Arrival
The Story of CanLit
by Nick Mount
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Pub Date Sep 02 2017 | Archive Date Aug 22 2017
Description
In the mid-twentieth century, Canadian literature transformed from a largely ignored trickle of books into an enormous cultural phenomenon that produced Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro, Michael Ondaatje, Mordecai Richler, and so many others. In Arrival, acclaimed writer and critic Nick Mount answers the question: What caused the CanLit Boom?
Written with wit and panache, Arrival tells the story of Canada’s literary awakening. Interwoven with Mount’s vivid tale are enlightening mini-biographies of the people who made it happen, from superstars Leonard Cohen and Marie-Claire Blais to lesser-known lights like the troubled and impassioned Harold Sonny Ladoo. The full range of Canada’s literary boom is here: the underground exploits of the blew ointment and Tish gangs; revolutionary critical forays by highbrow academics; the blunt-force trauma of our plain-spoken backwoods poetry; and the urgent political writing that erupted from the turmoil in Quebec.
Published to coincide with the 150th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, Arrival is a dazzling, variegated, and inspired piece of writing that helps explain how we got from there to here.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 9781770892217 |
| PRICE | CA$29.95 (CAD) |
Featured Reviews
Alison G, Bookseller
This was a truly wonderful and engaging read, and not just because I work in the Canadian bookselling industry myself! The tone of the writing is a perfect mesh of informal/informative without being "academic," with a humorous tone running throughout the text. I really enjoyed the mix of industry history, author biography, and political context the author chose in order to frame and explain the CanLit "boom." This is the type of writing that will appeal to general readers just dipping their toes in the subject, along with anyone with background knowledge as well.
I think my favourite feature were the little mini-reviews spread along the page margins, featuring pivotal works as they were discussed in the text and reviewing them within a modern context. There were some I'd never heard of, and even though the author didn't often review them favourably (many don't seem to stand the test of time) i still became interested enough in several of them to seek them out just due to the context of the writing, or the engaging histories of the author. The story and early demise of Harold Ladoo was the most striking of these for me, and though his book first book wasn't something likely to be on my radar before reading ... it definitely is now.
My only criticism is over the brief amount of text given to female authors in particular, and the discussion of sexism and feminism during this period. It felt like a token acknowledgement pushed towards the end of the book, and I would have loved to see a bit more research and discussion going into that topic beyond what we were given.
