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Product Description
Book Description
A child of Trudeau's expansive immigration policies looks at the man who changed his family's life and our collective vision of Canada.
Love him or hate him, Pierre Trudeau has marked us all. The man whose motto was "reason over passion"managed to arouse in Canadians the fiercest of passions of every hue, ones that even today cloud our view of him and of his place in history. Acclaimed novelist Nino Ricci takes as his starting point the crucial role Trudeau played in the formation of his own sense of identity to look at how Trudeau expanded us as a people, not in spite of his contradictions but because of them.
About the Author
Nino Ricci’s novel Lives of the Saints garnered international acclaim and won a host of awards, including the Governor General’s Award for Fiction. It started the trilogy that was completed by In a Glass House and the Giller-nominated Where She Has Gone; it was also adapted as a miniseries starring Sophia Loren. Ricci’s novel Testament was the winner of the Trillium Award. His most recent novel is The Origin of Species, which won the Governor General’s Award for Fiction in 2008. He lives with his family in Toronto.
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superb literary biography,
By
This review is from: Extraordinary Canadians: Pierre Elliott Trudeau: A Penguin Lives Biography (Hardcover)
This is a highly nuanced, insightful, and beautifully written account of Trudeau. Ricci draws on the standard Trudeau scholarship, but also deftly and at times movingly brings his own personal experiences and insights into the story. Ricci does not proceed chronologically, but rather begins in 1968 with Trudeau's election before backtracking to his youth and working forward again. This could easily result in a confusing narrative for a biography, but in fact the ploy works beautifully. In part this is thanks to Ricci's graceful and highly entertaining writing style. Even the chapter on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the patriation of the Constitution (potentially pretty dull stuff, let's be honest) is told in a lively and engaging manner. The chapters on Trudeau's love life, his youth (drawing on recent scholarship showing that he was anything but open-minded before leaving Quebec for studies at Harvard), and the October Crisis are spellbindingly good. Ricci was in Grade Two when Trudeau was elected, and was only ever in the same room as him once, and at that long after Trudeau's sun had set, but he understands the chameleon-like qualities of the man and portrays in vivid detail how Trudeau put his mark on his times and, in effect, really did create modern-day Canada (unlike the other subjects in the Extraordinary Canadians series). To date I have only read the Norman Bethune and part of the Big Bear biographies in this series; the Trudeau biography is by far the best of the three and I cannot imagine any of the other books in the series surpassing it in quality. I read this book in two sittings and immediately began re-reading it, I enjoyed the opening chapters so much!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting take on Trudeau,
By
This review is from: Extraordinary Canadians: Pierre Elliott Trudeau: A Penguin Lives Biography (Hardcover)
For a figure who has occupied a lot of space in the Canadian imagination, Ricci does a good job of really giving us some insight into his character.One of my favorites from the Extraordinary Canadians series.
4.0 out of 5 stars
P.E.T PROJECT,
By
This review is from: Extraordinary Canadians: Pierre Elliott Trudeau: A Penguin Lives Biography (Hardcover)
Having only read the first two chapters I won't give 5 stars at this time, but I can anticipate doing so. Nino Ricci's engagemnt and prose are a winning combination, inviting readers into a personal recollection and re-evaluation of Trudeau's legacy for us as citizens and for us as country, that is at once retospective and an illuimination of the people and country we have been and hope to be. Trudeau as presented by Ricci gives us pause to ponder what it means to be Canadian at home and abroad, and what it means to come to understand and enflesh the essential Canadian spirit which found expresson in Trudeau's charisma.
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