Just finished this and still feel like I'm processing it. The art is a strange mix of surreal/abstract, with hyper realist backgrounds and people drawJust finished this and still feel like I'm processing it. The art is a strange mix of surreal/abstract, with hyper realist backgrounds and people drawn with oddly out of proportionate heads and bodies and unnatural skin colours and changing hair. I felt like I didn't quite *get* what the art was doing.
The story is about two women who almost make a connection: one, Eliza, is a struggling 32-year-old single mom and poet who has a tendency to let people walk over her; the other is Sasha, living with her parents in her late 20s while dealing with a mental health crisis. Sasha pushes and pushes for an intimacy and Eliza sort of lets her until it gets too intense. Hmm. Lots to mull over here. I was happy to see Eliza possibly making a healthy connection at the very end? Watching Sasha try to connect was often cringe-worthy; be prepared if you don't like second hand embarrassment!...more
A wonderfully inventive authentic collection of queer Asian Canadian short stories, including:
a queer metal band's tour with a new manager (AMAZING enA wonderfully inventive authentic collection of queer Asian Canadian short stories, including:
a queer metal band's tour with a new manager (AMAZING ending in this one!)
a woman replacing her codependent relationship with her roommate with an ASMR channel
two people who meet waiting in line in Covid times (the first story I've read featuring Covid!)
an unemployed Montrealer juggling a relationship with a fickle lover and a friendship with a meals on wheels client
two cousins who do a pilgrimage in Spain (one enthusiastically, the other reluctantly)
a tween gymnast who has a crush on her older more talented teammate
a kid who plays Greek heroes with her best friend but sabotages their relationship when she feels she doesn't measure up
and more!
These stories have great precise details that bring the characters alive. They all felt so emotionally true. There's also some lovely writing and skilled storytelling (the Covid story is told solely in unattributed dialogue!).
"The top of her head smells like a good dream."
"I thought about how enormous life was and how enormous also the space between people could be."...more
A wonderful and sad graphic novel about two queer women (one white and trans, the other cis and Chinese) living in Montreal as their relationship withA wonderful and sad graphic novel about two queer women (one white and trans, the other cis and Chinese) living in Montreal as their relationship with each other disintegrates at the same time as their auntie relationship with their niece holds them together and brings them joy.
They also explore new relationships with sisters they had both grown apart from; I especially liked how Ray came to understand where her single mom, overworked sister was coming from. Her sister's speech to Ray about what it means to be family -- just being there, showing up for a kid, even when you're in a bad place -- really resonated with me.
I haven't read anything this committed to the nuances of relationships and the complexities of human beings in a while. The art is gorgeous and has a fun way of drawing the adult and child characters as monsters when they're engaged in "feral" imaginative playing....more
In many ways this is a wobbly debut with a fair amount of common issues in need of editorial help, like awkwardly inserting dialogue or situations to In many ways this is a wobbly debut with a fair amount of common issues in need of editorial help, like awkwardly inserting dialogue or situations to make a political / social justice argument, telling / explaining instead of showing, and including scenes that don't propel the narrative forward or do any character work. Sometimes the vocabulary was a bit repetitive, with the same phrases used too close together.
But there were some things I found refreshing about this book:
- honestly, just an open portrayal of queer polyamory in a contemporary context, especially with attention to the practicalities and everydayness. There is not nearly enough in fiction in general, and there seems to be a tendency to feature polyamory in speculative fiction only as if it's not something that exists in the real world.
- bilingual Montreal! I would love to see more English language books that really feature Montreal's unique linguistic culture(s).
- a sexually assertive bisexual protagonist! I was honestly a bit squeamish when I first started this, reading about Amy's hookups. I soon realized that was my own internalized sexism (and maybe biphobia?). So I'm thankful for that reminder.
- this super cool cover! Love the neon, the bi flag colours, and the play on the open sign.
I hope this author writes more with some editorial support!...more
This book didn't draw me in right away, but it eventually won me over, hard. It's an #OwnVoices story about Nadia, a queer Palestinian-Canadian woman This book didn't draw me in right away, but it eventually won me over, hard. It's an #OwnVoices story about Nadia, a queer Palestinian-Canadian woman who travels to Egypt in the late 1980s to track down her father whom she has not seen in years. She finds and gets to know him anew, but she also meets and falls in love with an Egyptian woman artist, Manal.
There's a wonderful journey of Nadia reconnecting with her Palestinian heritage, as she meets many other Palestinians (taxi drivers, booksellers, a doctor) who don't hesitate to accept her as Palestinian and reach out to connect. Nadia is humbled and rejuvenated. There is of course also her father, whom she slowly begins to see as a flawed adult human being, instead of only the father who has disappointed her.
The story is set mostly in Cairo, which is a complicated, contradictory character unto itself. I have never been there, but the city really came alive in my mind as I read this book. The beauty of the art, food, generosity of people, poverty, stink of animals and defecation in the street, chaotic traffic, all the details of everyday life in Cairo. Manal is Nadia's guide as well as for the reader, and she is a passionate, opinionated, and lively one. I loved her.
