Canada Reads 2011 - preliminary thoughts

At the risk of fanning the flames of controversy, I'd like to take a moment to discuss Canada Reads 2011.

And please note: I am hardly a disinterested third party here. As my novel Shelf Monkey is in their rankings of the Top 40 Novels, I do have a somewhat vested interest in the contest.

Canada Reads was launched ten years ago by CBC, an effort to bring to attention certain books that each year's jurors wished other Canadians would read. It has always been an imperfect contest, prone to pushing already popular novels out further into the spotlight, but has led to some interesting books receiving a level of public consciousness they might not normally have achieved (Fruit, Brown Girl in the Ring, Natasha and Other Stories etc.).

As some of you likely know, this year the organizers behind Canada Reads have altered its format, allowing Canadians to personally vote for the one book they wished everyone would read. From this list, the top 40 selections would be deemed 'The Top 40 Essential Canadian Novels of the Decade.' This decision to change format likely arrived as a result of public dissatisfaction with past years' selections as being a trifle too obvious. Suffice to say, when Oprah has already chosen a book for her club, it has reached a level undreamed of by most, and gets read all over the continent. Doing a Canada Reads debate on that book, regardless of its quality, seems a touch superfluous.

Already, this new format had major flaws, akin to any such lists. Voting in such a venue is a crapshoot at best, with already well-known novels likely to dominate, and smaller novels falling by the wayside unless the author/publisher makes a conscious decision to personally push a novel to get on the list.

And this is exactly what has happened; I'm proof of that. I did not go out of my way to solicit votes from strangers, I did not purchase billboard space, I did not launch attack ads against Joseph Boyden. I simply put up a public Facebook page and invited friends to vote for me, and put up a blog post as well (and if you did indeed vote for me, my deepest thanks to you and yours). If others wanted to join in, so much the better. But by focusing a group of willing participants to vote for one single novel en masse, I squeaked in and got on the list. The Top 40 is chock full of well-known, best-selling authors (and I do not mean to slight them, these are quality novels), but by virtue of a coordinated attack (the closest I'll ever get to reaching a level approaching competitiveness), both myself and number of other, lesser-known quantities such as Chris Benjamin and Leo McKay got ourselves prime positions on the list.

Frankly, I don't see anything wrong with this. In today's environment, it's increasingly hard to get recognized, and every little bit of publicity helps. I don't consider this hucksterism, or akin to prostitution (a charge leveled on me and others by a few bloggers); I consider it an opportunity, for free advertising if nothing else. Being that Canada has a few very large publishing companies that dominate the sales lists, us small-time hoods have to step up once in awhile to make ourselves heard. And besides, just being on the same list as Atwood, Boyden, Vanderhaeghe, Martel, and Shields is a thrill unto itself.

It's all silly anyway. Really, 'Top 40 Essential Novels?' Such a list is impossible to define, prone to massive subjectivity, and is far better used as a marketing ploy than a definitive collection. Which is what I suspect this all is; you can't deny, people are talking. At least, people who follow Canada Reads. If, as they claim, they had over 6000 votes, that's a sizable contingent of literary lovers.

From the Top 40, the original plan was for the five unnamed jurors to chose their Top 10, and then from those the five they would debate together on national radio in 2011. Now, at literally the last minute, Canada Reads has changed the conditions of the test, and left it to the public to decide the top 10. After the cutoff date of November 7, 2010, the as-yet-unknown jurors will be forced to choose their selections from that much smaller list.

This new decision has led to both enthusiasm and outright condemnation, and without meaning to appear wishy-washy, I do see both sides here and heartily agree with both arguments. By limiting the choices, presumably at least one of the jurors will end up with a novel he or she does not actually care about in the slightest, which could lead to a less-than-enthusiastic debate. And conceivably, as they were not declared verboten, the Top 10 could be made up entirely of past winners and nominees, leading to, again, a less-than-riveting chat about books we've all already read (or are at least familiar with).

This is a real risk, and I agree, the format this year is hardly ideal. The Top 40, while a very strong collection, is very possibly going to be whittled down to an unimpressive line-up of already popular titles. This is what happens when a large amount of people are polled, the result ends up rather homogenized in nature. I sometimes wonder, if this list included American novels, would Dan Brown have made the cut? I fear so.

