Total Eclipse of the Heart

Review by Melanie Cutting

In light of last week’s Big Event (the eclipse, of course), this just seemed appropriate. I hope you agree.

The Heart Specialist (2009), a much-acclaimed novel by Claire Holden Rothman, was recommended by a close friend and former nurse who had just finished reading it. She gave it high marks for several reasons: it was penned by a Montrealer, set in Montreal, drawn from the life of a prominent female Montreal physician (Maude Abbott) of that era, and it was a darned good read, to boot. Oh yes, and Bishop’s University medical school plays a small but pivotal role in the plot. How many of you even knew that Bishop’s HAD a medical school?

The story opens in the frigid Quebec winter of 1874, when 4-year-old Agnes Bourret, our protagonist, glimpses her father for the last time. This event sets the stage both for Agnes’s lifelong quest for her missing father, a prominent medical doctor accused of murder, and for her pursuit of a career in medical science, particularly diseases of the heart, a field now known as cardiology. Grief-stricken and pregnant with Laure, her second child, Agnes’ mother does not live much beyond her husband’s disappearance, leaving Agnes and Laure’s upbringing in the hands of their well-to-do grandmother White.

As time goes on, it becomes clear that Agnes is both very bright, and also not very interested in traditionally feminine pastimes. She would rather skin and eviscerate roadkill squirrels and create a museum of “specimens” at her grandmother’s home in the fictional St. Andrews East outside Montreal than flirt with boys and compete with other girls for their attention. On the other hand, her little sister, Laure, is precisely the opposite, both in temperament and appearance. Agnes is dark and rather plain, while Laure is often compared to an angel.   Their ability to appreciate each other, scanty at first, emerges over time, particularly as they both develop into young women. Laure is depicted as a highly neurotic individual whose marriage is unsustainable, and as the story progresses golden girl Laure shows signs of never being able to live on her own.

A third woman, Georgina Skerry, enters the picture as the girls’ governess. She proves herself over time to be the perfect companion for Agnes, since she too is very smart and believes that women are at least as capable as men. As the story moves through the 1880s, Agnes is still dreaming of the day when she can meet her absent father, and follow in his footsteps as a physician. At this time, McGill University does not admit women (or Jews for that matter!), but Agnes is fortunate enough to garner support among several influential Montrealers such as Lord Strathcona, by virtue of her stellar undergraduate academic record at McGill. With their financial help, she is able to approach the Medical school admissions committee at McGill with the full $250,000 tuition, only to be rebuffed as unsuitable. ”Experiments in mixed education have been,” the dean continued, “mixed to say the least. In Toronto, as you probably know, they have led to violence….I cannot, in all conscience, subject McGill to upheaval because of the desires of a single young lady, no matter how clever or talented she happens to be.”

Of course, Agnes does emerge with her medical degree (from Bishop’s!), or that would be the end of our story. She proves to be especially skilled in investigating heart problems, as well as being a tireless curator of medical specimens such as abnormal hearts, and the first part of her career in medicine is distinguished less by medical breakthroughs and more by her skill in assembling and maintaining an extensive collection of such artifacts.

The mystery of her father’s disappearance, and his connection to one of his students, Dr. Howlett, runs throughout the novel, complementing the fascinating story of Agnes’s life and career. And what about a love life? Well, not so much. There is finally only one man, Jakob Hertzlicht, with whom she works closely, and who is even more of an outcast than she ever was.  She develops feelings for him, but that relationship is on-again, off-again for years. The real love story here is between Agnes, her absent Dad, and her passion for the medical profession.

One feature of the book I found especially interesting was that many of the chapter headings contained quotes drawn directly from Dr. Maude Abbott herself, although it is made very clear that this is not a biography. Chapter 5: “Sometimes a very small hole may be accompanied by a very large murmur” (Maude Abbott, Congenital Cardiac Disease). Dr. Abbott is definitely someone with whom I would like to spend more time.

Claire Holden Rothman is a Montreal writer who taught literature at Marianopolis College for many years and headed the advanced fiction workshop at McGill University. She now makes her living translating and adapting scripts for television. She has also written two other well-regarded novels, My October (2014) and Lear’s Shadow (2018).

The Heart Specialist is available from the Lennoxville Library.

NEWS FROM THE LENNOXVILLE LIBRARY

Upcoming Activities

For Adults

April 21 (2 to 4 p.m. at Uplands Cultural & Heritage Centre) Poetry Tea

Readings by Townships Poets, complimentary tea and treats.

For Kids

April 20th (10am-1pm–drop in anytime)

Wool Weaving Workshop

An introduction to weaving for kids and teens using small homemade looms.

April 25th (6:30-8:30pm)

Family Book Club Open Book Chat

Kids and families can come and share what they’ve been reading. Treats and activities.

April 27th (10am-1pm–drop in anytime)

Discover the Library’s New Sensory Kits and make some slime!

Celebrate autism awareness month by discovering our new sensory kits- collections of objects designed to promote calmness and focus available to borrow.

Columba’s Bones

Review by Stephen Sheeran

David Greig’s Columba’s Bones focuses upon a particularly bloody time in the history of the Isle of Iona, a time which saw Viking raids and the consequent martyrdom of scores of monks in the early 9^th Century (ca. 806-825 CE).  

Some historical background: St. Columba or St. Colmcille was one of the three main patron saints of Ireland (See also Patrick & Brigid), and in the 6^th Century was responsible for establishing several abbeys with the aim of promulgating Celtic Christianity amongst the pagan Picts and Anglo-Saxons of the British Isles. One of his most significant achievements was the Abbey on Iona, which served as a learning centre for clerics and repository for religious texts and artifacts. It was here in the scriptorium that work on the Book of Kells was thought to have commenced, though the manuscript was later moved to the Abbey at Kells. Columba died and was interred on Iona, but his remains (relics) were later divided and shared amongst the religious communities in Ireland and Scotland.

