I am only 14, but as I read this story of danger and heroism I am touched. This detailed book of the Canadian Forces and one mans life as a sergeant is amazing. It has inspired me to join the Forces when I'm older. It is a book that every student should be required to read. It is a vivid story full of adventures. I read and found it great. I was looking for a book on the Canandian Army in the local library and found this book it looked very interesting so I checked it out. It's the best book I've read in my life!

In Davis' story, we finally come to see the fine calibre of men Canadian politicians have ruthlessly shamed with old "blame the many for the few bad apples." At last, the conditions our soldiers face on peacekeeping missions are revealed. Perhaps if more who have served in the Canadian Armed Forces would step forward and tell their stories, we would see how proud we can be of our Canadian peacekeepers, over and over again. Davis proves how valuable he is as a soldier along with all the Airborne he served with. He also demonstrates how callous the Canadian government is in its treatment of the armed forces that it sends on peacekeeping missions worldwide. What's more, Davis tells his story in his own voice, and that's also what makes his tale so mesmerizing.

I read this book and I could not put it down! As an ex- canadian forces member everything he said is true and factual. I only hope there are more books like this cause if there are I'm sold! Bravo Zulu Davis!!!!

This is a fascinating science fiction anthology that centers on a small bookstore, Finders, as if that place is the vortex of the universe. Each story is well written and connects back to the bookstore, some more so than others. Three tales are new though if readers are like this reviewer they were unaware that the author had written any short stories so all the tales are new. As with his novels, Robert Charles Wilson has written an exciting book that showcase why this writer is one of the centers of the genre as short science fiction is rarely as good.

Harriet Klausner

This book is more horror than science fiction. It's very strange, very dark, and very disturbing. I can't call any of the stories "optimistic." I can call them nightmares that have made their way into print. I have never read anything like this. The
author is very imaginative. But I wonder, what kind of a mind can write stories like this?

Robert Charles Wilson's fictions are always a great pleasure to read: populated by heartbroken, sometimes courageous, sometimes tragic characters caught in the galactic spinning wheels not of their design, depicted in elegant, spare and caustically witty prose, and addressing heavy metaphysical questions without losing sight of human-scale sufferings and losses. I sort of regard him as Graham Greene of contemporary science fiction, a healthy antidote to all the postmodern ironies and self-congratulatory razzle-dazzle that infect fictions of every genre these days. His first collection of short stories is, if anything, sparer and tougher than his epic novels like MYSTERIUM or DARWINA. Without employing unnecessary pyrotechnics (although he does kill off all life on earth in "Infinity Divided by Infinity") or dangling his attitude in front of our noses, Wilson draws us into the realm of horrors and wonders both cosmic (like Lovecraft minus the baroque intimations of "unspeakable") and personal. Potentially dreary subjects like alien abduction ("The Observer") and mineral-based life form ("Pearl Baby") are reworked into strange and unexpected touching meditations on the nature of mystery and the human ambivalence toward it. On the other hand, the collection's intimate scope might turn off fans of BIOS and DARWINIA, the stories being firmly rooted in the physical and emotional geography of Toronto. Some may also feel that science is not "hard" enough; others may object to the author's somewhat strenuous effort to construct a "shared world" around the stories that seem to have very little in common. I for one am quite satisfied, and am eagerly looking forward to his second collection.

I don't know why I expected to read about the way of life in small Newfoundland communities, but I certainly didn't expect to read about the nationalist dreams of the people of the Avalon peninsula. This may be a good topic for a book, actually, but it would have to be better organized and more clear in its purpose than this aimless memoir. The main problem is that the author constantly laments Newfoundland's loss of independance, but never explains how or why Newfoundlanders would be better off as an independant country, or, failing that, why we should care.

An elegy for a country, a place, and a family - which can describe much of Maritime Canadian writing, but Johnston is such a gifted writer this one really stands out. Read it for the description of the horse leading the way home in blinding snow, read it for story of blacksmithing, just read it. And if you like this, you'll love "the Danger Tree" by David MacFalane - a different part of Newfoundland, a different family, another incredible writer.

