J and The Betrayers are both novels about antisemitism and social violence, both powerful. And yet who would talk about them in the same breath, one a dystopia, the other hyper-realism? The authors, Howard Jacobson (J) and David Bezmozgis, are a generation and an ocean apart though united by their
Continue readingTag: CanLit
A Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Atwood & the 100 Year Forest
Depending on perspective, it is an author’s dream – or nightmare: Margaret Atwood will never know what readers think of the piece of fiction she is currently working on, because the unpublished, unread manuscript from the Man Booker prize-winning novelist will be locked away for the next 100 years. via
Continue readingA Writer's Playground: Lilian Nattel Online: Happy Dance for Alice Munro’s Nobel
Alice Munro wins the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature, becoming the first Canadian woman to take the award since its launch in 1901. Munro, 82, only the 13th woman given the award, is considered one of the world’s greatest writers of short stories. via Alice Munro is 1st Canadian woman
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Sea Plane and Reading
WWII military supply plane That is the interior of the sea plane that took me from Vancouver to Gabriola Island. As the only passenger, I got to sit in front. I thought the ride would be scary. Instead it was a stroll through the sky. A magical row below the
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Draft One Done!
You may have noticed that I’ve been blogging less and less of late and the result is…drum roll please…the completed first draft of a New Book. Yes, folks, there is life after Web of Angels. The floundering that follows every book I’ve written has passed, and I’ve swum to a new shore. As is my […]
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: The Next Big Thing: What I’m Working On
Goddess Durga by Joydeep Thanks to Lauren B. Davis for tagging me on this great questionnaire for writers. I have to confess that I’m participating in this more because I want to hear what other writers are doing than wanting to write about myself–but I will do my best to
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Searching for the Canadian Voice – Imprint
Last week I was at the Kitchener Writers Festival, where I was interviewed by a delightful young woman, Catherine Vendryes, who is an English Major at the University of Waterloo, a slender spectacled smart girl, armed with steno pad and digital recorder. I loved her questions. Here is her write-up:
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: More on Walmart
I dashed off yesterday’s post in haste and want to add a few thoughts. I’m not in favour of an economic model in which cheap prices depress wages (and working conditions), which require cheap prices, reinforcing the cycle. But what I am heartened by is that a subject which only
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Simply Reading: Web of Angels | Bookstack
“That must be a heckuva book,” the elderly man said. He stood before me, hand in hand with his lady friend, as they walked the boardwalk on an afternoon constitutional. “It definitely is,” I answered, emerging from my reverie. “I bet it’s a love story,” he said with a smile.
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Saving The Children | Tales from the Reading Room
Inside our minds great forces rage and collide and strange convoluted processes are developed in order to avoid internal obstacles and keep the status quo. Former versions of ourselves wander through the inner labyrinth, exerting terrific pressure on our decision making and often dictating reactions in illogical ways. We have
Continue reading