Columba’s Abbeys were easily accessible by sea routes, and they were plum targets for Viking raiders since they manifested the irresistible combination of great riches and poor defences.

Which brings us to our story. You would be tempted to class this a simple historical fiction, but it is a decidedly original take on that genre; for the story uses this historical background to stage the far-ranging and whimsical exchanges between the three survivors of a devastating Viking raid.

Greig presents dramatic opening scenes which alternate between the approaching Viking raiding party and the sitting-duck monks in Iona Abbey. Aboaud the long boat, he aging raider Grimur is struggling to keep up with his younger comrades (Buttercock, Bloodnose, Gore Dog, &Co.) in their furious rowing towards the abbey. Yet, even in the midst of his labours he notes that the island appears to be “an imagined place, half in and half out of this world”.

Meanwhile within the abbey, the Viking sail has been sighted. Abbott Blathmac calls an assembly and rallies his fellow clerics with a zealous injunction: “Let your fear fall away, brothers! Do not flinch, but walk towards the killing blade singing! Welcome the knife to your neck, for tonight you dine with Christ!” The reaction is mixed, and generally less than enthusiastic. One young monk, Martin, sensing acute distress in the lower tract, rushes off to the Abbey’s latrines for relief.

The raiders reduce the gate to splinters in no time and proceed with their grim business of killing and pillaging. A key moment comes when Abbott Blathmac has his limbs tethered to four ponies and is enjoined to reveal the location of the reliquary with the bones of St. Columba…or be quartered. Flushed with zeal—or is it the Holy Spirit?—Blathmac declines to speak.

The raid ends.

All the monks have been beheaded. All the other denizens have been either killed or taken as slaves. The Vikings’ last act on the island is to bury Grimur, who has been found insensible in the Abbey smithy; his comrades speculate that he died in the heat of the action. They place him in a shallow grave with his shield over his face and his few possessions beside him, and cover him with earth.

Brother Martin of the loose bowels has chosen very sagely in the midst of the chaos to remain in the latrine…read IN the latrine…rather than exit to face certain death. He finally emerges, and smitten with guilt, starts to pray, and resolves to keep up the work of the Abbey.

Una, the blacksmith’s wife, has also survived. She was able to distract the fierce Grimur from his killing tasks with draughts of a powerful narcotic mead which rendered him so comatose as to be taken for dead.

Brother Martin, in his newfound zeal, prays over Grimur’s grave, and as he utters the words “At the final trumpet blast the dead shall rise…” Grimur’s very much alive hand pushes up through the earth.

These opening scenes are very telling, for they reveal Greig’s substantial dramatic gifts and a an instinct for creating incongruous situations. What starts as a seemingly true-to-life historical tale turns into an almost farcical play on different aspects of barbarity and humanity.

As the novel unfolds, curious dynamics develop between the three characters. Grimur, who was never a very bloodthirsty Viking, finds life on Iona strangely appealing…. He enjoys reconstruction—building things instead of destroying them. And he strikes up a surprisingly passionate intimacy with Una, the blacksmith’s widow. Moreover, he is at once perplexed and intrigued by Brother Martin’s faith, especially those aspects linked to the production of an illuminated Bible (fanfare: The Book of Kells!)… There are constant clashes between the pantheon of Norse gods that Grimur carries in his head, and this putative Christ who seems to be responsible for great beauty and great suffering. Oddly, the two competing belief systems find an unlikely congruence a determination to keep working on the Bible.

All three characters are united in their dread of what will happen when the Vikings return for another raid. And return they do….

Generally Greig impresses by being able to breathe life into these historically remote characters as he imbues them with modern sensibilities and self-awareness. (Think “Larry David does the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles”.)  Moreover, in the ethereal confines of Iona, the exchanges between the characters and their united purpose (to preserve the Book of Kells) seem to probe the very nature and foundation of faith.

If you would like to pick over Columba’s Bones, contact the Library.

NEWS FROM THE LENNOXVILLE LIBRARY

Library News

Author Talk: French Canadian Nationalism in the days of the Dominion

Friday, April 12th, 5pm, at the Library

Free and open to the public

The close of the 19th century saw a strong wind of French Canadian nationalism blow through Quebec, a time when Canada was still identified as a Dominion of the British Empire.

Lennoxville resident and bestselling author Sylvain-Claude Filion will discuss the events that led to the birth of modern modern Quebec nationalism: the Riel affair, the political career of Honoré Mercier

and the abolition of French and Catholic schools in Manitoba in 1890.

These events are the subject of his innovative novel Les jours du Dominion now being published online at lesjoursdudominion.ca

The talk will be in French with simultaneous translation provided.

Library Review – Imagination, Hear Me Roar!

Review by Shanna Bernier

The celebration of childhood imagination, and the concerns about it fading as we age, have been explored in numerous volumes of children’s literature. There is an emotional pang I feel when I think of the dread Wendy feels leaving the nursery in the classic Peter Pan. We have collective empathy for the plight of a boy like Peter, who wishes to remain a boy forever, and never be faced with the pain and responsibilities of growing up.

