Stillwater by Darcy Friesen Hossack New Westminster: Tidewater Press, 2023 $22.95 / 9781990160202 Reviewed by Candace Fertile * Darcy Friesen Hossack’s debut novel, Stillwater, plays on her own Mennonite and Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) background. The main character, Lizzy, a teenage girl with aspirations of a medical career, is forced to move with her family to…
Read more 1929 Perseverance in a closed community
Not Quite So Handsome By Danny Peart Vancouver: Milagro Press, 2022 $20.00 / 9780994932969 Reviewed by Patrick Connors * Vancouver’s Danny Peart begins Not Quite So Handsome with the poem “Intention,” which serves as sort of a prologue to the collection. The epigraph of the poem features lyrics from “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood,” by…
Read more 1873 Last words, famous and otherwise
Storylines: How Words Shape Our World by J. Edward Chamberlin Madeira Park, BC: Douglas & McIntyre, 2023 $26.95 / 9781771623513 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * British novelist D.H. Lawrence once quipped that readers should trust the tale and not the teller. What did he mean? Prof emeritus J. Edward Chamberlin offers some possible answers in…
Read more 1853 Trust the tale not the teller?
Interview channel update by Richard Mackie * Since January 2023 Trevor Hughes, interim non-fiction editor of The British Columbia Review, has branched out as Video Segment Producer and curator of our new Interview Channel, hosted by YouTube. So far, Trevor has uploaded thirteen interviews that capture in words a broad spectrum of British Columbian authors,…
Read more 1841 BC Review interviews update
Sixty-Seven Ontological Studies: 49 Poems & 18 Photographs by Jan Zwicky & Robert V. Moody Calgary: Freehand Books, 2022 $24.95 / 9781990601095 Reviewed by Ron Dart * Poetry and photography, when at their compressed, suggestive and congealed best, speak a speech that evokes and summons forth depths within the longing soul. Such is the poetry…
Read more 1822 The mixing of textual & visual
Welcome Trevor and Brett by Richard Mackie * On behalf of the Board of the Ormsby Literary Society and our Advisory Board I’d like to welcome Trevor Marc Hughes and Brett Josef Grubisic as interim editors of The British Columbia Review for the year May 1, 2023 to May 1, 2024. The position was made possible…
Read more 1813 Welcome Trevor and Brett
Well Aged: Making the Most of Your Platinum Years by Ralph Milton Madeira Park: Douglas and McIntyre, 2021 $24.95 / 9781771623100 Reviewed by Lee Reid * “Why did I wait until age eighty before I grew up?” quips author and retired publisher of Kelowna’s Wood Lake Books Ralph Milton, now aged 89. Growing old means…
Read more 1807 A worthwhile anecdotage
Poetry omnibus: Linda Rogers reviews ten new books by BC poets: * When archetypes have flesh by Linda Rogers Every Chinese Emperor/ Empress chose a note to indicate the tone of his or her time. The sound of now would seem to be rust or dislocation, the squeaking doors signified by books in this omnibus…
Read more 1793 When archetypes have flesh
Looking Back, Moving Forward: 160 Years of Jewish Life in BC by Michael Schwartz (editor) Vancouver: Jewish Museum and Archives of BC, [2020] $50.00 / 9780969126881 Reviewed by Richard Kool To place an order, contact the museum at (604) 257-5199 or email at info@jewishmuseum.ca * The urge to establish formal organizations, clubs, societies, buildings, cemeteries…
Read more 1791 Honey, you forgot the Island
Moonlight Serenade: Embracing Aging Mindfully by Gordon Wallace Victoria: FriesenPress, 2022 $28.49 / 9781039133020 Reviewed by Lee Reid * “If not now, when?” How often do we contemplate this rhetorical refrain as we question how to live well, if not more fully, through our remaining moonlight years? The catchy refrain is frequently invoked in Moonlight…
