by prfire | Apr 5, 2016 | All Reviews, Book Reviews, Fiction
Catherine Hunter’s fourth novel, After Light, is an intricate family chronicle, a story of stubbornness and self-preservation, hardship and survival. The narrative moves from Ireland to New York to Canada, following the lives of Deirdre Quinn, her son Frank Garrison,...
by prfire | Mar 9, 2016 | All Reviews, Book Reviews, Drama
Clem Martini’s volume of one-act plays delivers what its title promises: Martini with a Twist. The latest and thirtieth in the important Prairie Play Series from NeWest Press is an attractively packaged and appropriately titled cocktail of a book full of...
by prfire | Feb 9, 2016 | Book Reviews, Drama
When I first encountered Canadian theatre, I was told a specific difficulty local practitioners faced was the lack of an “established” status for local playwrights to aspire to. It was explained that “lack of history” was to blame for the permanent condition of the...
by prfire | Jan 11, 2016 | Book Reviews, Poetry
Though Laurie Kruk’s latest book of poems, My Mother Did Not Tell Stories, possesses an ambivalent title – storytelling either as a way of transferring lore around a kitchen table, or as a euphemism for lying – her poetry steers clear of added or extended meanings....
by prfire | Oct 15, 2015 | Book Reviews, Poetry
It is fortuitous that I began reading a book on quantum theory while reviewing this book. A poet like Don Domanski bears his words well enough, yet he steers us in the direction of the primordial soup. Not that his soup of words and physics isn’t glorious and radiant,...
by prfire | Sep 2, 2015 | Book Reviews, Fiction
Margaret Sweatman’s fifth novel, Mr. Jones, is an atmospheric tour-de-force. The winner of the most recent Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction, Mr. Jones employs the conventions of a Cold War spy novel, engaging the big questions characteristic of the genre: loyalty,...
