Canada Reads, once again hosted by Ali Hassan, is the great Canadian book debate! You can watch it on CBC March 4-7. What is the one book, by a Canadian author, that all Canadians should read?
This year’s theme is about finding one book to carry us forward. With that theme in mind, the selections made some sense, but I have to say that three of the books were just not for me. Among the books this year, there is a horror novel with magic realism, a book of short stories about one woman, a book with art (although it’s not a graphic novel), an open door romance, and a dystopian novel.
It is my practise to choose which book I think should win Canada Reads. As a reading experience I enjoyed Denison Avenue and Bad Cree the most, but I have to say Denison Avenue gets my vote. It underscores the importance of community and being seen and heard without judgement. Fostering empathy and developing the capacity to listen to each other once again, is what I think Canadians need most to carry us forward in a very polarised world.
‘Denison Avenue’ by Christina Wong & Daniel Innes
Naheed Nenshi, former Calgary mayor, is championing Denison Avenue in the debate. Nenshi is a proud first-generation Canadian of Indian ancestry and of Ismaili Muslim faith, which instilled in him the ethic of “seva,” which means “service to the community.” Nenshi said this about Denison Avenue:
“It will change you. It will change how you look at people on the bus and on the streets. It will change how you live your life.”
Set in Toronto’s Chinatown and Kensington Market, Denison Avenue is a moving portrait of a city undergoing mass gentrification and a Chinese Canadian elder experiencing the existential challenges of getting old and being Asian in North America. Recently widowed, Wong Cho Sum takes long walks through the city, collecting bottles and cans and meeting people on her journeys in a bid to ease her grief.
What I Thought of Denison Avenue:
Christina Wong grew up in Toronto’s Chinatown/Kensington market and her love for the place shines through in this story. Denison Avenue underscores the importance of community and highlights how cities like Toronto are changing. I felt a great deal of compassion for vulnerable elderly immigrants while reading this novel and this book did change me. Just days after reading it I was walking in a Toronto suburb and came across an elderly man collecting bottles and cans in the same kind of cart as Cho Sum. I would have viewed that man quite differently if it wasn’t for this book.
Daniel Innes’ ink artwork brings a visual component to the story which is enriching. The book has an unusual format where the book is flipped to view the sketches, which focus on ‘then’ and ‘now’. His sketches highlight the changes that are taking place in the name of progress in Chinatown/Kensington Market. Innes himself says these changes ended his love affair with the city. I enjoyed viewing the sketches before reading the book, and went back after finishing, for another look. This book is all about inevitable change, but the important thing is not to leave people behind.
‘Bad Cree’ by Jessica Johns
Dallas Soonias, athlete and CBC sports contributor, is championing Bad Cree in the debate. Soonias made history as the first Indigenous male to represent Canada in volleyball and actively promotes a more inclusive environment for Indigenous athletes and students. Soonias said this about Bad Cree:
“Just listening to how she describes and writes about her family dynamic… I’m right there with her. For me, personally, that was super lucky.”
Bad Cree is a horror-infused novel that centers around a young woman named Mackenzie, who is haunted by terrifying nightmares and wracked with guilt about her sister Sabrina’s untimely death. The lines between her dreams and reality start to blur when she begins seeing a murder of crows following her around the city — and starts getting threatening text messages from someone claiming to be her dead sister. When Mackenzie heads back to her hometown in rural Alberta she finds her family still entrenched in grief. With her dreams intensifying and getting more dangerous, Mackenzie must confront a violent family legacy and reconcile with the land and her community.
What I Thought of Bad Cree:
Horror is not a go-to genre for me, so I don’t have much experience with it, but I didn’t find this book very scary. I found the story compelling and the book very readable. For me it was a page-turner about the importance of togetherness and the healing power of love. Bad Cree has a hopeful and helpful message about community, staying together through hard times, and facing challenges more collaboratively.
