> THE READER
Here’s a cross-country literary voyage, beginning in Vancouver with Daniel Kalla’s 11th medical mystery, followed by a cross-country trip on 1970’s Abortion Caravan, ending in Newfoundland with a coming-of-sobriety memoir.
The Last High, Daniel Kalla
Vancouver emergency-room doctor Daniel Kalla has long had his stethoscope on the heartbeat of his times. His first book, 2005’s “Pandemic,” concerned a new flu virus that originates in China and spreads worldwide. Sound familiar?
In his latest, the focus is on Vancouver’s opioid crisis. It begins with a group of teens who have overdosed on what appears to be fentanyllaced punch. Five kids are dead; two more are near death.
A former opioid addict herself, toxicologist Julia Rees is working an ER shift when the two teens arrive.
In the days that follow, more users succumb to this deadly drug, dubbed the Last High, because of its resistant to naloxone, the fentanyl antidote.
To track down the source, Julia teams up with detective Anson Chen, as fellow sleuth and romantic interest.
This lively story arrived on the Star’s Canadian bestseller list days after publication, with good reason. Kalla understands hospitals and Vancouver, illuminating the city’s brutal (though admirably diverse) criminal underclass — the Chinese Triad, East Indian crime families, the Iranian crime lords, plus independents of all stripes.
The Abortion Caravan: When Women Shut Down Government in the Battle for the Right to Choose, Karin Wells
Fifty years ago this spring, 17 women left Vancouver and drove to Ottawa to tell politicians that they wanted abortion on demand. They were a motley crew, as author Karin Wells writes, “scruffy, illmatched, illmannered.” That is, they were emblematic of their times — young, angry and antiestablishment.
They set forth in three vehicles: a yellow convertible, a pickup truck, and a Volkswagen van emblazoned with the slogans including “Abortion is Our Right!” and, more controversially, “Smash Capitalism.” A coffin adorned the roof, symbolizing the 1,000 to 2,000 women who died from botched abortions each year.
Along the way, they held rallies in 10 cities, sweeping up women (and a few men) on their way to Ottawa. On May 9, 1970, they marched, 500 strong, to the Parliament buildings. Then quite a bit of hell broke loose.
I don’t remember the Caravan even though I was 24 when it ran. Maybe because nothing changed: It would be 18 years before abortion became legal in Canada. And yet, Wells’ lively retelling is important. The Caravan was the first — the very first! — national grassroots women’s protest, the coalescing of feminism as a movement in Canada. And that’s worth remembering.
One Good Reason: A Memoir of Addiction and Recovery, Music and Love, Séan McCann and Andrea Aragon
This is a double memoir, bringing together Séan McCann, a founding member of the Newfoundland band, Great Big Sea (“the biggest party band in Canada”), and his wife, Andrea Aragon, a Minnesotan he met on tour.
He had alcohol issues and unspoken memories of being raped by an admired local priest. She had fidelity issues and experience with drunks, thanks to her dad, a Vietnam vet. These are their stories, leading up to his last drink (a California chardonnay in 2011) and his subsequent coming-out as a survivor of sexual abuse.
The he-says she-says format gives “One Good Reason” a real tang of authenticity.