by prfire | Jun 11, 2018 | All Reviews, Book Reviews, Poetry
I first came to know Julie Paul as a storyteller. In The Jealousy Bone (Emdash Publishing, 2008) and The Pull of the Moon (Brindle & Glass, 2014), Paul drew readers into vividly wrought worlds populated by quirky yet utterly relatable characters who struggled to...
by prfire | May 30, 2018 | All Reviews, Book Reviews, Poetry
Listen. If is Douglas Barbour’s first book of poetry in over a decade and includes work that was produced over a twenty year period. That extended period of production has some interesting effects on the text. Poems like “The Age Demanding” which confronts the Iraq...
by prfire | May 17, 2018 | All Reviews, Book Reviews, Poetry
Reading Lorna Crozier’s poetry is always a surprise and a delight, and the poet does not disappoint with her latest collection, What the Soul Doesn’t Want. She writes about growing old and the vulnerabilities which accompany aging. She writes about grief, about...
by prfire | May 7, 2018 | All Reviews, Book Reviews, Fiction
Witches and teeth, hippies and cleaning ladies, pregnancy and ghosts, tattoos and sex in a Saskatoon bus station bathroom: Annette Lapointe’s You Are Not Needed Now reads like a collection of oddities and curiosities masquerading as the mundane. This book surprises me...
by prfire | Apr 26, 2018 | All Reviews, Book Reviews, Fiction
Kevin Hardcastle’s book In the Cage is not for the faint-hearted. Hardcastle takes readers into a part of society where poverty hovers and taunts at the shoulder. Daniel, the author’s central character, battles every hard knock thrown his way in order to survive....
by prfire | Apr 6, 2018 | All Reviews, Book Reviews, Fiction
Re-reading A Lover’s Discourse in 2017, it’s hard not to consider how Roland Barthes’ impatient Proustian temperament in love might stand to update. Surely Barthes would be hitting ‘refresh’ incessantly, texting with ‘Read’ receipts on, sitting on his hands.“The...