Just wanted you to know that your review of this book has a factual inaccuracy.

The Avalon Peninsula ISN'T the most remote part of Newfoundland.Quite the opposite - its by far the most developed, densely populated part of the entire province. St. John's is on Avalon, as are most of the province's towns. Your reviewer was thinking of the Great Northern Peninsula (where Shipping News takes place) - although the most remote part of the province is certainly Northern Labrador.

This novel didn't work well for me. I agree with the other reviewer's praise for Thomas King's great way with language and description. We do indeed get the picture painted of the towns of Truth and Bright Water. The incidents in the story such as the buffalo run where tourists shoot buffalo with paint pellet guns on motorcycles are interesting. I failed to connect with this book because of the lack of resolution in the plot. Tecumseh's mother keeps disappearing for days on end, mysteriously and without explanation. At the end of the book, the only explanation I could come up with was that she was in play rehearsals for Snow White. The irony of Snow White as play produced by Indians is wonderful, but what play rehearsal lasts days; and what mother wouldn't tell her son where she's going? Throughout the novel, we wonder whether Tecumseh's mother and father will reunite. At the conclusion of the novel, this relationship is as fuzzy as it was during the novel; so why did King repeatedly bring it up? We also wonder at the mystery of Aunt Cassie and the suitcase with baby clothes. Is she pregnant? At the end, she burns the clothes and that's all we know about that. Cousin Lum is kicked out of his house by his abusive father Franklin. Neither his aunt nor uncle go and help the boy. They leave him to live under a bridge with wild dogs. Like King, I'm also a Native American hybrid; and I seek out good Native American literature like Eden Robinson's first novel Monkey Beach. This book has great characters, the incidents are interesting, but the plot is like a train that goes nowhere. Was that the point?

Similar to what 2 other reviewers mentioned, I found this book to be nice on landscape description but was puzzled that almost none of the key threads running through this story (e.g., abusive parent, emotional wounds from the past, unwanted pregnancy) were ever fleshed out or came to any conclusion. I don't require that a book ends with a nice tidy ending but these themes were so central to the characters and place that it would have been nice to see them through. But overall I did enjoy the book, just might not recommend it strongly.

Pulling the old book off the shelf, I remember the faint memory of when this bookI was read to me. Reading it again refreshes my memory of the times I sat on the bed, listening to words strung together like beads on a string. They make up a story of a boy not so long ago and far away.

The intriguing book had me crouched together, rocking back and forth, hungry for every word which told lies, theories and memories. What does she mean? Why did he say that? Why does he act that way? Thoughts racing through my mind as I was read Truth and Bright Water.

I read it again to write this review. I've decided to mention a few interesting aspects of the novel that made it worthwhile in my opinion.

It happens every so often that the boy telling the story will have a flashback which may not always be important to the book but helps reveal things about the people around Tecumseh, the main character who is telling the story. Some of his memories include his mother's reactions of when his father moved to Truth, the stories his grandmother told of his mother and Auntie Cassie, and the day the old church got sold to Monroe Swimmer. Reading Tecumseh's memories was like thinking you took a wrong turn only to realize you were heading in the right direction the whole time. It wasn't a lost feeling or a feeling of isolation but rather Tecumseh's childhood told from an innocent point of view. It gave the book a human touch.

In reading this novel, you would discover soon that whenever two people are having a conversation, they are really having two or three conversations at the same time. For example:
"Now that school's out," my mother says, "I guess you'll be looking for something to do."
"What's for breakfast?"
"The railroad might be hiring this summer," says my mother.
"Sausage?"
"You should check with Wally Preston over at the job gate."
"Eggs would be okay."
"Cereal's in the cupboard," she says.
"French toast?"
"Spoon's in the drawer."
-pg.17

One could argue that there are psychological reasons for this, but I'm not going to go down that road.