‘Meet Me at the Lake’ by Carley Fortune
Mirian Njoh, fashion influencer and self-described multi-hypenate (I had to look that up–it means she has many jobs), is championing Meet Me at the Lake in the debate, which incidentally is the first romance novel to be chosen for Canada Reads. Njoh said this about Meet Me at the Lake:
“It features a full cast of richly developed characters as they navigate their way through romantic love, familial love, and the self love that comes from aligning with your passions and purpose.”
Meet Me at the Lake finds 32-year-old Fern Brookbanks stuck — she can’t quite stop thinking about one perfect day she spent in her 20s. By chance, she met a man named Will Baxter and the two spent a romantic 24 hours in Toronto, after which they promised to meet up one year later. But Will never showed up. Now Fern manages her late mother’s resort by the lake, but is disillusioned with her life and uncertain about her future. One day Will shows up at her door again and she wonders why. He has secrets. Should she trust him?
What I Thought of Meet Me at the Lake:
Having the first romance novel in the Canada Reads debate had me curious and excited to have a contemporary readable novel in the line-up. The settings of Huntsville and Toronto were fun, but I was disappointed by the novel’s writing–repetitiveness, lack of depth, and cliché shallowness. It was everything I expected in a romance novel and reminded me why I usually dislike the genre. Unfortunately, some of the bad behaviour exhibited by one of the characters was meant to raise awareness of a rare but real mental illness, but this was not explained until the postscript. I found that disappointing because had I known that at the beginning, or had it been more skilfully portrayed by the author in the book, it might have given me more compassion for the character. Instead I was annoyed and spent too much time thinking he was just a jerk. Of course maybe that was the author’s point–that we should give people more space and try to understand what is going on with them instead of judging them. Readers should be aware that this is an open door romance.
‘The Future’ by Catherine Leroux, translated by Susan Ouriou
Heather O’Neill, a prize winning author in her own right (having won both Giller and Canada Read), is championing The Future. She thought that the idea of a French speaking Detroit was ‘super cool’ and found hope in the portrayal of the community formed by children. O’Neill said this about The Future:
“This wild group of children show us a model for a new society where everyone’s dream life is equally important.”
The Future is set in an alternate history of Detroit where the French never surrendered the city to the U.S. Its residents deal with poverty, pollution and a legacy of racism. When Gloria, a woman looking for answers about her missing granddaughters, arrives in the city, she finds a kingdom of orphaned and abandoned children who have created their own society.
What I thought of The Future:
Although I saw plenty of resilience in this novel, it didn’t leave me with a lot of hope. Bleak, is the way I would describe it. I found the writing style awkward and the pacing painfully slow. Dystopia is not what all of Canada needs right now, I don’t think, when there are already so many challenges that we face with climate change and recovering from a stressful pandemic. Also, in an era of precarious political leadership, uncertainty, and war on many fronts, I found this a hard book to read.
‘Shut Up You’re Pretty’ by Téa Mutonji
Kudakwashe Rutendo, actor and university student, fell in love with the stage by performing live poetry. Rutendo reflected that despite heavy recent world events, there is hope in Shut Up You’re Pretty:
“Within Shut Up You’re Pretty is the promise of hope and future, not in spite of a heavy past, but because of it.”
Shut Up You’re Pretty is an explicit short fiction collection that tells stories of a young woman’s coming of age in the 21st century in Scarborough, Ont. The disarming, punchy and observant stories focus mostly on sexual encounters and relationships.
What I thought of Shut Up You’re Pretty:
This book was just not for me. I struggled with it, not because of the types of stories or because of the explicit content, but because of the writing. It had descriptions that just didn’t make sense and I found it hard to connect with the characters because of a certain detachment in the way the stories were told. There’s very little narrative arc and I found it all rather disjointed and unsatisfying. To me it was a sad and depressing collection of random glimpses, with little meaning or take away.
Joanne's Reading Blog 
I so appreciate learning about titles previously unknown to me. Dennison Avenue is now on my TBR. I’ll be eager to hear which book is selected for Canada Reads.
Right back at you! I always enjoy perusing your book suggestions as well, and add them to my every growing TBR list! It’s a wonderful exchange!
You will never be poorer by grap a hold of wisdom