A Clockwork Orange has a reputation of being a very violent and disturbing story, whether it is the novel or the film. While it is true that it is a very violent tale, the book is meant as a treatise on morality and freewill. Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of Anthony Burgess’s novel is almost universally recognized as a masterpiece of filmmaking. It is visually stunning, the acting is incredible; Malcolm MacDowell gave a performance that will forever be recognized as one of the greatest in history; and the language and dialogue are amazing. The novel which the film is based is equally impressive. The visuals presented by Burgess are vivid and detailed; Alex de Large is one of the most intriguing characters of contemporary British fiction; and the language is more challenging than any other 20th century writer except for Joyce. 

In A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess builds a landscape that is overrun by juvenile criminals. Among them is the novel’s central character, Alex de Large. Alex is a fascinating character and is very unique, I cannot think of a similar character in any literature predating this piece. Through most of the book he is a real menace. He assaults several people including a homeless man; rapes two 10-year-olds; brutalizes a husband and wife; and eventually murders a woman when he was setup by his “droogs.” But through all of this, you cannot help but to love this character. Alex is one of the most charismatic characters I have ever come across. 

The main theme and central pre-occupation of this narrative is choice and freewill, and the question if you lack these do you cease to be a real person. Alex loves what he does; he loves “ultra-violence”, he loves rape, he loves to be the antithesis of all that we see as “good.” Armchair psychologists might suggest that he is a sociopath; a sociopath does not feel remorse or joy when they commit violent acts, the do so without thinking about what they are doing, really caring or understanding the consequences. Alex chooses to do these things because he enjoys them. He rapes the ten year old girls because it makes him happy; he enjoys beating up homeless men on the side of the road, and he enjoys drinking his milkplus to “sharpen the senses”. Alex is a very intelligent young man, he loves classical music, he can manipulate almost anyone, and he always knows what is going on around him. He is smart enough to make the conscious choice to commit violent acts. Through Burgess’s first-person narration you see the thought process Alex uses and why he does what he does; and honestly when you are reading they make perfect sense, which is perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the novel. The central thing that Burgess wants you to think about is whether it is better to have the choice between good and evil, and choose evil, rather than to have no choice at all. Burgess believes, as do I, that yes, it is better to have the choice.

Part of the aura that has always surrounded A Clockwork Orange is in part due to its experimental language. “Nadsat”, as Burgess has named it, is a teenage slang that Alex and his friends (droogs) use; it is based loosely on Russian slang. When you first start reading the book it can be a little difficult to get into this type of dialogue but after a few chapters you begin to see the beauty of it and start using some of the words yourself. With the exception of the work of James Joyce, I have never read a novel that had such a mix of experimental, beautiful, and just plain fascinating language.

A Clockwork Orange fits into the sub-genre of 20th century fiction commonly referred to as “dystopia” fiction. If you look at works but writers like John Wyndham, George Orwell, or Aldous Huxley, you can see other stories, in varying degrees, exploring a bleak future and some common themes running through all of these types of novels. If you are a fan of Kubrick’s film you will absolutely love this book. I was surprised at the stark differences of the ending of the novel and the ending of the film, but with that aside, the adaptation was very faithful. With the novel, where it is a first person narration, you get a more vivid look at Alex’s mind. This book deserves a place amongst stories like 1984, Brave New World, or The Chrysalids as one of the great pieces of dark fiction from the mid-20th century. Viddy this raskazz real horrorshow, oh my brothers. 

About 6 years ago when I first saw the film 2001 I was not sure whether I liked it or not. I found the film intriguing and hypnotic, but was still on the fence. After I watched it over and over again, because as I said, it was very hypnotic, I began to get it; when I crossed that threshold and really understood the film I realized what an amazing story it really was. I have no hesitation in saying that it is my favorite Sci-Fi film. As Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick were collaborating on the script and film, Clarke was composing a novel to tie in with the movies release. 2001: A Space Odyssey is the only book that I can think of that is considered a cornerstone of 20th century literature and is based on a film. I have always been aware of Clarke’s stature amongst the science-fiction community but I have never read any of his books; I think this novel is the best piece of science-fiction written since Jules Verne. With just this one novel, I already agree that he is one of the best Sci-Fi writers of all time and the best of his generation (which in itself is a high complement as he was among writers like Philip K. Dick and Issac Asimov). Even though the novel is based on the film it is not a word-for-word novelization of the screenplay. Like when a movie is based on a book, the filmmaker takes certain liberties with the story, plot, and settings; Clarke has done the same in his novelization of 2001. 

