Why Pick on Me? Raymond Marshall Toronto: Harlequin, 1954 |
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A JOURNEY THROUGH CANADA'S FORGOTTEN, NEGLECTED AND SUPPRESSED WRITING
Why Pick on Me? Raymond Marshall Toronto: Harlequin, 1954 |
From her resting place in the broom closet Consuela could hear the two American ladies in 404 arguing. The closet was as narrow as the road to heaven and smelled of furniture polish, chlorine, and of Consuela herself. But it was not physical discomfort that disturbed her siesta, it was the strain of trying to understand what the Americans were arguing about. Money? Love? What else was there, Consuela wondered, and wiped the sweat off her forehead and neck with one of the towels she was supposed to place in the bathrooms at exactly six o'clock.Now, here is the Falcon abridged version:
From the broom closet, Consuela could hear the two American ladies arguing in Room 404. The closet was small and smelled of furniture polish and cleaning fluid, and of Consuela's own body. But it was not the tiny closet and its smells that disturbed her siesta – her afternoon nap. It was the argument she was hearing through the wall. She strained to hear what the Americans were arguing about. Was it money? Was it love? What else could it be? Console wondered about it and wiped the sweat off her forehead and neck with one of the clean towels she was supposed to put in the bathrooms.Things are spelled out – "404" becomes "Room 404," "chlorine" becomes "cleaning fluid" – and subtleties are missed. What spoils
Miss Millar knows how to make her story-line twist like a snake. It is not her fault that the publishers, in big letters on the jacket, promise "as smashing a last sentence as we can recall!" That promise is not fulfilled. The final twist is surprisingly unsurprising.More recently, Jon Breen wrote in the 18 April 2005 Weekly Standard: "Millar brings off a trick that is rarely attempted and even more rarely accomplished: withholding the final surprise to the very last line of the novel."
"When Greek meets Greek" the battle's fair;
Kaiser and I: gods! what a pair:
For weapons we will choose — Hot Air,
I need no God.
Bill may be there with shot and shell,
His arms first may fair quite well,
But, people, I can talk like Hell:
I can by God.
That God created sun and rain
In seven days, is told in vain,
It took six weeks for me to train
My men — by God.
At my command my men arise,
Parade past me with right turned eyes,
These warriors — mark you — symbolize
Myself — not God.
When in Valcartier's latter days,
My Troops assembled 'neath my gaze
Thy merged each creed in one to praise
Myself — not God.
In language of poetic flow
I'll write my epitaph, you know,
(That's if I condescend to go
Beneath the sod)
My tombstone will need a P.T.O.
So help me God.
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.Les Manuscrits de Pauline Archange - Marie-Claire BlaisSarah Bastard's Notebook - Marian EngelI Am Mary Dunne - Brian MooreThe Shattered Plinths - Irving Layton
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.Randy BoyagodaAndreae CallananScott ChantlerPaige CooperTrevor CorkumKayla CzagaRachel DécosteDaniel DonaldsonAntony EastonJesse EckerlinAndré ForgetStephen FowlerAlex GoodJames GraingerBenjamin HertwigDoyali IslamTasneem JamalAnita LeheySibyl LambTracey LindbergRabindranath MaharajRohan MaitzenDavid MasonPatricia RobertsonMary H. Aurbach RykovSethJC SutcliffeVit WagnerBruce WhitemanMartha Wilson
If you haven't already, now seems just the time to become a subscriber... easily done through this link.Michael BarrettMichel BasilièresStephen BeattieJeremiah BertramJeff BurseyKerry ClareAllison GillmorMonique GirouxAlex GoodBrett Joseph GrubisicStephen HenighanAmanda JerniganTess LiemDomenica MartinelloDilia NarduzziRuprapriya RathmoreMark SampsonSarah TolmieJonathan ValellyDerek WebsterJared Young