique writing style and sense of humor that makes you laugh just as much as it makes you think. The characters of Lenny and Eunice are extremely fleshed-out and multi-faceted, and their lopsided love story is often times adorable, often times tragic, but always entertaining and relatable.

This book is recommended to those that are into dystopias, light-hearted science fiction, or just hilarious writing in general. Also, there have been reports that reading Super Sad True Love Story in public may result in a modest increase to your fuckability rating.

Super Sad True Love Story is available for sale at Chapters Indigo stores and online at amazon.ca.

Trailer of Super Sad True Love Story, with interviews with author, Gary Shteyngart, and others — including James Franco.

Everyone remembers their first love, when they were swept off their feet — and no relationship will ever be the same. For, the characters in the graphic novel, On Loving Women, this moment comes with their first same-sex attraction.

In lieu of the traditional coming out story, Montreal author/artist Diane Obomsawin presents a series of quirky black and white comic strips depicting the episodes of her friends’ lives surrounding this self-realization. The result is a charming, honest and sincere look into the lives of these women.

The stories themselves do not form a unified narrative but are rather presented as multiple voices relaying a general experience.

Instead of a traditional page numbering system, each tale is self-contained and has its own page count. Separating events out in this way highlights the importance of each individual’s experience. The focus is on the protagonists gradual self-realization; not only as a queer person through the coming out process but also as someone who can not abide by societal norms.

This movement to self-awareness takes many forms.

In compiling the work, great care was given to provide a simple, straightforward and honest account. None of the stories shy away from illustrating the situations that arose through this process. Viewed through the lens chosen by the author, such acts are approachable without value judgements being made. These are real human beings, with strengths and flaws just like everyone.

Some stories seem to end with the main character on their way to a magical ending, where everyone is happy for the rest of their lives. Others, however, are not so lucky and come across homophobic behaviour from their environment. Regardless of the ending, there is always a sense that the story does not end there. The reader is very aware that the characters presented are real people, whose lives continue off the page.

The reality of the subject matter is put into contrast with the art style itself. The black and white drawings are simple while still being poignant at conveying the message. The background scenes and clothing are all drawn in grayscale so as to highlight the white characters. Colour is then filled in by the reader so the characters may be of any background or ethnicity.

Although the stylistic choice of using animal heads to represent human characters may seem odd at first, it works rather well. The type of animal used for the episode is often tied to protagonists themselves. For example, in the first story, the main character expresses her love of Wonder Woman’s horse-like appearance. This stylistic choice frees the artist to explore very intimate moments.

In service to the story, only some of the panels feature nude women thus there is only a very minimal risk of these scenes being viewed as lewd or gratuitous. Instead, they come across as very tender and largely heartwarming.

Although this work is about the first same-sex attraction of a group of women, there is a universal message. It is not about being queer, or even falling in love. On Loving Women is about the discovery of the self in all its dimensions, even if it clashes with the norms set by society.

You can pick up a copy of On Loving Women at Drawn & Quarterly for $16.95.

Diane Obomsawin will be at Toronto Comic Arts Festival May 10-11.