The novel leaves you with fewer questions when it is over than the movie. Like my previous reviews in my “Stanley Kubrick” books, I am going to look at the book on its own merits rather than a comparison. 2001: A Space Odyssey, for me, focuses on two major themes: evolution, and, rather a prophetic idea from 1968, man’s over-reliance on technology. The book is broken into several distinct sections ranging from 3 million years ago with the first creatures resembling humans, to what was then about 40 years in the future orbiting Saturn, to the unknown depths of the universe and a world created by an intelligence far greater than our own. Through Clarke’s poetic prose these chapters are tied together magically and they get into your head. I have been done with this book for about five days and I am still thinking about it and certain facts that Clarke discusses are still circling my brain. This is a testament to Clarke’s talent.

It is now 7 years past when the bulk of this story was set and there is very little resembling this universe in our real life world, except for some incredible insight by Clarke with the evolution of computer technology (voice recognition, AI, video phones). To put this in perspective: in a time of less than 10 years the world went from launching their first rocket into orbit to having men walking on the moon; if rocket technology and the space program had continued at that pace who knows where we would be.

The influences of the 2001 universe are unquestionable. Almost every Sci-Fi film set in space has taken something from Clarke and Kubrick’s masterpiece. It can be seen everywhere from Star Trek: The Motion Picture to Carl Sagan’s novel Contact (or the brilliant film adaptation done by Robert Zemeckis). Anyone who loves science-fiction should read this; anyone who loves the film 2001 should read this; anyone who wants to have their mind taken on a trip from which it will never return should read this. Some of the facts Clarke will give you will keep you wondering for a long time. First: there has been about 300 billion people to have walked the Earth since the beginning of humanity; there are approximately the same amount of stars in the Milky Way galaxy. Second: the rings of Saturn were formed about 3 million years ago, exactly the same time humans emerged. Think about this and then think about our place in the universe, once you have done that you are ready to read 2001: A Space Odyssey.

If you mention the book Red Alert or the writer Peter George (or his former pen name Peter Bryant) very few people would know what or who you were talking about; if you mention Dr. Strangelove almost everyone would know what you were talking about or least had a vague idea of the title. Red Alert is the short novel in which Stanley Kubrick based his incredible comedic take on the cold war. Like most of Kubrick’s adaptations, he took great liberties with his treatment of the story; with this book, the only common threads are the general plot and theme. The overall tone of the book and movie differ severely, the book is very dark and serious while the film is a very funny, but dark, comedy; characters have also been tweaked, removed, and added to suit the adaptation. Dr. Strangelove is one of the best comedies ever made and captures the cold war in a way that had never been done before, and hasn’t been done since. With that being said, I am going to examine the book on it’s own merits, for better or for worse, as it is a stand alone piece that was published around 6 years before the film and because it is an interesting snapshot of a very frightening time in world history.

I had a very hard time finding this book, I had to order it through a local vendor who had a couple copies available. There is a reason the book is not widely available, it is not very good; also the edition I have must have had a blind copy editor there are so many spelling and typographical mistakes. With that being said, it does represent both an important part of American history and a traceable starting point of a Tom Clancy like type of thriller fiction.

In 1958 the Cold War was still escalating to it’s peek; it was almost a decade before the Cuban missile crisis, the space race and arms race were not in full force yet, and the military doctrine of mutually assured destruction was just starting to be adopted by the participants. The tone of the book, the political figures, and the military characters seem to be very authentic. The catalyst of the novel’s conflict, General Quinten, reminded me very much of former SAC Commander Curtis LeMay, who was known to try to bait the Soviets into a war. Red Alert is a good look into how cold war politics and military life was and how it really could push someone like Quinten, or LeMay for that matter, to the point of insanity.

This book reminded me of a Tom Clancy or Robert Ludlum novel. A military crisis solved through backroom deals to avoid being the target of a secret doomsday weapon. If you have read any of the two aforementioned novelists and then Red Alert you will see some of the seeds that Peter George planted and how it has developed into one of the most popular genres of fiction.

