What with yesterday being the Fourth of July and all, I’m feeling a little patriotic, and so have a simple question:What, in your opinion, is the (mythical) Great American Novel? At least to date. A “classic,” or a current one–either would be fine. Mark Twain? J.D. Salinger? F. Scott Fitzgerald? Stephen King? Laura Ingalls Wilder?It doesn’t have to be your favorite book, mind you. “Citizen Kane” may be the “best” film, and I concede its merits, but it’s not my favorite. You don’t have to love something to know that it’s good.
Now, I know that not all of you are American–but you can play, too! What I want from you is to know what you consider to the best novel of YOUR country. It might be someone the rest of us haven’t heard of and, frankly, I think we’d all like to get some new authors to read.
In fact, while we’re at it–I’m curious about the geographical make-up of this meme. So, while you’re leaving your link to your post, tell us where in the world you are! (For the record, I’m in New Jersey, USA.)
This was tough! The quintessential Canadian novel? We have a lot of great writers, and I'm sure many people will chose a Margaret Atwood novel. The novelist I would pick woud be Pierre Burton, even though I haven't read any of his books. (yet! I'm sure I will, but they are epic in scope and large in size) How do we define ourselves? Oh, we spend hours and hours of the CBC's days trying to answer this question. We have a bit of a complex you see, living next door to our large neighbour. I spent all day comtemplating this question.
I'm going to go with Bernice Morgan's novel Random Passage and the sequel, Waiting for Time. Together, they encompass our rough history with nature, and also our desire to know our history, where we came from and who we are. Random Passage is a story of the outposts of Newfoundland, as a woman comes to investigate her heritage. It is told in flashback and describes the very primitive life of the fishers in Newfoundland and how they eked out a living. I read these books about ten years ago and remember really enjoying them.
Canada - recognizing our history, dealing with nature, and vast in scope.
Good answer--and an author I've never read, either!
ReplyDeleteLearning something new every day!! Atwood, I've read. But I haven't heard of the others!
ReplyDeleteI read Random Passage but after seeing the mini-series on CBC, I haven't rushed out to read Waiting For Time. I'm sure I'd enjoy it, as I did the first one, but now that I know how it ends, it's hard to get up the motivation. Have you seen the movie? You can now visit the site at which it was shot, complete with the old sets. Very interesting stuff. I dressed up in Thomas Hutching's old garbs and took pictures.
ReplyDeleteI picked Al Purdy's Rooms For Rent in The Outer Planets but it all depends on my mood. I'd just as easily say Mordecai Richler's Barney's Version, Wayne Johnston's Colony of Unrequited Dreams, Percy Janes's House of Hate or Alistair MacLeod's No Great Mischief. Tough question, eh?
deb, stephanie - I believe that those are Morgan's only two novels
ReplyDeletejohn- I never watched the movie and now, can't even remember what all happened. And other than Jacob two-two, I am woefully Richler-free in my reading. I hope to remedy that soon.
I remember reading MacLeod's short story book in Univerisity, 'Lost Salt Gift of the Blood' and I comtemplated picking that book for this. Very tough question.
eh? hee
Great post. See mine here: http://smsbookreviews.blogspot.com/2007/07/booking-through-thursday.html
ReplyDeleteGreat sounding book covering the sort of topics I find interesting.
ReplyDeletehave a good weekend :)
This is really fun as I don't know the authors you mentioned (except for the wonderful Atwood of course).
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