In numerous chapters, two things are happening at the same time. One example of this situation is when you read Tecumseh's thoughts about a private matter, and then there are the conversations that he has with the person beside him. He'll jump back to his thoughts without warning but never fails to get interrupted. It's really not unusual because I'm sure it happens to the average person once a day. It's only unusual to have it written on paper.

This book is unique because it doesn't stay on track. The adventures are definitely something that you would not experience out here in the urban centers. At the same time, Truth and Bright Water is different from something that would take place in the Hundred Acre Wood or Sherwood Forest. The experiences of Tecumseh are modern with difficult solutions and the journey who's path is grey instead of black and white. This novel leaves a different sort of flavour in your mouth. I would definitely not recommend this novel to the happy-go-lucky person who can't handle all the difficulties in the world. There is just too much bitterness. So why would you read this book? It's bittersweet. Prickly on the outside and soft on the inside. I found it really fascinating this boy who wants to care so much for the people around him but everyone thinks he doesn't understand their situation. Tecumseh's narration proves that he understands more than anyone really thinks. So if you are the rebel (or remember your rebel days), I would think that you would find this novel quite the eye-opener. If you are one of those who like to read till your brain has gone to mush, this is one book you would enjoy as well. If you are one of those who think you have too many problems and don't need to think about more, this book is not for you. It's bittersweet and no symphony of grace.

Okay, so the comparison to Mann's work is a bit far fetched, but this book is a Jungian exploration of our main character's consciousness. Thanks to the convention of having Davey recount his story to his shrink, we feel a bit detached and disoriented. There is an element of almost-mysticism and we trace all the paths of Davey's mind and experiences. How did this famous criminal lawyer become such an incorrigible drunk and why does he check himself into Zurich for analysis? Unfortunately I read Fifth Business 4 years ago, so I can't remember any of the story line or comment on the relation of this book to the first. It seems to me though that this book does not depend on the first book in the series. I plan to read World of Wonders next, so I'll have more to say about the relation.

Back to this book -- it's extremely engrossing with penetrating descriptions of all the characters in Davey's life and a curiously detached view of his life. I couldn't put it down, even at the end when the mystical element almost gets out of hand and he literally climbs the mountain and crawls through a primal cave. Even if you don't buy all the Jungian stuff, Davies is such a good and interesting writer that most should enjoy the experience. As a social commentator, he reminds me of Thomas Wolfe. A gripping read.

The life of the protagonist--whom we previously knew just an appendage to his father's colossal persona in Fifth Business--is analyzed. The story has many sockets within sockets and abundant psychological theory. Robertson Davies is so artful sn author that the information on archetypes never feels as though it came out of an encyclopedia. Rather, it is essential to the character's trajectory. Highly recommended. Makes me proud to be a Canadian!

The story is everything with Davies books. He captured me with the tale of David Staunton, who is only a minor character in Fifth Business.

As with Dunstan Ramsay, the narrator of the first book of the Deptford Trilogy, David Staunton is very much a character who needs to be brought back into balance from an extreme psyche. The book explores his eccentric character through Jungian psychology. Since Davies daugther is a Jungian psychologist, he no doubt used her as a resource in compiling the profile of Staunton.

I really find with Davies books, I find out more about myself, and new ways to view myself, through the characters that he writes about. Perhaps that is why I enjoy them so much.

I am consistently impressed with the fiction (mostly) contained in the New Canadian Library series, published by McLelland & Stewart. Gabriele Roy's 1945 novel The Tin Flute is certainly no exception. A story of late depression-era Montreal, Tin Flute is almost a laboratory-like setting of individuals beset by grinding poverty, and how they respond. Very much a novel of characters, Roy continually asks the reader whether, as the novel's eventual hero, Emmanuel, muses after volunteering for the army after Hitler's invasion of Poland, "a guy can help himself sometimes by helping other people," or whether the immediate retort of his comrade, "a guy has his work cut out these days looking after himself", is more true. Florentine, the desperately poor waitress who forms the center of Roy's plot, longs for (and eventually becomes impregnated by) the rake Jean, while Emmanuel more chastely pines for her. Roy gives the perfect one-sentence description of Jean: "He could be kind if his kindness caused him no problems." Florentine muses about herself (and I believe Roy asks the reader): "Sweetness brought you nowhere. That's what had ruined them all." Roy's ending to the novel is wonderfully ambiguous, and leaves open the questions of goodness, opportunism, and purpose she raises throughout.