Most of the fiction that dealt with cold war themes did so in a more round-about way and did not take on the war in such a direct manner. Writers like Orwell, John Wyndham, William Golding, or Arthur C. Clarke did so with dystopian stories, science-fiction, or allegorical tales; what George did was a really daring feat in the late 50s. However, as I said earlier, this is not a very good book. The dialogue is clunky, the characters are flat, and George’s use of the English language is stale at best. The plot is well constructed though and free from holes. Unless you are a die hard Stanley Kubrick fan and want to explore his inspirations like I am or you want a look at some authentic cold war fear, I would pass on this book.

The word Lolita conjures up a variety of different reactions: disgust, intrigue, even excitement for a select few. Lolita is actually the pet name that Humbert Humbert gives to his young lover, Dolores Haze. Lolita is often described as “the most convincing love story of our century” and Nabokov himself, as described by the great American novelist John Updike, “writes prose the only way they should be written, [...] ecstatically.” Many years ago I saw the Stanley Kubrick adaptation of the book; I was impressed but at the same time I thought that it was not as shocking as it is often made out to be. When I was at a local used book store I read some of the praise for the book and read a few random pages. The first page I landed on was a scene in which Humbert is sexually gratified just by Lolita resting her sun burnt legs on his lap. At that moment I was intrigued, I bought the book and read it immediately. Having read it a second time now with more literary study and life experience I now appreciate more the style it was written with, the masterful prose, the ironic beauty of the love story, and the tragedy of Humbert and Lolita. After two-hundred years of the development of the true format, Nabokov has set the bar very high that very few writers in English, and in my opinion no other American writer, has been able to obtain.

The story is shocking and can offend those who do not have the ability to really understand the story. It is about the story of the immigrant academic Humbert Humbert having a sexual affair with the 12 year old daughter of his landlady, and later wife. The narrative is about more than this relationship: it is about a culture clash, a hyper-civilized European colliding with the jovial excitement and free-spirits of American youth in the post WWII world. More than that though, the story is a reflection on a love story, on what a love story is, and on a more fundamental level, what love itself is, and who are we to say that love is wrong in our modern day western sensibilities.

In the literary academiea, what Lolita is truley known for is the incredible use of the narrative device of the “unreliable narrator.” Through Humbert’s narration, which he is leaving as a memoir only to be published after his death, the story is often contradicting in its own narration and incredibly biased by the fictional narrators incredible emotional instability. Writing first-person narration can be very difficult, you have to put yourself into the character and become this person when you are in front of the keyboard, or, in Nabokov’s case, the typewriter. Nabokov immersed himself into the soul of this disgusting individual and pulled of both a narrative and stylistic masterpiece.

Lolita is the seminal masterpiece of 20th century American fiction (Nabokov was an American immigrant while writing in English). It should be read by everyone who is either interested in American literature, the development of the novel, or just in great writing. Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation was as good as it could have been for being made in 1962 with such tough censorship at that time. In 1997 another adaptation was made with Jeremy Irons as Humbert. This movie was very close to the narration of the novel but the wonderful unreliable narration from the novel can never really be brought to a film medium.

In the late 70s and early 80s, Margaret Laurence had stopped writing novels and wrote only children’s books for the most part. The Olden Days Coat is a short tale illustrated by Muriel Wood about a young girl who has to spend Christmas at her grandmother’s house. This short story for young kids has just as much magic and is as just as well written as any of Laurence’s full-length novels.

This story has the tone of a story that your grandmother or grandfather might tell you one night while trying to get you to fall asleep. The story is about a young girl, Sal, who is disappointed about spending Christmas at her grandmothers house and then taking a trip back in time to when her grandmother was a child after putting on an “olden days coat”. The story develops in a way that would be expected of Laurence’s writing and finishes with a magical ending.

This short children’s tale deals with one of the same themes that runs through some of Laurence’s adult fiction: understanding family roots and your family’s past. I came across a first edition of this book at a flea market for $1 and figured I would pick it up as I owned everything Laurence had written up to that point. It was a good read and made me appreciate even more the talents of this superb writer. A short film adaptation was made of this story which can actually be seen at Youtube. I am glad I found this book and look forward to reading it to my own children in the future on Christmas Eve.

