King John of Canada

Canada becomes a monarchy in this assured, smoothly written political fairy tale.  The story takes place in the near future and serves up a lot of innocuous chuckles.  

The Maritimes finally get a CFL team (the Halifax Privateers), and Toronto, fed up at last with the abuse heaped on it by the rest of the country, declares its intention to separate.  

The monarchy is a joke at first, but gradually the king takes charge and becomes hugely popular.  He establishes a new Thanksgiving tradition by replacing turkey with Canada goose.  He gives an inspirational pep talk to Team Canada when it is down 4-2 in a gold medal game in the Olympics.  (John, we need you in Vancouver.)

The king not only solves a number of vexing political issues, and but also turns Canada into a dominant world power.  The country sets up an alternative to the United Nations, invades the Sudan, and becomes a haven for American immigrants as the US begins to implode.

Misc Observations

Only Canadians will pick up on everything in this book.

At some point the reader will have to decide how much of King John is a modern Utopia, and how much "A Modest Proposal."

For me the book was most fun when it was least serious.  When Canada started flexing its muscles internationally, the political fairy tale became more like a political wet dream.  But maybe that's the point.

King John of Canada was shortlisted for the 2008 Leacock Award for Humour.   

Scott Gardiner is a very accomplished writer.  

Marsport

And warlike!  He had not realized how bellicose they were.  Now, whenever he saw a column trudging along, he imagined them as tiny Greek soldiers, marching off to overthrow a neighbouring city-state. Their exoskeletons provided ready-made helmets and cuirasses.  Their swords were mandibles and stings, their spears sprays of formic acid.  They were brave, merciless, without fear.  Every battle was a Thermopylae.  Their legions were everywhere.  Perhaps even in space, and not as a science experiment aboard the Space Shuttle, but as stowaways on Mir.  He imagined ant scientists launching their own rockets and sending ant astronauts into space.  They'd be wearing white spacesuits with transparent bubbles around their heads.  They wouldn't have to worry about cosmic rays.  When humans finally reached Mars, they'd find anthills there...

Little Dorrit

Not as popular as Dickens' other novels due to an undeserved reputation for being sombre.  Undeserved, I say, because the book overflows with typical Dickensian humour and exuberance, while the storyline is much easier to follow than that of the last two Dickens I read, Bleak House and Our Mutual Friend.

In Book I (“Poverty”), Mr. Dorrit is confined to Marshalsea, the same debtor's prison that Dickens' father had been incarcerated in.  He and his daughter, Little Dorrit (born in prison), are visited by Arthur Clennam, whose generosity includes discreet financial assistance.

In Book II (“Wealth”) Mr. Dorrit enjoys unexpected riches, while other people are suddenly ruined, including Clennam, who ends up in Mr. Dorrit's former room in Marshalsea.  Now it is Little Dorrit who comes visiting.  

Theme 

Little Dorrit is about imprisonment.  The book opens in Marseilles -- first in a jail, then behind walls where some travellers have been quarantined.  The story moves on to London – first to an decrepit house where Arthur's mother has been confined to a wheelchair for years, then to the Marshalsea prison.

These visible forms of imprisonment are matched by self-imposed barriers.  When Mr. Dorrit is set free, he remains trapped by his own pride and vanity. Arthur Clennam has been a prisoner in the family business for 20 years.  Miss Wade is a “self-tormentor,” caged by her own bitterness and resentment.  The Circumlocution Office is a bureaucratic fortress with the power to enslave the unwary in its labyrinthine coils.

Marriage can be a prison too.  Mrs. Clennam's sterile morality divides her from her husband and sends him into exile, while the Merdles and the Sparklers are bound together in arid unions based entirely on money and appearances.  Mrs. Flintwinch is so bullied by her husband that her life becomes a nightmare.  All are marriages of convenience. 

Memorable Characters 

Mostly they are villains.  Chief among them is an arrogrant cartoon Frenchman named Blandois, who overflows with extravagant speech and gestures.  He snaps his fingers at everyone and cries out “Holy blue!” at the drop of a hat.   Somehow Dickens manages to make him sinister and comic at the same time.

