During the final days of the Old West, Caprice, a beautiful, strong-willed woman determined to find the man who killed her brother, encounters a colorful collection of good guys and bad guys

Caprice

Literature & Fiction

BOWERING, George

United States

Penguin??Books

Bowerings Bc a Swashbuckling History

VIKING

Burning Water

Penguin Canada

During the final days of the Old West, Caprice, a beautiful, strong-willed woman determined to find the man who killed her brother, encounters a colorful collection of good guys and bad guys

Penguin Books Canada, Limited

History is too important to be left to the historians. That's one lesson to be gleaned from novelist/poet George Bowering's history of Canada, Stone Country. While others have tried, and continue to attempt, to turn Confederation, the Meech Lake Accord, and the rise of Jean Chrétien into something other than the stuff of schoolkids' nightmares, it has taken a 67-year-old cynic with a novelist's insight (or vice versa) and sense of irony to turn these ingredients into a readable narrative. For starters, the author's manner is breezy and informal--at one point he writes that Prime Minister Mackenzie King "was browned off" that a group of Canadian anti-fascists used his grandfather's name for its battalion. Nor does Bowering feel any compunction about devising dialogue between policymakers to explain their wheeling and dealing, and his remarks on political players range from the catty to the cutting. He describes explorer James Wolfe as a "member of a military family despite having almost no chin" and calls Brian Mulroney "a smiling prime minister who held the door open [to the Americans] and said everything is for sale." Obviously, a reader seeking an objective account would do well to avoid this book entirely, since the author's idea of fairness is to heap scorn on both the Liberals and the Conservatives (though the latter definitely get a sounder beating.) Bowering, recently named Canada's first poet laureate, doesn't try to hide his anti-American streak either, and calls our neighbours to the south "USAmericans" (ostensibly to differentiate them from the original inhabitants) throughout the book. Indeed, no one, with the exception of fellow poet Dorothy Livesay, is free from the West Coast native's sharp-eyed put-downs, which even include potential "If you are the kind of person who thinks that ice hockey is exciting, you might wake up for a while during the Riel Rebellions." Bowering's own beliefs are perhaps best summarized by his description of the tumultuous '60s, which he calls "the most honourable years of the twentieth century." But it's totally subjective remarks like these, as well as his willingness to make imaginative leaps into the motivations of his real-life characters, that make Stone Country an immensely readable story rather than a simple recounting of facts. Hence, both Canadian history buffs and neophytes will be, at the very least, entertained--although readers with a right-wing bent are also likely to be seriously "browned off." --Shawn Conner

Stone Country: An Unauthorized History of Canada

A book in which some of our best writers address their own losses — and help us endure our own… A heartbreaking, comforting and beautiful collection of true stories about grief and mourning from some of Canada’s best known writers. When Jean Baird’s daughter, Bronwyn, died suddenly, Jean’s deep instinct was to turn to books to help her in her time of sudden loss. Although she found that the thoughts of counselors, psychologists, Buddhists, and self-help gurus were perhaps some help, the works that truly reached to the heart of the matter were by literary writers, largely from the UK and the US. Scanning the Canadian landscape, Jean and her husband George Bowering found elegies and tributes, but little from our writers about the person who is left behind to mourn or what it takes to endure grieving. The Heart Does Break — an anthology of twenty original pieces — sets out to fill that gap.

The Heart Does Break: Canadian Writers on Grief and Mourning

Biographies & Memoirs

Baird, Jean

Memoirs

Random House Canada

A book in which some of our best writers address their own losses — and help us endure our own… A heartbreaking, comforting and beautiful collection of true stories about grief and mourning from some of Canada’s best known writers. When Jean Baird’s daughter, Bronwyn, died suddenly, Jean’s deep instinct was to turn to books to help her in her time of sudden loss. Although she found that the thoughts of counselors, psychologists, Buddhists, and self-help gurus were perhaps some help, the works that truly reached to the heart of the matter were by literary writers, largely from the UK and the US. Scanning the Canadian landscape, Jean and her husband George Bowering found elegies and tributes, but little from our writers about the person who is left behind to mourn or what it takes to endure grieving. The Heart Does Break — an anthology of twenty original pieces — sets out to fill that gap. From the Hardcover edition.

Self-Help

Death & Grief

Vintage Canada

As Jesse James terrorizes the Wild West, the McLean Gang roams Victoria, Canada, striking fear in local communities. The McLean brothers, Allan, Charlie, and Archie, with sidekick Alex Hare, are "breeds," the locals' term for those of mixed white and native blood. Outcasts in both cultures and destined to become outlaws, the McLean Gang rustles cattle, steals guns, and makes trouble. But one frozen morning, these boys cross the line, shooting down two men, one of them the local sheriff, in cold blood. Tracked down by a posse of over a hundred men, the McLeans become trapped in a dilapidated cabin. The gang, ranging in age from fifteen to twenty-four, holds the posse at bay for days, surviving on limited food and water.

Shoot!

St Martins Pr

Standing on Richards

Short Stories & Anthologies

Viking Canada

Viking Adult

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