We are fortunate to make it to adulthood with our imaginations intact, and it is often through our children or grandchildren that we rekindle the limitless wonder of pretend games. Despite my love of storytelling and the magical worlds in books, I admit my resistance to active pretending with my kids. I have come to understand that it isn’t my favourite form of play. I would rather work on an art project with them, or play a game of Scrabble, or go for a hike. Human beings do not outgrow the need to play. Despite the pressures of adulthood, playing is good for our mental health. So when there are moments where I let myself succumb to the silliness and wander into the fairy kingdom with my daughters, I do feel a glimmer of the old magic.

                The Land of Roar, by Jenny McLachlan, illustrated by Ben Mantle, is a modern classic of childhood fantasy. This middle-grade novel provides a contemporary setting for the timeless challenge of reaching the age where something–or someone– insists upon the end of childish things.  

The Land of Roar, introduces us to Arthur and Rose, 11-year-old twins at the end of their summer holiday before the 6^th grade. They are visiting their grandad, and are forced to spend time together cleaning out a dusty attic filled with memories of their past visits. When Arthur and Rose were little, they created a magical world called Roar, accessible through a Narnia-like gateway. Roar was the manifestation of all their wildest ideas, both wonderous and terrifying. Neither of the children have visited Roar for a few years, and the memory of it has faded for both of them. When Arthur finds a hand drawn map of the world, his memory is flooded with all of their past adventures.  The main conflict our protagonists face is their differing perspective on growing up. Rose wants deeply to be accepted by her peers, and to fit into the crowd. She has fallen down the rabbit hole of social media and peer pressure, and has rejected not only her childhood passions for magical adventure, but her own brother in the process. Arthur has held onto his childhood playfulness longer, but he is struggling with the pressure to yield to his sister and their impending new school. Late at night, something draws him back into the attic, and he is convinced that perhaps Roar isn’t as pretend as he once believed.

                After being dismissed by Rose, and confiding in his grandfather, Arthur discovers that Grandad has never let go of childhood magic; he is quick to believe and also to dive right into the ancient folded cot which forms the magical gateway to the land of Roar.  When their grandfather doesn’t come back, and Arthur suspects that their childhood nemesis Crowky is to blame, he too ventures into Roar, followed swiftly by Rose.  When they begin their quest, they find their magical world has fractured. So, the adventure ensues: retrieve their grandfather, repair the rifts in their sibling relationship and restore cohesion to Roar and its inhabitants.

This book manages to be at once an overt honouring of other magical worlds, such as Narnia and Neverland, while displaying original and moving storytelling in its own right.  The supporting characters, like Win the Wizard-Ninja, and Stella the leader of the lost girls, are funny and complex.  This book portrays sibling relationships, during the particularly challenging phase of pre-teen turbulence, honestly. Rose and Arthur struggle with getting along, but when faced with danger and crisis, they are willing to risk everything to be there for each other.  The Land of Roar is the first book in a trilogy, which explains some of the loose ends left dangling at the end of the book. Our heroes remember how to believe in magic—and in themselves— but we finish the book excited to return to Roar and see what will happen next.

This book was our most recent family book club selection, which we discussed last week at the community centre with great enthusiasm. The 4^th and final book choice for this school-year, The Scarecrow and his Servant by Philip Pullman will be discussed on May 15^th. All families are welcome to join the open book chat on April 25^th.

The Future, by Catherine Leroux, translated by Susan Ouriou.

Reviewed by Maurice Crossfield

The Future is Catherine Leroux’s alternate history of Detroit, in which the city was never surrendered to the Americans, and my choice for the Canada Reads theme as the one novel that carries us forward.

I have to say right away that The Future is a beautiful, poetic translation. As both a writer and a translator, I am impressed by both Leroux’s skill at creating a dystopian future, and the deft hand of translator Susan Ouriou. Translation has its own particular challenges at the best of times, but Ouriou handles her task with grace.

In The Future, Fort Détroit is a French-speaking Canadian city, but still has many of the problems that we have seen plague real-life Detroit in recent years: pollution, poverty, the legacies of racism and colonialism. However, in this alternate future, Fort Detroit society has broken down even further; there’s little to be had in terms of police or fire protection, and city services like water and sewage regularly break down. People must rely on themselves and those close to them.

Yet destroyed buildings, such as the city’s leaning Tour de Lys, or even neighbourhood houses, slowly, mysteriously, regenerate themselves. There are magical elements, never clearly explained, that tap into the reader’s imagination. To me this is where the most profound aspects of storytelling take place, in a sense prying our minds open to the possibilities of the universe.

Gloria comes to Fort Detroit following the murder of her estranged daughter Judith, and the disappearance of her granddaughters. She wants to find her grandchildren, and the truth of what happened to her daughter. Nearly destroyed by grief, she slowly builds bonds with neighbours, and begins to learn of the resilience that keeps them going, despite the harsh realities of their existence. They grow food in abandoned lots, gather necessities from the devastated environment around them. Comfort each other in times of loss.

Gloria also discovers a group of the city’s children who live in the nearby Parc Rouge ravine. Runaways, or perhaps abandoned or orphaned by their parents, these kids have established their own society, complete with its own rules and hierarchies, all based on the greater common good. In short, when these children are abandoned by society, they create a society of their own. Kind of like Lord of the Flies, but far more humane, compassionate. They may grumble about their leaders, but when push comes to shove, the common good wins out.

And this to me is what makes The Future such a compelling book to move us forward. At its core it is a book about community. Society may have collapsed, but community endures. Community can mean many things, from neighbours helping neighbours to children supporting each other when adults can’t, or won’t. Much like the buildings regenerating themselves, if a community breaks down, another form of bonding between people moves in to take its place. And in these varied forms of community, we see reflections of ourselves.

In this age of anxiety and insecurity, The Future is a reminder than in grim times we don’t have to go it alone. Indeed, those darkest of times are when we need to reach out. To build bonds, to serve others, and to receive support in return. Plain and simple, we are social creatures.

