Greenwood

Greenwood

By Michael Christie

 

It’s 1974 and Willow Greenwood is living in her Westfalia, travelling to various logging camps with her son, Liam, in tow.  Willow’s intent is to sabotage logging operations and generally interfere with the industry that is destroying B.C.’s vast and beautiful forests.  In fact, she has devoted her life to this endeavour.

Unexpectedly, Willow is the daughter of Harris Greenwood, a rich lumber magnate who lives in a mansion in Shaughnessy.  As we delve into Willow’s history, Michael Christie takes us on an elaborate journey across Canada and right through the 20^th century.

Willow’s roots (pun intended) go back to a maple farm in New Brunswick where, in 1934, she is found as a newborn who’s been left to die in a tree.  Everett Greenwood, a drifter (and Harris’s brother), temporarily adopts her and sets out to find her a good home.  He and Willow jump on freight trains and find food wherever they can.  But as they journey through the forests of Quebec (where Willow is almost adopted by a grieving young couple) and the dust bowl of Saskatchewan (where Everett finds temporary work) towards B.C., Everett becomes progressively more attached to Willow and does not want to give her up.

Everett’s story is utterly compelling.  Throughout his journey, we meet a series of other characters, each with stories of their own.  Michael Christie takes readers back to 1908, when Everett and Harris were boys, then fast forwards all the way to 2038 when Jake Greenwood, Willow’s granddaughter, is a forest guide on Greenwood Island, one of the last stands of old growth forest left in the world.

I absolutely loved this epic family tale!  Although not always entirely believable (how do you jump onto a moving train with a baby strapped to you anyway?) I could not put this book down.  Michael Christie has a way of weaving an elaborate and intricate tale that combines multiple layers, threads, characters and time periods. 

He also delves into the fascinating science of trees and likens the inner workings of the forest to that of a family.  Jake Greenwood knows “[t]hat even the impenetrable mysteries of time and family and death can be solved, if only they are viewed through the green-tinted lens of this one gloriously complex organism.”

Highly recommended!

 

 

The Glass Hotel

 

The Glass Hotel

By Emily St. John Mandel

Vincent grows up in the fictional village of Caiette, just across the water from Port Hardy on northern Vancouver Island.  Her tiny town has no road and is accessible only by water taxi. Her unusual name (for a girl) was given to her by her mother, a big fan of poet Edna St. Vincent Millay. The Pacific Ocean is an integral part of life in Caiette and looms large in Vincent’s mind, especially after her mother drowns.

Cut to Vincent’s life at age seventeen when her half-brother, Paul, shows up at her doorstep.  Vincent lives in a dismal apartment with roommate Melissa on the downtown eastside.  But Vincent shows herself to be self-sufficient and strong, determined to find her own way in life while Paul, perpetually down on his luck and addicted to heroin, can’t even hold down a job.

We then meet a slightly older Vincent who has taken a job at the Hotel Caiette.  This luxury inn has been established alongside her old stomping grounds, attracting rich tourists looking for a forest-and-ocean retreat while never really having to leave the glass-walled interior.  It’s here that she meets Jonathan Alkaitis, and her life takes another distinct turn.

Vincent soon becomes Alkaitis’s “wife”, or plays the role of his wife in a luxurious “fairy tale” life based in New York.  Alkaitis is an investment banker with an eclectic group of investors. Life at the peak of affluence is explored in detail, along with the aftermath.  When disaster strikes during the 2008 financial downturn, the dire consequences of Alkaitis’s hubris impact many of those intimately involved with him.

But Vincent, as always, quickly manages to redefine her life and finds herself returning to the ocean.

Vincent is a constant throughout this engrossing story, but Emily St. John Mandel delves deeply into many other lives.  Jonathan Alkaitis, his staff and investors, Paul and even some of the staff at the Hotel Caiette make up the cast of characters.  From the steel and glass opulence of New York to the grey-green beauty of a B.C. rainforest that skirts the ocean, Mandel’s depictions are deeply believable and moving.

