Shadow Life by Hiromi Goto, illustrated by Ann Xu New York: First Second Books (Macmillan), 2021. Distributed by Raincoast Books. Please order from your local independent bookstore $24.99 (U.S.) / 9781626723566 Reviewed by Carol Matthews * Vancouver poet and novelist Hiromi-Goto’s graphic novel Shadow Life, brilliantly illustrated by Ann Xu, is a vollendungsroman, a story…
Read more 1253 Running away in old age
Joseph William McKay: A Métis Business Leader in Colonial British Columbia by Greg N. Fraser Victoria: Heritage House, 2021 $22.95 / 9781772033403 Reviewed by John R. Hinde * By coincidence, Greg N. Fraser’s biography, Joseph William McKay: A Métis Business Leader in Colonial British Columbia, arrived on my desk the same day that the Tk’emlups…
Read more 1252 J.W. McKay & the Métis mystery
On this day five years ago, October 17, 2016, The Ormsby Review published its first book review. The book was Mark Leiren-Young’s The Killer Whale Who Changed the World, the publisher was Greystone Books with the David Suzuki Institute, and the reviewer was Daniel Francis. Ormsby had started six weeks before, on September 2nd, when —…
Read more 1251 Five years, what a surprise!
Radium Girl by Sofi Papamarko Hamilton, ON: Wolsak & Wynn, 2021 $20.00 / 9781989496268 Reviewed by Myshara Herbert-McMyn * Sofi Papamarko’s Radium Girl is a striking collection of stories that will widen your perspective and haunt your thoughts. Every story contains rich characters that demand your attention and make you listen to them. The loneliness…
Read more 1250 Ghost girls & glow-in-the-dark
Victoria Then & Now: Postcards from the Past by Nick Russell Victoria: Old Goat Press, 2021 (new edition; first published 2014). Contact russcomm@telus.net $18.95 / 9780987788917 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * Capital Memories: Old postcards and modern-day images of Victoria sketch social and architectural history When I was sowing my wild oats I would send…
Read more 1249 Capital memories
This Is My Real Name: A Stripper’s Memoir by Cid V. Brunet Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2021 $22.95 / 9781551528588 Reviewed by Linda Rogers * Strippers never have real names, because no one expects to remember them, the “Boys” of the Raj, the dogs of infamy, all of them othered by the entitled children of…
Read more 1248 A master’s course in endurance
The Day the World Stops Shopping: How ending consumerism saves the environment and ourselves by J.B. MacKinnon Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (Vintage Canada), 2021 $32.95 / 9780735275539 Reviewed by Brian Harvey * On October 14, 2021, The Day the World Stops Shopping: How ending consumerism saves the environment and ourselves, by J.B. MacKinnon, reviewed here…
Read more 1247 The less the merrier
The Professor and the Plumber: Conversations About Equality and Inequality by Eric W. Sager, with illustrations by Hanna Melin Victoria: FriesenPress, 2021 $22.99 / 9781039105553 Reviewed by Jak King * Many would argue that inequality is a defining characteristic of life in the early 2000s. More specifically — since some form of inequality has been…
Read more 1246 Two cousins meet for dinner
handwringers by Sarah Mintz Regina: Radiant Press, 2021 $22.00 / 9781989274477 Reviewed by Brett Josef Grubisic * A slim volume with a quirky but striking cover, handwringers resists categorization. For example, is Sarah Mintz, its Victoria-based author, writing fiction, non-fiction, or both? Or, is she intending to refuse these categories as irrelevant or unnecessary? “A…
Read more 1245 Running riot with Sarah Mintz
ORMSBY REVIEW PRESS: Frederick Paget Norbury, Chapter Three: Letters, 1887 by Brenda Callaghan * Editor’s note: we are pleased to present Chapter 3 of Brenda Callaghan’s hitherto unpublished biography, Frederick Paget Norbury, Remittance Man or Gentleman Immigrant? The Story of an Englishman in Canada. Earlier in 2021 we published the Introduction, Chapter 1, and Chapter 2….
