It's All About Books
So it does not look as if I will ever post the details of my Hawaiian trip because it’s been over a month since we came back and I still have yet to finish writing it up… Oh well, it was a great trip and I have (or had) a tan to show for it.I sort of lost track of the books I have read this year… I think this is right:
- ‘Vinegar Hill’ – A. Manette Ansay
- ‘Birds of a Feather’ – Jacqueline Winspear
- ‘When the Emperor Was Divine’ – Julie Otsuka
- ‘Beggars Banquet’ – Ian Rankin
- ‘ A Recipe for Bees’ – Gail Anderson-Dargatz
- ‘Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norell’ – Susanna Clarke
- ‘The Eyre Affair’ – Jasper Fforde
- ‘Deep End of the Ocean’ – Jacquelyn Mitchard
- ‘Volkswagen Blues’ – Jacque Poulin
- ‘The Secret Life of Bees’ – Sue Monk Kidd
- ‘Edge of Evil’ – J. A. Jance
I have just signed up to write book reviews for an online book review site (thanks to Yuka telling me about it). As part of the signing up process, I had to send in a sample of a review I have written. So I wrote one for ‘Volkswagen Blues’:
Title: Volkswagen Blues
Author: Jacques Poulin
Translator: Sheila Fischman
Publisher: Cormorant Books (June 2002)
Reviewed by: Anne-Gigi Chan
A 40-year-old French-Canadian writer from Montreal set out to find his long lost brother, whom he had not seen for 20 years. The only trace he had was a 15-year-old postcard from a small town in Quebec. At the beginning of his quest, he picked up a hitchhiker, a young Métis girl. Together, driving an old Volkswagen minivan, they traced the footsteps of the French explorers from the St. Lawrence to St. Louis, Missouri and then headed west along the Oregon Trail. This turned out to be a journey of self-discovery as well as a history lesson for the writer where he learned about the plight of the Native Americans through the eyes of a Métis.
With translated work, one has to wonder how much of the style of the writer actually came through in the translation. Regardless, this English version was a really nice, easy read where I was drawn into the narrator’s quest very quickly: Where did the brother go? What happened to him and what became of him? However, it was very clear soon into the book that the process of how one reaches a goal is often as, of not more, rewarding as achieving the goal itself. This book was short-listed as one of five books in CBC’s Canada Reads program in 2005. I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in exploring Canadian literature or who just wants a good read.
I am now reading a Soho Crime book called Bloodhounds by Peter Lovesey. He is a mystery writer who wrote a series of books featuring Inspector Peter Diamond and this is the first time I read his work… we will see if I will become a fan.
posted by Anne-Gigi @ 6:51 PM
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