Flintwinch is Mrs. Clennam's servant turned business partner.  He has a wry neck and twisted body, and moves like a “screw-machine that fell short of its grip.” His poor wife Affery is so bullied by him that she's forever throwing her apron over her head in fright.

Gowan is a careless fellow who excels at nothing except his own self-interest.  His nonchalant and patronizing comments are superb, especially when he cloaks his disparaging remarks in words of praise.

Mrs. General is the companion that Mr. Dorrit hires for his two daughters while they are touring Europe.  Her idea of genteel breeding is never to show an interest in anything unpleasant.  To be genteel is to have an impervious, highly polished surface, and Dickens has great fun when he refers to her efforts at “varnishing” the two young ladies.

My favourite character is the collection agent Mr. Pancks, who is compared to a steam-tug, constantly puffing and snorting and towing away other people:

Mr. Pancks, who was always in a hurry, and who referred to a little dirty notebook which he kept beside him (perhaps containing the names of the defaulters he meant to look up by way of dessert), took in his victuals as if he were coaling; with a good deal of noise, and a good deal of dropping about, and a puff and a snort occasionally, as if he were nearly ready to steam away.

Gripes 

Little Dorrit and Arthur Clennam are the least interesting characters in the book.  Little Dorrit is selfless to the point of sainthood, while the bland Clennam is more of a plot device than a character, linking up the Clennams, the Dorrits, the Meagles, and others.  Though he spent 20 years in China, he shows no evidence of it, returning without souvenirs, anecdotes, or mannerisms.

Another problem is the age difference between hero and heroine.  Little Dorrit is 22, yet petite enough to be mistaken for a child.  Clennam, who is 40, frets about his age and often addresses her as "My dear child."  Their first embrace is described as that of a father embracing a daughter.  Since this is a prelude to a sexual relationship, the whole thing strikes me as rather creepy.

(There is an interesting sidelight to this in Dickens' own life.  He met Ellen Ternan in 1857, the year he completed Little Dorrit.  He was 45, she 18.  Soon afterward, he left his wife and conducted a lengthy affair with Ternan.  While he didn't meet her early enough for their relationship to influence the book, it's an odd coincidence, almost as though he were imagining, and perhaps justifying, a future involvement with a woman young enough to be his daughter.)

Then there are the usual things that modern readers tend to roll their eyes at -- an unexpected legacy, an overwrought death scene, a secret twin, and an improbably melodramatic event.  The latter, which is intended to mirror the financial collapse brought about by Merdle's swindles, is the sudden disintegration of Mrs. Clennam's house.  Dickens sets it up beforehand in various ways, but it's no more convincing than the spontaneous combustion of Krook in Bleak House

And wait a minute, how does the paralyzed Mrs. Clennam survive the collapse of her house?  Well, just before the house falls apart she miraculously regains the use of her limbs, leaping to her feet and rushing out to Marshalsea prison.  But seriously, having been wheelchair-bound for years, it's unlikely she would have made it to the door, let alone down the stairs.

Finally, I mentioned earlier that the narrative is easy to follow.  That's true, except for the denouement, when Dickens launches into a lengthy explanation of the book's backstory.  It's so convoluted that the Penguin edition I read includes a precis of it in the appendix.

Canadian Connection 

For several years Dickens managed a house for "fallen" women called Urania Cottage.  One of the young women was Rhena Pollard, a headstrong girl with dark hair and dark eyes.  She seems to have been the model for Tattycoram (an orphan taken on as a maid by the Meagleses).  Pollard eventually came to Canada, where she married and settled down to a respectable life in Ontario.

Tattycoram is also the subject of a novel of the same name by Canadian author Audrey Thomas.  Thomas has been nominated twice for the GG.

Mrs. Merdle's son, Edmund Sparkler, was born in "St. John's, New Brunswick." 