We don’t control much in this life. The one thing we all have a measure of control over is HOPE. Hope for a kinder future in which people help each other, despite the challenges. Hope for better times, even when the world around us seems hopeless. Indeed, the absence of hope, like the absence of community, invariably leads to the end of humanity.

In spite of its dystopian backdrop, The Future is ultimately a hopeful work, providing readers with plenty to think about, and a vision for a way forward. It may seem like the end of society, but in that ending are numerous small beginnings. We are all more resilient than we can imagine and more resilient collectively than alone. The Future is a reminder of those simple facts.

The Future, one of the five Canada Reads books this year, was presented by Maurice Crossfield at the Lennoxville version of this annual event on February 28, “Canada Reads, and So Does Lennoxville”.

Maurice is the author of The Granby Liar and Borderline Truths. A former reporter at The Record, he has enjoyed a varied work life, including stints as editor of Harrowsmith, auto mechanic, organic gardener and forestry worker. He currently works as a truck driver and lives in West Brome with his wife, musician Sarah Biggs.

NEWS FROM THE LENNOXVILLE LIBRARY

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

Thanks to everyone who voted for the Library’s proposal during the Borough of Lennoxville’s participatory budget process. With your support we will offer a spectacular series of free programs and workshops for children as a complement to the “Espace Biblio”, our regular Saturday morning library space for kids and families at the Farmer’s Market in Square Queen.

And the Espace Biblio will be better than ever this year, thanks to crucial funding from the Townshippers’ Foundation.

Lots of excitement about making a great summer for our kids!

Meet Me at the Lake, by Carley Fortune

Reviewed by Bryan Laprise

Meet Me at the Lake, by Carley Fortune, is the first book of its genre (romantic comedy) to be shortlisted for Canada Reads. The story follows Fern Brookbanks, who is raised by her mother at the family’s Muskoka resort. The novel is written using a dual-timeline perspective, half of the chapters taking place when Fern is twenty-two years old and half of them taking place in the present time.

Fern’s mother, Maggie, inherited the Muskoka resort from her parents, and she has the expectation that her daughter will continue to run the family business. However, Fern has different dreams for herself. She wants to leave the resort and live in Toronto but is scared to break her mother’s heart. Maggie convinces her daughter that the best step forward is to study management at the University of Toronto, giving Fern her much-desired freedom.

Over the years in Toronto, Fern works at a local coffee shop. She dreams of opening her own a few block downs from her apartment, in a mom-and-pop convenience store, but only keeps this idea in the back of her mind, the plan seeming impossible. At the start of the “10-years-ago” chapters, a week before she’s scheduled to move back to the resort, she meets Will Baxter, an artist. He’s back in Toronto for a short visit with his dad, and he gets the opportunity to paint a mural at the coffee shop at which Fern works. Fern, who wants to make the most of Toronto while she is still there, accepts Will’s offer to give her a tour of his beloved home town.

During that day they get better acquainted with the city and each other, and they spend time discussing their hopes for the future. They make a plan: in one year’s time they will meet again.  Both Will and Fern are currently involved in relationships, but they feel an undeniable attraction. Will is going to be back in the area the following year, so they decide to meet at the resort.

Ten years have passed. Fern’s mother dies in a car crash. She leaves the Muskoka lakeside resort to Fern, who is now 32 years old. Fern must now make an impossible decision: keep running her family’s resort—her mom’s legacy—or follow her own dreams with the money from selling the business.

Fern, while having management experience, isn’t capable of making the necessary decisions and plans that will ensue if she sells or keeps the resort. Will Baxter turns up and is now willing to help. He is now a suit-and-tie office worker, far different from the artist she met all those years ago. However, it’s the first time she’s seen him since then, because Will never showed up to the reunion they had planned for nine years ago. Fern doesn’t fully trust him, especially after he failed to keep his promise. It’s clear to Fern that he’s hiding something, and she wants to find out what.

The novel deals with many important themes. A major component of the novel is mental health and how one deals with grief. Death and loss are a part of life, and everyone must face them at some point. Seeing Fern go through different stages of grief can be reassuring, showing that there is light at the end of the tunnel, and the burden won’t be felt forever.

One of the most important themes concerns the quest to find what makes you happy, and what you want to do with your life, which is possibly one of the hardest challenges to face. Carley Fortune shows that it is all right to change your mind about what you want to do. Will says to Fern, “We’re not the same people we were at twenty-two. It’s okay to want different things.” Just because you didn’t want to do something at one point in your life doesn’t mean that you won’t want to do it at a later time.

This book was a solid 4- to 4.5-star read. I truly appreciated its impactfulness. The main reason I liked this book is that Carley Fortune manages the perfect balance between writing about the real-life experiences we can all learn from and providing an entertaining, great read. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in exploring the romantic comedy “romcom” genre, or looking for a great read to get out of a reading slump.

I also appreciate the use of a dual timeline, which Fortune uses to perfection. Every chapter taking place in the past fills in all the gaps we might wonder about in the characters’ relationships and history.

Meet Me at the Lake is a perfect summer read, but we can also enjoy it now as we wait for warmer months. The reader is drawn into the book through vivid descriptions of the calm lakefront resort. It’s easy to imagine you’re there, experiencing the beautiful sunsets and lakeside air.

