Happy to See “All the Broken Things” Up for the Toronto Book Award

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As readers of my blogs may recall, I enjoy circus novels and fiction about the carney world, with books by Robertson Davies, Angela Carter and Ellen Hunnicutt among my longtime favorites. Here’s a post on that world called “Life is a Carnival.” One literary highlight I discovered last year is Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer’s All the Broken Things, a resonant and beautifully written novel about a teenage immigrant to Canada from Vietnam who befriends an animal trainer and becomes a carnival’s star attraction wrestling the troupe’s bear. I wrote about the book here on my other site, The Great Gray Bridge. Earlier this week, I was pleased to read that the book is now officially available in the US.

A day later, I was delighted to see the book is a finalist for the Toronto Book Award, along with another novel I enjoyed very much, the apocalypse-tinged, yet gentle, Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. Here’s a screenshot from Shelf Awareness showing all the finalists. The winner will be named at a public event hosted by CBC Radio’s Gill Deacon at the Toronto Reference Library’s Bram and Bluma Appel Salon on Oct. 15.

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Fall Live Music Lineup Already Filled w/Highlights like Frazey Ford at Joe’s Pub Nov 11

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As the end of August hoves in to view, one of the most welcome signs of fall is the upcoming return of touring Canadian musicians to NYC music venues, as it seems many acts seemed were off the road for much of the season. Actually, I know where many of my fave Canadian artists have been: playing in and partaking of the great summer festival season that stretches across the great land to the north. Happily, my fall music calendar already includes the Strumbellas at Rockwood Music Hall on Sept 10; Kathryn Calder at Mercury Lounge on Sept 11; Corb Lund on Oct 8 at Mercury Lounge; Rah Rah (on a bill with Dear Rouge) in the Studio at Webster Hall on Oct 21; The Sadies (with punk legend John Doe) at Hill Country on Oct 24; and Elliott BROOD at Mercury Lounge on Nov 14.

And tonight I learned that Frazey Ford will be at Joe’s Pub on November 11. If you haven’t heard her yet, she’s really terrific, singing with a warm, dusky voice and consistently interesting phrasing that always projects her lyrics into interesting sonic space. Her latest album is called “Indian Ocean,” an infectious blend of Memphis soul and Canadian folk. Here’s a link to a video of a live set she did for radio station KEXP in Seattle, including several songs from the new release. I hope you like her sound. If you’ve already been to live shows at Joe’s Pub, you know what a classy venue it is. I wrote up Jill Barber’s show there in 2013. If you haven’t been to Joe’s Pub yet, I recommend you try fitting the Nov 11 show into your budget and your schedule. You’ll be in for a treat, with the great Frazey Ford at Joe’s Pub, a live music room with superb acoustics and ambience.

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Big Response for Stephen Marche’s “Closing of the Canadian Mind”

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Good commentary on the very widely shared NY Times op-ed about Canadian PM Harper's disastrous record by Stephen Marche….

Posted by Philip Turner on Thursday, 20 August 2015

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