Published in the Age of Unravelling

Can it be? Not four weeks into the New Year and already a new Canadian Notes & Queries? A theme issue – "Writing in the Age of Unravelling" – it makes for some uncomfortable reading. Catherine Bush contributes an essay on representations of the climate crisis in fiction. Jacky Sawatzky writes on her memorial to the endangered giraffe. Jennifer Ilse Black and Waubgeshig Rice are interviewed. Andrew Forbes presents a cli-fi primer.

Credit goes to Guest Editors Patricia Robertson and Sharon English.

The issue's Dusty Bookcase concerns Hotter Than Hell, the 1974 Kiss album produced by Kenny Kenner and Richie Wise.

I jest. It's about the 2005 dystopian novel of the same title.

Political animals will remember Hotter Than Hell as the small press book the newly-elected Harper Conservatives made famous by silencing its author, government scientist Mark Tushington.

What intrigued me is that for all the coverage – The Globe & Mail, The New York Times, The Scientist, et al – no one appeared to have taken the time to read the damn thing.

Well, I've read it. And now you don't have to.

Here's a typical passage:

The Eighteenth Guard (Pennsylvania) and Eighth Guard (New York) divisions, supported by the 1st Marine and 57th Urban brigades were attacking, The First Guard Division was being badly defeated in every sector. The 28th and 29th regiments were quickly pushed out of Abany and up the length of the Mohawk Valley. It was only then that we retreated into Utica that my forces could hold. Because of the inactivity of the IV Corps, I took a supreme gamble and withdrew elements of the 6th Armored Brigade from covering Montreal.

You're welcome.

Other contributors include:

Madhur Anand

Peter Anson

Nicholas Bradley

Yuan Changming

Stephen Fowler

Lise Gaston

Roger Greenwald

Mahak Jain

Joanna Lilley

JF Martel

David Mason

Catherine Owen

Seth

Roz Spafford

Erika Thorkelson

RM Vaughan

Mary Lou Zeitown

The issue also features the annual Book Review supplement.

Thirty-two pages of goodness, provided by:

Michel Basilières

Steven W. Beattie

Jeff Bursey

Andreae Callahan

Laura Cameron

Paige Cooper

Trevor Corkum

André Forget

Monique Giroux

James Granger

Brett Josef Grubisic

Katia Grubisic

Stephen Henighan

Dancy Mason

Rohan Maitzen

Rod Moody-Corbet

Rudrapriya Rathore

Patricia Robertson

Matthew D. Rodrigues

Mark Sampson

Jonathan Valelly

Derek Webster

Bruce Whiteman

Apparently, there's a sequel to Hotter Than Hell.

I'll leave it to others to explore.

Related post:

Number 43 in a Series

A Novel Every Bit as Good as Its Title

The Fiftieth Anniversary Issue of Canadian Notes & Queries arrived in my mailbox this week. I should've received it last month. I blame Deepak Chopra – not the Ageless Body Timeless Mind Deepak Chopra, this one.

Being the Fiftieth Anniversary Issue, much of the focus is on books from 1968:

Les Manuscrits de Pauline Archange - Marie-Claire Blais

Sarah Bastard's Notebook - Marian Engel

I Am Mary Dunne - Brian Moore

The Shattered Plinths - Irving Layton

John Metcalf writes on the short story "Images" from Dance of the Happy Shades, Alice Munro's debut. Not to be outdone, I chose to review A Lover More Condoling, the first novel by then-Take 30 co-host Adrienne Clarkson. Despite her fame, it enjoyed one lone printing, and never appeared in paperback. As I note in my review, the novel isn't so much as mentioned in Heart Matters, Clarkson's 2006 memoir.

Might A Lover More Condoling be a forgotten treasure? Not wanting to spoil things, I'll say only that it has the most memorable sex scene I've read since Donna Steinberg's I Lost it All in Montreal.

Other contributors include:

Randy Boyagoda

Andreae Callanan

Scott Chantler

Paige Cooper

Trevor Corkum

Kayla Czaga

Rachel Décoste

Daniel Donaldson

Antony Easton

Jesse Eckerlin

André Forget

Stephen Fowler

Alex Good

James Grainger

Benjamin Hertwig

Doyali Islam

Tasneem Jamal

Anita Lehey

Sibyl Lamb

Tracey Lindberg

Rabindranath Maharaj

Rohan Maitzen

David Mason

Patricia Robertson

Mary H. Aurbach Rykov

Seth

JC Sutcliffe

Vit Wagner

Bruce Whiteman

Martha Wilson

The fifty-first year sees CNQ striking out in a new direction. "We decided a radical expansion of our reviewer estate was necessary given ever-shrinking critical space the nation's newspapers, online journals, and periodicals," writes editor Emily Donaldson.

And so, we have the very first CNQ book review supplement, with contributions by:

Michael Barrett

Michel Basilières

Stephen Beattie

Jeremiah Bertram

Jeff Bursey

Kerry Clare

Allison Gillmor

Monique Giroux

Alex Good

Brett Joseph Grubisic

Stephen Henighan

Amanda Jernigan

Tess Liem

Domenica Martinello

Dilia Narduzzi

Ruprapriya Rathmore

Mark Sampson

Sarah Tolmie

Jonathan Valelly

Derek Webster

Jared Young

If you haven't already, now seems just the time to become a subscriber... easily done through this link.

The Canada Post carrier who delivered this magazine to our rural mailbox chose not to fold it.

She is not paid enough.

Related posts:

The Year of Grade School Readers, Cute Kittens

and Dead Anglos Hanging in the Streets of Montreal

Not to Be Confused with Bust Planet

The new issue of Canadian Notes & Queries has arrived, bringing with it my long promised review of W.E.D. Ross's Lust Planet (1962), Canada's very first work of science fiction erotica. I found the novel every bit as good as expected.

Collectors of Canadian literature are advised to pick up this France' Book – oddly-named imprint of Hollywood's International Publications – while they still can. As I write, I see just one copy listed for sale online. To those requiring further enticement, I offer this: something I neglected to mention in the review is that Lust Planet features three intriguing illustrations. Intriguing because they have no connection at all with the text.

The other two are even better.

As I say, get it while you can. Better yet, subscribe to CNQ... easily done through this link at the magazine's website.

This issue's contributors include:

Madhur Anand

Jason Dickson

Jesse Eckerlin

André Forget

Cecil Foster

Stephen Fowler

Alex Good

Dominic Hardy

Ann Ireland

Penn Javdan

Samuel Johnson

Colette Maitland

Dominic Martinello

David Mason

Dakota McFadzean

Rebecca Rosenblum

Kate Sherren

JC Sutcliffe

Derek Webster

Bruce Whiteman

In addition to the cover and design, Seth reflects on CANADA official handbooks of days gone by (including this one): "I find these books fascinating, in a doctor's office kind of way. They have a sort of sublime dullness about them. A quality hard to put into words. Pleasing. Comforting. Sleep-inducing."

Editor Emily Donaldson not only put the whole thing together, she contributed a review of  David Chariandy's Brother.

This issue marks the second time I've shared pages with John Metcalf. Friends will recognize how much this means to me. Coincidentally, it was through John that I first learned of W.E.D. Ross.

Related post:

Winning With the erotic W.E.D. Ross
The Greater Canada of 1962
When Poets Ruled; Or, Never Mind the Novelists