Bryan Laprise is a senior student in performing arts at Alexander Galt Regional High School. He is the founder and editor of the Piper Post student newspaper. He recently took part in the Canada Reads…and so does Lennoxville event where he ably presented Carley Fortune’s novel as “the one book to carry us forward”

NEWS FROM THE LENNOXVILLE LIBRARY

Non-Resident Library Membership

Non-resident membership fees at the library will increase by $5 on April 1st to $25 for children and seniors ; $35 for adults; and $45 for families (2 or more cards in the same household).

Sign up or renew before April 1st to lock in a year’s membership at our old rates.

Non-resident fees replace what Sherbrooke residents pay for library services in their taxes. They help us offer the full range of activities and programs that we do.

Keeping membership accessible is a core part of the library’s mission. If these amounts are a barrier to access, please contact the library so that we can find a way to make it work for you.

Non-resident membership is free for library volunteers and for children enrolled in any school in Sherbrooke.

Denison Avenue, a novel by Christina Wong with illustrations by Daniel Innes

Book review by Marie Moliner

(Marie Moliner is the Assistant Editor of the Townships Sun. She is working on an illustrated book: Defying the Dictator that is Dementia: Diaries of an Accidental Caregiver.)

Last week, at the 21st edition of ‘Canada Reads and so does Lennoxville’, Denison Avenue was selected as the book to carry us forward.g,  And for good reason. It is a unique book jammed with jewels of hope artfully telling an all- too-familiar story of love and loss.

Written by Christina Wong and illustrated by Daniel Innes, Denison Avenue is, at heart, a love story about how community elders, Henry (See Hei) and Cho Sum, grapple with immigration, gentrification and grief.  A fancy car mows Henry down in a hit and run as he steps out to buy ahn tat (egg tarts). Splayed on the streetcar tracks, his well lived life flashes before him in the form of a list.

The author applies words to the page like paint. Prose, poetry and run-on descriptions draw us intimately into Henry and Cho Sum’s lives. We hear them speak lovingly to each other in the dying Toisan dialect, presented phonetically alongside English translations.  Short sentences become tiny paragraphs rich with meaning. In Chapter 11, twenty words are stretched over five pages, a solemn use of white space that captures Henry’s last breaths.  

At first, life is hard for Henry and Cho Sum. Classism and racism permeate their existence.  Their first home in Toronto’s original Chinatown is expropriated when the city razes an entire block to build ‘new’ City Hall. They are befuddled by the Government of Canada Chinese Head Tax apology. And yet, they carry on.

When flipped over, Innes’ 80 illustrations depict a community now under the siege of real estate barons. Drawn by hand, using Pilot#2 drawing pens on Bienfang Graphics 360 marker paper, the images remind us of how quickly we lose track of  beloved buildings once demolished.  

Concealed in these drawings you find Cho Sum persevering after Henry dies.  Wearing a floral shirt, she pushes a cart filled with bottles and cans collected from recycling bins.  At first, this is a role she begrudgingly takes on when a chi gong buddy encourages her to keep busy: “We all will walk this road”.  By the end of the book, she gets up each day, puts one foot forward and finds meaning in birdsong, memories of shared meals, and new routines.

Denison Avenue establishes a new accessibility benchmark for illustrated novels. It is available in audio, braille and ePub from CELA, the Centre for Equitable Library Access. Author Christina Wong and illustrator Daniel Innes worked together to draft image descriptions that capture all relevant information. One reviewer noted: “A few years ago, a book like this would not have been accessible to people with vision loss.”  The illustrations are available for purchase online with all proceeds going to the Fort York Food Bank: https://www.beguilingbooks.com/

The authors’ creative partnership continues as they work on a second book of fiction about two strangers on a cross Canada bicycle tour.  Innes says: “This time we are both writing and I will be illustrating travel diary type snapshots for each day’s ride.”   It sounds like a book that will carry us forward again, this time across Canada.

NEWS FROM THE LENNOXVILLE LIBRARY

Art Show

Brian Taylor’s sumptuous colour photographs featuring local landscapes, flowers, and water scenes will be on display in the library until mid-June. Come see them anytime the library is open.

Spring Break Kids Activities

Kids of all ages are invited to join us for special craft activities with our Youth Services Assistant, Diana.

Friday, March 7th, 2pm-4pm: Puzzles and stories

Saturday, March 8th, 10am-1pm: Decorative garland making, storytime at 11am.

Family Book Club

We meet March 21st to discuss Jenny McLachlan’s Land of Roar. Let us know if you need a copy.

All five Canada Reads books are available in an accessible format: https://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/here-s-how-to-find-the-canada-reads-books-in-accessible-formats-1.7121484

We Were Killers Once

A thriller by Becky Masterman

Reviewed by Gerry Cutting

This, Masterman’s fourth novel featuring retired FBI agent Brigid Quinn, was published in 2019. Gerry Cutting, a psychologist by training, is a lifelong fan of psychological thrillers such as this one that explore the intricacies of those individuals identified as psychopaths. The psychopathic personality is of great interest to this particular author, and she clearly expands the reader’s understanding of, and fascination with, the most dangerous category of criminal we know.

This story is inspired by and actually incorporates elements of real-life events: two mass killings that occurred in 1959. The first of these was well-detailed in Truman Capote’s masterpiece, In Cold Blood: Perry Smith and Dick Hickock were arrested, convicted and later executed for the murders of four members of the Clutter family in Holcombe, Kansas. Also in 1959, four members of the Walker family were murdered in Sarasota, Florida. Smith and Hickock were the prime suspects but never tried, due to the fact that they were sentenced to hang anyway.

