AltWeeklies Wire
Lydia Kwa’s 'Pulse' is a courageous piece of fiction.new
It’s always pleasurable to read a novel set in Toronto, but the key to Pulse is Kwa’s spare yet evocative prose.
NOW Magazine |
Susan G. Cole |
04-02-2010 |
Fiction
'The Amazing Absorbing Boy': Trinidad to T.O.new
When his mother dies, comic-book-obsessed Sammy leaves Trinidad to live with his strangely distant dad in Regent Park. Everything about his new city fascinates the teenager, and he dives into his experience with eyes and ears wide open.
NOW Magazine |
Susan G. Cole |
02-05-2010 |
Fiction
Douglas Coupland's New Novel 'Generation A' is Funny Yet Disturbingnew
Douglas Coupland caught the spirit of his own time in his breakthrough Generation X. Now he's figured out how to tune into the zeitgeist of the future.
NOW Magazine |
Susan G. Cole |
09-21-2009 |
Fiction
'The Soul of All Great Designs' Goes Off the Railsnew
Neil Bissoondath can really write, but in his latest novel he gets trapped by his own unworkable premise.
NOW Magazine |
Susan G. Cole |
10-14-2008 |
Fiction
Why is Andrew Pyper Wasting His Time on Thrillers?new
The bestselling Toronto author, who won the Arthur Ellis Award for best first novel, has immense talent, but you get the feeling he's taking the easy route churning out whodunits.
NOW Magazine |
Susan G. Cole |
09-02-2008 |
Fiction
Every Word Counts in 'Girl Meets Boy'new
As part of a series called The Myths, Girl Meets Boy reworks the Iphis story handed down to us by Ovid in which a girl, brought up as a boy in an anti-female world, falls in love with a girl.
NOW Magazine |
Susan G. Cole |
07-07-2008 |
Fiction
Dan Kennedy Nails the Music Industrynew
The former mid-level marketing executive's bitter and very funny account of his experience at a fast-dying music label zeros in on everything that's wrong with the old music biz.
NOW Magazine |
Susan G. Cole |
03-10-2008 |
Fiction
Goodbye Guiltnew
In The Worst Intentions, Italian first novelist Alessandro Piperno – with excellent assistance from his translator, Ann Goldstein – gives us a vivid, and not so pretty, picture of the post-Holocaust Italian Jewish community.
NOW Magazine |
Susan G. Cole |
11-30-2007 |
Fiction
'The Frozen Thames': Frozen Ghostsnew
If, instead of giving us a full-fledged novel with an emotional narrative arc, Helen Humphreys wants to write a series of flash fictions short-short stories with lush language representing each of the 40 occasions that the Thames River froze over, that should be fine with any of her fans.
NOW Magazine |
Susan G. Cole |
10-26-2007 |
Fiction
'Turtle Valley' is All Fired Upnew
Gail Anderson-Dargatz's latest is part mystery, part memory story, part eco-conscious tale, but a rare take on illness in the context of a marriage is what makes it a winner.
NOW Magazine |
Susan G. Cole |
10-12-2007 |
Fiction
Emma Donoghue's Long-Distance Love Story Breaks Downnew
The prose here is much better than almost anything else available in contemporary lesbo lit, but lacks the ideas and outrage of her historical fiction.
NOW Magazine |
Susan G. Cole |
08-31-2007 |
Fiction
A Less-Than-Flattering Tribute to Jack Kerouacnew
Robertson highlights that gap between fantasy and reality -- and pursues his theme of deluded hero worship -- by showing us a Kerouac who is nasty, racist, anti-Semitic and hopelessly in love with America.
NOW Magazine |
Susan G. Cole |
08-31-2007 |
Fiction
'A Thousand Splendid Suns': A Problematic Epicnew
By the time you've brought your emotions under control, you'll realize that this book amounts to an elaborate apology for American military intervention in Afghanistan and, by extension, Canada's as well.
NOW Magazine |
Susan G. Cole |
08-24-2007 |
Fiction
'Boomsday' Bustnew
Buckley can be really funny, and there are a few laugh-out-loud moments here, but he has a habit of stating the obvious.
NOW Magazine |
Susan G. Cole |
06-29-2007 |
Fiction
'Brother Dumb': Tender, Reflective, Subtlenew
Gilbert's new book defies expectations.
NOW Magazine |
Susan G. Cole |
06-25-2007 |
Fiction