Shortly after it was published, The Tin Flute surprised Canadian readers and was soon widely read and enjoyed internationally. Its author, Gabrielle Roy, reached out to an audience with eloquent, flowing prose, by describing the very depth of the human condition through the Lacasse family.

Briefly: the main character of the novel is the oldest Lacasse child, Florentine. Her poor family, residing in the slums of Saint Henri, Montreal, rely heavily on the wages she brings in as a waitress. Rose-Anna, her mother, struggles to care for her growing family and struggle through tragedy, while the father, Azarius, is unable to maintain a job. Florentine's life is turned upside down when she meets a handsome man named Jean, an affair that is doomed from the beginning. A crushed Florentine turns to Jean's friend, Emmanuel, for his love, although she cannot return it, as she is still torn over her feelings for Jean. In the original French, it was entitled, "Bonheure d'occasion" which cannot be perfectly translated. However, the English title of "The Tin Flute" is very suitable and expresses the message of the novel from the smallest Lacasse child, Daniel -- his only great desire was to have a shiny tin flute, a symbol of all that he would never be able to call his own, in a poverty-stricken existence.

With this groundwork, Roy paints a convincing and enthralling portrait of an impoverished family, troubled love, and mixed ideals in the midst of World War II. It is a novel well worth reading and will leave you with new insight into the human condition and the brutality of poverty. Although some phrases are lost in the translation to English from the original French, the translation is highly successful in being as nearly as effective as the original.

For related themes (although from very different perspectives & times) you may also wish to explore Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt, and Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens.

If only more books were written like this! The Tin Flute is the poignant story of a young girl growing up in poverty in the slums of Montreal. It is the 1940's, war is brooding. And we are introduced to a French Canadian family faced with unemployment, too many children, and despair. We suffer as the mother, pregnant again, searches on foot for affordable housing. Her daughter works at the five-and-dime and is inlove with a man who holds contempt for her class and social background.
I have read this story three times. It is without a doubt, one the greatest books ever written of its genre. If you enjoyed "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" or "Angela's Ashes" you will no doubt love this story equally well. It is unforgettable.

I'm ten years old and in grade five I picked this book out to read.What is so fun about reading very short story's with lots of despriotion?

There's some weird and wonderful stuff in these short stories, and that's what makes them worth reading. This is classic Wynne-Jones, one of the best authors I know of.

This book was quite possibly the best book I have ever owned. In fact, I liked it soo much that I lent it to all of my friends so that they could ead it. Most of them disliked it, but then one of them liked it so much that they stole it. (We're not friends anymore) But, that is all irrelevant. The point is, I am now scouring the Earth for another copy of this book, because I need to own it.

The stories are all inane and pointless, but they remind you of what is was like when you were a child, back when the biggest worry was what kind of sandwich you had in your lunch. This book strikes a nostalgic note in me, and I chuckle every time I read the stories. Childhood was fun, and happy.

I thought this book was a little strange--not necessarily in how it was written, but that the lives of the women in this book seem so SILENT. Margaret & Davis don't talk to each other, Hilda goes through live pushing everyone away, and not saying the things that are important, Danielle & Osman drift along until Danielle gets sick, and then no one talks about her being sick. Sophie has to struggle through live without a mother and trying to bring her father back to life.

It's depressing because just when you think life is turning around for the characters, someone dies. Some of the deaths are romanticized, but it doesn't quite erase the fact that the person is dead.