Masterman cleverly uses these two events to create her own fictitious side story, adding in a third person—a classic example of the psychopath who kills, robs and manipulates others, without remorse, and usually for pleasure. Meet Jeremiah Beaufort, known as Jerry. Jerry’s nemesis is the novel’s protagonist, now-retired special FBI agent Brigid Theresa Quinn, who developed an ongoing interest in the Walker murders from the age of 6, while listening in on a discussion around the kitchen table of her Fort Lauderdale home. At the time, her father and other members of the Ft. Lauderdale police force were discussing the case, and this memory became etched into Quinn’s consciousness. Many years have passed; she has married late and now lives with her husband, Carlo, a former Catholic priest and currently a retired university philosophy professor. (The complexities of their relationship form an interesting story unto itself. How can a man of such deep faith and conviction end up happily married to a woman who has spent nearly all  her FBI career working on undercover assignments, ones that frequently called upon her to remove a suspect with what we now refer to  as ”extreme prejudice”?  Her career in many ways resembled that of James Bond, 007, since she too was officially licensed to kill, and took a certain amount of pleasure in that activity.)

Meanwhile, Jerry, our killer, has recently been released from the prison where he spent the last 30 years, having been incarcerated for a series of petty crimes. However, like all psychopaths, he is concerned that somehow he might be found out. It would appear that Hickock, one of the pair accused in the Clutter murders, submitted a written confession to the Catholic chaplain while on death row awaiting execution. What if that confession names Jerry as the third murderer in the Clutter killings? He realizes he will never be safe until that document is found and destroyed, or the chaplain himself killed. So, Jerry sets off to track down and destroy any evidence that he was a part of these murders. The twist? He is now 70 years of age, and his health is waning.

As the story unfolds, we see how the accomplished psychopath Jerry can disguise his motives, his intentions and himself so skillfully and avoid detection. Brigid and Carlo find themselves in an unfortunate situation, since Carlo, at the time that Hickock would have made the confession, was the prison chaplain’s assistant! What Jerry has not counted on is Carlo’s wife Brigid, a skilled detective and cold-blooded executioner in her own right. When duty calls, protecting Carlo is her primary job.

I thoroughly enjoyed this title, at least partly because of the intertwining between two people in their twilight years struggling to find each other, despite the fact they have lived most of their lives at opposite ends of the moral continuum that defines good and evil: Carlo, the former priest and student of philosophy, who has spent his life teaching others about the power of forgiveness and redemption; and Brigid, who has devoted her life to cracking down on the worst of the worst in a kill-or-be killed world. Ultimately, Carlo remains true to himself. This book may well be a romance novel, as Masterman puts it, but it is, “A romance for grownups. It chafes, but it’s where the marital rubber hits the road.” And just to add spice to the marital arrangement, Carlo’s first wife, Jane, now deceased, haunts the corridors of Brigid’s imagination. A rather worrisome threesome, as we soon discover.

Knowing that this book is indeed a thriller I will say only this—the ending delivers the goods, and brings you to the edge of your seat.

This is the fourth of Masterman’s bestselling books featuring Brigid Quinn. Interested? Check with Lennoxville Library for a copy of this work or her previous ones.

NEWS FROM THE LENNOXVILLE LIBRARY

Thank you to the 115 people who turned out in person and online for the Library’s 21st annual “Canada Reads…and so does Lennoxville” event on Wednesday night.

Congratulations to our 5 panellists and to our dedicated MC Stephanie Brown for a stimulating discussion!

Special congratulations to the evening’s winner by popular vote: Marie Moliner, defending Denison Avenue by Daniel Innes and Christina Wong as the one book to carry us forward.

Copies of all of this year’s Canada Reads books are available at the Library.

The CBC’s Canada Reads runs March 4th-8th.

Mad Forest: A Play from Romania

Reviewed by Spencer Nadeau

Revolution, war, political upheaval, and social change are rife with uncertainty. Stories and narratives during these times can be challenging to interpret and understand as cacophonies of voices saturate the social-political air of particular times and places. Today’s review tackles one instance of revolution-bred fiction in the form of Caryl Churchill’s 1990 play Mad Forest: A Play from Romania. Churchill, the prolific English playwright, composed Mad Forest immediately after the 1989 Romanian Revolution, and it was first performed on the stage in 1991. Churchill had already received wide acclaim in the world of English theatre, and Mad Forest came about midway through her playwrighting career which started in the late 1950s and has continued to the present with her most recent work What If If Only which premiered in 2021. Thematically, Churchill has explored a breadth of topics including human sexuality, gender, war, politics, and social change. Stylistically, her plays are deemed postmodern, with surrealistic, fragmented narratives.

I start off by saying that if you are unfamiliar with the 1989 Romanian Revolution I  recommend doing a brief search about the events that took place between December 21 and December 25, 1989, in Romania. The Soviet Union was nearing its end, and the Eastern Bloc was collapsing. The events of these days in Romania followed the overthrow of the Communist party and the execution of long-time Romanian Communist Party General Secretary Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife Elena, which marked the end of 42 years of Communist rule in Romania.

Mad Forest is a three-act play and follows a chronological order. The first act is set prior to the revolution, the second during, and the third after the revolution has concluded. The first and third acts follow two loosely connected Romanian families that are each looking forward to a wedding. The second act is based on interviews that Churchill and the play’s original director, Mark Wing-Davey, conducted in the aftermath of the revolution, and it depicts the chaos through multiple viewpoints.

Act one follows the Vladu family a couple of months prior to the revolution. Bogdan, the father, works as an electrician, his wife, Irina, as a tram driver. Their grown-up children are also employed: Lucia as a schoolteacher, Florina as a nurse, and Gabriel as an engineer. The family struggle through the uncertainty of communist rule and live in fear of the ever-present Securitate, Romania’s secret police. The family are most concerned for Lucia, who is hoping to get married to an American named Wayne, whom she has recently fallen in love with.

