MONDOmagazine » Books

Poetry: North End Poems Reviewed

art — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:29:22 +0000

The North End Poems by Michael Knox ECW Press, 2009 Reviewed by Carolyn Tripp North End Poems by Michael Knox follows a Golden-Horseshoe, blue-collar type in the throes of an arduous lifestyle. The main character of this poetic series, Nick Macfarlane, is accustomed to rough days and rougher nights courtesy of bars, buddies, and the tough broads bred [...]

Poetry: Living Things Reviewed

art — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 05:00:23 +0000

Living Things by Matt Rader Nightwood Editions, 2008 Reviewed by Mike Sloane Matt Rader's Living Things is an astounding, thought-provoking, and visceral collection of poetry; his sophomore publication is the furthest thing from being a slump. While Living Things ostensibly presents the reader with a slew of diverse, eclectic poems that include such choice titles as "Chainsaw," "Domestic Work," "Easter," "Twilight of the Automobile," "Common Carrier," "Fastest Man on the Planet," "Aeons," "Mustang," [...]

Hidden Gem Review: William Gibson’s Virtual Light

art — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 05:00:17 +0000

Virtual Light [Viking Press, 1994] By William Gibson By Rachel Kahn I'm that reader who, upon starting a gripping novel, can hardly maintain a conversation in the real world on any topic but said book, until I've finished it. It's the perfect hibernation activity, because I don't hear the hail hitting the window, or notice that the pizza delivery man is an hour late due to the weather. That's why winter is my catch-up season: I can put a dent in my reading list. While in San Diego (I think I was at Ocean Beach?) last fall, I bought myself a fanned-out paperback of Virtual Light by William Gibson. [Aside: In a related unfortunate turn of events, I also bought All Tomorrow's Parties, and not having internet access to clarify for myself, and with neither book stating anything on the subject, read that one first, unaware that it was the third in the Bridge trilogy that Virtual Light begins, and, I have to say, the weakest link.] Virtual Light tells the stories of Berry Rydell, ex-cop, and Chevette Washington, bike courier, when her petty theft of a pair of dark glasses and his sketchy new employers bring them to the centre of a power struggle over the future shape of San Francisco. The city, at this point in Gibson's near future, is split in two by a collapsed Golden Gate Bridge; on the bridge is a vibrant, autonomous community of squatters, and that community becomes a character in its own right. If it's starting to sound like a pulp paperback, that's because it is. Gibson's an expert at throwing together things that are awesome, badass, and thought-provoking. Though this book isn't heavy on the thought-provoking, it's there if you want it. [...]

The Night of the Gun, Reviewed

art — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 04:00:09 +0000

The Night of the Gun By David Carr Simon & Schuster, 2008 By Leo K. Moncel On the night of the gun, author David Carr, then a full-time junkie, was fired from his reporting job. He met his friend Donald at a bar and the two promptly got shitfaced and thrown out. Donald blamed Carr for the ejection and Carr shoved him across the hood of his muscle car. Donald drove off, stranding Carr with 34 cents in his pocket. Carr marched across town to Donald's and tried to bust the door in with his sneaker until Donald came to the door, levelled a gun at him, and ordered Carr to leave before he dialed the police. When Carr recalled this event to Donald, years later, Donald remembered most of it similarly, except for one crucial detail: Carr, he said, was the one who had held the gun. Carr had no recollection of owning a gun, but confessed that, given the period in his life that this night occurred, it was very probable that Donald's version of the story held more water. This concession forced Carr to accept that he was not a wholly reliable narrator even in his own life's story. So, when writing a memoir of his years as a cocaine addict, junkie, and recovered addict, Carr decided that the best way to go about it was to learn his own story by investigating existing records and videotaping interviews of those who had known him. What Carr developed through that process is a memoir that is uniquely clear, self-conscious and absent of the self-indulgence that could strangle a story like his. [...]

One-Two Punch: An Interview with Stuart Ross

art — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 04:00:27 +0000

By Evie Christie This past month Stuart Ross, small press hero and surrealist extraordinaire, has been short-listed for the Relit Award and featured in the New York Times blog for his Hunkamooga column in the magazine sub-TERRAIN, from which Confessions of a Small Press Racketeer was drawn. I talked to Stuart recently via e-mail about his sixth full-length poetry collection, Dead Cars in Managua (DC Books, 2008), and other stuff!

The Pineapple Review: Choking ‘Bout My Education

art — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 04:00:17 +0000

My Neck is Thinner Than A Hair The Atlas Group and Walid Raad FACT 2005, 226 pgs By Carolyn Tripp As unsettling as they are, photographs of devastation and violence are fairly commonplace. Come to think of it, so too are the debates concerning how familiar they've become in print and on television. Even so, the page after page of post car bomb photographs taken various media photographers makes for an intriguing non-flipbook of devastation in My Neck is Thinner Than a Hair by the Atlas Group and Walid Raad. This volume contains images exclusively from Lebanon's civil war, [...]