Beautiful writing; thoughtful, nuanced content about art, family, conencting with your heritage, Palestinian and Egyptian cultures and politics, Arabic language, and the generosityof strangers. I really loved this book, and am sad it sat on my shelf for over a year before I finally read it!
Oh my God this is an amazing anthology with a huge variety of incredibly inventive, hilarious, and moving science fiction and fantasy stories by transOh my God this is an amazing anthology with a huge variety of incredibly inventive, hilarious, and moving science fiction and fantasy stories by trans authors. I was totally blown away by how great the stories were. There were honestly only a few that I didn't love. It's just an astoundingly good collection. Full review here!...more
This book is a work of genius! A funny, dark, innovative story that completely takes apart the genre of the trans memoir. Kai Cheng Thom's writing is This book is a work of genius! A funny, dark, innovative story that completely takes apart the genre of the trans memoir. Kai Cheng Thom's writing is beautiful and powerful and poetic. It reminds me a lot of Amber Dawn's Sub Rosa but it's also very much its own thing. An ode to trans sisterhood. Highly recommended! Full review on my blog....more
The drawings in here are so gorgeous!! I loved the sepia colours dotted with diluted green and orange. Also I don't think I've ever identified so muchThe drawings in here are so gorgeous!! I loved the sepia colours dotted with diluted green and orange. Also I don't think I've ever identified so much with a book!! Bisexuality, witches, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, teenage vegetarianism: it's like Meags Fitzgerald is writing about my life.
Once again, Meags Fitzgerald appears to be writing about my own life, although her interest in, and dare I say obsession with, photobooths went much fOnce again, Meags Fitzgerald appears to be writing about my own life, although her interest in, and dare I say obsession with, photobooths went much farther than mine ever did. But this did feel very nostalgic for me, as my friends and I were super into photobooths in high school and our early twenties, doing the same kind of things Meags did, bringing props to orchestrate these elaborate performances. My fridge is full of them to this day. A fascinating exploration of the history of photobooths, full of juicy historical/cultural/technical details, personal stories, and beautiful drawings. Totally captivated me. It's a mix of genres I don't think I've read before, and I thought it worked brilliantly.
My only complaint is that the text needed better copy editing. Clearly the editor has no idea what a comma splice is, the book is full of them. [See what I did there]. I don't mind a few of those, especially if they're used for effect, but really some other punctuation would have been better in most cases. Also, let's remember the difference between "whose" and "who's." A few other grammar things like missing articles were also a bit distracting for me. ...more
The Mystics of Mile End by Sigal Samuel is, above all, an amazing book, such a sure-footed, beautifully written novel that it’s hard to believe it’s hThe Mystics of Mile End by Sigal Samuel is, above all, an amazing book, such a sure-footed, beautifully written novel that it’s hard to believe it’s her first. It’s one of those books that was so good I’m not quite sure where to begin describing it...At its core, The Mystics of Mile End is a story about a family. Lev and Samara Meyer live with their father David in Montreal’s Mile End neighbourhood, a curious mix of Hasidic Jews (a branch of Orthodox Judaism) and young hipsters. Samuel lovingly and richly sets the scene of Montreal; you can feel the thick humid summer air, smell the coffee at funky neighbourhood coffee shops, and hear the Hasidic Jews call to each other in Yiddish and Hebrew as they walk in groups to and from synagogue.
David is a cynical professor of Jewish mysticism at McGill university, but has rejected the Orthodox faith in part because of his wife’s early death; as children both Lev and Samara have to hide their interest in Judaism and spirituality, Samara even keeping her preparations for her bat mitzvah—which is happening one year later than it should—a secret. Lev and Samara share a close bond, a comfortable intimacy that does not need to be spoken, which only makes their distant father feel more separate from them.
Despite David’s avowed disinterest in religious practice, however, his children begin to notice strange behaviour as he (and they) grow older that suggests his spiritual, in addition to his intellectual, interest in Jewish mysticism is returning. The concept David is becoming increasingly obsessed with is the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. The Tree of Life—as I’ve learned from this novel—is a mystical symbol representing different stages of enlightenment: at the bottom is ani (“I,” associated with the ego or unified self) and at the top is ayin (“nothingness,” associated with the annihilation of the ego), with many layers in between. The study of the Tree of Life and the consequent urge to ascend the Tree are supposed to be restricted to scholars over the age of forty, because, as the neighbourhood’s wise teacher says, young people who have recognized the meaning of the Tree’s holy vision have been “consumed by fire.” In other words, they go crazy.
Eventually, Samara sets out on the same dangerous path as her father, to disastrous results, and it is up to her family and friends—including her girlfriend Jenny, Lev’s best friend Alex, and neighbour and Holocaust survivor Mr. Glassman—to save the Meyers and bridge the communication gaps that keep them apart and threaten to destroy their family...
A dense, very referential collection of poetry that I suspect would be fruitful to reread many times; you'd get more and more from each reading. PoemsA dense, very referential collection of poetry that I suspect would be fruitful to reread many times; you'd get more and more from each reading. Poems about gender, the self, love, mythology, sex, trans ancestors. "I didn't mean to become an I. / I didn't mean to be. But I got caught up predictably, in a subject, History, yours."
CaseyTheCanadianLesbrarian
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