Act two contains numerous monologues from students, doctors, soldiers, labourers, and ordinary individuals in the wake of the outbreak of violence in those critical days from December 21 through December 25. Churchill’s strength in playwrighting shines in this act as the reader (or theatre viewer) feels the inherent disorientation that the lone voices of war and revolution speak. I frequently caught myself attempting to piece together the stories of multiple students in the heat of sporadic gunfire while a doctor and a nurse take stock of quickly depleting medical supplies. There is pride in the voices of revolutionary students overthrowing the wretched communist overlords, while a poor peasant family attempts to make it safely to the market to buy bread or whatever else they can find to eat.

The concluding act of Mad Forest skips to a few weeks after the revolution and follows the Antonescu family, who are friends of the Vladu family from Act one. Father Mihai and mother Flavia have a son, Radu, who is a fierce believer in the revolution and the execution of Nicolae Ceaușescu and is also in love with Florina Vladu. This third act follows their marriage story and shows how the sudden social change is rife with difficulties including its effect on families and friends. Each family member has differing views on the extinguishing of communist rule, especially with regards to the uncertainty surrounding the newly formed National Salvation Front under the authority of Ion Iliescu. They are also concerned about Hungarian immigration to Romania. This final point receives particular focus as a minor character, Ianos, is Hungarian and is in love with Lucia (now estranged from her American husband). Interspersed throughout the play are moments of surrealism with an archangel talking politics with a priest, and a stray dog talking with a wandering vampire.

Mad Forest is a brief play that does a particularly good job of providing social commentary on the social debilitation caused by war and revolution. Jennie Webb of Backstage magazine stated, “Revolution is never black and white, and Churchill wisely dwells in uncertainty and targets the surreal nature of social and political shifts in a world where the more things change, the more they stay the same.” Webb succinctly conveys the power of Churchill’s Mad Forest, and I recommend it to all who wish to enjoy a politically poignant piece of theatre.

If you would like to read Mad Forest, contact the library.

Lennoxville Library News

Canada Reads…and so does Lennoxville!

Wednesday February 28th at 7pm

at Hope Community Church and on Youtube livestream.

The 21st annual edition of our beloved literary event Canada Reads and so does Lennoxville is here!

All are invited for an evening of literary fun featuring local presenters, lively discussion and door prizes (including signed copies of the 5 finalist books). Hors d’oeuvres and sweet treats will be served. 

Admission is free.

Visit our website for more information:

bibliolennoxvillelibrary.ca/canada-reads-2024/

Edogawa Rampo

by Stephen Sheeran

Those of you who remember my column from June 2017 will know that I am no great fan of murder mysteries—especially the so-called “cozy” variety featuring those thoroughly irritating sleuths like Miss Marple, Father Brown, Hercule Poirot, and Peter Wimsey. Time and setting don’t seem to affect these preferences—I find Cadfael and Falco every bit as annoying as Armand Gamache and Jimmy Perez.

My invariable reaction to a Whodunit is…Whocares??? It is quite possible that this indifference is influenced by the habit of my “cohabitante” to invariably, and with unerring accuracy, blurt out HE DONE IT! five minutes into any of the spin-off television mysteries that I have the misfortune to be watching.

But my aversion goes a bit deeper. Perhaps it is the tiresome devices of the genre—the red herrings, the false leads, the blind alleys, the airtight alibis—or the overall fact that readers are arbitrarily suspended in a state of ignorance while the author/narrator selectively dangles evidentiary morsels before their noses. One is driven to empathize with a rat in a maze: Enough, already! Someone put him out of his misery and give him the DAMN FOOD PELLET!

I do have a few generic soft spots—for Sherlock Holmes, Auguste Dupin, and American hard-boiled detectives like Sam Spade and Phillip Marlowe. In the “hard-boiled” genre I find the usual tired devices and contrivances well embedded in atmospherics, dialogue, and occasional eruptions of violence. (I find oddly cathartic the fact that main characters are frequently rendered insensible by blows to the head.)

I grudgingly extend a soft spot to Japanese mystery writer Hirai Tarō (1894 – 1965) who in his youth was strongly influenced by the works (in translation) of early crime writers like Arthur Conan Doyle and Edgar Allen Poe. In fact, Hirai’s nom de guerrewas Edogawa Rampo (Psst! Say “ed-uh-gar-uh-LAN-poe” three times quickly!). He and several other Japanese writers in the 1920s and 1930s worked at establishing a home-grown variety of the mystery and detective fiction that was so popular in Europe and North America at the time. As Hirai matured his works seemed to follow public tastes for more sensational end erotic fiction. In fact, he was at the vanguard of a movement styled “ero, guru, nansensu” (erotic, grotesque, nonsensical). This seemed to catch fire in depression-era Japan, and actually reached its zenith in a very notorious real-life public scandal involving a geisha who strangled her lover and carried his severed bits around in her kimono…but that’s another story.

Edogawa’s two novellas The Black Lizard and Beast in the Shadows do not quite approach that level of kinkiness, but they do intrigue. The Black Lizard matches two worthy opponents: the ever-resourceful and indefatigable super detective Akechi Kogorō; and the female arch criminal and master manipulator Black Lizard, aka Dark Angel, aka Mme Midorikawa. At stake, both the daughter (Sanai) and prize diamond (Star of Egypt) of jewel merchant Iwase Shōbei. 

