June 18, 2012
Books here and there
In the latest issue of UofT Magazine, I’ve got a short piece about Katrina Onstad’s new novel Everybody Has Everything:
“Katrina Onstad (MA 1999) might be best known for her national newspaper and magazine columns, but her debut novel How Happy to Be was celebrated for its satire, wit, and examination of loving and working in the 21st century. In her new novel, Everybody Has Everything, Onstad takes a similar approach, once again considering the isolating aspects of contemporary urban life. Through her characters James and Ana, she uses the perspective of a longchildless couple to take a provocative look at modern parenthood, illuminating the absurdity of a culture that has turned “parent” into a verb.” (Read the rest)
And my review of the picture book David Weale and Pierre Pratt’s Doors in the Air, which I loved, has just gone online at Quill & Quire:
“In one of the final illustrations, the boy is perched atop an orange door like a flying carpet, on a journey to the moon. The accompanying text suggests there is no doorway more important than one’s limitless imagination, and drives home the book’s subversive and powerful message: ‘Remember, you don’t have to stay where you are.'” (Read the rest)