Warren Kinsella's new novel Recipe for Hate chronicles fanatics insinuating their way into positions of power
Life sometimes imitates fiction – and not in ways you’d expect. For example, I’ve just published a book called Recipe For Hate. It’s a novel. Without giving away the plot, I can reveal that Recipe For Hate is about fanatics insinuating themselves into positions of power and influence. It’s about zealots, on the right and the…
These authors examine death and dying, love and romance, the immigrant experience and cultural chasms, and the heavy burdens family members must often carry
Summer reading lists abound. From my reading over the last year, I recommend the following. All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews is drawn from the author’s life. Her wit sparkles through the sadness of this story of two sisters, Elf and Yoli. Elf suffers from depression and is determined to kill herself. She repeatedly…
Born 25 or so years apart, Margaret Mitchell and Harper Lee were each defined by a single book. Mitchell’s was Gone With the Wind, while Lee’s was To Kill a Mockingbird. Both women – daughters of the 20th century American South – situated their work in their native regions. Mitchell chose Civil War Georgia for her…
Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson's reputations were created primarily by Hollywood
A recent newspaper feature on people’s early reading experiences reminded me of my own, in which two 19th century Scottish novelists – Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson – were the key figures. Mind you, they enjoyed a major assist from Hollywood movies. Stevenson came first, when I was seven years of age. The…
As July dwindles down into August, here are a few personal reflections on three of the month’s big stories – Greece, Iran, and the brouhaha about Atticus Finch. It was obvious from the get-go that Greece was placing all its chips on the belief that the Northern Europeans, particularly the Germans, would ultimately agree to…
To Canadians’ shame, Canada’s greatest novelist’s centenary has been met with silence
Only a forgetful silence has marked this month’s centenary of the greatest of all Canadian-born novelists. Yet those who care to remedy such a state of affairs still have time before Saul Bellow’s birth month is out to read his astonishing 1976 Nobel Prize Lecture. They have the rest of their lives to marvel that…
Life sometimes imitates fiction – and not in ways you’d expect. For example, I’ve just published a book called Recipe For Hate. It’s a novel. Without giving away the plot, I can reveal that Recipe For Hate is about fanatics insinuating themselves into positions of power and influence. It’s about zealots, on the right and the…
