BOOKWORM
WHEN A WOMAN COULD BE DEEMED “INCORRIGIBLE”, LEGALLY
Liberty Street by Heather Marshall, Doubleday Canada, $26.99. Heather Marshall follows up her best-selling Looking for Jane with another explosive book, set against a dark chapter in Canadian history and inspired by real-life people and events.
It centres around The Female Refuges Act of 1927 under which – give yourself a moment to pick your jaw up from the floor – women could be sent away if their behaviour was deemed “incorrigible”. Postpartum depression, being in a relationship with someone of a different ethnicity, any reason would do. Just on someone’s say so, no proof required, no recourse offered.
She paints a picture of the times with seemingly innocuous details. The hand-me-downs in Chatelaine magazine’s kitchenette. “Upstairs was the catch-all term for the room full of executive men in the Maclean-Hunter offices on the floor above. The ones with the brand-new teacups.”
She describes how the legendary Doris Anderson led the publication for women that tackled topics such as birth control pills, abortion or spousal abuse. While highlighting recipes for cupcakes, table settings and fashion on the cover (so men seeing the copies in their wives’ hands wouldn’t catch on). The only one of its kind in Canada in the 1960s. Which emboldens editorial assistant Emily Radcliffe to suggest she be allowed to go undercover to expose the horrific conditions at Mercer Women’s Prison when a note smuggled out by an inmate falls into her hands.
The story is told from the perspective of Emily in 1961 and of Detective Rachel Mackenzie in 1996.
Rachel is working on a Jane Doe case and the way her investigation intertwines with Emily’s discovery of unimaginable abuse makes for an unputdownable read.
As Emily serves her time, the countdown to her release – from Day 1 (182 to go) – slowly builds the tension. Specially when the Jane Doe is identified as having been an inmate at Mercer Women’s Prison. Which of the women Emily learns the stories of was it? Could it be Emily herself? Her name appears on the short list Rachel is working on.
Would things be different if women were allowed to become police officers, Emily had wondered.
This is historical fiction at its best, blending fact and human interest stories with little-known tidbits: Elasticized bedsheets are the brainchild of a woman from Alberta!
WHAT DOES SHE THINK ABOUT WHEN SHE THINKS ABOUT WRITING?
A Truce That Is Not Peace by Miriam Toews, Alfred A. Knopf, $34. Why do I write? As Miriam Toews attempts to answer this question – and fails to do so in spite of multiple attempts – to the satisfaction of the committee that invited her to join a Conversacion in Mexico with other participating authors – I wonder where, exactly, is she going with this?
All over the place, it would appear, as she zigzags and weaves across time and incidents. But ever so gently, the pieces coalesce into a picture, like in a kaleidoscope.
Or, if I were to reach for an au courant example, like a ChatGPT portrait of a review of your year, similar to the one a young woman shared with me recently.
Hers had a baby monitor, a cup of decaf tea, and a cat. Toews’ would be memories stitched together with tears and laughter.
With breathtaking honesty, she reveals layers of grief, guilt and futility connected to her sister’s suicide more than fifteen years ago.
Marj, who had retreated into silence, had asked Toews to write to her, to share her life in detail.
And Toews realizes she has been keeping up an internal correspondence with her sister ever since, attempting to fill a silence she can barely comprehend.
She writes about her father’s suicide, and about own suicide attempt, convinced that she has destroyed the people she loves. Guilty of never having been present for her kids because she was “always, always a million miles away in her head, rearranging words...”
But just when you think you need a break from this unrelenting pain, she offers you a giggle with an anecdote about the time a student of English Literature suggests it was time for her “to stand back and listen. I’ve had a ‘platform’ long enough”.
Or when her family received a stranger who walked into their home mistaking it for a neighbour’s. No one knew who he was, everyone assumed he was another family member’s guest, and they all made polite conversation “glancing at each other, discreetly, for some kind of clue or hint”.
Her observations on life with her grandchildren are heart-melting.
Mostly we ran, she and I. It was exhausting, but I love her, and, you know, would die for her. That’s what grandmothers do, eventually. We make space in the cave for little ones. We just bow out.
And she concludes. Why do I write? Because she asked me to.
PICKING UP THE PIECES
Breakup by Anjan Sundaram, Catapult, $34. Kate Winslet in Lee and Rosamund Pike in A Private War, played journalists Lee Miller and Marie Colvin, respectively, taking us behind the lines in war-torn countries, and also behind the scenes into their private lives.
Into what is almost an addiction for bringing the human face of the horror of war to the world and the toll it takes on the teller.
In Breakup, Anjan Sundaram shares his story, his life, as a war correspondent.
After ten years of reporting from Central Africa for The New York Times and the Associated Press, he was living the quiet life in Shippagan, Canada, with his wife and newborn.
But when word arrives of ethnic cleansing in the Central African Republic, he is torn between his duty as a husband and a father and his moral responsibility to report on a conflict largely unseen by the world.
