Showing posts with label Canada. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Canada. Show all posts

Monday, December 10, 2007

The Friends of Meager Fortune by David Adams Richards


Quite an interesting and moving little book. A very different and shocking glimpse into the life of loggers in mid-twentieth century Canada. More than "real" it is almost surreal! it might have been entitled "Lives and Boys and Men in Logging Camps as they were being driven out of work by new technology and the women in their lives" or something like that, with a nod to Alice Munro. Great characters.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Rough Crossings - Britain, The Slaves and The American Revolution by Simon Schama


Superb historical account. Very thoroughly researched - comprehensive comes to mind. Scholarly but not too scholarly. Schama includes enough of the human anecdotal to keep our interest while presenting this historical account of some lesser-known parts of The American Revolution and The French Revolution - oh, and some history of Canada and Nova Scotia as well. The reality is a little daunting - survival as a slave is so (fortunately) removed from our own modern lives.