The Trials of Albert Stroebel: Love, Murder and Justice at the End of the Frontier by Chad Reimer Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Press, 2020 $24.95 / 9781773860206 Reviewed by Kathryn Neilson * The Trials of Albert Stroebel chronicles the 1893 murder of John Marshall, a farmer on the Sumas prairie, and its consequences for his one-time…
Read more #799 Murder at the Sumas settlement
Epistle to the Pope: Memoir and Survivor-Impact Statement from a Shipwrecked Orphan by Dharel Verville Victoria: FriesenPress Publishing, 2020 [price unknown] / 9781525554292 Reviewed by Constance Brissenden * Epistle to the Pope is the memoir of a seeker, a classical pianist, and a sometimes drug dealer and addict. Author Daryl Verville, known by his pen…
Read more #798 Shipwrecks, orphans, pianos
Clinging to Bone by Garry Gottfriedson Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 2019 $17.95 / 9781553805625 Reviewed by Heather Simeney MacLeod * Garry Gottfriedson is from the Secwépemc (previously Shuswap) Nation. He was born, raised and continues to reside in Kamloops. He studied under Allen Ginsberg, Anne Waldman, and Marianne Faithful at the distinguished Naropa Institute in Boulder,…
Read more #797 Secwépemc land and language
Rainy Lake House: Twilight of Empire on the Northern Frontier by Theodore Catton Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2017 $32.95 (U.S.) / 9781421422923 Reviewed by Sarah Carter * The pandemic crisis descends as I write this review and my first thought is that this book will be a welcome diversion from the anxieties and upheavals…
Read more #796 John McLoughlin of Rainy Lake
Outside, America by Sarah de Leeuw Gibsons: Nightwood Editions, 2019 $18.95 / 9780889713543 Reviewed by Christopher Levenson * Good poetry derives from the confluence of at least two abilities: a mastery of the full resources of the medium, language, and an unusual angle or perspective on the poem’s subject matter. All good poets achieve their…
Read more #795 Choosing a seat on a plane
The Klondike Gold Rush Steamers: A History of Yukon River Steam Navigation by Robert D. Turner Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2019 (first published by Sono Nis Press, 2015) $49.95 / 9781550178876 Reviewed by Ken Coates * The last 50 years have not been good for the preservation of the river boat heritage of the Upper…
Read more #794 Sternwheelers of the Yukon
Forty Fathers: Men Talk About Parenting by Tessa Lloyd, with a foreword by Peter Mansbridge Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2019 $34.95 / 9781771622431 Reviewed by Trevor Marc Hughes * From Peter Mansbridge’s foreword to Tessa Lloyd’s Forty Fathers: Men Talk About Parenting, it’s clear that this iconic CBC figure regretted not having spent more…
Read more #793 Sons, fathers, and fatherhood
Indigenous Relations: Insights, Tips & Suggestions to Make Reconciliation a Reality by Bob Joseph with Cynthia F. Joseph Vancouver: Page Two Books, 2019, distributed by Raincoast Books $19.95 / 9781989025642 Reviewed by David Milward * What does Indigenous reconciliation in Canada mean? Almost five years have elapsed since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada…
Read more #792 Fine words butter no parsnips
In Search of Al Howie by Jared Beasley Victoria: Rocky Mountain Books, 2019 $25.00 / 9781771603386 Reviewed by Timothy Lewis * The old adage tells us not to judge a book by its cover, but in the case of Jared Beasley’s In Search of Al Howie, one learns much from that practice. The reader’s eye…
Read more #791 The incomparable Al Howie
In Nature’s Realm: Early Naturalists Explore Vancouver Island by Michael Layland Victoria: Touchwood Editions, 2019 $40.00 / 9781771513067 * On March 2, 2020, it was announced that Michael Layland’s book, In Nature’s Realm: Early Naturalists Explore Vancouver Island (Victoria: Touchwood Editions, 2019) had won the 2020 Basil Stuart-Stubbs Prize for outstanding scholarly book on British…
