Tangles: A Story about Alzheimer’s, My Mother and Me is a graphic novel by Vancouver author and artist, Sarah Leavitt. As the subtitle indicates, it’s the powerful and emotional (true) story of Midge Leavitt’s battle with Alzheimer’s and the effect on their family — specifically Sarah herself. Tangles is a memoir of Sarah’s experience and I think it is an important story to tell; while Alzheimer’s is undoubtedly difficult for the person living with the disease, it is equally hard on their family.

Tangles was a finalist for the 2010 Writers’ Trust of Canada Non-fiction Prize (the first graphic narrative to be a finalist in the category), was shortlisted for the 2011 Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize (BC Book Prizes), and has been listed in the Globe and Mail’s top 100 books of 2010.

In the introduction, Sarah Leavitt admits to a bad memory, and states “when my mother got Alzheimer’s disease, I knew I had to record what was happening to her and to our family.’’ Taking six years to complete, Tangles is Sarah’s first book and it is a raw, vivid, unforgiving, honest, humiliating, and yet compassionate, moving and humourous.

Combining simple illustrations with brutally honest narrative, Sarah shares the Leavitt family’s struggle with the symptoms, diagnosis, adapting and coping, and—inevitably—death. With a mix of childhood memories, significant events, and introspective narrative, Sarah takes the reader through each stage of Midge’s disease. The writing is very powerful and the sparse illustration is emotionally expressive. Tangles is not just a long and depressing story, but it certainly brought tears to my eyes more than once.

It was really beautiful to be granted the insight into Sarah’s relationship with her mother and her family: the love, dependency, independence, and pride was all immediately evident. This wasn’t just a memoir exploring Alzheimer’s effect on a family, it was a testament to the strength and beauty of Family.

• Canadian Comics’ review & interview
• BookMadam’s live-to-chat interview
• Sarah Leavitt on CBC Radio‘s The Next Chapter
• National Post book review

Warning: this book may not be appropriate for extremely sensitive people or those coping with depression; it is extremely emotional.

April is the crazy month at work, hence the silence on the blog. But, fear not, I have a huge update and lots of good things to share. So grab a cuppa something nice and sit back.

First, let’s get the obligatory Henry photo out of the way. Here he is sunbathing in the Spring sunshine at the end of March. Such a cutie!

Chico’s cage is in the background and I have since moved it to the other side of the room so he doesn’t get the morning and afternoon sun as directly.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been meaning to read The Golden Mean by Annabel Lyon since it came out last year. The Golden Mean got tons of great reviews, nominated for the 2009 CanLit triple crown (the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Governor General’s Award for Fiction, and the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize), was a banned book (that’s when you know you’ve made it) and was even recently nominated for a Bad Sex in Fiction award.

I finally got around to it in December, and while it was enjoyable, it was very dense. I found I couldn’t read more than a scene or two in a sitting, which is very uncommon for me. However, it did re-spark an interest in Greek history that I’d forgotten, and made me more curious about Greek philosophers, which I haven’t really studied in great detail.

On the orders of his boyhood friend, now King Philip of Macedon, Aristotle postpones his dreams of succeeding Plato as leader of the Academy in Athens and reluctantly arrives in the Macedonian capital of Pella to tutor the king’s adolescent sons.

Initially Aristotle hopes for a short stay in what he considers the brutal backwater of his childhood. But, as a man of relentless curiosity and reason, Aristotle warms to the challenge of instructing his young charges, particularly Alexander, in whom he recognizes a kindred spirit, an engaged, questioning mind coupled with a unique sense of position and destiny.

Aristotle struggles to match his ideas against the warrior culture that is Alexander’s birthright. He feels that teaching this startling, charming, sometimes horrifying boy is a desperate necessity. And that what the boy – thrown before his time onto his father’s battlefields – needs most is to learn the golden mean, that elusive balance between extremes that Aristotle hopes will mitigate the boy’s will to conquer.

Exploring this fabled time and place, Annabel Lyon tells her story in the earthy, frank, and perceptive voice of Aristotle himself. With sensual and muscular prose, she explores how Aristotle’s genius touched the boy who would conquer the known world. And she reveals how we still live with the ghosts of both men.

From the publisher, Random House of Canada (shorted)

“In philosophy, especially that of Aristotle, the golden mean is the desirable middle between two extremes, one of excess and the other of deficiency.” [Source: Wikipedia]. Vancouver author, Annabel Lyon subtly included a lot of philosophy, particularly the beginnings of Aristotle’s teachings. I haven’t studied philosophy myself, although I would really like to; reading The Golden Mean piqued that interest.