Rainy Days and Foggy Mirrors

art — Tue, 20 May 2008 04:00:01 +0000

the end of east by Jen Sookfong Lee Knopf Canada, 2007 By Kendall Malchuk the end of east is, at face value, a novel about a Chinese immigrant family living in Vancouver. However, the novel is as complex as the city itself: tall and distinct, but surrounded by an ever-present fog of dreams unrealized. This first novel by Jen Sookfong Lee follows the rise and fall of one family's aspirations and desires as promised by the "new world" of Canada from the 1910s to present day. For readers in an overcrowded, overly stimulated cluster-fuck of a culture like that of Toronto, this book is highly accessible. It contains spiritualism, family ties, sexual desires, Canadian history, teenage angst, middle-aged angst, identity crises, and enough rain to fill Godzilla's water dish. The novel follows the story of Sammy, a twenty-ish, tomboy-ish Chinese college dropout. The novel simultaneously explores the lives of her grandfather and father, now both dead, and their separate arrivals at, and subsequent lives lived in, Vancouver. As Sammy discovers treasured keepsakes from both men while cleaning out their previously occupied spaces, she surfs a wave of recollection, landing her on the beach of re-discovering her family roots. Meanwhile, the reader is treated to flashbacks encompassing the greater part of Sammy's mother's, father's, grandmother's, and grandfather's lives. Each character's story really begins, in this book, the second that it washes up on the garbage-strewn beaches of Vancouver. As the larger portion of this melting-pot we call a country immigrated here or is descended from people who did, this book holds a mirror up to experiences held within our own families (even though it may be a foggy and cracked mirror). This is no rose-coloured story. the end of east is a dark and nostalgic book that unapologetically reveals every character at their weakest points. In lives moved by arranged marriages, debt-strewn families left in China, bigoted neighbours slinging insults and the occasional brick, hidden dreams, strong senses of duty, and, above all, an unbreakable dedication to family despite the anxiety it causes, there are many dark corners for secrets to hide. Although many of the events in this story are [...]

Enlightening Historical Canadian Poetic Biographical Works: Possible?

art — Fri, 16 May 2008 04:00:10 +0000

Hannus by Rachel Lebowitz Pedlar Press, 2007 By Evie Christie Pedlar Press is a Toronto press famous for its award-winning books and cover designs. Beth Follett, novelist and Pedlar publisher and editor, has (single-handedly) put out excellent poetry and fiction since 1997, making a big name for the small press. A recent Pedlar book worth notice is Rachel Lebowitz's Hannus, the poetic biography of Ida Hannus, a Finnish-Canadian suffragist living in Vancouver and in the B.C. Finnish commune Sointula, from the turn of the 20th century to the Cold War. The Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize jury took notice as Lebowitz was shortlisted in 2007 for her debut collection. After I'd read some of Lebowitz's industrialist poems in Event Magazine, I ordered my copy of Hannus (another really bloody good-looking book by Pedlar). Not having read the "creative biography" genre, my expectations were narrow: a book about a Canadian, a suffragette, and a socialist has to be politically minded, not to mention the familial connection to the subject [...]

The Pineapple Review: The Gospel According to David UPDATED

art — Fri, 02 May 2008 05:00:25 +0000

Every week, we highlight the best in art-ish printed matter. Pretty much anything on book or in paper is fine and juicy by us. And difficult to eat. But oh, so tasty. --- The Book of Shrigley by David Shrigley Chronicle Books By Carolyn Tripp The sentiment resulting from observing artist neurosis can be more a strange mixture of vexation than the oft-supposed fascination. Beyond any interesting work and existential conundrums, I don't think I could suffer through the conversation offered by somebody whose presence isn't half as enthralling as his work. And what would be the point of inviting him to a dinner party, anyway? He'd just stand around and mope in the corner, eh? [...]

Size Matters: Striking Images reviewed UPDATED

art — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 05:00:09 +0000

Striking Images: Vintage Matchbook Cover Art

Edited and designed by Monte Beauchamp Chronicle Books, 272 pgs

By Carolyn Tripp

Gone are the days where you would saunter into a crowded local on Friday, choke a little on the peanut-butter fog, and order a drink from your favourite barkeep. This particular drink slinger also had a cigarette hanging out of his mouth (both disillusioned and care-worn!). The most important thing to note here, however, is certainly the cigarette.

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Many An Idle, Many An Odd

art — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 05:00:29 +0000

A Review of Hand Job: A Catalogue of Type By Carolyn Tripp As grin-inducing as the title may be, this book isn’t something you can brag to your buds about getting from your significant (or non-significant) other last night. This impressively big (size counts!) catalogue boasts editor and text artist Michael Perry’s devotion to type over the past few years. And I must admit, I’ve fallen asleep with this book close by ever since it fell into my lap from the postman’s satchel. But you know, it’s not what you think. I’m an above-the-waist type, anyhow. [...]

The Books of Standard Form

admin — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 19:16:03 +0000

I got an A+ in Art and You can too and A Report/Un Rapport

By Katie Edwards

"Intueri sonitum, imaginem auscultare."

With a Latin motto that roughly translates as "looking at sound, listening to an image," Toronto-based press Standard Form produces a unique combination of art and music. Inspired by publishers like Coach House Books, who do their printing in-house, proprietor Alex Durlak founded the company almost a year and a half ago, motivated by a self-proclaimed "love to make stuff." With a long-standing interest in design and photography, lots of time spent playing in bands, and a DIY work-ethic, Durlak began to learn the art of offset lithography two years ago. This has translated into a catalogue of two albums and three books, all published within the last six months. Though the albums were released before the books, Durlak says that he always intended to publish both books and music, and is interested in the overlap between the art and music scenes.