The following are a handful of good books I read in the fall of 2024. Two of these are set on the Canadian prairies, two were on the Giller Prize shortlist, and one was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

This Bright Dust by Nina Berkhout (Goose Lane Editions)

I used to cry easily while reading; now it’s harder to make me cry. I don’t know why – maybe I’ve developed a thick skin from all the sad books I’ve read. In any case, this book made me cry. I was devastated, as though Abel was a real person. I mean, he could have been…

This Bright Dust takes place on the prairies at the end of the depression, right before the war, and in the middle of a terrible drought. As bleak as it sounds, I thought this was a beautiful book; a story of love, family and friendship amidst poverty and crop failure. And the excitement of a young boy and his mother about the upcoming visit to Canada from the Royal family.

“Now here she was, a grown woman, still holding onto the same naive convictions she had as a schoolgirl, that anything was possible. / He had no doubt that if a band of coyotes approached, she would convince them of the importance of the upcoming Royal Tour, and how it could save them all.”

I loved the character of Abel: quiet, private, loyal, and a hard-worker. He quietly does chores and odd jobs for his neighbours as he does his own: “Though he was against her teachings in praise of the British royal family, he didn’t want the Wisharts to freeze. Especially not that wretched boy of hers, looking so forlorn. Sometimes, watching them, he felt his chest would explode.” It’s clear there’s something between Abel and his neighbour, but Abel is so maddeningly shy and sure of his undesirability that he continues to keep to himself as he worries about their farms. Eventually, seeing no other option, he makes a momentous decision.

“Abel was weary of living beneath a sky he could not comprehend.”

Berkhout’s descriptions made me see and and feel the dust in the air. It made me feel bitterly cold during the winter and just as happy as her characters when spring finally came. I felt the wonder of the Royal visit and the great disappointment as the train whizzed on by. I felt both the joy and the hopelessness as the characters lived out their days on the land that they loved.

“At least the stable and barn still stood. At least Tansy, Elizabeth Moon and the chickens still had a roof over their heads. Although they were jittery, he brushed dust from their coats, mouths, and eyelashes. Removed silt from their buckets, gave them water from a covered drum to drink and bit the insides of his cheeks to keep himself from falling to his knees.”

(Favourite scene: p. 187-188.)

Another book by Nina Berkhout I loved: Why Birds Sing

Hair for Men by Michelle Winters (House of Anansi Press)

After loving Michelle Winters’s first novel–I Am A Truck–which I reviewed here, I was excited to read her second, which I reviewed for The Seaboard Review on Substack. Below is an excerpt from that review. To read the entire review, visit The Seaboard Review.

“As does Winters’s first book I Am a Truck, Hair for Men features offbeat characters and a distinctly Canadian feel. Louise’s travels include the Big Stop and Tim Hortons, and there is an underlying thread throughout the novel featuring Gord Downie and the music of The Tragically Hip.

When Michelle Winters was interviewed by Trevor Corkum at 49th Shelf after the release of I Am a Truck, she said that, when she’s both reading and writing, she loves it “when anything can happen.” That is certainly the feeling one gets when reading Hair for Men: Louise takes us to places unexpected. The reader gets the feeling that even Louise is surprised by where her life has led her. And whatever happens next, we wish her well.”

The Jellyfish by Boum (POW POW Press)

The title of this book caught my eye, but I quickly realized it was not about jellyfish at all. The jellyfish of the title are actually jelly-like blobs in the character’s eyes that get in the way of her vision. She gets her eyes checked out and finds out that the condition she has is going to continue to get worse. She’s young, she’s just getting her feet under her only to be knocked off balance again with this diagnosis. She has good friends and a bunny named Napoleon. The illustrations add so much to the feeling of losing one’s vision–which I imagine to be terrifying–and the emotions tied to that. A rare graphic novel read for me, but I’m so glad to have read it.

Held by Anne Michaels

Everyone and their dog has read this book, so I feel as though I can get away with a few quick thoughts. The story is beautifully written – it deserves all the attention. However, because of the structure of the book and the number of characters of differing generations, it was hard for me to connect with any of the characters. Instead, I admired them–felt happy and sad for them–from afar. The atmosphere of the novel feels dream-like and sensual, and the colour of it in my mind is grey. There is a lot of love shared among the characters, but not always happy love; hard love, sad love, lonely love, desperate love. Can love sometimes be too much?

Even though the novel isn’t about men, it could almost be described as a love letter to men; there are fathers who are loved and missed, as well as devoted husbands. It made an impression on me, because I don’t often read about so many loving male characters all in one book. This is neither good nor bad – just something I noticed.

Passages I like:

“Coastal knitters cast their stitches like a protective spell to keep their men safe and warm and dry, the oil in the wool repelling the rain and sea spray, armour passed down, father to son.”

“The train hurtling home, eating into the future; its wake of smoke the burning away of possibilities, chances already extinguished. In each direction, torpor lurking behind every action, a draining of momentum in every decision. Fear so tirelessly attached to hope, it was hard to tell the difference between them.”

“Helena began to draw on the message pad by the phone. She did not realize what she was doing until John’s face was looking back at her, as if he had risen from the paper, she thought, as if he had been imprisoned there and now was free.”

“When a child survives a long operation, only to die within an hour, when the hospital is blown up…you are surprised to learn that everything matters not less, but more.”

Prairie Edge by Conor Kerr

Ezzy and Grey have kidnapped a bunch of bison from the National Park and set them free in the River Valley Park of inner-city Edmonton in an effort to bring awareness to the #LandBack movement and “to prove that the River Valley doesn’t belong to us.” But also because Grey loves the bison and the idea of them being back where they belong. Maybe authorities will leave them alone and they will thrive there.

“Think about them all running. I wonder how the earth would feel, how it would sound when they travelled through…”

In their second attempt at bison-napping, things going horribly wrong and Grey has to jump through a lot of hoops to finish the job. But it doesn’t end there; a domino effect has been set off and Grey can only hope that she will rise above it unscathed. With Ezzy’s background of foster homes, criminal activity, and homelessness, he doesn’t hold out the same kind of hope.

“Prison takes something out of your heart and shatters it on the ground for everyone to stare at and, at the same time, pretend they’re not looking.”

What the story of Ezzy and Grey bring to light in a devastating way is the unfairness and injustice of colonial life; Ezzy and Grey both come from a Metis background, but Grey grew up in a stable home with loving parents while Ezzy grew up in foster homes and no understanding of who he was. He loves spending time with Grey and her activism because it’s the only thing that makes him feel useful, but in the end a sacrifice will have to be made.

This is the second book I read this year about giving the bison their land back. The first one was A Grandmother Begins the Story by Michelle Porter.

Have you read any of these? Which one appeals to you most?

#LoveYour Library