“The most important book to be written in more than 40 years about the rise of Canadian literature… Arrival: The Story of CanLit brims and crackles, in equal measure, with information and energy.” — Winnipeg Free Press
A Globe and Mail Top 100 Book
National Post 99 Best Books of the Year
In the mid-twentieth century, Canadian literature transformed from a largely ignored trickle of books into an enormous cultural phenomenon that produced Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro, Michael Ondaatje, Mordecai Richler, and so many others. In Arrival, acclaimed writer and critic Nick Mount answers the question: What caused the CanLit Boom?
Written with wit and panache, Arrival tells the story of Canada’s literary awakening. Interwoven with Mount’s vivid tale are enlightening mini-biographies of the people who made it happen, from superstars Leonard Cohen and Marie-Claire Blais to lesser-known lights like the troubled and impassioned Harold Sonny Ladoo. The full range of Canada’s literary boom is here: the underground exploits of the blew ointment and Tish gangs; revolutionary critical forays by highbrow academics; the blunt-force trauma of our plain-spoken backwoods poetry; and the urgent political writing that erupted from the turmoil in Quebec.
Originally published to coincide with the 150th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, Arrival is a dazzling, variegated, and inspired piece of writing that helps explain how we got from there to here.
Arrival: The Story of CanLit is a fine gathering together of so many people — critics, publishers and, of course, writers — to explore and explain the eruption that took place in the 1960s and early 70s in our culture. . . . A kaleidoscope of fascinating people who shaped our country’s growth into a literature respected around the world.
[A] quick and genuinely informative read, even for those who think they know the story [of CanLit] well.
[Arrival offers] a vivid sense of the times. . . . Hats off to Arrival for its engaging coverage of a pivotal period in Canadian letters.
Arrival: The Story of CanLit . . . transform[s] our literature into a hothouse of eye-catching personalities. . . . Not only is Mount’s prose readable, but he has a Malcolm Gladwell–esque flair for mining history for little-known anecdotes.
