Archive for October, 2005
Craig Davidson – Rust and Bone
When critics and reviewers try to define our country’s literary and cultural identity, there are a few adjectives that never spring up. To wit: “shocking,” “lurid,” “bizarre,” “sensational,” and “visceral.” Craig Davidson’s fiction tends to be set in places such as St. Catharines or Welland, Ontario, but all of these terms can be favourably applied to his work. Like a gleeful bull in the china shop of staid and worthy Can Lit, Davidson is defining his own literary identity by shattering conventions.
Paul McCartney Live
How fortunate we are that the most successful songwriter in pop history is also one of the best. In an age when faceless producers sonically engineer chart-topping songs for series of one-hit wonders, Paul McCartney has a rare mix of universal accessibility and unmistakeable personality.
Neil Gaiman
The world is strewn with self-pitying accounts of the dreadful slogs of rock bands on tour, but when Neil Gaiman gave up performing music at an early age, he didn’t envision that the life of a travelling author could be even less enviable. Signing books till 1 a.m., leaving the hotel at 6 for the next city, giving media interviews in the morning, and reading and signing sometimes twice per day, with nary a day off …
