“If God gives yoyu meaning, if God makes you good, if God makes you real and worthy and powerful, then that’s my Ralph. Ralph made my suffering better, healthy and righteous. He made my suffering want only good things: make the pain stop and I’ll be the best wife in the world,” (Hogarth). After Abby’s mother-in-law …
“What about us?…The young ones. The next generation. The future…we trusted you to care for us. To love us. To make the right decisions for us. And you did. We’re alive today because of you…But for a long time, you didn’t tell us everything about what happened when we were little kids…We asked you, over …
“lost and alone,/wandering./i swill back the pain; it burns and it belches/rage and despair/leaving only a windigo/who cannibalizes himself,” (Thistle, 157, “Windigo”). Jesse Thistle recounts his journey of recovery from drug-addiction. He remembers his brief time in the foster-care system with his brothers, moving to Ontario with his paternal grandparents, until he finds himself homeless. …
“I’m no longer sure which is worse: surviving and living the rest of my life as a lie, or wasting away in this apartment and dying from this cancer,” (Maylott 35). Paige Maylott’s debut memoir is an honest exploration of transition and discovery. Finding solace, community, and love in online communities and games, Maylott comes into …
“To be loved by your father is to be loved by God,” (Dey 17). Despite everything, Mona Dean can’t stay away from her famous writer father Paul Dean. Not when he left her mother and sister when she was eleven, not when he ignored the abuse his new wife, Cherry, dealt against her and her sister …
Cartoonist Kate Beaton recounts her time working in the Oil Sands after graduating from university. Eager to pay off her student debt, Beaton knows the best way to do that is a job in Alberta. Many Maritimers have done the same, and if it will get her out of debt fast and onwards to the …
“You’re searching for something profound. Something to tug at your heartstrings…The house is an animal. And it wants to feed,” (Samsbury 234). Daisy can see the dead. It’s an ability she’s had all her life which makes living in ghost-filled Toronto difficult. She usually has a handle on it, but when her boyfriend suddenly dumps her …
“‘If I start hating prostitutes where am I going to stop?…All around us there are all kinds of people prostituting their souls and their principles for money. I know people in this city who prostitute our faith for the sake of expediency. I watch it going on all around and wonder how corrupt our faith …
“You can burn a book or a library, but to really destroy a story you have to destroy the language and its people. Or write another one,” (Barwin). After an unfortunate incident in his youth that left Motl ball-less, he has decided to go on a quest to find them and, hopefully, procreate. Except that …
I received this book from Playwrights Canada Press in exchange for an honest review. Estranged cousins Kat and Eli meet online and bond through their queer identities, though both live very different lives. Kat lives in Toronto with her two gay dads and is out and proud herself, passionate that everyone should be comfortable and proud about …
Sarah O'Connor 