Winner of the Governor General’s Award for Fiction in 2004

Winner of Canada Reads 2006

With Miriam Toews’s breakout success, A Complicated Kindness, she is building her name as one of Canada’s next literary stars; and there is much anticipation for her next book, The Flying Troutmans, which will be released in the next couple weeks. Like almost all contemporary writers, she draws on her own past and experiences for inspiration with her writing. Toews is of a Mennonite background who has had, and continues to have, a long battle with depression. The central character in A Complicated Kindness, Nomi, echoes her creator.

The story revolves around a 16 year old girl named Nomi (short for Naomi) growing up and rebelling against an isolated Mennonite community in Manitoba. She lives alone with her father after both her mother and sister leave town when they were excommunicated from the church. The story explores the difficulty of growing up in a single parent home and the restraints a strict religious sect can impose on their followers. While the characters, even through their rebellion and excommunication, always seem to have a “laissez-faire” attitude through the narration you see the difficulty of their way of life;, in this story we as voyeurs seem to see it even more than the characters do. This story really makes you think about religious tolerance, not of other religions, but of your own, which can sometimes seem a lot more difficult.

The narrative style in this book is very impressive and makes the book more personable. It is told in the first-person by Nomi. The narration is not in any logical chronological order; it is very similar, although more accessible, to the stream-of-consciousness narrations by the modernist writers. The book uses the “unreliable narrator” device throughout the book as well, especially when recalling her mother and sister. You never know if you are getting the whole story, but you do know you are getting a good one.

A Complicated Kindness was Toews 4th bookand has won the author many awards and acclaim. It won the Governor General’s award, Canada Reads, and was on the best seller list for a substantial period of time. When I purchased this book I bought it together with Lullabies for Little Criminals, the lady at the cash said the books are similar and would go well together; I thought that is either a good thing or a bad thing, in the end it turned out to be a very good purchase on both accounts. While not as gritty and shocking as Lullabies for Little Criminals, it is still a powerful and moving tale about a young lady coming of age in a difficult situation.

Winner of the 2003 Giller Prize

M.G. Vassanji is revered as one of Canada’s greatest new writers; his first book won a regional Commonwealth Prize, he has won the Giller Prize twice, and has been shortlisted for a variety of other major prizes like the Governor General and Trillium awards. Many of Vassanji’s works deal with the role of Southern Asians (Indians, Pakistanis, etc) in East Africa, primarily Kenya, and then their later migrations to the “west”. This reflects strongly Vassanji’s background, he is of Indian heritage but Kenyan born and raised, later attending M.I.T. achieving a Ph.D. in nuclear physics, then later moving to Toronto to work in this field and then later becoming a full-time writer. The in-Between World of Vikram Lall won Vassanji his second Giller Prize and secured his place in the canon of Canadian literature. Along with other great Canadian immigrant writers like Ondaatje, Mistry, or Clarke, Vassanji uses his experiences and native culture in the context of a “Canadian sensibility.” He tells tales of Africa and India in a Canadian way.

This story deals with Vikram Lall, a Kenyan-born Asian who is growing up through the violence of the Mau Mau Freedom Fighters and then later through Kenya’s independence and then subsequent fall into corruption. Lall and his family live through all these stages and through each stage different aspects of the characters and life in Kenya are explored. The title phrase, the “in-between world” is very fitting to this novel. Vikram is part of the new generation, the first young generation to live through Kenya’s independence. He is in-between the old way, colonialism, and the future, what Kenya could be; while at the same time in the new Kenya, he sometimes doesn’t belong as he not a native black African but yet is not one of the white Europeans. Through Lall’s family and his career Vassanji does a great exploring the change from the old to the new and how in many ways it is not always a wonderful change.

Vassanji tells the story primarily from a first-person flashback point-of-view, up until the last section where it as in the present. At the end of every chapter though there is a short return to the present in Canada with Lall meditating on the past events that have just been explored and looks toward the future of this story. These parts are only ever 200 to 500 words but they do a great job at keeping the narrative flowing smoothly and make it hard to put the book down.

This was my first expose to M.G. Vassanji and I was very impressed that he lived up to his reputation. As I have said previously, so much of Canada’s new literture is centered around the experiences of newcomers to our country, Vassanji is one of the greats in this category. He could be considered as much an African writer as a Canadian writer, but the same was said of Margaret Laurence in the first 7 or 8 years of her career. Vassanji tells his stories of Africa in a Canadian context, he writes about Africa for Canadians. This book was a deserving winner of the Giller Prize.

