2015 books: 9-12

[the_siobhan]

    

Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood This one was published in 1989. I think it was her first book after The Handmaid's Tale, mostly because I distinctly remember a reviewer saying that if The Handmaid's Tale was a critique of a world run by men, Cat's Eye takes on the world of women. A vast over-simplification, but whatevs. The majority of the book is about the main character's childhood in Toronto. She has three friends, one of whom sets about psychologically torturing her. The friend is pretty messed up herself, something that really only comes out as they get older and said friend tries offing herself a few times. The main character never really gets over the trauma of the entire experience and it permanently affects her ability to bond with other women. She is an artist at a time when a lot of women are experimenting with women-only shows and spaces and she participates but never relates or feels like she belongs. One of things that I didn't twig to when I first read this book is how much of her anger is directed not at the girls who tortured her, but at the adult who revealed that she knew and did nothing to protect her. So thank you therapy, I guess.

A second thing that occurred to me during this re-read is how often Atwood's main characters don't seem to have any close friends - or at least not close in the way I would describe it. This one in particular seems to have relationships with her husband and her ex and that's pretty much it.

A side effect of reading Canadian books is how often they talk about things I recognize. There is one incident in particular in this book where she describes a piece her first husband created for a gallery which was a loaf of bread with fur on one side that contained a motor that made it seem to breath. I saw that piece. When I was in High School we went on an outing to the ROM and afterward a bunch of us went into a small gallery across the street and I saw that breathing furry bread thing that impressed me so much I still remember it.



    

Stones by Timothy Findley The inside cover says I got this book in 1989. This one is a collection of short stories, many of them featuring the same characters. The stories are little snapshots into the lives of people dealing with various kind of madness or delusion or dysfunction. They are beautifully crafted stories, although some of them are difficult to read because of the subject matter. A couple of the stories in particular is written from the perspective of a man whose brother drinks himself to death. One of the characters spends a lot of time in Parkdale. Only it's 80s Parkdale, before the gentrification and when it was still a poor neighbourhood. So you know, the Parkdale I'm always expecting whenever I have to walk down Queen St and am always surprised when it's not there.

    

Medicine River by Thomas King This book takes place in the same town as Green Grass, Running Water but it is a more straightforward narrative, without the fantastical elements. It's the story of a man who returns to the town after moving away to Toronto for a number of years to work as a photographer. His mother was from the local reserve but lost her status when she married a non-native (that was standard in Canada until quite recently) so although he knew some of the other Blackfoot kids he didn't grow up directly with them. He drifts into a comfortable life there mostly through the machinations of his friend Harlan, who is the town busy-body and matchmaker. It's kind of a weird story because the main character never seems to do anything of his own accord, and why the hell would you believe the things your friends tell you after the 123th time you find out they're full of shit, but I didn't grow up in a small town so what do I know. It still manages to be a very sweet tale of a man finding his home.

    

Kicking Tomorrow by Daniel Richler Robbie Bookbinder is a middle-class kid from one of the "nice" neighbourhoods in Montreal. He is bored, restless and cynical and 18 years old at exactly the right time - the punk scene is just starting to pick up steam and the French dissatisfaction is coalescing into the separatist movement. Robbie gets kicked out by his parents, does a shitload of drugs, starts a bad punk band, runs afoul of the local bikers and burns down his High School. Not necessarily in that order. Richler's writing is stacatto and dirty and visceral - entirely appropriate to the subject matter and jarring as hell after Mr King. I've always identified him as One Of Us (he was at Convergence VIII) and I'm a little disappointed that he has never written another book.