But I cannot tell a lie (unless you count writing fiction as telling lies, in which case, I am an inveterate liar): I'd like to get into the top 10. I do not hold my breath on this possibility, I've already beaten the odds to get this far. But I like it when people read what I've written. I like it when people buy my book. Am I going to return the $4.00 in royalties I've made so far on Amazon.ca for sales since the Top 40 announcement? I am not, and to come out against the Canada Reads format this year would be supremely hypocritical on my part.

But what if? That's the question. Laying aside my own selfish concerns for a moment, what if we could get the list we want? Look at the Top 40 as it stands now: these are terrific fictions, and while some have arguably had their critical/commercial days in the sun (and not to take away anything from their accomplishments thus far - I think it part of the Canadian condition to distrust those who have achieved a certain level of success, but I will not succumb, I truly love many of these fine best-selling works), there are others so gawd-damned deserving of wider recognition that I salivate at the thought of a Canada Reads debate on their merits.

Think of a Top 10 like this:

1. Inside by Kenneth J. Harvey
2. Come Thou Tortoise by Jessica Grant
3. Skim by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki
4. The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis
5. Pattern Recognition by William Gibson
6. Bottle Rocket Hearts by Zoe Whittall
7. Conceit by Mary Novik
8. Elle by Douglas Glover
9. The Fallen by Stephen Finucan
10. Moody Food by Ray Robertson

Now that would be an interesting selection. Some well-known, some esoteric, all winners, all deserving.

Do I wish that the overall list was different? Of course. I wish desperately that past winners and nominees were ineligible, to lend more space to deserving books. I wish Minister Faust has made the list; ditto John McFetridge, Peter Darbyshire, Andrew Kaufman, Emily Schultz, and Jonathan Bennett, amongst many, many others.

But I don't make the rules, I only work within them, so all I can do is work my small part of the world and hope that it is enough, and enjoy whatever fame/notoriety I can.

So if you want, please ignore Canada Reads this year, it won't hurt my feelings one bit. But if you are going to vote, vote wisely. Start up your own campaigns for your favourite novels. Let's do our best to sneak a few outsiders on the list.

And if I turn out to be one of the outsiders, I won't complain.

Monkey droppings - Elle by Douglas Glover: "When the New and the Old Worlds meet, first we exchange corpses."

Today, the monkey continues his chimp-love of a Canadian literary master.




Elle
by Douglas Glover

[WARNING: THE FOLLOWING QUOTE IS LIKELY NSFW. ALSO, IT IS AWESOME.]

Oh Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I am aroused beyond all reckoning, beyond memory, in a ship's cabin on a spumy gulf somewhere west of Newfoundland, with the so-called Comte d'Epirgny, five years since bad-boy tennis champion of Orleans, tucked between my legs. Admittedly, Richard is turning green from the ship's violent motions, and if he notices the rat hiding behind the shit bucket, he will surely puke. But I have looped a cord round the base of his cock to keep him hard.

Now that is an opening paragraph to be reckoned with.

A few months ago I came across a copy of Douglas Glover's Precious, a novel I had always been meaning to read. I found it an utter delight, a Canadian hard-boiled noir that ranks with the best of Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald. Thus emboldened, I picked up a copy of Elle, somehow expecting more of the same.

Witness my shock, then, at not only the opening paragraph (see above), but at the content, as far at odds with Precious' subject matter as you can get. Imagine discovering that Dashiell Hammett also wrote Naval histories; that weird.

And double my shock at this; Elle is very likely a masterpiece, a breathtaking, bold, coarse, witty, sexy, mythic, and scatological take on Canadian history unlike any historical novel I have ever read. Keep in mind I'm not a historical fiction type of guy, all told, but still: wow. This may be my favourite historical novel of all time.

As you can see from above, Elle starts with a bang. The narrator (only known as Elle) is on her uncle's ship, travelling from France to Canada in 1542. Elle is a desperately intelligent woman, and is prone to questioning all that is somehow taken for granted in her world:

In Orleans, in 1542, there are forty-three tennis courts . . . it makes you think. There are only thirty-seven churches. Yet we burn Protestant heretics (also horse thieves, book publishers, books themselves and the occasional impolitic author when we can get one) and not maladroit tennis players. What one is to make of this odd circumstance, I cannot say.