Winner of the 2001 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize

Alistair MacLeod?s body of work is very small, 2 story collections, 1 collected stories volume, 1 novel, and 1 Christmas novella, but yet he is revered as one of Canada?s most treasured writers. MacLeod?s writing is meticulously detailed and incredibly tight in its plot structure. As I mentioned in a previous review, there is a whole world of Cape Breton literature. Writers like Sheldon Currie, Hugh MacLennan, and D.R. MacDonald all bring the island to life but none of these writers can hold a candle to MacLeod.?No Great Mischief is Macleod?s only novel and 3rd original book, it won the IMPAC Dublin literary award and almost every award the Canadian literary establishment has to offer. The story focuses on the MacDonald family, one of many, from the Highlands of Cape Breton and their development from the old way of life to the new.

Much of MacLeod?s settings and stories are influenced by his own past experiences and much of his writing focuses on the passing of an old way of life on the island. The MacDonald family, or the Clann Calum Ruadh as they are known in Gaelic, are a large group of brothers who have varying experiences after the death of their parents. In older generations of Cape Breton families, the Gaelic language and the Scottish family traditions were very important to every day life. MacLeod can make anyone realize this no matter where they are from. These traditions carry through the plot as the main character, Alexander, is studying to become a dentist while also helping his brothers in the mine pits after the death of their cousin. In Alexander we see the culture clash of modern life and the modern people of Cape Breton. Alexander is a cosmetic orthodontist who spends his days making people look better, while his other brothers have spent their life underground in the mines where physical appearance is not at all important.

Through the novel you also sense the importance of family. This group of brothers will do anything for each other and their loyalty is endless. Alexander follows his brother to the mines in their time of need. He will do anything for his oldest brother Calum through his poverty and alcoholism, and frequently visits his twin sister to discuss times gone by. Some of these family scenes are very hard to read in that they are so emotional it is impossible not to feel for the characters.

No Great Mischief is a very regional piece, but it is regional in the same way as Crime and Punishment, Oliver Twist, or Huckleberry Finn, through their regional stories they deal with everyman and worldly themes that effects or has effected everyone in one way or another. It was a true privilege to read this novel and has touched me in a way that very few other books have, perhaps only The Diviners and The Bear Came Over the Mountain have moved me in the same way. This is must read not just for every Nova Scotian or every Canadian, this is the type of book that everyone should read.

Winner of the 1969 Governor General’s Award for Fiction

Mordecai Richler is unapologetically Jewish in his writing. He takes shots at the culture clash between the Jews and the Goyium and is sometimes considered a self-hating Jew. Many of his mid-career novels tackle the idea of being Jewish in the post-holocost world, Cocksure is no different. This novel is similar in substance to some of his other novels. It deals with Jews in the Hollywood scene and is set in England for the most part, very much like St. Urbain’s Horseman, Joshua Then and Now, and A Choice of Enemies. This is Richler at his sharpest and most sarcastic. This is a novel that is not meant to be taken too seriously, but at the same time that does not mean it is an unimportant book in either Canadian or Jewish-Canadian literature. Cocksure is a blend of culture clash, a look at swinging 60s perversity, the difference between love and lust, and a caustic look at human nature itself.

Richler always seems to be foremost concerned with the idea of “what is a Jew?” This is very apparent in this narrative when the main character, Mortimer Griffin, who is a self-proclaimed WASP (white Anglo-Saxon Protestant) is constantly being mistaken for a Jew. He defends his heritage adamantly which ultimately leads to his downfall. Through this “WASP” we see the development of the Jewish identity in the mid 60s. Richler looks at whether being Jewish is still a religious classification, or, because of the events of the 30 years before this was written, has being Jewish become something so much more.

What is most stunning about this book is the hilarious and deep range of characters. When you usually discuss Richler’s writings usually you focus on characters like Duddy Kravitz, Joey Hersh, or even Jacob Two-Two, but some characters in this book should not be left out, like Mortimer Griffin, the Star Maker, or Dino Tommasso. Richler attacks his deep subjects with seemingly topical methods, i.e. the difference between a WASP penis and a Jewish penis.

This is another great example of both Mordecai Richler and Canadian fiction from the 60s. Cocksure has it all: humour, drama, sex, and violence. This book is not for the squeamish or easily offended. There is a lot of very graphic sexual content; but at the same time the way this sexuality is presented is incredibly funny. This is not a good book to start out with if you have never read Richler before but once you get a few of his novels under your belt and understand how he writes, Cocksure will be a very stimulating read.

