The best part of Ann-Marie MacDonald’s Fall on Your Knees are the scenes that describe Kathleen as a happy child. These are the scenes when it is possible to imagine there might be something good in the world, even if that good thing has red hair. But that possibility is soon quashed and the remainder of the novel gave me nightmares. Actual wake-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night nightmares about water ghosts and red haired demon children and the rosary. Continue reading
Category Archives: Fiction
Les Canadiens: We are the spirit of Quebec, you stupid goats!
Dryden: “As perhaps the most visible and accessible symbol of Quebec, they allow people to pour out their feelings toward Quebec through this travelling surrogate, the Canadiens” (7).
The Players: “How can we be wrong about this? We are the spirit of Quebec, you stupid goats! We always have been! We’re you! And we’re telling you, you’re full of shit! Goddammit, take the wax out of your ears!” (169).
Filed under Canadian Literature, Fiction
Wolf Hall: Too much of the English
The problem is usually the Russians. All the “Ts” and “Ps” and “Ns” are trouble because I read names and think, “oh – the N—- guy, he’s bad.” Lord of the Rings – certainly not Russian – posed the same problem. I didn’t realize there were two bad guys because both of them started with an “S.” I get it, Satan is bad, so are S—- and S—-. But the names give me trouble.
Filed under Booker Prize, British literature, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Prize Winner
Literary Vice 