by Katy Lalonde
‘Tis the Season
The release this week of the Governor General Short List completes the golden three of major Canadian literature prizes: the GG, the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. The three short lists were particularly golden for one author, Annabel Lyon, who was the only author to appear on all three lists for her book The Golden Mean.
In a year with numerous Canadian heavy weights (Atwood, Munro, Coupland), this came as a surprise to some. Alice Munro came the closest to competing with Lyon, appearing on both the Writers’ Trust Shortlist and the GG. However, she pulled herself out of the running for the Giller Prize, hoping to shift attention to younger Canadian talent.
Lyon, a British Columbia native, spent eight years writing her debut novel. The story explores the relationship between Aristotle and Alexander the Great.
The Giller Prize seems to be attracting the most media attention this year. First, when Alice Munro opted out of the award, and then for less noble reasons when one of the judges, Victoria Gledinning, made some disparaging comments about Can-Lit. Writing in the Financial Times (Sept 12, 2009), she expressed her view of both Canadian manners and Canadian writing:
There is a convention in Canada of appending to your novel a list of people who are fulsomely thanked for their support, starting with the book’s editor – unfailingly sensitive, creative and patient – plus family, friends and first readers. These last are generally fellow members of a writing group, who have contributed insightful modifications.
But has any major work of art ever been produced by committee? Readers may wonder whether a writer’s vision and voice may not get ironed out by such proactive input, and indeed there is a striking homogeneity in the muddy middle range of novels, often about families down the generations with multiple points of view and flashbacks to Granny’s youth in the Ukraine or wherever.
Not exactly the kind of comments you want coming from someone who has just spent months evaluating nominees for one of the nation’s top awards. The diversity of the nominees across the three major prizes seems to indicate otherwise, but I suppose it is the reader who will get to make the final judgment.
Checkout the websites for the complete lists of nominees:
One book that did not win any awards (but should have)
This month, as I meandered my way through more Can-Lit, I came across a rare find- a wonderfully written, humorous novel that makes no ‘Great Canadian Novel’ lists. The Horn of a Lamb by Robert Sedlack was recommended to me by two different people, which immediately caught my attention, so I added it to the pile. It helped that one of those people graciously lent me his copy.
As it turns out, the recommendations were dead on. The Horn of the Lamb tells the story of a brain-injured hockey-player-turned-hockey-fan living the nightmare of losing his team to the US market.
Fred Pickle lives on the sheep farm of his uncle Jack. His life revolves around hockey – once a rising hockey star, a terrible accident left him brain damaged – and he now builds his yearly backyard rink and has season’s tickets to his local NHL team. When the American owner decides to move the team South, Fred must decide between what is right and seeking revenge.
Sedlack tells a touching, humorous story set in rural Canada. Although there were a few times where I thought the novel could have wrapped up, when it did come to an end, it was worth the wait. All in all a fun, quick read.