Another Shelf Monkey podcast

Until I figure out how to link these things together, I'll just draw your attention to my second podcast of an excerpt from Shelf Monkey, to be found here.

Planet Reese by Codelia Strube - review

Cordelia Strube is a realist, in the most extreme sense. Not for her the provincial world of traditional CanLit, where horrific events classically occur through the gauzy mist of nostalgia, in a tiny Newfoundland community where the inhabitants are untouched by world events.

Strube rejects this cliché, embracing Canada as it exists in all its healthcare fiascos, climate change, and shortsighted government policies. Her Canada is one overrun by “doughy cretins, unable to see beyond their own greed and consumption,” and after six novels, Strube holds claim to being a premier purveyor of feel-bad Canadian literature.

Planet Reese continues this trend, beginning with its protagonist Reese Larkin at the lowest depths of despair, and seeing how much more punishment one man can take. It is more or less a retelling of the Book of Job, except far funnier, and holy salvation at tale’s end appears exceedingly unlikely.

Reese is an environmentalist beset on a multitude of fronts by the plagues of the 21st century. His wife has taken their children, and only communicates through a social worker. In order to prove he can hold down a ‘real’ job, he has taken a position with a marketing/phone centre, “a thankless, repulsive job and only the desperate or truly naïve can stand it, and even they never last.”

Making matters worse, he accidentally kills an innocent man on a plane, and is thereafter mistakenly heralded as a hero for thwarting a presumed terrorist attack. Overwhelmed with guilt and shame, his days are now filled with news reports of domestic abuse, murder, and environmental degradation, and for some reason he cannot find himself a comfortable mattress or a good, cheap pair of shoes.

Reese’s manic rage at being ostracized for caring about the planet forms Planet Reese’s blackly comic heart. A Quixotic figure, even Reese is surprised by his cynicism, unable to even enjoy a documentary on Christopher Reeve without thinking about “the money involved in trying to mend a severed spinal cord…money that could be sent to seventeen month-old babies in North Korea or Iraq or Afghanistan.”

Strube’s refusal to sugarcoat the insanity of “the Western world’s insatiable quest for the perfect chair and mattress” may serve to dissuade a reader from visiting Planet Reese. It is a valid criticism of the majority of Strube’s past output that too much hopelessness can be hard to take.

Yet Strube’s fondness for her put-upon characters is such that Planet Reese remains entertaining even as Reese digs himself a psychological hole so deep he cannot competently function in life. Bewildered at how “anyone could rest their head on a hundred dollar pillow when stick-thin Ethiopian children and stacks of corpses were in the news,” Reese sets himself up for the kind of self-destructive breakdown good literature excels at.

“When you no longer hope for signs of intelligence, compassion or kindness,” Reese howls, “are you safe from harm?” Strube doesn’t provide an answer, but in asking the question, she has ensured that Canadian fiction will remain relevant to the perils of our age.

First published in The Winnipeg Free Press, April 22, 2007.

Shelf Monkey - Quill & Quire review

Well, here's the Quill & Quire review in its entirety. As you can see, not the most complimentary of reviews. Still, despite my misgivings, hurt feelings, and strange feeling that the reviewer did not pay attention to certain parts (some of his plot details are sorely wrong), I must admit that not everyone will like my book.

*sob

But it's not a pan, and he is somewhat complimentary at parts, so I'll take it.

Shelf Monkey -the podcast edition

I've been playing with some podcasting tools, trying to think of a summer project for kids in my library. I've tested the tools, and have uploaded a small podcast of myself reading my wonderful novel Shelf Monkey.

Click here to hear it, and please, as always, be kind.

G'day! Shelf Monkey goes international!

Not that likely anyone reading this is in the area of which I write, but Shelf Monkey is also available for purchase in Australia.

As well, both the Belmont and Golden Plains Mobile Library have purchased copies.

Oy! Crocodile Monkee! That's not a book! Now, that's a book! Throw another Dan Brown on the barbie!

I'm on the Giller Extremely Long List!

I just realized, as a Canadian novel, I'm eligible for the Giller! Which means, as of right now, I am officially on the Giller Looooong List!

Gosh, who do I thank? God, of course, thanks, Big Cheese. Mom, Dad, I love you. Cathy, baby, I couldn't have done it without you! My editor Jen, for believing in me! Miriam Toews, for providing encouragement! Uh, my heroes, of course, you know who you are. Oh, and to all my frie...

What?

Oh, Ondaatje also is on the list? And the cover of the Globe and Mail books section? My loss is all but assured? I'm being an ass? I don't really have a chance?

But what about...? No, you're right. Thanks for putting it all in perspective.

Damn.

Shelf Monkey - on the shelf!

My thanks to Suzanne Kluke (by way of Albert Bazinet), who has taken the first photos of Shelf Monkey on the shelves of McNally Robinson Booksellers.

And below, Shelf Monkey, on the 7-Day Release shelve of my home away from home, Thompson Public Library.