THe writing on the book jacket sounded interesting--maybe they were trying to relate the title to the novel itself. I can understand why some people are drawn to stay in one place and others aren't, but that really only affects the first part of the book. Davis stays in Regina because he falls in love with Margaret, Hilda moves to Toronto to escape after her parents' death, Danielle is forced by her mom to move to Paris to protect her from men, and Sophie is forced to move to New York with her family to escape memories of her mom.

The book is good, and if you want something quick to read, then maybe this is it, but you probably got most of the plot from this review. It's a good book, just extremely dry.

At first this book reminded me of Carol Shields' "The Stone Diaries". The first section, the story of Davis and Margaret was written in a spare, even cold fashion. I never got a real feeling for their relationship. To me, it was detached and not terribly involving. The book gained emotional momentum as it continued, to the point where the last section was like a full-blown "women's weepie", the sort of book that has gold-embossed covers and is a blockbuster family saga.

I like this book, but wouldn't place it in my canon of 'great books' because I don't think it had anything particularly profound or even original to say. Its examination of grief in the final section, and the relationship between parent and children is territory familiar to readers of Anita Shreve's 'The Pilot's Wife'. Why does everyone die so young? This is one of those books where the 'tragedies' are signalled right from the beginning, and where if happiness and contentment is a character's lot, then it will be snatched away very soon via death.

I also do not think that the cover blurb asserting it has so much to say about migration is true. Migration in this book is wholly linked with a personal need to place distance between oneself as an emerging adult and one's parents, or the milieu of one's parent/s. That is but one motivation for migration, and certainly debatable whether it is a majority motivation. Economic and political circumstances are never a factor, whereas I would suggest they are in 'real life'.

This book is unchallenging and undemanding, a 'good read' for a quiet weekend or a plane journey (unless you are prone to tears when characters die and don't want to cry in public!).

Lost Geography is a story about the search for each character's place in the world. Each character is uprooted from the familiar and must find a place that 'fits' in a new and strange landscape in which they are in many ways an outsider. And as they find a place in which they 'fit', they find that each choice closes off channels of possibility, of adventure, and that in settling into their place, they must face up to the joy and pain of real (though sometimes mundane) life. These common threads of exploration, adaptation, choice, these tie four very different generations together. Margaret and Davis find on their wedding night that they really do fit. Hilda finds Armand, then devotes herself to her daughter. Danielle is both the light and the anchor for Osman's roving soul. And Death is, inevitably, part of life. In this story the separation of children from their parents severs them from familiar modes of understanding, from their history, and this forces them, with varying degrees of success, to forge new ways of understanding their place in the world.

I found the last scene quite moving. Osman's carpets, thick with dust from their previous owners, are a piece of history that he cannot let go of, just as he cannot let go of his memories of Danielle. Lost Geography is an easy read, but I believe the 'morals' may be deeper than it seems at first glance. Osman's story as he tells it to his children during Danielle's illness may be much like Bacon's intention for her novel. Sasha and Sophie are disappointed with the story because they did not expect such an abrupt ending. "What's the moral?" they ask. And avoiding cliche, Bacon also seems to answer casually, "I don't know," leaving the pondering to the reader.

Bacon has a talent for carving out unique characters in simple, spare terms. With love stories that resonate with deep romance, subtle shades of understanding, sharp observations about people's intentions, Lost Geography is a very moving account of four generations of 'migrants', in the literal and metaphorical sense of the word.

The first few chapters of this book are flat-out brilliant, and often laugh out loud hilarious. Ferguson lists all the classic myths Canadians tell themselves, often with hilarious, Dave Barry-esque exaggeration (the bit about terrorists storming the bus and offering the Canadians tea and crumpets had me near tears with laugher).

During the first few chapters of the book you'll find yourself nodding a lot, repeatedly saying "that's so true" in your head. Ferguson gets off to a great start, but then sadly he begins to lapse into the very same cliched "What it means to be Canadian" dribble that he supposedly detests so much. I didn't really care, or learn anything from his long rambling stories about Quebec, or student-exchange programs, or old friends of his.

