I Can Only Paint: The Story of Battlefield Artist Mary Riter Hamilton by Irene Gammel Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queens University Press, 2020 $49.95 / 9780228003915 Reviewed by Robert Amos * Mary Riter Hamilton was a Canadian artist born in Culross, Ontario in 1867. Following a difficult childhood she was married at 21 and widowed at…
Read more 1115 An artist in the wreckage of war
Chiru Sakura — Falling Cherry Blossoms: A Mother & Daughter’s Journey through Racism, Internment and Oppression by Grace Eiko Thomson Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Press, 2021 $24.95 / 9781773860411Reviewed by Patricia E. Roy * In 1997, for the benefit of her children and grandchildren, 84-year-old Sawae Nishikihama began writing memoirs of her experience as a Japanese…
Read more 1114 Steveston, Powell Street, Minto
Unravelling Canada: a Knitting Odyssey by Sylvia Olsen Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2021 $24.95 / 9781771622868 Reviewed by Phyllis Reeve * When we moved west in 1962 my in-laws gave us Cowichan sweaters. In those beautiful, emblematic, warm AND water-resistant garments, we felt officially citizens of British Columbia. Over the years, as our children…
Read more 1113 Roll up the wool to win
This One Wild Life: A Mother-Daughter Wilderness Memoir by Angie Abdou Toronto: ECW Press, 2021 $21.95 / 9781770416000 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy * Having recently experienced a large number of contemporary memoirs, I have found myself researching and mulling over the characteristics of the genre. How does a memoir differ from an autobiography? The memoir…
Read more 1112 Mulling on memoir & motherhood
Universal Disorder by Bernice Friesen Calgary: Freehand Books, 2020 $22.95 / 9781988298559 Reviewed by Heather Graham * This is a novel about a boy’s journey to adulthood, a description that suggests it belongs in that category of narratives known as coming-of-age stories. But for Charlie Vicaryous, who has Asperger’s syndrome, his journey is more of…
Read more 1111 A mathematician’s progress
Here on the Coast: Reflections from the Rainbelt by Howard White Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2021 $24.95 / 9781550179248 Reviewed by Howard Macdonald Stewart * Is this Howard White’s swan song? Probably not, but it would be a good one if it was. White has been an important player on the west coast literary scene…
Read more 1110 Cedar stumps and coastal rambles
New Yorkers: A City and its People in Our Time by Craig Taylor Toronto: Penguin Random House (Doubleday Canada), 2021 $39.95 / 9780385681636 Reviewed by Brian Harvey * My one visit to New York was on August 11, 1977 and it lasted two hours. I remember suffocating heat, a sense of vertigo from all those…
Read more 1109 Stories in the voice of New York
Cold Case North: The Search for James Brady and Absolom Halkett by Michael Nest with Deanna Reder and Eric Bell Regina: University of Regina Press, 2020 $24.95 / 9780889777491 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * Editor’s note: I’m delighted to have heard today (January 3, 2022) that the film and tv rights to Cold Case North:…
Read more 1108 The Lower Foster Lake mystery
Metamorphosis: Selected Children’s Literature by P.K. Page, edited by Margaret Steffler Erin, Ontario: Porcupine’s Quill, 2020 $22.95 / 9780889844322 Reviewed by Phyllis Reeve * To be clear: P.K. Page (1916-2010) did write a number of delightful books for children, but this volume is not one of them. Not that this book is not delightful; it is,…
Read more 1107 Page’s plays and fairy tales
INTERVIEW: Dallas Hunt with Nathaniel G. Moore Dallas Hunt is Cree and a member of Wapsewsipi (Swan River First Nation) in Treaty Eight territory in northern Alberta. His first children’s book, Awâsis and the World-famous Bannock was nominated for several awards. Hunt is an assistant professor of Indigenous literatures at the University of British Columbia…
Read more 1106 Geographies of Treaty Eight
Victoria Unbuttoned: A Red-Light History of BC’s Capital City by Linda J. Eversole Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2021 $20.00 / 9781771513388 Reviewed by Patrick A. Dunae * For over a century, Victoria, British Columbia has promoted itself as a city of gardens, as a haven for genteel tourists and wealthy retirees. But as Linda Eversole reminds…
Read more 1105 Sex workers’ lives
ORMSBY REVIEW PRESS: Frederick Paget Norbury, Chapter Two: Push and Pull: Tommy Norbury and Emigration by Brenda Callaghan * Editor’s note: we are pleased to present Chapter 2 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…
Read more 1104 The call of the Kootenay
Dear Scarlet: The Story of My Postpartum Depression by Teresa Wong Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2019 $19.95 / 9781551527659 Reviewed by Claire Sicherman * When I first held a copy of Teresa Wong’s Dear Scarlet: The Story of my Postpartum Depression, I fell in love with the cover. On it, an image of a woman’s…
Read more 1103 A graphic memoir of endurance
The irrelevant Ormsby Review by Richard Mackie, editor and publisher * Word has reached me that an influential person in the BC arts community considers The Ormsby Review to be “irrelevant.” I am not sure where this person has been hiding for the first 4 ½ years of our existence. It is true that we…
Read more 1102 The irrelevant Ormsby Review
Beep Beep Bubbie by Bonnie Sherr Klein (text) and Élisabeth Eudes-Pascal (illustrations) Vancouver: Tradewind Books, 2020 $19.95 / 9781926890234 Reviewed by Elizabeth Bassett Editor’s note: The West Coast Book Prize Society announced on April 8, 2021, that Beep Beep Bubbie by Bonnie Sherr Klein (text) and Élisabeth Eudes-Pascal (Tradewind Books) has been shortlisted for the Christie…
Read more 1101 Through Vancouver by scooter
it was never going to be okay by jaye simpson Gibsons: Nightwood Editions, 2020 $18.95 / 9780889713826 Reviewed by Harper Campbell * it was never going to be okay is the first book of poetry by jaye simpson, “an Oji-Cree Saulteaux Indigiqueer writer and activist from the Sapotaweyak Cree Nation, with Scottish and French settler…
Read more 1100 Trauma, neglect, and erasure
Earth 2020: An Insider’s Guide to a Rapidly Changing Planet by Philippe D. Tortell (editor) Cambridge, UK: Open Books Publishers, 2020 £23.95 (U.K.) / 9781783748457 Reviewed by Loys Maingon * I have felt for some time that the universities are getting dangerously like the early church — James Lovelock.[1] As the well-known photography of Edward…
Read more 1099 A measure of change
Birds of British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest: A Complete Guide, Second Edition by Richard Cannings, Tom Aversa, and Hal Opperman Victoria: Heritage House, 2020 (first published 2018) $29.95 / 9781772033274 Reviewed by Trevor Carolan * April is upon us and spring birding season is in full readiness position. The next two months promise a…
Read more 1098 ABC to birds of BC
MEMOIR: HRH: A nodding acquaintance by Maria Tippett * On the occasion of the death of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (1921-2021), we present an extract from the diary of art historian Maria Tippett of Pender Island of the visit to Trinity Hall, Cambridge, by Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh in November…
Read more 1097 HRH: A nodding acquaintance
Outside In: A Political Memoir by Libby Davies Toronto: Between The Lines, 2019 $26.95 / 9781771134453 Reviewed by Alex Netherton * Libby Davies’ Outside In is an extraordinary political memoir that chronicles and reflects upon her life and political career first as an urban activist and then eventually as the Deputy Leader of the NDP…
Read more 1096 A master of urban politics