Anne Fine’s Fly in the Ointment takes me quickly through the life of Lois, whose son is dead after a lengthy stint of heroin use and whose husband has left her without saying goodbye. Indifferent to the dull, unpleasant husband and grieving for her son, Lois interrupts her second life of solitude and simple pleasures ...
If you’re interested in feminist discussions of pornography, there are a number of must-read texts you should check out and Pamela Paul’s Pornified is one of them. Published in 2005, Paul’s analysis of a society so accustomed to everyday images of softcore pornography and increasingly desensitized to more hardcore offerings, is every bit as relevant ...
Much talk of girls and girlhood on International Women’s Day 2012 inspired me to re-read the most inspirational book of my own girlhood, Roald Dahl’s Matilda. Matilda is not unusual for a Roald Dahl character — a small person who turns the tables on the big people — but she is unusual amongst girls in ...
Margaret Laurence’s last novel, The Diviners, provoked controversy amongst advocates of censorship when it first hit the shelves. In 1976 religious leaders attempting to have it removed from schools and libraries said that it “reeked of sordidness.” What higher acclaim can a novel have? Morag Gunn, Laurence’s protagonist, is a woman. You know what that ...
Val McDermid’s A Darker Domain is a nicely constructed, complex tartan noir about a 20-year-old cold case; a murdered woman and her missing baby, and a missing miner. Though the book isn’t character-driven on the surface, it’s the characters who stand out for me, in particular DI Karen Pirie and Bel Richmond. Neither Bel, the ...
It’s a strange thing for me to love Charles Bukowsky, renowned hater of women. And yet from the first time I read his notorious 1978 semi-autobiographical novel Women, I did. It’s a chronicle of abuse and misery. Bukowsky’s character Henry Chinaski is a self-aware, utterly unromantic alcoholic who has cold sexual encounters with women. Chinaski ...
Tales of the City, the first of Amistead Maupin’s series of six novels, was originally serialized in 1978 with the final installment appearing in 2010. It’s likely you’ve heard of the series, if not read the books. Viewed through the eyes of Mary Anne Singleton, a young woman, from what the reader is meant to ...
It is one of the oldest institutions in the world. Most humans are actively engaged in it as I write this. Some people spend their whole lives searching for it, but does anyone actually know what marriage is? In Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage, Elizabeth Gilbert attempts to find the answers. She looks ...
My first encounter with Kitchen, Banana Yoshimoto’s 1988 novel (translated into English in 1993 by Megan Backus) was in the late 90s when I discovered a copy wedged into the corner of a library shelf. It’s a small novel; only 150 pages. Yoshimoto’s language is simple, with short sentences describing action in unromantic language. Despite ...
This Wednesday is Burns Night, a celebration of Robert Burns’ work which will be observed in detail (from Toast to the Lassies to Address to a Haggis) by people all over the world, including many of the 4.7 million Scots in Canada. Burns’ work travels. Auld Lang Syne is sung globally every New Year. He ...
Dear Madame X, I recently found out that one of my friends has been hit by her boyfriend. She...
As a teenager I was so absorbed in the chemical make-up of Jane Eyre, I didn’t have much time...
Men like peeing in the shower. That’s a fact. Of course, it’s pretty easy for anyone to do it,...
It’s that time of year, when spring blossoms counteract the car pollution, beer gardens are filled with humans on...
The latest film in the American Pie series, American Reunion, contains a shocking scene – male full-frontal nudity including...
Dear Madame X, I have just started seeing this girl. She seems great, but she recently told me she...
Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved arrived in my hands via a public library, when I was a broke teenager with...
My attention was drawn this week to an article about the reaction at a Canadian university to proposals to...