Like her previous novel, Station Eleven, The Glass Hotel is well worth reading.

Chop Suey Nation

by Ann Hui

I grew up on the prairies and fondly remember the seemingly exotic Chinese diners in little towns like Nanton, Vulcan and Drumheller, Alberta. As a kid, Chop Suey and the gooey orange sauce over the Sweet & Sour Chicken were my favourites. It was surprising to learn Chinese diner dishes have little to do with traditional Chinese Cuisine. In fact, the literal translation of Chop Suey is “Assorted scraps. Bits and pieces. This and that.”

In 2016, Globe and Mail reporter Ann Hui (Vancouver born) hit the road to answer two questions: Why is there a Chinese restaurant in every Canadian small town? And who are the families who run them? Driving from sea to sea, Hui discovers the unlikely history behind classics like Ginger Beef, the hard-to-imagine Chinese Perogies of Alberta, and Newfoundland Chow Mein.

Among the many restaurant owners, Hui also finds the re-occurring themes of perseverance, humility, and love for family. There’s the restaurant owner/small-town mayor, the owner of a restaurant in a Thunder Bay curling rink, and the woman in remote Fogo Island who runs a restaurant alone, 365 days a year. While all of them are Chinese, their stories are universal and remind us of the mammoth challenges faced by many immigrants from around the world. Starting new lives in dusty or rocky little Canadian towns is really, really hard, but there’s no looking back.

Every other chapter also reveals intriguing stories and secrets about Hui’s own family. Her father was a baby when left with relatives and his parents immigrated to Canada. By age 10, his school days ended and he cared for pigs. Later, realities force him to work as a low-end cook. As a young man, he immigrates to Canada and reunites with his parents, but the wounds of abandonment never quite heal. That’s all I will say. The details beg to be read.

Hui fully succeeds in showing Chop Suey Cuisine is quintessentially Canadian.

Chop Suey Nation is well worth adding to your summer reading list. The fortune cookie bonus is its availability in Richmond Public Library’s digital collection and there’s no waiting list for this one!

Beyond the Trees

Beyond the Trees

By Adam Shoalts

Deemed by some to be “one of Canada’s greatest living explorers”, Adam Shoalts does what most of us would never dare to do – explore Canada’s wild places for months on end, alone.  Shoalts clearly loves the wilderness and feels comfortable with solitude.  But four months alone in the arctic is more than even the most seasoned outdoor enthusiasts would normally attempt.

Nevertheless, Adam Shoalts has experience with exploration and takes readers on a journey through the planning and execution of his arctic endeavour.  His plan is to cross the Canadian arctic from west to east by canoe.  He is aware of many other canoeists who would consider tackling at least some of this journey, but none who would brave these wilds alone.

Shoalts starts his journey in the small village of Eagle Plains in the Yukon, paddling east towards Hudson Bay.  Amazingly, for more than half the trip he is paddling upriver – that is, against the current.  (This, along with his lack of companion, is widely considered a crazy thing to do.)  Readers are privy to his tales of hard paddling, as well as wading and towing his canoe with a rope.  There are also countless portages through unknown territory, oftentimes over boulder-strewn terrain and through swampy, densely-treed areas.

Despite the hardships, Adam Shoalts is totally enamoured with the beauty and magic of the north.  He regularly describes breathtaking vistas as well as close encounters with curious wildlife.  Although he does endure a harrowing ordeal involving a muskox, most of his encounters with wolves, bears, and smaller wildlife are completely benign; these animals are totally unaccustomed to humans, and are neither fearful nor aggressive.

Beyond the Trees is a very readable homage to the wilds of the Canadian North.  Shoalts bemoans our culture’s “24/7 connectivity” and maintains that “immersed in nature, one feels alive,” (p. 72).  If you love an outdoor adventure, Beyond the Trees is for you.