Elle may be too smart for her own times - "Like many women, I know what I don't know - a duplicity of mental operation caused by living in a world run by men and Dominican priests." - and her unusual nature makes her prone to condemnation. After being caught with her lover by her uncle, Elle is quickly set ashore in the Canadian wilderness along with Richard and her nurse.

Her companions quickly perish, but Elle, stripped from her high European upbringing, somehow manages to survive the harsh new terrain:

I have made many mistakes. I blame printed books for this, a recent invention which has led us to solitary pleasures: reason, private opinions, moral relativism, Lutheranism and masturbation.

Elle soon discovers that the new world is scouring her of her past, making her into something more than she ever thought possible. She is stronger than she ever thought, evolving into something new and unseen, something harder that the world may be unprepared for.

What Glover accomplishes in Elle is something wonderful and rare; he makes Canadian history come alive. I don't mean to say that the novel is completely factual (although it is based on certain historical accounts); I mean that in a genre often typified by ponderous tomes of deep research and accuracy at the expense of narrative drive (I'm looking at you, Parrot and Olivier in America), Elle is, gosh darn it, fun. It's a lively beast, this book, with a story that leaps off the page. It moves, it breathes, it zigs and zags with glee, and goshdarnit, it breaks your heart. And while Glover keeps a light touch, Elle is hardly insubstantial, with a breadth of compassion and drama that puts most other novels to shame, historical fiction or not.

I'm not much for high-toned reviews; I like them, but I don't think I'm smart enough to complete one on my own without a lot of advance prepwork. I read this book for pleasure, and believe me, I was pleased. So I'll leave it at this: Elle is an amazing piece of work.

VERDICT: MONKEY LOVES

The Husk Chronicles, Episode One - ACCEPTANCE

My, Corey, what an intriguing post title.

And what a nauseating image (courtesy of Rob Sachetto's Zombie Daily blog).

What's it all about?

Well, you may have noticed a marked decline in the posting of posts on this here website. Frankly, I've been rather busy. The new job as publicist for Goose Lane Editions keeps my brain a'popping, leaving me with scant energy at the end of the workday. I do what I can, but I am at heart a lazy man who needs serious downtime.

And now, the posts may be coming with even less regularity, although I will do my best to update, review, and whine. Another element has been added to the mix, one which will definitely eat away at my time, time usually spent watching House or 30 Rock. You see, after years (no hyperbole here, folks, bloody years) of wait, and work, and false starts and restarts, the almost unthinkable has occurred. Corey Redekop, your one and only favourite writer of novels and blogs entitled Shelf Monkey, has had his sophomore novel accepted for publication.

Now, now, put away your wallet, stop searching online for the best price. It will be some time before Husk (that's the title) reaches shelves. We're talking 2012 here, so you have plenty of time to start putting away the pennies. Why, just saving a dime a day will put you so far ahead you'll be able to afford two copies. Good for you, good for me.

But this will mean much time and effort be placed into editing, which goes on and on and on, and as a result, less reviews. I will desperately try to keep all three of you still reading this sentence entertained and informed, but no guarantees.

And the image? Suffice to say, Husk is not (despite some pleas from earnest fans) a sequel to Shelf Monkey. It is, rather, what I refer to as the Great Canadian Zombie Novel (hence the image). I feel I'm on pretty solid ground with that claim; there simply haven't been that many Canadian zombie novels, certainly not written from the zombie's POV. There was a small segment of Max Brooks' World War Z set in Canada, and Joey Comeau's One Bloody Thing After Another had its fair share of undead mayhem, but that might be it. Except for Tony Burgess' Pontypool Changes Everything, a gutbusting masterpiece, but really so much, much more that a 'zombie novel.'

So, prep yourselves for the 2012 release of Husk. I'll be blogging updates on my progress, as well as other things that entertain/infuriate me.

And if you can't wait until 2012, consider voting for Shelf Monkey at the CBC Reads nomination page, on until October 26. It'll help pass the time.