 Any Mail?
and Other Stories
AUTHOR: Gérald
Tougas ISBN: 0921833-66-0
Shortlisted for the John Glassco Translation Award, Any Mail? and Other Stories takes the reader around the world. But this is no mere travelogue; Any Mail? is not only a journey through space, but also through time...we accompany the narrator on a return to his childhood in Manitoba, his adolescence working on the DEW Line in the Arctic and his adult teaching experiences in Africa. A full and vibrant life unfurls before our eyes in these stories, which at first seem to be disparate tales but gradually become part of an interconnected whole. With his engaging style—both incisive and humorous—Tougas succeeds in enchanting the reader, regardless of where he takes us around the globe. We are carried by the vigour of his writing, which unfolds before us with the same quiet intensity as the prairies themselves. Any Mail? is pure reading pleasure.
REVIEWS: "The nine stories Tougas offers here are as various in tone as they are in situation. Some of them are deeply moving, tinged with affection for characters destined for tragedy, like the little boy from the first story, "Treble Clef," who is abused by a young nun, or the homosexual couple from the last story "Any Mail?" who pay for their passion in blood. Others, by contrast, are hilarious, such as "The Wasp Slicer," an acid portrait of a French couple hosting their Canadian visitors, force-feeding them the beauties of France until they can't take any more. Savage, but droll. In "Claudia Cardinale," a literature professor amuses himself by debunking idols. Beginning from a quotation by Proust, who cautioned against theories in fiction, the narrator draws a parallel between Botticelli and the photographer Karsh, before stripping down the Marguerites, Yourcenar and Duras, hiding neither his boredom with the one's work, nor his admiration for the other's." —Voir |
HONOURABLE
MENTION—JOHN GLASSCO TRANSLATION
AWARD
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