Alison Pick will read from her novel Far to Go at the Charles W. Stockey Centre on Wednesday 21 September at 7:30 pm

Alison Pick will read from her novel Far to Go at the Charles W. Stockey Centre on Wednesday 21 September at 7:30 pm

It was almost exactly a year ago that I read Alison Pick’s most recent novel, Far to Go. I thought it one of the best books published last fall. I immediately contacted the author to do a reading in Parry Sound, and now the time has come. Far to Go was nominated for the prestigious Man Booker Prize and was the winner of the Canadian Jewish Book Award.

We know before we begin to read that the parents will be murdered in Auschwitz. The novel opens in the Sudetenland, it is 1938. We will discover what happened to the family at the centre of this novel - Mr. and Mrs. Bauer, their son, Pepik, and his nanny, Marta in the days leading up to the Second World War.

We learn about the Kindertransport and the children who were evacuated, during the Second World War, to the British Isles. A great many of these children never saw their parents, grandparents and other family members again.

For generations the Jews of the Sudetenland and Czechoslovakia had lived in peace. They were assimilated, integrated into cities and villages – some were factory owners, equal members of society. Many were educated and sophisticated – they lived a good life – they fought for their country during the First World War. But, as Hitler rose to power and began his assault on Europe life changed in the Sudetenland. Some Jews chose to leave for countries where their lives were not restricted – but most could not believe that things would continue to worsen, they stayed, thinking that this madness would pass. We know, of course, that the madness did not pass – it escalated - and changed the lives of all Jews, everywhere in the world, forever.

What I didn’t know before reading this novel was Alison Pick’s personal history and how it relates to her novel. Her own grandparents were able to leave Czechoslovakia, and after traveling for three years from one country to the next, they arrived in Canada in 1941. They left Europe and the war behind them – and with it, their religion. They began a new life, integrating themselves and their children into a Christian world. Alison Pick’s father did discover the truth about his grandparents and their past, but it was not until after his mother’s death that he felt free to do more research about his Jewish roots. Alison’s personal story about how she has been affected by her heritage is one that will make your skin tingle.

Far to Go is the very best sort of historical fiction. It is a story based on real historical events, the lives of the characters lives have some basis in reality, and the melding of fact and fiction, a bit from one life, a bit from another is seamless and believable. It is all put together by a masterful and lyrical writer. The result is a brilliantly written, beautifully paced novel, by a writer who knows how to hold the readers attention – and heart.

Don’t miss the opportunity to hear Alison Pick read from Far to Go, and to learn more about the story behind this extraordinary novel.

Joan Thomas 18 May at the Charles W. Stockey Centre

Joan Thomas 18 May at the Charles W. Stockey Centre

Joan Thomas continues the 2011 Reading Series with a reading from her most recent novel, Curiosity, at the Charles W. Stockey Centre on Wednesday 18 May at 7:30 pm.

It has been more than 150 years since the publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. More than forty years earlier, in 1811, Miss Mary Anning, at only twelve years of age, discovered the first Ichthyosaurus skeleton to be correctly identified, in the fossil beds along the shore of Lyme Regis.

Mary grew up in poverty, several siblings died, as did her father at a young age. Mary, who polished the fossils she found and sold as “curiosities” to the tourists and fossil collectors who frequented the seaside town of Lyme Regis, was supporting the family at the age of twelve.

Mary was barely literate, but she was determined to learn as much about fossils as she could. She had a curious mind; an eccentric who cared little for propriety or the social restrictions of the time,  she was as much a “curiosity” as her fossils.

Although Mary Anning never entered the rooms of the Geographical Society of London, the skeletons that she had discovered caused a sensation, raising questions in scientific and religious circles.

The story of the life and work of Mary Anning is a compelling one and Joan Thomas has written a wonderful novel.

An earlier novel by Joan Thomas is also well worth a read. Reading by Lightning won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for best first book in Canada and the Caribbean in 2009.

This novel is set on the Canadian Prairies in the 1930’s, where Lily Piper grows up in a small world in a big landscape. While still a girl she leaves the Prairies for a time, to return as a young woman.

Lily’s escape from the confines of the farm and her family becomes a time of great awakening. Lily’s parents were silent serious people – god-fearing. Living in England with relatives - cousins, an aunt and uncle and grandmother who know how to laugh, to enjoy life – is a revelation for Lily.

These are the years immediately before the beginning of World War II and Lily and her family hear the radio broadcast announcing that Great Britain has declared war on Germany. Unable to sail immediately to Canada Lily comes of age in England, before returning to Canada to care for her mother and to manage the farm for the duration of the war.

