Book Review Kanada by Eva Wiseman

If I'd known this was a young adult book, I probably wouldn't have picked it up. If I wasn't committed to the Canadian Book Challenge, I probably would have put it down half way. But I persevered, and I don't feel like reading it was a waste of time.

Ms Wiseman says in the Acknowledgements that the events chronicled in the story are the recollections of her parents before, during and after the Holocaust. Kanada is divided along those same timelines, Limbo, Hell, Paradiso. The heroine, Jutka is transported out of Limbo straight to Hell. Does she, at the end, find Paradise?

I think, collectively, we have become a little (tragically) jaded toward the horrors of the Nazi plan. We know what happened in Auschwitz, in the gas chambers and cattle trains. For me, reading about these horrors in a first person voice is a little jarring, a first person child's voice, a little more so, but it's not so different that I couldn't put the book down, not so excruciating that I couldn't put in a book mark and go make dinner.

I'm going to offer this book to the history department at the high school. Like Anne Frank, Eva Wiseman offers a personal view of the War that might strike a chord and bring history a little more alive.

Well, it is December

Here we go. Today it got *up* to 17º and all that up there is due tomorrow night. Heavy snow, followed by ice. By this time Tuesday we'll all be singing "it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas." I'm going to guess we'll have a snow day Monday. Perfect timing - I'm dropping off the truck Sunday afternoon to get the snow tires put on Monday. Who knows when I'll get it back.

I finished 1000 Splendid Suns - less than a week. For me, lately, that's a superfast read. I loved it, right up to the last 100 or so pages. The end was just too sunshiney, given how grim the rest of the book was. I suspect, though, that I'll read Mr. Hosseini's next book, whenever and whatever that might be. His characters captivate me. Next up, Kanada by Eva Wiseman another selection for the Canadian Book Challenge over -> there.

Next?

I've vacated the Next 4 list, with the exception of the current #1. I really ought to include Alana's and Katherine's scarves, but they've become my "it's too dark to count threads anymore so I'm putting Joy away" project and they'll be done in time. Next Christmas brings the threat blessing of two 16 year old giftees, my sister's oldest, Phillip, and my second brother's youngest (finally!), Alana. For Phillip I have no idea yet, so I'll let that percolate a bit. For Alana, whose favourite colour according to my mom is (yeah!!!) red, I think I'll go with a traditional two colour red and white, or red and *something* Lady of the Lake.

I've been enamoured of the block since I read Alias Grace a long time ago, and now its time has come. It won't look quite so traditional, though. You'll see. :o) Hey, I could re-read Grace for my Canadian Book Challenge. Yeah! Bet I don't have it anymore though. I'll give the library a peek later in the week when the kids are all home and making me nuts.

So, huh. Look at that, I guess I've got my next four pondered out. #1 is the Nesting Robin, then scarves, then Alana, then Phillip. Well, that was easy!

And while I was at it, I added a cool little Amazon widget of all the books I've read recently. Easy peasy, too!

Book Review

Divisadero, Michael Ondaatje,
McClelland & Stewart, Toronto, 2007

What a ride! Michael Ondaatje's clear perspective into the intimacies of his broken characters is powerful. And they are all broken - by loss, by love, by life itself. Narrated by Anna, whose past is revealed within the story of French poet Lucien Segura, scene after scene, situation after graphic situation, these people come alive

I have loved Michael Ondaatje's words since I first discovered them, introduced by an English Teacher who I believe saw that I loved words as much as he did. Thanks, Mr. Lee.