Read more 1782 Whispers from the future
Announcing the BC Review interview series by Richard Mackie * In November 2022, at the most recent board meeting of the Ormsby Literary Society, the chair, Byron Sheardown, suggested that we open a YouTube channel and start an interview series. Board member Trevor Marc Hughes jumped at the suggestion. “I’ve got filmmaking experience,” he said,…
Read more 1757 Announcing interview series
Susan/Elizabeth — a love poem by Kitty Blandy * I smell you before you arrive Leather and grass and skin Where have you been today? Friend, companion, confidante. I’m following. We joined at the beginning Before the beginning – Or maybe it was just at the end. You took me from singular to plural.[1] From…
Read more 1741 Susan/Elizabeth: a love poem
The Growing Season by Nelson Boschman, with a foreword by Lois Cho Vancouver: Nelson Boschman, 2022 $23.99 / 9781778083105 Reviewed by Dennis Wilkinson * Nelson Boschman displays an orgasmic-like giddiness towards wine. He is the eight-year-old at Christmas time, and wine is the biggest present under the tree with his name on it. This book…
Read more 1729 Wine and spirits
Ariadne Then and Now: The Labyrinth and the End of Times (third edition) by Carol Matthews Seattle and elsewhere: NeoPoiesis Press, 2022 $21.95 ($16.95 (U.S.) / 9798985833607 Reviewed by Lenore Rowntree * A modern labyrinth in the classical Cretan-style with the addition of Chartres-style double-ax shapes at the turning points. A stone construction labyrinth surrounded…
Read more 1728 Out of the labyrinth
Feeling Feminism: Activism, Affect, and Canada’s Second Wave by Lara Campbell, Michael Dawson, and Catherine Gidney (editors) Vancouver: UBC Press, 2022 $34.95 / 9780774866507 Reviewed by Phyllis Reeve * Increasingly I feel myself becoming historical. The feeling comes with advancing age, enhanced by encountering the work of a younger generation of scholars such as Lara…
Read more 1713 Getting emotional
Kiss the Red Stairs: The Holocaust, Once Removed by Marsha Lederman Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (McClelland & Stewart), 2022 $35.00 / 9780771049378 Reviewed by Charlotte Schallié * “Kiss the Red Stairs. The Holocaust, Once Removed” is a deeply resonant memoir exploring the interconnectedness of history, memory and lived experience in the aftermath of the…
Read more 1703 The Holocaust past and present
Mea Culpa: A Plea of Innocence. A Memoir by Bruno Cocorocchio Victoria: FriesenPress, 2022 $24.49 / 9781039137462 Reviewed by Jane Frankish * The title of Bruno Cocorocchio’s memoir, Mea Culpa: A Plea of Innocence, has an immediate and jarring effect. It sets up a seemingly impossible concurrence of two states of being – “I am…
Read more 1670 An Italian childhood
Wired for Music: A Search for Health and Joy Through the Science of Sound by Adriana Barton Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2022 $32.95 / 9781771645546 Reviewed by Derek von Essen * The afternoon Wired for Music arrived in the post was the same day I tested positive for Covid-19. I wasn’t surprised by the result. While…
Read more 1669 An essential need
Two books reviewed by Ken Favrholdt: Adventure Roads of BC’s Northwest Heartland by Liz Bryan Victoria: Heritage House, 2022 $24.95 / 9781772034035 * Pioneer Churches along the Gold Rush Trail: An Explorer’s Guide by Liz Bryan Victoria: Heritage House, 2022 $24.95 / 9781772034011 * Liz Bryan, photographer and popular writer, has published two books this…
Read more 1656 On the road with Liz Bryan
The Descendants by Robert Chursinoff Gibsons: Nightwood Editions, 2022 $24.95 / 9780889714403 Reviewed by W.H. New * I very much enjoyed reading Robert Chursinoff’s first novel, The Descendants. I think it’s a remarkable achievement, one that deserves a wide range of readers, both for the appeal of the story it tells and for the importance…
Read more 1650 Doukhobor affirmations