I listened to an interview with Joan Thomas as she talked about writing this novel. She used her own family stories for the bones of the story. First time novelists are always told, “write what you know” and Joan Thomas says she “put it all in a pot and stirred it up”. She did a perfect job, taking the seeds of family stories, and wrote a very excellent first novel.

Joan Thomas is traveling to us from Winnipeg for this reading – don’t miss it!

Get Growing – an Everyday Guide to High-Impact, Low-Fuss Gardens by Frankie Flowers

Frankie Flowers – at the Stockey Centre

Frankie Flowers – he’s a busy guy – on CityLine television talking about gardening and making appearances to promote his new book Get Growing – an Everyday Guide to High-Impact, Low-Fuss Gardens.

I have to admit that I am not a gardener – we get out and clean things up in the spring, then we open the cottage and the town garden has to fend for itself for the summer. So, low-fuss is just my speed.

Frankie tells us what’s new and exciting, and advises us to always think about what works our own particular garden when choosing plants. Now, I know about Pantone colours and their trends – and that the Pantone colour for 2011 – the hot new colour you will see in home décor, and fashion this year - is Honeysuckle. What I had not considered is that it will also be the colour featured in flower gardens in 2011. Lots of pink, pink and more pink.

I also found out, watching Frankie Flowers on CityLine, is that the Perennial Plant Association – which I had no idea even existed – has chosen a plant called the Arkansas Blue Star (Amsonia hubrichtii) as their 2011 Plant of the Year. It is hardy from zone 4 – 9 – so it will grow here – tolerant of sun and shade – drought resistant - sounds too good to be true and perfect for your low-fuss garden.

I also learned that the tomato plant – cherry tomato – to be precise the Lizzano cherry tomato, is the All American selections top plant for 2011. You can easily grow it in your own garden for right off the plant snacks. There is a concern these days about controlling our food sources – growing your own is the ultimate solution.

I laughed when I read Frankie Flowers New Year’s gardening resolutions – the first being “I will create a gardening budget and stick to it. Need I say more?” and the second, “And I will not impulse buy no matter how bold and beautiful that new variety, If it doesn¹t fit my garden or my budget I will not purchase it.”

Now I don’t know any gardener who could stick to those resolutions – I’m not even a gardener and I always buy plants I don’t need and can’t afford each spring when I am just so desperate to see some colour in the garden.

Get Growing is the perfect book for any gardener. If you are mostly what I’d call myself, an armchair gardener, you’ll love the photographs detailing everything from garden preparation, to bugs and the damage they do, to all sorts of plants that Frankie Flowers recommends for all sorts of gardens. If you are a real gardener – probably desperate right now for the days when you can finally get out there and plant things, then this book might help to pass the time, and give you some new ideas for your garden.

One thing is for sure, this is a guy with a lot of enthusiasm, and knowledge that he is more than willing to share with others – and he’ll be right here in Parry Sound at the Charles W. Stockey Centre on  Friday 15 April, at 7:30 pm.

After the Falls - Catherine Gildiner

After the Falls by Catherine Gildiner

Coming of Age in the Sixties – and living to tell the tale

Two accomplished Canadian writers, Judy Fong Bates and Catherine Gildiner will read from their work on Wednesday 19 May at the Charles W. Stockey Centre, at 7:30pm.

Last week I wrote about The Year of Finding Memory by Judy Fong Bates, this week it is Catherine Gildiner and her most recent memoir After The Falls.

Catherine Gildiner came to the attention of readers in 1999 with the publication of her first book Too Close to the Falls. This memoir became an instant best seller and was read by book clubs across the country – most exclaiming “it can’t possibly be true but it is a great read”. True or not – we could call it “creative” non-fiction – it is a fascinating book of a girl growing up in Lewiston, New York in the mist of Niagara Falls. We follow Cathy McClure from her days working in her father’s pharmacy at the age of four, through Catholic girls school, to a move to Buffalo where it is thought there might be a more suitable academic environment for the precocious Cathy. The first time I read this book I saw humour in the outlandish tales of this girl’s life – this time I felt a sadness for this child and young girl who never quite fit in to the world in which she lived. As she says, in the 50’s she was called “energetic” and her parents were advised “to keep her busy”, today she’d be labeled hyperactive and medicated.

After waiting 10 years to find out what happened next … we have After the Falls, sub-titled Coming of Age in the Sixties. We now follow Cathy through her high school and university years. Years of turmoil for the coming of age of her generation – the 60’s – Civil Rights protests and the Vietnam War – the Kennedy assassination.

