With her third novel, Mean Boy, Lynn Coady takes several risks which leave the reader wondering: is this just another solidly crafted book? or might it qualify as something more substantial?
Category: Head
The category, Head, is for posts that make us think.
Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition 2006
A friend of ours, David Hynes, was showing his mixed media works (i.e. collages) in this year’s iteration of the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition down at Nathan Phillips Square. The show itself was a mixed bag, trying (a little bit unsuccessfully) to walk that narrow path between popular appeal and artistic integrity.
Quitters Are Winners Too
Conventional wisdom—at least in North America—holds that persistence is a virtue: “if at first you don’t succeed” and all that. We marvel at those who single-mindedly pursue their dreams and, after overcoming countless obstacles, finally get to roll in their success like pigs in mud. But recent thinking from the nascent field of evolutionary medicine turns conventional wisdom on its head.
The Tent, by Margaret Atwood
I despise Margaret Atwood. Living as I do in Toronto, such a statement may come off sounding like blasphemy. How can you say such a thing? ask the pious onlookers. It is precisely because I am from Toronto that I despise her.
An Anthropologist on Mars
I’m not sure that Roman Catholics would appreciate me comparing their theological ground to Mars, but Oliver Sacks’ phrase pretty much describes how I felt last Friday when I went to Regis College to listen as Professor John Dadosky presented a paper: “Towards a Fundamental RE-Interpretation of Vatican II.”
Runaway by Alice Munro
So there I was, two weeks ago, lounging by the side of a pool in Punta Cana, reading Runaway, Alice Munro’s latest collection of short stories, when a woman in a bikini stopped at the foot of my chair and said: “I’ve started reading that, too. Just finished the first story. So what’s with the goat? Did the husband really kill the goat?”
A New Year, New Words
I would like to mark the passage of time by noting some linguistic events, and what better linguistic genius to consult than George W. Bush. In addition to his legendary Bushisms (itself a neologism meaning something like “blundering non-sequitur”), Bush is credited with notable contributions to the English (or at least American) dictionary…
The Wounded Storyteller by Arthur W. Frank
In anticipation of a new course I will be taking this term, Spirituality, Health & the Christian Life, I read one of the required texts, The Wounded Storyteller, just for a taste. I was stunned at how closely Frank’s account of illness matches my own experience and at how closely his language (he might call it his discourse) speaks to the way I orient myself to my world.
Madness, Religion and Aldous Huxley
I first read Aldous Huxley’s The Devils of Loudun while riding a bus to Ithaca, N.Y. during a high school music trip when I was 15. Returning to the book more than 25 years later, I have made several discoveries.
The Painted Bird, by Jerzy Kosinski
Jerzy Kosinski’s novel, The Painted Bird, filled with vignettes of violence perpetrated against innocence, is more compelling than ever in an age when media presents us with confirmation that such things occur on a daily basis in our world. Whereas CNN’s truth is of one sort, Kosinki’s is of quite another.
The Christic Center by Harold Wells
Professor Harold Wells, who teaches Systematic Theology in Toronto at Emmanuel College, has written a big book with a simple message: The Christic Center: Life-Giving and Liberating (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2004). In fact, the message appears clearly in the title.
Communion in a Progressive Church
Today, I celebrated my second sacrament (communion) in a progressive church, and during the service, I found more answers to questions I have posed in a previous rant about life in a progressive context.
Progressive Christians Speak, ed. John Cobb Jr
The book has 16 chapters each devoted to a distinct social justice issue. These issues fall into two broad categories: 1) domestic concerns such as religion and public schools, abortion, and the penal system; and 2) concerns arising from the global economy such as corporate responsibility, debt relief and environmentalism.
Baptism in a Progressive Church
Trying to inveigle oneself into the life of a church is a daunting undertaking. It reminds me of something I did when I was in high school. I was friends with an observant Conservative Jew, and as we were talking at lunch one day, we decided to have a bit of an interfaith exchange.
The Lost Book of the Bible
I went to the airport to pick up my in-laws from vacation, and because their flight was delayed, I went to the nearest news stand to find something to read. I couldn’t help but notice the headline for the “Sun: Found in Dead Sea Cave … Lost Book of the Bible”.