Steven Langdon's Blog: The Write Stuff - Posts Tagged "giller-prize-2015"

The 2015 Giller Prize short-list of five books is very unusual in its orientation - two sets of short stories (both set in working class Quebec communities,) a stylized novel of a British author's week in Athens, the self-agonizing perspective of a sexual aggressor, plus a story of how human-like consciousness affects a pack of 15 dogs. Not exactly your normal Giller list!

If every Giller set of selections tells us something about the evolving direction of Canadian literature, then the message of this year's choices is above all about focusing on the marginalized and vulnerable. In the past decade, the wealthy and powerful have taken centre stage in Canada, with greater uncertainty for workers and the poor. This set of books says we should turn our attention to the precarious at the margins of society.

This change in direction is underlined especially in the two sets of short stories selected by the jurors, Samuel Archibald's "Arvida," and Heather O'Neill's "Daydreams of Angels."

"Arvida" portrays the hard-scrabble life of Francophone working-class men and women in the Anglo-dominated resource town of Arvida in the Saguenay region of northern Quebec -- tracing the tough efforts of people to keep food on the table, the struggle to keep young people in the community and the pressures on relationships that tear people apart. But more than the rugged texture of the resource town, what makes this book is Archibald's vivid writing, the energy and depth that gives his stories such a powerful impact. Especially stark is the "Blood Sisters" trilogy, with its mysterious combination of violence, repressed sexuality and familial intimacy -- all set in the harsh context of surrounding forests and threatening wildlife. This book is so evocative of its particular place and social position that it captured me fully.

"Daydreams of Angels" also brings alive another working-class area, east end Montreal, which Heather O'Neill has conveyed magnificently before, in last year's "The Girl who was Saturday Night," nominated for the 2014 Giller. I thought that novel was excellent and should have won the prize. And this collection contains much of the same sort of high-wire imaginative writing and indelible characterization. The various stories, however, do not for me carry as strong an impact as the 2014 novel. I enjoyed the series of "Grandfather" memories a great deal, giving a depth of history and understanding to Francophone working-class life in the area. But I found the various "Angel" stories less impressive. Overall, there was not the sharp connecting thread in this book that gave "Arvida" its strength.

Of the three novels, I found "Outline" by Rachel Cusk the least powerful. Perhaps that was in part because it had so little connection with Canada; it is a good question why a British author, chosen in 2003 as one of the Best of Young British Novelists, would be nominated for the Giller. But I still enjoyed this book a great deal. Cusk makes her central character, a British author in Athens for a week, glow with perception and emotion, as she reacts to the hot bustling streets, talks with ardent feminists and exiled diplomats, and risks a speed-boat ride with her airplane neighbour who comes on to her sexually as they swim in a secluded bay. Creativity is explored in discussions with other writers and artists, marriage is probed in various relationships considered, and the challenge of living authentically is drawn out with subtlety and skill. A fine book -- but not as remarkable as the two other novels.

"Martin John," by Anakana Schofield, is not an easy novel to enjoy. Its central character is a sexual aggressor who pushes himself on unwilling women and masturbates in public. But it is an act of bravery and creative imagination for the author to inhabit his mind and heart and body for 322 pages in this dramatic book. The result is a cry for empathy and a plea for better treatment for those who are mentally ill. The book is also a fine experiment in writing, with a jagged stuttering format that reflects the deformed perspectives of Martin John -- some pages with just 2 or 3 lines, some paragraphs BOLDLY IN CAPITALS, and some sentences stark and ungrammatical: "17 words with the letter P today." Yet this gives a cadence to the writing that builds a momentum of disarray and disaster as Martin John tries to control himself, to divert himself and then finally to flee from himself.

This book would be a worthy Giller winner. I am especially pleased with its nomination because the novel was published by Biblioasis, the amazing independent Windsor publisher that also produced "Arvida." Two great accomplishments by the folks in my old political home city!

The final novel, "Fifteen Dogs," by Andre Alexis, also reached me very deeply. It begins with a bet between two Greek gods and a nearby dog pound, but turns into a beautiful allegory on the nature of human consciousness. The dogs are given such consciousness to see if it brings them happiness. And much conflict and violence follows in the dog pack, just as in the world around us. But Alexis then takes his story to a much higher level, exploring the nature of communication, the power of relationships and the creative force of poetry and the arts. The result is a novel touching in its depth of feeling, written with skill and almost cosmic in some of its concepts. "A bigger novel in scope and ambition," as the Globe and Mail's Kate Taylor put it, compared to "Martin John."

So where would I award the Giller? "Arvida" I found the biggest surprise in its excellence. "Martin John" is a very brave and original novel. Yet "Fifteen Dogs" seemed to me the most imaginative and striking of this set of five quite fine books. I would give Andre Alexis the 2015 Giller.