Gotta go with Carol Shields, Unless, like all her work is great. Then again, it's not Larry's Party, which they already did. I'm also a fan of Camilla Gibb, read her first two books but not Fire. Always thought she was going to be the next big Canadian writer. Of course Atwood is Atwood, but she kind of bugs me. As for the rest of the list, it means bupkis to me. Tried Guy V and fell asleep after struggling through a couple of chapters.
I don't know whether to be embarrassed or not but I've only read three of the books, Boyden's "Three Day Road", Martel's "Pi" and Harvey's "Inside". And I didn't care too much for any of them frankly. I voted for Trevor Cole's "The Fearsome Particles" which I think was the best Canadian Novel of the past decade, or half decade anyway. But as I surveyed my bookshelf (and memory bank) I couldn't come up with any other novel that I felt strongly about, and came to the uneasy conclusion that, maybe, I just don't like Canadian novels that much. I've been reading British and American writers lately, by preference. Writers that have both an adventurous and humorous streak, which recent Canadian novels tend to lack (with the exception of Cole). I mean just take a look at this list! Aside from Fallis (I just love that name) is there one other writer on the list with a sense of humour?! Deadly boring crew suffocating under the weight of their own earnestness and pretension. Doug Coupland didn't even make the list!
Gotta go with Carol Shields, Unless, like all her work is great. Then again, it's not Larry's Party, which they already did. I'm also a fan of Camilla Gibb, read her first two books but not Fire. Always thought she was going to be the next big Canadian writer. Of course Atwood is Atwood, but she kind of bugs me. As for the rest of the list, it means bupkis to me. Tried Guy V and fell asleep after struggling through a couple of chapters.
ReplyDeleteI don't know whether to be embarrassed or not but I've only read three of the books, Boyden's "Three Day Road", Martel's "Pi" and Harvey's "Inside". And I didn't care too much for any of them frankly. I voted for Trevor Cole's "The Fearsome Particles" which I think was the best Canadian Novel of the past decade, or half decade anyway. But as I surveyed my bookshelf (and memory bank) I couldn't come up with any other novel that I felt strongly about, and came to the uneasy conclusion that, maybe, I just don't like Canadian novels that much. I've been reading British and American writers lately, by preference. Writers that have both an adventurous and humorous streak, which recent Canadian novels tend to lack (with the exception of Cole). I mean just take a look at this list! Aside from Fallis (I just love that name) is there one other writer on the list with a sense of humour?! Deadly boring crew suffocating under the weight of their own earnestness and pretension. Doug Coupland didn't even make the list!
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