Read more #790 Enter Douglas, Garry & Menzies
INTERVIEW: Tom Wayman with Nathaniel G. Moore * In a future issue of The Ormsby Review, Emma Rhodes will review Tom Wayman’s new book of poems, Watching a Man Break a Dog’s Back: Poems for a Dark Time (Harbour: 2020), and as an appetizer we present an interview with Wayman by Nathaniel G. Moore –…
Read more #789 Protest, empathy, mourning
MEMOIR: The year of the bicycle, 1973: North American backroads at the end of the Indochina War by Howard Macdonald Stewart * Here, for the vicarious pleasure of the many COVID-19 shut-in readers of The Ormsby Review who are unable to travel, is a memoir of an ambitious bicycle journey taken in 1973 by Howard…
Read more #788 The year of the bicycle: 1973
Drafts of Dracula by Bram Stoker, edited and annotated by Robert Eighteen-Bisang and Elizabeth Miller, with a foreword by Dacre Stoker Victoria: Tellwell Talent, 2019 [price varies] / 9780228814290 Order from your local indie bookstore or: $30.95 / 9780228814306 hardbound @ Chapters/Indigo $20.91 / 9780228814290 paperbound @ Chapters/Indigo $9.95 / 9780228814313 ebook @ www.amazon.ca Reviewed…
Read more #787 The everlasting Bram Stoker
Kings of the Yukon: A River Journey in Search of the Chinook by Adam Weymouth, with a foreword by Harold R. Johnson Toronto: Penguin Random House (Knopf Canada), 2019 $21.00 / 9780345811806 Reviewed by Ken Madsen * Why would a young Brit set off on a 3,100 kilometre river trip through the Yukon Territory and…
Read more #786 From Wiltshire to Teslin Lake
Washington Black by Esi Edugyan Toronto: HarperCollins, 2018 $33.99 / 9781443423380 Reviewed by Theo Dombrowski * Since its publication in the summer of 2018, Esi Edugyan’s novel Washington Black has made a resounding impact. Reviews abound; awards and award short listings likewise. Stirring most comment and praise are not just the gripping story line, but…
Read more #785 A New World Oliver Twist
Viaticum by Natelle Fitzgerald Surrey: Now Or Never Publishing, 2019 $19.95 / 9781988098876 Reviewed by Cassidy Jean with Ginny Ratsoy * Natelle Fitzgerald’s Viaticum has been seven years in the making, according to her acknowledgments page, and from this reader’s perspective, this debut work of literary fiction does not disappoint. “Viaticum,” of Latin etymology, can…
Read more #784 Buying time at Annika’s Café
South Away: The Pacific Coast on Two Wheels by Meaghan Marie Hackinen Edmonton: NeWest Press, 2019 $20.95 / 9781988732633 Reviewed by Howard Macdonald Stewart * Meaghan Marie Hackinen’s South Away: The Pacific Coast on Two Wheels is about bicycling down the Pacific coast, from northern British Columbia to the south end of the Baja Peninsula….
Read more #783 Skeena River to Baja California
Cures for Hunger: A Memoir by Deni Ellis Béchard Fredericton: Goose Lane Editions, 2019 (first published by Milkweed Editions, 2012) 22.95 / 9781773101453 Reviewed by Luanne Armstrong * When I was a girl, growing up on a backwoods farm in southeastern BC, I loved to listen to men talk. They were so sure of themselves….
Read more #782 You work or you starve
The Olive Oil and Vinegar Lover’s Cookbook by Emily Lycopolus Victoria: Touchwood Editions, 2019 (revised and updated second edition; first published 2015) $45.00 / 9781771513029 Reviewed by Natalie Lang * In A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf wrote “One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” This maxim…
Read more #781 Oil and vinegar, Italy and Canada
Dunk Tank by Kayla Czaga Toronto: House of Anansi, 2019 $19.95 / 9781487005962 Reviewed by Marion Quednau * Reading Kayla Czaga’s “Dunk Tank” is like taking a ride in a hot-wired car from Kitimat, seeing how far it will take you. She’s in the driver’s seat, taking all the risks in a mood of crazy-young,…
Read more #780 A hot-wired car from Kitimat