Xmas and the Giller

Christmas again.  Every year.  How did we get started on this road? On Saturday, check out my explanation in. "The Sharpest Knife in the Drawer." The short story starts "She was fifteen years old and she was pregnant. What was she going to say to her parents?"  

I have now read all the Giller fiction except the winner, The Sentamentalists.  The book finally hit Coles and Chapters but not my mail box yet.  

I take it all back.  This is an apology to Sarah Selecky.  I dismissed her Giller-nominated story collection, titled The Cake is for the Party.  I did this after reading one story. Me wrong.  This is a great book and I think my fav of all the Giller nominees so far.  Selecky sharpens her pen, dips it in a mixture of equal parts heart ache and acid, narrows her eyes and begins. She sets down contemporary, funny, wicked, sad tales, a sort of Sex in the City written by someone with an unflinching gaze and a secret notepad for the telling phrase. I especially liked the story, Where Are You Coming From Sweetheart?, which deals with a self-obsessed teen aged girl.

Books, books, and an Unavailable Book.

I have given up my Giller project for now. I must wait for the final three books on the list to arrive.  The winning novel, The Sentimentalists by Johanna Skipsrud, will not be available for a while.  Her publisher is an "artisan press,"(sounds a bit like a bread making business) and it "crafts" the books by hand.  ! What!  By Hand! ie - Slowly?  The firm refuses to change or outsource to the nearest computer.  However, a hot novel has only  a few weeks to rake in significant cash, enough to keep the author in grub.  Then it becomes yesterday's book.  Copies of a prize winner have to hit the stores tout suite.  Everyone (agent,author, big book sellers,Jack Rabinovich) is leaping about trying to break the log jam.  So when will a copy of The Sentimentalists hit Thunder Bay?  I'll try to find out.

Meanwhile I finished Annabel by Kathleen Winter.  The first chapter blew me away with its lovely writing.  This book should have been enjoyable but I struggled.  The plot concerns a child born both male and female.  Interwoven is much interesting information about Labrador and its settlers.  But the overwhelming background, the constant philosophizing and the clunky dialogue were so distracting that the story got lost in the wallpaper.

One Down; Four to Go

I took the Globe and Mail challenge to read all the Giller Prize short List

My plan was to buy all five books at once and dive in.  However, only two were available at the Thunder Bay branch of Chapters: The Matter with Morris by David Bergan and Annabel by Katherine Winter.  Annabel is also on the short list for the Governor General's Award.

However, The Sentimentalists by Johanna Skidsrud and The Cake is For the Party by Sarah Selecky were only available on the Kobo e reader.  Mmm. And at a third of the price of the hard covers!

 Light Lifting, by Alexander McLeod was not available anywhere, not even on line.  This book was recommended to me by short story writer Collette Maitland.  She thought it was one of the best collections of short stories she had ever read.  It also received a bang-up review in the Globe.

Giller Long List

Tom Rachman,  Giller nominee

Some people read them all.  I know I will read some.  Only one winner but all benefit from a spot on the list.  Small publishing houses led the charge this year.

•Tom Rachman for The Imperfectionists (Dial Press)

•Jane Urquhart for Sanctuary Line (McClelland & Stewart)

•David Bergen for The Matter With Morris (HarperCollins)

•Douglas Coupland for Player One (Anansi)

•Joan Thomas for Curiosity (McClelland & Stewart)

•Michael Helm for Cities of Refuge (McClelland & Stewart)

•Alexander MacLeod for Light Lifting (Biblioasis)

•Avner Mandelman for The Debba (Other Press)

•Sarah Selecky for This Cake is for the Party (Thomas Allen)

•Johanna Skibsrud for The Sentimentalists (Gaspereau)

•Cordelia Strube for Lemon (Coach House)

•Dianne Warren for Cool Water (Phyllis Bruce/HarperCollins)

•Kathleen Winter for Annabel (Anansi)
 

Jane Urquart, Giller nominee and Long Lac gal.