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Mar. 7th, 2009 04:54 pmA few recs of books by authors of colour. These may or may not be of interest, as my tastes tend to diverge from those of my flist, but at least they'll have the virtue of being largely unfamiliar.
Andre Alexis, Asylum:
This is the only novel that I managed to read all last year (total so far this year: zero), but swamped as I am with course work I will always find time for Andre Alexis, because I'm fascinated by his fiction. I'm not sure this book is completely successful, but Alexis is trying to basically recreate the nineteenth century Russian novel in a multiracial, multicultural contemporary Canadian milieu, focussing on Ottawa of all places, and also attempting to explore the religious meaning of "mercy" at the same time, and that he even partially succeeds is astonishing. It's very much an idea-driven novel -- about politicians and civil servants caught up in the idea of building a kind of Platonic ideal of the prison, and all the less powerful people who intersect their lives, about marriages and affairs and suicide attempts and Proust. Remarkably keen sense of the different neighbourhoods and social strata in Ottawa. Multiple narrative lines and voices. And, in places, very funny in a very dry way (funnier when you hear him read it out loud).
His first novel, Childhood is quite stunning and one of the must-reads of Canadian fiction.
Dionne Brand, Inventory
This one is poetry, a book-length poem which is, to put it overly simply, about being a highly educated black Canadian lesbian watching the Iraq war on television. Scorching, uncompromising examination of layers of privilege and oppression and complicity, the failure of radical politics, grief and survival. I cannot recommend this too highly.
Also strongly recommended by the same author: her previous book of poetry, Thirsty, and her most recent novel, What We All Long For, both of which are extremely incisive about the specific operations of race and class in Toronto, a city Brand loves deeply and critiques accurately.
J. Kameron Carter, Race: A Theological Account
For those on my list who read theology, since I know there are some. Warning: this one is heavy going, very intellectual, very academic. But also very good. An extremely sophisticated analysis of the construction of race; the author (who is himself a Christian) suggests that the Christian attempt to sever from Judaism actually lies right at the root of modern racism. Goes back to sources including slave narratives, Gregory of Nyssa and Maximus the Confessor to try to construct new ways of imagining the Christian narrative; incarnational, kenotic, complex. Ended up playing a key role in my thesis and in several of my homilies, not that this matters to anyone but me. Highly recommended, with provisos as noted.
Andre Alexis, Asylum:
This is the only novel that I managed to read all last year (total so far this year: zero), but swamped as I am with course work I will always find time for Andre Alexis, because I'm fascinated by his fiction. I'm not sure this book is completely successful, but Alexis is trying to basically recreate the nineteenth century Russian novel in a multiracial, multicultural contemporary Canadian milieu, focussing on Ottawa of all places, and also attempting to explore the religious meaning of "mercy" at the same time, and that he even partially succeeds is astonishing. It's very much an idea-driven novel -- about politicians and civil servants caught up in the idea of building a kind of Platonic ideal of the prison, and all the less powerful people who intersect their lives, about marriages and affairs and suicide attempts and Proust. Remarkably keen sense of the different neighbourhoods and social strata in Ottawa. Multiple narrative lines and voices. And, in places, very funny in a very dry way (funnier when you hear him read it out loud).
His first novel, Childhood is quite stunning and one of the must-reads of Canadian fiction.
Dionne Brand, Inventory
This one is poetry, a book-length poem which is, to put it overly simply, about being a highly educated black Canadian lesbian watching the Iraq war on television. Scorching, uncompromising examination of layers of privilege and oppression and complicity, the failure of radical politics, grief and survival. I cannot recommend this too highly.
Also strongly recommended by the same author: her previous book of poetry, Thirsty, and her most recent novel, What We All Long For, both of which are extremely incisive about the specific operations of race and class in Toronto, a city Brand loves deeply and critiques accurately.
J. Kameron Carter, Race: A Theological Account
For those on my list who read theology, since I know there are some. Warning: this one is heavy going, very intellectual, very academic. But also very good. An extremely sophisticated analysis of the construction of race; the author (who is himself a Christian) suggests that the Christian attempt to sever from Judaism actually lies right at the root of modern racism. Goes back to sources including slave narratives, Gregory of Nyssa and Maximus the Confessor to try to construct new ways of imagining the Christian narrative; incarnational, kenotic, complex. Ended up playing a key role in my thesis and in several of my homilies, not that this matters to anyone but me. Highly recommended, with provisos as noted.