It happens like this: Merchant Iwase receives a series of letters which threaten violent outcomes for his daughter. Alarmed at the threat of kidnapping or worse, he enlists the help of dozens of security people, chief among whom is Detective Akechi. The Black Lizard (incognito) insinuates herself into the bosom of the family and puts her dastardly plans into effect. Through the use of various disguises and ruses she manages to abscond first with the daughter and then with the diamond…or so she thinks. But reversals and double reversals and then triple reversals keep the reader at a high level of suspense, confusion, and bemusement.

It is intriguing to see how the traditional mystery conceits are adapted and pressed into service by Edogawa/Hirai. There are at least two “locked room” scenes, in which apparently foolproof safeguards are confounded by the old hide-the-victim-in-the-suitcase trick, or the hide-the-perp-in-the-sofa stratagem. The time-worn “seedy bar” setting is taken to hitherto unimaginable heights of excess; Black Lizard’s haunts make Marlowe’s and Spade’s locals seem like church picnics. And Black Lizard’s hideout—replete with evil trophies, stolen goods, kidnap victims (some of them stuffed)—rivals that of the worst comic-book villains and serial killers of popular culture.

Another interesting facet is the “breaking of the fourth wall” when the narrator stops at a particularly momentous point to address the audience, as in, “Dear Reader, well you may wonder at how Detective Akechi contrives to be in two places at once….”

An unintended source of humour is the fact that both adversaries are masters of disguise, yet are invariably taken in by each other’s deceptions—picture Whodunit meets Who’s-on-first, with a good dose of Maxwell Smart thrown in for good measure!!!

The plot-lines are inventive, almost post-modern in places. Beast in the Shadows deals with a detective writer who is approached by a young married woman who is being, by all appearances, blackmailed and threatened with violence by a former lover. The former lover turns out to be another famous writer of crime fiction and the two crime writers match wits—at least, seem to match wits—until a final outcome is wrung out of a cascade of disguise, deception, and competing interpretations of the contradictory clues.

If you feel like a romp with Rampo contact the library!

The Words We Share

Written and illustrated by Jack Wong

Reviewed by Shanna Bernier

As an anglophone Quebecer I am regularly asked, while speaking French, if I come from the US, or if I’ve moved here from Ontario. Well-intentioned Francophones are both surprised and perhaps bemused by my thick English accent when I speak French, with relatively high fluency. These moments generally don’t bother me, because I am happy to share my pride at the privilege of bilingualism. I feel comfortable in my identity as an anglophone Quebecois, and in general, my linguistic abilities afford me more opportunities than my unilingual peers. The tiny feeling of discomfort in my belly when I am asked where I am from likely pales in comparison to the obstacles and questioning newer Canadians feel when they are quizzed on their origins because of their accents, or the difficulties they face expressing themselves in the language of the majority.

            The Words We Share is a brand-new children’s picture book, written and illustrated by Jack Wong. Wong is based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, was born in Hong Kong and raised in Vancouver. His stories reflect his own experiences as a first-generation Canadian, navigating a new country, and new languages as a young child. 

            The Words We Share tells the story of Angie Tang, and her dad who have recently moved to Canada. Mr. Tang speaks only Cantonese, with a limited ability to understand or express himself in English. Young Angie has quickly learned and adapted to her new locale, and has begun helping her father translate lots of things. She helps him navigate in public, ordering from restaurants, and receiving packages. She even helps him in his custodian job when he is tasked with making signs for the office he cleans: “Please don’t leave food to rot in the fridge.”

            Angie feels empowered and excited to help her father, and only a little bit annoyed when she needs to help him, instead of doing something more fun. This is a common story of immigrant children, who are, by the grace of public schools and more flexible brains, able to master a new language with much greater efficiency than their parents. This can create some challenging situations for immigrant families, as parents might not understand the communications from the school, might not be able to assist with their children’s homework, or talk to their children’s friends. Children become bridges of translation and Angie is a perfect example of the burdens and gifts such a role might entail.

            After helping her dad, Angie decides to engage in some entrepreneurship, and offers her Cantonese-English translation to small business owners in their Chinatown neighbourhood. She is able to help several local business owners, but then she encounters a situation where she doesn’t have the language skills necessary, and she makes a mistake. Her father surprises her by being able to help, and Angie is reminded that she is not alone, and that her dad has many gifts and skills.

            About half of all Quebecois people consider themselves English-French bilingual. This is already significantly higher than the national Canadian average of only 18%, according to the 2021 census data.  It is worth noting that more than half of immigrants who live in Quebec can carry on a conversation in both official languages of Canada, as well as in their own mother tongue. This represents hundreds of thousands of people who can communicate, to some degree, in three or more languages. What a tremendous gift to our communities! How often do immigrants get discounted because of assumptions and prejudice? Where is the reward and recognition for such a tremendous linguistic gift?

 In The Words We Share we see, in just a few pages, the tremendous pressure that can be placed on immigrant children, as they navigate a new linguistic reality. This book provides insight into that space, showing newly-arrived children that they are not alone, and also providing a valuable perspective for a kid growing up with the privilege of understanding the words around them. I recommend this book, available in the new releases section at the Lennoxville Library, to kids of all ages.

Lennoxville Library News

Help make great summer programs for kids a reality!

It’s time to start thinking about summer!!  

From June through August, the Library will offer a spectacular series of free programs and workshops for children ages 5-15 as a complement to our regular Saturday morning kids’ activities at the Farmer’s Market in Square Queen.

Led by skilled professional facilitators, the workshops will feature themes such as magic, robotics, rocketry, storytelling, photography, animals, art, and more. 

We hope to fund this program with support from the Lennoxville Participatory Budget. All residents can vote for the project of their choice.

Join us Tuesday, February 13th at 6pm in the Salle Amédée-Beaudoin to learn more.