Links 

After reading the book I watched the recent and most excellent BBC production of Little Dorrit.  It was interesting to see how the book was shaped for the screen.  I urge you to see it.  You can find out more at the following sites:

BBC  Jane Austen's World

Here's a review of Jenny Hartley's Charles Dickens and the House of Fallen Women.  The book discusses the role of Dickens in running Urania Cottage.

I also discovered that there is a Dickens World in England.  Wouldn't that be fun to visit!

Yellowknife Makes Shortlist

Yellowknife has made the short list for the National Post's Canada Also Reads event.

Thanks to fellow bloggers who were kind enough to pester the Post with emails of support, and especially to panellist and superblogger John Mutford, without whom Yellowknife would never have made the cut.

John sports some impressive credentials.  His Canadian Book Challenge is now into its third year, and last year alone participants read over 1000 Canadian books.

The competition officially begins on March 1, when brief arguments from each panellist will be posted at the rate of two a day.  On March 8 there will be a live chat.  The winner will be declared after a public poll.

Yellowknife is available from the publisher's website as a $20 trade paperback or a free download.

Canada Also Reads Longlist
Canada Also Reads Shortlist
John Mutford's blog
3rd Canadian Book Challenge
Res Telluris 

Scatttered Thoughts

Until it's published, the worth of a book remains hidden.  You think it's good.  You hope it's good.  But you never know for sure until it's actually out there.  And even then...

For me, that period of hope and indecision lasted 10 years, the length of time it took to write the book.  Making the shortlist means that those 10 years weren't entirely wasted.

Still, praise and criticism should be taken with an equal amount of salt.  One shouldn't believe too much in either.

Then there's the personal element.  All writing is autobiographical to some extent.  It can't be avoided.  Publishing is a form of streaking.

Dark Banquet

Blood and the Curious Lives of Blood-Feeding Creatures

The book is divided into three sections.  The first deals with vampire bats, of which there are three -- Desmodus, Diphylla, and Diaemus.  The latter feeds on birds and in the case of domestic poultry has learned how to mimic chick behaviour.  Chickens are observed allowing bats to sup on their brood patch.  

The second section deals with leeches, and includes an interesting history of their medical use, past and present. 

The final section (bedbugs, ticks, and mites) is probably the most unnerving because it hits closest to home. Bedbugs have been making a resurgence in recent years, while the enigmatic Lyme disease (spread by ticks) can be hard to diagnose and impossible to cure if not caught early. 

As a bonus, the author mentions a blood-sucking Amazonian catfish called the candiru, which normally feeds on the gills of other fish, but occasionally latches onto humans in places you don't want to think about. 

The book does not cover mosquitoes, as they are not obligate blood-feeders.

There are wonderful line drawings throughout by Patricia J. Wynne.

Website

Gringos

Imagine Indiana Jones down on his luck, living in a hotel room in the Yucatan peninsula.  No longer dealing in stolen Mayan artifacts, he's scratching out a living as a scavenger and bounty hunter.

That's Jimmy Burns, a generous easy-going guy with many eccentric and largely ungrateful friends.

There's Doc Landin, a maverick archeologist who wants to make one last trip into the jungle so he can be buried with an Olmec figurine in his mouth.  There's Rudy Kurle, a follower of von Daniken, who believes that "space dwarfs" civilized the Mayans.  There's Refugio Bautista Osorio, who runs a trading post and salvage yard, and counts "his wealth in fifty-five gallon drums."

Burns makes a delivery to a dysfunctional archeological dig, travels into the jungle when Rudy goes missing, and encounters a band of hippies who are awaiting the end of the world at the "Inaccessible City of Dawn."   

The book is peppered throughout with archeological lore, Spanish words and phrases, and convincing details of life in Mexico.  It has more of an edge than his other books, which makes a fine counterpoint to the wryly comic observations.  There is one misstep, though, and that's in a sudden burst of violence near the end.  It's totally unnecessary.

My only other complaint is that Gringos is Portis's fifth and last novel.

The others are Norwood, True Grit, Dog of the South, and Masters of Atlantis. 

Unofficial Charles Portis Website
Charles Portis Appreciation Society