Read more 1244 Golden City to Tobacco Plains
Finding Home: The Journey of Immigrants and Refugees by Jen Sookfong Lee, illustrated by Drew Shannon Victoria: Orca Books, 2021 $24.95 / 9781459818996 Reviewed by Valerie Green * I strongly believe that Jen Sookfong Lee’s book Finding Home: The Journey of Immigrants and Refugees should be introduced into schools as required reading for all young…
Read more 1243 A place to call home
Icebergs, Zombies and the Ultra Thin: Architecture and Capitalism in the Twenty-First Century by Matthew Soules Hudson, NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 2021 $26.95 (U.S.) / 9781616899462 Reviewed by Theo Dombrowski * Everyone says many of the same things about real estate. “That view is worth a million dollars.” “If you want to make money, real…
Read more 1242 Architecture, investment, & greed
Rough Road to the North: A Vagabond on the Great Northern Highway by Jim Christy Port Townsend, WA: Feral House, 2019 (first published in Toronto by Doubleday, 1980) $17.95 (U.S.) / 9781627310826 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * There are strange things done in the midnight sun By the men who moil for gold Robert Service…
Read more 1241 Ramblers and tatterdemalions
Becoming Vancouver: A History by Daniel Francis Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2021 $36.95 / 9781550179163 Reviewed by Patricia E. Roy * Daniel Francis, a native of Vancouver, rues Vancouver’s apparent loss of its history and hopes that knowledge of the past may avoid handing it over “to the forces of global consumerism” (p. 5). This…
Read more 1240 Stumps, sawmills & speculation
David Brownstein reviews two books: Highballer: True Tales from a Treeplanting Life by Greg Nolan Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2019 $26.95 / 9781550178685 * Slashburner: Hot Times in the British Columbia Woods by Nicholas Raeside Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2020 $24.95 / 9781550178982 * After a brief eclipse by pipelines, British Columbia’s forests are again…
Read more 1239 Tackling industrial reforestation
Unsettling Native Art Histories on the Northwest Coast by Kathryn Bunn-Marcuse and Aldona Jonaitis (editors) Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2020 $39.95 (U.S.) / 9780295747132 Reviewed by Liz Hammond-Kaarremaa * A few years ago, a First Nations man told me a story of two masks. The original, held in a museum, had been lent to…
Read more 1238 Decolonizing Northwest Coast art
ESSAY: Tragic Legacies: The Residential School System in Canada (1876-1998) by Lily Chow * Editor’s note: Today, September 30, 2021, is the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada. “The day honours the lost children and Survivors of residential schools, their families and communities,” states a Government of Canada website. “Public commemoration of…
Read more 1237 Tragic legacies of colonialism
Mennonite Valley Girl: A Wayward Coming of Age by Carla Funk Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2021 $32.95 / 9781771645157 Reviewed by Dora Dueck * When Carla Funk was young, her northern hometown of Vanderhoof, British Columbia, was a place of delight. It might be small but it was beautiful, set into a lovely valley alongside the…
Read more 1236 Time tunnel to Vanderhoof
Four books reviewed by Kenneth Campbell: The Sockeye Mother by Hetxw’ms Gyetxw (Brett D. Huson), illustrated by Natasha Donovan Winnipeg: Portage & Main Press, 2018 $23.00 / 9781553797395 * The Grizzly Mother by Hetxw’ms Gyetxw (Brett D. Huson), illustrated by Natasha Donovan Winnipeg: Portage & Main Press, 2019 $23.00 / 9781553797760 * The Eagle Mother…
Read more 1235 The Mothers of Xsan series
My Two-Faced Luck by Brett Josef Grubisic Surrey: Now or Never Publishing, 2021 $19.95 / 9781989689271 Reviewed by Geoffrey D. Morrison * In My Two-Faced Luck, Brett Josef Grubisic concludes his River Bend Trilogy with a novel that movingly fulfills the promise of its unique and ambitious premise. As with the other River Bend books,…
Read more 1234 A matter of thwarted desire