By the end of "Why I hate Canadians" I felt like I was reading an entirely different book. The humor had slowly disappeared, and the traditional Canadian self-gratifying sentimentality had increased. In fact, the very last sentences of the book seem to blatantly contradict everything he says in the first few chapters.

This book is well-written, and contains many excellent points and debate topics. But Ferguson lost me when he went to great lengths to praise Canadians and their values, which, quite frankly, was not exactly what I wanted from a book with the phrase "I hate Canadians" in the title.

Will Ferguson had a good idea, attack the unassailable image Canadians have of themselves. It takes a traveled ex pat to see that Canadians swallow a lot of their own propaganda without applying a critical eye, or at least the same critical eye they apply to Americans who stumble north. Ask an American, German, or Japanese why their country is the greatest nation on earth and they'll make references to contributions to industry/science/history/culture. Ask a Canadian and he'll point to a UN survey. Or worse, he'll phrase it in the form of "we're great because we're not like the USA in these ways..." It's a little sad and telling that the biggest example of Canadian patriotism in the last 20 years is the "I Am Canadian" beer commercial, which itself is little more than an inventory of how Canadians are different from Americans.

There's probably a very good Globe & Mail Fifth Column piece hiding in this book. As a book, however, it's over long. Ferguson pads it with utterly boring personal anecdotes that, at best, make him seem like he spent much of his youth whining to people ("If they had just all done it my way, that play would have been a success!"). His anecdote about having a goatee and a woman thinking he was a Barenaked Lady is a somewhat painful retelling of the Abbott & Costello "Who's on First?" shtick. His humor tends to be sophomoric, awkward, and unoriginal. The book could have benefited from an editor willing to force Ferguson to tighten up his work. You begin to wonder why some chapters are even in this book. What do we care about Sudbury other than it gives Ferguson a chance to make some inside jokes? *Shrug* His chapter about the beaver leaves you wondering how it works into his thesis about Canadians.

It's not all bad, of course. Ferguson does provide some rare wisdom and insight. I enjoyed how he made the connection between Pearson's peace keeping efforts and Canada's quest for a new Canadian flag. His sub thesis that Canada was founded by three defeated people (French, Indians, and the patient Empire Loyalists) gives one pause for thought.

Similar to how people used to describe Ed Broadbent as the right politician belonging to the wrong party, Why I Hate Canadians is the right book, just the wrong author.

I have learned more about Canada from reading Will Ferguson's books than I ever did in school. School was boring.....Ferguson is hilarious! "Bastards and Boneheads" taught me Canadian history. "Why I Hate Canadians" has given me even more reason to be proud to be Canadian. I have been living in the United States for the past four years.....after reading this book, I want to move back home and attend Canada Day celebrations for the first time. Thank you Will!

This book is informative about this breed, especially since it is the only book available on the Inuit dog. Lots of good info on the history of the breed is included. I was very disappointed that the author was overly opinionated about who should own one of these dogs. For a book that should be singing the praises of the breed, she spent too much time discouraging the reader from ever owning one. Nonetheless, if you are interested in this breed, it is the only place to get much information.

This immensely informative narrative is beautifully written, full of fascinating facts and unique anecdotes of personal experience as well as astute observations. The author presents a "caring candor" when presenting this breed which should secure it from mismanagement and misplacement in unsuitable homes and situations. Many photos, remote and recent. A true Guardian of the Canadian Inuit Canine!

The previous reviews for this title refer to the first edition. I found that the shortcomings with the non-captioned illustrations and photos have been corrected in the 2nd edition and the number of photos has been increased considerably. The «fat opinions» about who should own this breed remain but they are there for a reason. The Inuit Sled Dog International, the breed association co-founded by the author, has on more than one occasion had to rescue dogs from people who were led to believe that Inuit Dogs make great suburban family pets. Canadian Inuit Dogs are magnificent animals - loyal, hardworking and intelligent - but they are sled dogs and pack orientated. The author has produced the only book that details the history, physical attributes, temperament and management of this unique breed. A worthwhile read for anyone remotely interested in dogs, in cultural history, polar exploration or animal nutrition.