We see Cathy leaving home – a home eccentric in the extreme but sheltered at the same time. Cathy was a child who often behaved as an adult – but in many ways she was not as mature or sophisticated as other girls her age. Leaving home for university was an education not only in the academics, but in how to live in the world of “normal people”. The racism at Ohio University came as a shock and Cathy became very active in the Civil Rights movement. There is the experience of the first serious boyfriend and the choices that must be made about drinking, drugs and sex. There is the discovery of finding a comfortable place in the world.

We also read about the experience of being the only child of aging parents. Cathy had always been the member of the family most out in the world – her mother was as reclusive as was possible, leaving her daughter to make many decisions far exceeding what would be considered usual for her age.

We leave the family as Cathy’s father, after a long illness, dies – with Cathy being the person who was given the responsibility to advise the hospital to withdraw life support.

After the Falls is a fascinating glimpse into one young woman’s life, coming of age in the turbulent years of the 1960’s, written with candor and compassion.

The Intimacy of Memoir - Judy Fong Bates

The Intimacy of Memoir

Author Judy Fong Bates will be reading from her most recent book, The Year of Finding Memory, at the Charles W. Stockey Centre on Wednesday 19 May at 7:30 pm.

Judy’s earlier books were works of very fine literary fiction. This new book is a memoir, as Judy delves into her past and visits the home of her birth in an attempt to discover the history of the lives of her parents.

We immediately learn that Judy’s father, Fong Wah Yent, committed suicide in 1972, when Judy was 22 years old. The shame of that act has never left her. Judy and I have discussed suicide. She knew that my oldest son committed suicide in 1997. I met Judy a few years later and found it very easy to talk with her about my life. She did not, however, tell me about her father’s death until last fall – she wanted me to be forewarned that it would be revealed in this memoir. When my son died we chose to be very open about his death – to us it was not a “shame” but simply a huge tragedy for our family. For many surviving family members the burden of a death by suicide is life long – as it has been for Judy Fong Bates.

This memoir, though, is far more than the story of the death of Fong Wah Yent. It is the story of his immigration to Canada, his many trips back and forth to his home in China, and the lives of an extended family in Canada and China. It is a riveting tale, and absolutely fascinating to read.

Judy was born in China in 1949 and came to Canada with her mother, Fong Yet Lan, her father’s second wife, in 1952. A half-sister from her mother’s first marriage followed a few years later. There were other half-siblings from Fong Wah Yent’s first marriage, some who also came to Canada, but being many years older than Judy, they did not live with the family. Judy, as the youngest child of older parents, was effectively raised as an only child. The family lived in poverty in a small town in Ontario – the only Chinese family. For Fong Yet Lan it was an isolated existence. She never learned to speak English and became a very bitter woman. Judy listened to arguments and words of hate between her parents at home, and did all she could to be like all of the other little girls at school. She grew up speaking the dialect of her parents at home and un-accented English at school. She went on to University, a teaching career, and a career as an author – all the while the dutiful daughter.

Some years after the death of their parents, a half-brother suggested a trip to China to see the relatives still living there – most of whom Judy had never met. Judy and her husband Michael were excited to be included.

Judy Fong Bates is a beautiful – small – Chinese woman. She jokes that she is the only woman in her family who has gone grey – all of the others have jet black hair. Michael Bates is well over six feet tall, a trim and handsome man – a Canadian of Anglo-Saxon descent, a lo fon to the Chinese. In China, Judy could perhaps have blended in if she’d left all her clothes at home and worn the pajama-like outfits of her relatives, but there was not disguising Michael.

Their voyage of discovery, of both the land and the family that Judy had never known, was literally the journey of a lifetime. Listening to family members who knew her parents as young people gave Judy a confusing picture of people she could hardly believe existed - who became the sad and bitter people who were her parents. Children love their parents no matter what – and we struggle as adults to come to terms with that fact if we have grown up in a home full of turmoil. We are determined to be better parents to our own children, and hope that our children will not carry the burden of parental strife into another generation. As Judy writes about her own childhood, she is writing with the perspective of a mature adult. It is both absorbing and enlightening.

There is so much more to this book than Judy’s contemplation of her past and the past of her parents. Along with the family lies and secrets, and the search for understanding of a generation divided between the country of their birth, and the family left behind, and the country they chose to make a life in, and the child raised here. There are fascinating tales of Chinese custom and superstition, tales of lives lived during the Japanese Invasion of China, and under the Communist regime, and during the Cultural Revolution. There is exploration of remote country villages, and a second trip to China by Judy and Michael without a bus full of relatives – when even more secrets are revealed.

There is more than I can describe. It is a book that took a lot of courage to write and is one that will find anyone, of any culture, thinking not only of the intimate family history of Judy Fong Bates, but of their own.