OCTOBER SURPRISES
At the beginning of each month, the National Post’s Paul Taunton recommends the fiction and non-fiction books you’ll want to read and be seen reading over the next few weeks. Here’s what’s in store for readers this October:
SECRET LIFE: THE JIAN GHOMESHI INVESTIGATION, BY KEVIN DONOVAN (GOOSE LANE)
Though the two differed in how they thought the story should be pursued, Toronto Star reporter Kevin Donovan broke the Jian Ghomeshi scandal with Canadaland’s Jesse Brown. Donovan’s account of the investigation is likely to spark renewed interest in how this case and its trial were covered — and how sexual assault cases should be covered in the future.
HAG-SEED: THE TEMPEST RETOLD, BY MARGARET ATWOOD (KNOPF CANADA), OCT. 11.
When Margaret Atwood was approached to be part of the Hogarth Shakespeare project (a series of retellings from wellknown novelists), the play she would choose was clear. “Tippetytop clear,” she says, explaining she’s written about The Tempest before (in a chapter from Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing). Hag-Seed takes place in “a Stratford-like place” in homage to Ontario’s highly regarded Shakespeare festival, which Atwood rarely misses.
I AM BRIAN WILSON, BY BRIAN WILSON WITH BEN GREENMAN (RANDOM HOUSE CANADA), OCT. 11.
Given the coverage afforded Bruce Springsteen’s recent memoir, expect wide interest in the much more reclusive Brian Wilson’s autobiography. “Lying in bed, just like Brian Wilson did,” as The Barenaked Ladies sang (and the former Beach Boy later covered), is just the beginning of Wilson’s story, from depression and mental illness to fulfilment and forgiveness.
THIS IS A BOOK ABOUT THE KIDS IN THE HALL, BY JOHN SEMLEY (ECW) , OCT. 11.
“These people aren’t actors or extras,” Kevin McDonald once said of The Kids in the Hall’s iconic grainy footage of Toronto. “They’re real people living their lives that we were capturing on Super 8.” Mark McKinney adds, “’Cause that’s where we came from.” The groundbreaking comedy captured a moment in time, of which John Semley’s book is a definitive retrospective.
A GAMBLER’S ANATOMY, BY JONATHAN LETHEM (DOUBLEDAY), OCT. 18.
First achieving mainstream success with 1999’s Motherless Brooklyn, Jonathan Lethem has carved out a unique career writing genre-bending fiction (and perceptive, illuminating non-fiction). After a brief foray into “realism,” Lethem makes an anticipated return to weirdness with A Gambler’s Anatomy and its protagonist, a telepathic backgammon savant.
WAITING FOR FIRST LIGHT: MY ONGOING BATTLE WITH PTSD, BY ROMÉO DALLAIRE (RANDOM HOUSE CANADA), OCT. 25.
In 2003’s Shake Hands With the Devil, Roméo Dallaire chronicled the world’s failure to stop the Rwandan genocide, but his memoir by no means closed the book on his own trauma. Waiting for First Light explores Dallaire’s continuing struggle with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder — and renewed commitment to humanitarian work — and is an important petition for a greater understanding of our returning veterans.
FLOAT: STORIES BY ANNE CARSON (MCCLELLAND & STEWART), OCT. 25.
Canada’s most renowned poet returns with Float, a series of chapbooks that can be read in or out of “order,” with many featuring Carson’s trademark juxtaposition of classical allusion and experimental verse. It’ll be like splitting up the weekend paper for families who can also maybe read Thucydides in the original.