Winner of 1988 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour

Winner of Canada Reads 2008

Paul Quarrington is known as one of Canada’s best comedic writers. Books like this one, King Leary, the Governor-General award winning novel Whale Music, and, his most recent novel, The Ravine, have established a reputation equal to that of other humorists like Richler and Birney. This novel has been out of print for almost 15 years. This year it was brought back by Anchor Canada as it was one of the entries in CBC’s Canada Reads, which it eventually went on to win. This prize along with the 1988 Stephen Leacock Medal makes King Leary a very well decorated novel.

The story centres on Percival Leary, one of the best hockey players of the early NHL. His life is retold through a serious of flashbacks while he is on his way to film a ginger ale commercial with the best current player in the game of hockey. Quarrington wrote this novel in the first person using very colloquial everyman’s language from northern Ontario. The charm in which the story is told is what ties together what would otherwise be a very difficult narrative to follow because of its disjointed chronology.

Although hockey is essential to the plot of this story, it is not a typical “sports novel”. The novel deals with a lot of themes that most people have to deal with in real life: friendship, relationships, family life, and, most importantly, what can you make of your life once you’ve passed your prime. This is something Leary is continuing to deal with up until the end of the novel along with his ever decreasing mental stability. Hockey was his life, now, an old man living in a nursing home, has one last chance to be the king: by peddling knock-off ginger ale on a TV commercial.

King Leary is a very funny but very heartwarming novel. It was a very deserving winner of Canada Reads this year. The novel has something for everyone, a love story, some side-splitting humour, and of course, hockey. Quarrington is definitely one of Canada’s best novelists of the last twenty years.

Winner of the 1999 Governor General’s Award for Drama

Michael Healey is a new voice on the Canadian theatre scene and is continually gaining more and more popularity amongst academics and critics. The Drawer Boy, the most widely read of his 4 plays, is derived from the classic Canadian play The Farm Show and how that play was created. You do not really need to be familiar at all with that play as Healey’s piece is wonderful standing on it’s own.

The Drawer Boy is about two older men who have been life long friends. One of the men, Angus, has problems with his short term memory; his friend Morgan takes care of him like a devoted brother. This play’s themes focus primarily on the idea of true friendship. These two men are devoted to each other in a way that only war buddies can be.

This is a very short play, around 60 pages, I would guess a performance would take only about an hour. This is a good play and is quickly becoming a staple in Canadian drama courses. It won the 1999 Governor-General’s Award for Drama, quite an accomplishment for a first play by such a young writer. There is a lot of quick witted dialogue throughout the play and also a lot of scenes that pull at the heart-strings. This is the last play I will be reviewing for now, I believe that I have provided a good introduction to Canadian drama and laid out a good foundation for other people looking for a little bit of exposure in this field.

Tomson Highway, along with Thomas King, is at the forefront of Native Canadian literature. He says his goal is “to make the ‘rez’ cool.” The Rez Sisters is about a group of seven women who are going to the biggest bingo in the world in an attempt to win half-a-million dollars and make a better life for themselves. Highway uses a lot of his Native culture in his plays; he uses a lot of Ojibwa language, native spirits (Nanabush in this play), and his characters are all, on the surface at least, stereo-typical modern Natives.

The Rez Sisters takes a comedic approach to bring to life the struggles of people living on a Native Reserve. This is a common theme in all of Highway’s writing. The seven women are all victims of various tragedies that plague their culture. Spousal abuse, alcoholism, poor housing conditions, and, most of all, poverty are among them. The idea that these seven women will go to great lengths to win at a bingo 6 hours away shows their desperation to have a better life.

The play is very fast paced. The language used in the stage directions is very eloquent but it is obvious that this play was written for the stage, not merely for publication as some new plays are. The dialog is very snappy, with the exceptions of a few long speeches it is quick lines being whipped off between the characters. The stage directions and descriptions of what the action should look like shows just how great of a playwright Highway is. He uses many interesting techniques including various lighting techniques, including some scenes in complete darkness; drum beats in certain scenes to pace the action; and the inclusion of the audience as part of the play. This would be a great play to see on the stage and I hope that I some day have that opportunity.