Random Thompson Photo #2

Corner of Juniper Drive and Selkirk Avenue, 9:01am, April 19, 2007.

Random Thompson Photo #1

Corner of Cree Road and Hemlock Crescent, 11:03am, April 17, 2007.

Yann Martel is a genius!

"For as long as Stephen Harper is Prime Minister of Canada, I vow to send him every two weeks, mailed on a Monday, a book that has been known to expand stillness. That book will be inscribed and will be accompanied by a letter I will have written. I will faithfully report on every new book, every inscription, every letter, and any response I might get from the Prime Minister, on this website."

So states novelist Yann Martel, on his hopefully ongoing website What is Stephen Harper Reading? Martel, after a ghastly five minutes in the House of Commons, decided that Prime Minister Harper (did a goose just walk over my grave as I wrote that?) will receive one new book every two weeks. Why? So that maybe, just maybe, during those few precious minutes every day that PMH might devote to its pages, he might gain a better comprehension on the importance of art to society.

Mr. Martel, I salute you.

Note: the site has no RSS feed as of yet, so you can't set a blogreader to alert you to new entries. Just have to remember to check.

Shelf Monkey - Winnipeg Free Press, April 15, 2007

You may notice a lovely little piece of newsprint to the left here. Well, click on it to enlarge, so that you may revel in the first official Shelf Monkey published review!

Now, it's not a spectacular review - try as I might, I cannot find the words "Giller Prize," "award-worthy," or "Booker bait" anywhere in its 500+ words. And it's not a rave, although Mr. Armstrong seems to enjoy it overall. There's a spot or two where I'd like to debate him personally - while his opinion on Fitzgerald is valid, I'll stake my nowhere-near-as-large-as-I-think reputation that Hemingway wrote some novels of remarkable restraint and subtlety, and The Sun Also Rises is the quintessential novel of shallow people personified - but on the whole, I am pleased. I never thought Shelf Monkey was perfect, and anyone who thinks I didn't take into account the possible irony of being a bad novel while at the same time denouncing said bad novels does me too little credit.

So, there it is. Thank you, Bob Armstrong, for being the first critic in a series of what I hope to be favourable reviews.

Vonnegut's guide to writing good

In the continuing volley of accolades, self-flagellation, and weeping that has followed the death of Kurt Vonnegut, I present, via Boing Boing, Vonnegut's guide to writing (from his collection Bagombo Snuff Box):

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things -- reveal character or advance the action.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them -- in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

I will definitely keep these pointers in mind, especially #6. Punish them! I'd like to think I made Thomas Friesen (hero of Shelf Monkey) go through hell.

Shelf Monkey - final proof that it wasn't all an elaborate joke

It came in the mail.
What could it be, I wondered.
The tension was electric.
Could it be...?
YES!
The fabled final published version of Shelf Monkey!!
Ah, 'tis a glorious thing indeed!
And the monkeys seem to like them.

And the winner of the finest Kurt Vonnegut tribute goes to...

The Onion, the brilliant online satirical newsmagazine, who came up with this howler of an epitaph:

"Who's going to be the next century's voice of confusion and dread? Nancy Grace can't last forever."

Awesome.

The world is now a far poorer place. Hi ho.

Rest in Peace, Mr. Vonnegut.

Other will write volumes on Vonnegut's legacy, his humanity, his absolute genius. All I can write at this moment is that I am more upset than I thought possible. I hope he went out like his hero in Cat's Cradle, on his back, hand out, middle finger extended, telling us all what he thought of this world.

You will be deeply missed. There has never been anyone like you.

So it goes.

The dream

I was sitting in a classroom, listening to the professor pontificate on whatever it is professors pontificate about. I never was good at paying attention.

The entire back wall behind the lecturing professor was covered in books. One book, over and over again. My book. Shelf Monkey, that bloody fire motif replicated a thousand times over.

The professor started reading passages from my novel for the class, pointing out flaws, inaccuracies, and generally bad writing style. He panned it, in other words.

People began to file out. They gave me pitying glances, a nod or two of sadness. One pupil put his hand on my shoulder. "That's too bad, man," he said.

"But you're supposed to buy the books," I said to the backs of the retreating students. "I have to sell them."

CBC North Country wakes me with the weather.

In case you didn't want to pay for your copy...

Libraries with orders for Shelf Monkey:

Ottawa Public Library - 4 copies

London Public Library - 5 copies

Toronto Public Libraries - 14 copies

Saskatoon Public Library - 1 copy

Halifax Public Libraries - 1 copy

Regina Public Library - 1 copy

Winnipeg Public Libraries - 6 copies

Calgary Public Libraries - 3 copies

Wheatland Public Library - 1 copy

Greater Victoria Public Library - 2 copies

Weldon Library, University of Western Ontario - 1 copy

Thompson Public Library - 1 copy

Belmont and Golden Plains Mobile Library (Australia) - 2 copies


43 copies so far!