[Editor's update: And the winner is... The Five Books of Moses Lapinsky by Karen X. Tulchinsky, announced today, April 23, as Vancouver Public Library's "One Book, One Vancouver" choice. Read about the novel, and its competition, below.]
The Vancouver Public Library's One Book, One Vancouver touts itself as "Vancouver's only city-wide book club, promoting reading and encouraging a culture of discussion in Vancouver by bringing people together around one great book." This description conjures up an image of everyone on the bus, in line at the passport office or sitting on the toilet, reading the same book at the same time, and every conversation being about that book. If that were true, no one would feel like an outsider -- unlike the main characters in the three books on this year's shortlist, who are all people on the margins of Canadian society: Caribbean immigrants in Toronto's upscale Scarborough neighbourhood, Jewish immigrants in Toronto in the 1930s and '40s, and people from all parts of the sexual spectrum in East Vancouver.
Three not of a kind
In Soucouyant by David Chariandy (Arsenal Pulp Press), a young man whose mother suffers from early-onset dementia pieces together what really happened back home in the Caribbean when she encountered a soucouyant, or evil spirit. The mother's compelling story takes the reader from a village that is forever changed when it becomes a playground for American soldiers, to Canada in the 1950s, where a dark skin is a target of disgust and, in upper middle-class Scarborough, a dark skin combined with mental illness is the perfect "other." Because the son (who is also the narrator) is a self-absorbed, unemotional character who spends too much time doing a bad job of taking care of his mother, the story starts out slowly and the liveliest writing is crammed into the last chapters. Even so, the story is strong enough to stay with you long after you've finished reading it.
The Five Books of Moses Lapinsky by Karen X. Tulchinsky (Raincoast) is the heftiest of the three books. It follows Yakov Lapinsky and his cousin Max from the pogroms in Russia to 1930s Toronto. There they survive the Depression and the lack of opportunities for Jews by selling, door-to-door, anything they can get their hands on, and eventually they open Lenny's House of Bargains. I loved Tulchinsky's depiction of Toronto during the 1930s and '40s, including some serious anti-Semitism, the boxing world inhabited by one of Yakov's sons, the unrecognized sexual identity of another son, the difficulties that a generation raised in Russia and a generation raised in Canada have in trying to understand each other, and the love that holds it all together. This is a rich and absorbing family saga, and (except for a few chapters written from the modern-day perspective of Yakov's grandson) the narrative device of jumping around in time gives the story even more depth.
Ivan Coyote loves her mom and dad, her extended family, her godson and her dogs -- hell, she even loves her neighbours, some of whom are deeply normal and others of whom are lesbian, homosexual, transgendered and undecided -- and she writes stories about all of them. These tales would remind me of Stuart McLean if it weren't for Coyote's gender-bending take on life, which leaves both rednecks and liberals shaking their heads and asking themselves, "What just happened here?" Where McLean writes about heartwarming family life in small-town Canada, in Loose End (Arsenal Pulp Press), Coyote writes about heartwarming encounters with ten-year-old tomboys, the lesbian life-drawing collective and people who call her a fucking dyke or a fucking faggot (depending on which assumption they make). She can be forgiven for sometimes spelling things out a little too clearly instead of letting the story speak for itself, because her characters are so quirky and funny and likable.
Dive in and dish
The library will announce its final choice for this year's city-wide book club today, Wednesday, April 23, which happens to be Canada Book Day. Once the "one book" is chosen, the VPL will hold readings and other events related to the theme of the book, and someone with a master's degree will make up study questions that will help you analyze the life out of it. I'd like to see a little rebellion from all you readers out there: why not read all three books and then say whatever you want about them to whoever you think might be interested?
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