The Rez Sisters and it’s sister play Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing are great examples of Native writing. Most of Highway’s literature is tied with the common theme of the roles of Natives in today’s society. He often does this in a comedic overtone. His only novel, Kiss of the Fur Queen, takes on the issue of sexual abuse in the residential Native schools but it is still done with that sharp-tongued comic tone. Native literature is still somewhat of an unknown quantity in Canadian literary studies. It is gaining more prominence with writers like Highway, King, and specialists in the area like Renee Hulan, who edited a critical study entitled Native North America. So whether you are interested in Native lit or just like bingo, this a good book to pass a few hours with.

Michael Cook is known as being a master at capturing Newfoundland culture. Jacob’s Wake is the story of a family in crisis. The story focuses on the Blackburn family, consisting of 3 generations in the same house. The grandfather, affectionately referred to as Skipper, is a very old man who has lost his mind and thinks he is on his fishing boat when in fact he is bed ridden. The conflict arises when the three children visit for Easter weekend. Wayne, the local MHA for the area, is trying to get Skipper into a psychiatric hospital without his father’s knowledge.

The story itself is solid. It has a good pace, the development and climax are wonderfully constructed. What I find absolutely stunning about this play is the use of authentic Newfoundland dialect. The characters sound like they come right out of Bonavista. The characters are crafted in a way that only a Newfie could do; they have that sharp tongue that most people who have friends from Newfoundland know all too well. The theme of the play focuses on the generational gap in Newfoundland during the mid 20th century. We have Skipper, who was the hard working fisherman living off the land, the type of person that Newfoundland was known for; then we had his son Winston, who abused the welfare system on what was obviously a made up medical condition, a situation that was becoming more common place in Newfoundland around the time this play was written; and then we had the children, one was a hotel/bar owner, one an MHA, and one a minister; unsuccessful as all the children are, they represent a move towards a new type of person in Newfoundland, someone who does not live off the land. The final scene with Skipper represents in my opinion the older generation making way for the new way of life in Newfoundland.

This play is taught in most Atlantic Canadian literature classes and is often considered Newfoundland’s best drama. I have had this play on the bookshelf for a long time but have never gotten around to reading it. I was very pleased with this representation of Newfie culture. In a 140 page play that would take about 2 hour to perform you get a snapshot of one of Canada’s most misunderstood provinces. I will difinately be reading more works by Michael Cook in the future. He deserves the same recognition as other great writers from Newfoundland like E.J. Pratt and John Steffler.

This play has a unique place in Cadadian literature: it is the only play to ever be published in the New Canadian Library. The Damnation of Vancouver was originally titled Trial of a City and was written as a radio drama for the CBC. When general editor of the NCL, Malcolm Ross, approached Birney about publishing this play he requested that he be allowed to revise it into a proper stage drama. The NCL was often criticized for not publishing more drama by well known dramatists of the time such as James Reaney and George F. Walker. This is great play because it is ahead of its time in terms of subject matter, it experiments with language and plays on our notions of language, and it carrys over elements from the theatre of the absurd that was made popular by European playwrights like Samuel Beckett.

The play centres on a hearing to determine whether or not a plan by the country to create a hydro-electric dam and thus washing away the city of Vancouver will go forward. The play is set in “Nineteen-hundred-and-whatever-plus-five” and is chaired by the minister of history who brings back people from the dead to get their opinions on the progress of the city and whether it is worth keeping. Some of the people brought back is Capt. Vancouver, the founder of the city; the first known Indian chief in the area; the city’s first bar-keep; and William Langland, the author of Piers the Plowman. The play progresses with each of the aforementioned characters being rematerialized by the minister to get their opion on modern Vancouver. Where this was originally a radio drama, it is more driven by the words and the language than the staging, most of the stage directions deal with the tones of voices used as opposed to movement directions; these types of directions are present but not as prevelant. Most of the play is written in verse using very experiemental language reminiscent of Newspeak in 1984, which was still fairly new when this was written.

Canadian drama is still in relative obscurity in comparison to other genres of Canadian literature, but 30 years ago it was almost unheard of. The Damnation of Vancouver is out-of-print now but is still readily available in used bookstores because of its emense popularity when the NCL released it. Because of its history if you do decide to do a study of Canadian drama it is a good starting point. In addition to its place in dramatic history, this play is also a good example of Birney’s experimental style and use of language. If you are theatre type and wish to put on a production, this play could be easily be adapted to suit the damnation of any city.