Soon he is reporting from the frontlines and when he chooses to journey into a rebel stronghold instead of returning home, he learns there is no going back to the life he left behind.
No longer a husband, and terrified that I could no longer perform my daily routines of fatherhood – that I needed to create my own ideas of fatherhood, and rituals by which to live...
This grounded, introspective account of his inner turmoil – with no hint of self-pity – is one that will linger with readers long after they’ve turned the last page.
A WOMAN OF SUBSTANCE
All Things Under the Moon by Ann K Choi, Simon & Schuster, $25.99. Kim Na-Young lives a simple life in her village in Korea, watching the moon rise and set over the mountains, tending to her household and caring for her mother.
But it’s a country under Japanese occupation, and rebellion simmers in Seoul’s secret underground networks. And touches her life.
The story of a seemingly ordinary woman in Korea in the 1920s who takes control of her destiny and rises to become an advocate for women’s literacy as a force for change.
“Women need other women to survive.”
“WHAT DOES ANYONE’S LIFE MEAN?”
Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout, Random House, $24.95. The Pulitzer Prize-winning Elizabeth Strout returns to the town of Crossby, Maine, and to her beloved cast of characters – Lucy Barton, Olive Kitteridge, Bob Burgess and others – as they deal with a shocking crime, fall in love and grapple with the question Lucy asks: “What does anyone’s life mean?”
Filled with stories friends exchange, stories of “unrecorded lives” and brimming with empathy, this is a read to be savoured.
WHAT HAPPENS ON AN ISLAND...
A Death on Corfu by Emily Sullivan, Kensington Publishing, $37. Living in Greece at the turn of the twentieth century, widow Minnie Harper struggles to find her place in a swiftly changing world.
But when a local woman is murdered, her resolve is put to the test in a race to shed light on the truth. Her dangerous search for answers reveals another side of Corfu.
BACK IN FIJI
A Shipwreck in Fiji by Nilima Rao, Soho Crime, $39.95. We meet Sergeant Akal Singh a year after he solved the mystery in A Disappearance in Fiji, which was based partly on the history of Indian migrant labour who had gone to Fiji to work in the sugar plantations. Still an unwilling transplant to Fiji, and just starting to settle into his life in the capital city of Suva, he’s dispatched to the neighbouring island of Ovalau on seemingly straightforward tasks. But he and his friend soon become embroiled in increasingly complicated issues including a gruesome murder. An engrossing tale set in a fascinating time and place.
BEHIND THE SCENES
Giant Love by Julie Gilbert, Pantheon, $48. I was introduced to Edna Ferber as a teenager through Saratoga Trunk. I read So Big, Giant and Showboat, picked up at the annual book sales at Trinity College, Toronto, as an adult, gaining vastly different perspectives. And so a book on Ferber is a special delight. Specially, when it comes from her great-niece.
In Giant Love, Julie Gilbert presents an intimate portrait of a remarkable author and her achievements. Charting her evolution from mid-western maverick girl reporter to beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist.
From her early days as an aspiring actress to becoming one of the most successful playwrights of her time. The book takes us behind the making of a classic American novel, Giant, and the film based on it. The one that made huge stars of Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and James Dean.
THE BACKSTORY
The Backstagers by James Tynion IV, Rian Sych and Walter Baimonte, Boom! Box. $26.99. The full Backstagers story, collected in its entirely for the very first time, is a must-read for fans.
Rian Sych shares in the introduction that he started the series with a simple goal – to tell a fun, magical adventure story with characters that reminded us of our younger selves.
PLAYTIME!
Peekaboo Dinosaur by Camilla Reid, illustrated by Ingela P Arrhenius, Nosy Crow, $13.99. Playing peekaboo! with your little ones just grew even more fun with this push-pull book with sliders and a mirror!
TEEN REVIEW
By ZHANGAN LI
Dam Busters by Ted Barris, Patrick Crean Editions, $22.99. Dam Busters by Ted Barris is a non-fiction tribute to the Canadian airmen of the WWII RAF 617 squadron, who played an important part in Operation Chastise which targeted German dams. The book retells the stories of these Canadian airmen, and their impact on the war.
While the Dam Busters raid is well known to history buffs, this book seeks to bring a greater focus on the Canadian perspectives on the raid. Every aspect of the mission is thoroughly explored, and it really does feel like you’re with those airmen on that raid. All the characters are introduced well and Barris ensures that you, the reader, will care deeply about the characters.
Barris narrates Dam Busters very clearly, and he makes you feel every death that happens. The book not only retells the stories but also critically thinks about them, taking the time to reflect on the long-term value of the raid.
Overall, Barris has done a phenomenal job writing Dam Busters. My only complaint is that the technical jargon is a bit on the heavy side for an average reader, but the story is otherwise exciting. If you enjoy history and want to see a uniquely Canadian side of it, Dam Busters and other books by Ted Barris are a must-read.
• Zhanghan Li is a youth volunteer at Brampton Library.