Dusty CanLit Spring Reviews

Here comes summer. School is out. Oh, happy day.

So, here we are with the spring blog reviews of old CanLit. As expected, most came from Canadian bloggers, but the Brits are well represented. Americans, où es-tu?

Looking over the list, I'm left wondering whether we are on the cusp of a Ross Macdonald revival. The winter harvest included Blue City, The Goodbye Look, and Sleeping Beauty. Spring brought reviews of The Ivory Grin, The Underground Man, and The Goodbye Look.

Please do let me me know if I've missed anything or onyone.

The Mountain and the Valley - Ernest Buckler

The Ivory Grin - John Ross Macdonald [Kenneth Millar]

Le grand Khan - Jean Basile

Les voyages d’Irkoutsk - Jean Basile

Lan ga ge - Michel Garneau

Langage 1 - Michel Garneau

Langage 2 - Michel Garneau

Langage 3 - Michel Garneau

Langage 4 - Michel Garneau

Langage 5 - Michel Garneau

Moments - Michel Garneau

La plus belle île - Michel Garneau

Les petits chevals amoureux - Michel Garneau

Élégie au génocide des nasopodes - Michel Garneau 

Eukuan nin matshimanitu Innu-iskueu - An Antane Kapesh

La rivière sans repos - Gabrielle Roy

Bear - Marian Engel

The Goodbye Look - Ross Macdonald [Kennneth Millar]

'Fang Law' - Harold F. Cruickshank

The Equations of Love - Ethel Wilson

The Underground Man - Ross Macdonald [Kenneth Millar]

I read and reviewed seven old CanLit titles this past season: 

The Stone House Mystery - Joyce Boyle

The Eyes of the Gypsy - John Murray Gibbon

Sword of Desire - Robert W. Tracy [Alvin Schwartz]

If You Want to See Your Wife Again... - John Craig

The Street Called Straight - Basil King

Looking Forward - Hugh Pedney

The Homesteaders - Robert J.S. Stead

Of these, Rev King's The Street Called Straight was the best, though Montrealers and readers of science fiction may find Looking Forward to be of more interest. The Homesteaders is recommended for readers in Manitoba and Alberta,

I'm beginning to think that 2025 will be another year in which male authors dominate my reading.

Let's see what the summer brings! Enjoy the sun!

Related post:

Dusty CanLit Winter Reviews

The Mystery Writer Mystery Unravels

'Keeping an Eye Out for Pamela Fry' pays off:

A writer friend informs that Pamela Fry, author of Harsh Evidence and The Watching Cat, is the very same Pamela Fry who once worked as an editor at McClelland & Stewart. Though Miss Fry's years with the publisher were not many – 1965 to 1971 – she did work with several canonical favourites, including Sinclair Ross, Ernest Buckler and Farley Mowat. I imagine she'll be best remembered not for her mysteries, but as the editor of The Edible Woman, Margaret Atwood's debut novel. A high point to be sure.

The low? Look no further than Eric Koch's ill-fated satire The French Kiss (1969), which I mention here only because the book just might lay claim to the worst launch in Canadian publishing history. In Jack, McClelland biographer James King tells us that The French Kiss was on bookstore shelves when legal advice came down that members of Quebec's Johnson family might have been slandered in its pages:

The three thousand books were recalled, small slips pasted over the offending passages and the copies then returned to retailers. Jack only learned of the potentially disastrous situation at the book's launch at the home of the book's editor Pamela Fry. He called her aside, told her the book would have to be recalled and acted quickly and decisively to prevent a lawsuit.

According to King, Pamela Fry left M&S in for a position on a federal government task force. In his autobiography, Drawing on Type, designer Frank Newfeld places her c.1980 at the National Gallery of Canada. From there the trail grows cold.

Thanks go out to my "writer friend" and to fellow sleuth Richard Blanchard.

Related post: Keeping an Eye Out for Pamela Fry