- Hardcover: 496 pages
- Publisher: McClelland & Stewart; 1 edition (Sep 5 2006)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0771075332
- ISBN-13: 978-0771075339
- Product Dimensions: 23.1 x 16.3 x 3.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 862 g
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#130,420 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #38 in Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Canadian
- #38 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Canadian > History & Criticism
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
This series of essays and interviews with authors explores the nature of 'story' and the idea of 'home', especially as they have evolved in Canada. Richler speaks with and quotes the works of dozens of known and lesser known Canadian writers from east, west, north and central Canada: Atwood, Vanderhaeghe, Wiebe, Munro, Martel, Lisa Moore, Tomson Highway, Eden Robinson, Michael Crummey and others. The highlight of the book is a discussion with Robert Bringhurst in which the B.C. poet posits that stories themselves are at the top of the food chain and we humans are only here to tend them. At times, the book approaches the style of an oral history of Canada as seen through the eyes of novelists in their natural habitat. Richler is prone, however, to vague, broad generalizations that often do not hold up under scrutiny. The idea that Canadian (and other) literary cultures, for example, have gone through stages of Invention, Mapping and Argument sounds somewhat simplistic. A serious editorial pruning would have served this collection well. Nevertheless, there is much here for anyone interested in CanLit to chew on. Ultimately, the book is far more intelligent than what is suggested by its rather lame title. --Mark Frutkin
Review
"This Is My Country is a long-overdue interruption in our country’s cultural conversation. Most important, it is genuine and sophisticated, funny, poignant and wise….Richler’s piercing observations … are precisely conceived and eloquently expressed….His wit is delicious. He is that genuine article, of which there are so few, a public intellectual unafraid of discussion and disagreement. … The book is quite simply wonderful, exquisitely structured and fabulously written. This “atlas” is the work of a genius magpie, an eclectic reader, a passionate traveller."
—Globe and Mail
"Noah Richler is a rarity in the modern age: a true man of ideas. You can count such men on one hand, our own David Warren and Mark Steyn being two more fingers. Richler's broad survey of Canadian literature vibrates with a love of our country, including a refreshing admiration for the West."
—The Western Standard (Ezra Levant's Publisher's Pick, November 2006.)
"This is a writer who is fond of people and their quirks and who cares deeply about our country ... Richler has brought us up to date. He documents the fact that we have not only survived — we have thrived."
—Literary Review of Canada
"The most compelling analysis of Canadian stories since Margaret Atwood’s book Survival."
—Ottawa Citizen
"Immensely thought-provoking — and, at times, simply provoking….[Richler is] a first-rate polemicist."
—Maclean’s
"An enriching and provocative read."
—Montreal Gazette
"Richler is…a thoughtful and sympathetic interlocutor for a series of contemporary Canadian writers….[His] book is a heady mix of abstractions about the worth and purpose of literature, cultural commentaries and meditations, author interviews and literary excerpts, all held together by first-person narration."
—National Post
"Richler is a highly skilled writer."
—Toronto Star
—Globe and Mail
"Noah Richler is a rarity in the modern age: a true man of ideas. You can count such men on one hand, our own David Warren and Mark Steyn being two more fingers. Richler's broad survey of Canadian literature vibrates with a love of our country, including a refreshing admiration for the West."
—The Western Standard (Ezra Levant's Publisher's Pick, November 2006.)
"This is a writer who is fond of people and their quirks and who cares deeply about our country ... Richler has brought us up to date. He documents the fact that we have not only survived — we have thrived."
—Literary Review of Canada
"The most compelling analysis of Canadian stories since Margaret Atwood’s book Survival."
—Ottawa Citizen
"Immensely thought-provoking — and, at times, simply provoking….[Richler is] a first-rate polemicist."
—Maclean’s
"An enriching and provocative read."
—Montreal Gazette
"Richler is…a thoughtful and sympathetic interlocutor for a series of contemporary Canadian writers….[His] book is a heady mix of abstractions about the worth and purpose of literature, cultural commentaries and meditations, author interviews and literary excerpts, all held together by first-person narration."
—National Post
"Richler is a highly skilled writer."
—Toronto Star
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