The Golden Mean‘s narrative was almost a stream-of-consciousness of Aristotle’s thoughts (or, how Annabel Lyon imagined them). While I cannot comment on the accuracy, I can say that the voice felt very authentic. Most of the time was spent musing life and goings-on with Aristotle, my favourite parts were the discussions between himself and Alexander. It was interesting to see his mind develop and I think I would have enjoyed a more omniscient narrator to better understand Alexander’s thoughts.

While Aristotle’s musings in philosophy were interested, I particularly enjoyed scenes where he studied biology and zoology, including animal dissection and human autopsy. It was just really neat to read the thoughts and beliefs of Greek professors. I really liked Aristotle’s classification of animals, humours, people, and everything in the order of the world. It was interesting for me to sit back and compare today’s world, thoughts, visions, and beliefs… and just see how far we’ve come (and sometimes haven’t).

• Read an excerpt from The Golden Mean
• Georgia Straight interview with Annabel Lyon
• Largehearted Boy Book Notes music playlist for The Golden Mean
• Annabel Lyon’s blog
• Annabel Lyon listed, BC’s 100 Most Influential Women by The Vancouver Sun.
  
• Winner of the 2009 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize
• Nominated for the 2009 Scotiabank Giller Prize
• Nominated for the 2009 Governor General’s Literary Awards – Fiction
• Nominated for the 2010 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book (Canada & Caribbean)
• Nominated for the 2010 Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award
• Nominated for the 2010 BC Book Prize’s Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize

The photo I took last weekend of Science World as a pumpkin got picked up by a local blog called Vancity Buzz. Check it out, my photo is famous:

And, I was browsing through a list of book covers from Huffington Post, and saw a cover that looked so familiar. I immediately knew it was the same photo (probably stock photography) from Trauma Farm which won a BC Book Prize. I really like reading the “Similar Covers” posts at the blog She Reads and Reads. So I email Avis about my discovery. Check out the Similar Covers — Red Barn post:

And it’s quiet here because I’ve been doing blogging and social media for work. If you’re interested in following us, check out Circle Craft Christmas Market and the blog / Twitter / Facebook!

It’s a very exciting time for book people this time of year. All the major prizes are announcing their long lists, or shortlists, or winners. Lots of great book chatter happening. I’ll sum things up as best I can.

In Canuckland (aka Canada), the three big literary prizes are: The Scotiabank Giller Prize, The Governor General’s Awards, and The Rogers’ Writer’s Trust Award. Both the GG’s and the Writer’s Trust awards have multiple categories (fiction, non-fiction, poetry, etc.), while the Giller’s are specifically for fiction.

Here’s some more Canadian book award news:

• The Giller’s announced their shortlist on October 5, whittled down from the longlist announced September 20. The Giller longlist included Room by Emma Donoghue, and the shortlist includes Annabel by Kathleen Winter. They’re also having a reader contest to Guess the Giller. The Giller winner will be announced on November 9, 2010.
• The Canada Council for the Arts funds, administers and promotes the Governor General’s Awards. The GG’s have 14 categories (seven each in English and in French). The shortlist was announced on October 13 and the winners will be announced November 16, with award presentations on the 25th (with the Governor General present).
• The Writer’s Trust Award shortlist for fiction includes both Emma Donoghue and Kathleen Winter. A selection of finalists will read at the International Festival of Authors on October 27 in Toronto.
• CBC Literary Awards are for unpublished French and English books, the only award of it’s kind. Submissions close on November 1, 2010.
• Speaking of deadlines, the deadline for the BC Book Prizes is December 1, 2010.  Last year’s fiction winner was Having Faith in the Polar Girls’ Prison by Cathleen With, which I really liked.
• And the deadline for Amazon.ca’s First Book Award is also November 1, 2010. Last year’s winner was Come, Thou Tortoise by Jessica Grant, which I reviewed and really enjoyed.
• As I mentioned, CBC Radio’s Canada Reads is operating in a different format this year. Today they announced their Top 40 Essential Canadian Novels, which is the first part of their competition. It includes Come, Thou Tortoise, Room, and February. Oddly it didn’t include Annabel. Now, go vote for the Top 10 list (announced November 9th)

There is lots going on internationally too:

• Submissions are still being read for the International 3-Day Novel Contest. They received a whopping 669 entries this year! Based out of Vancouver, BC, the 3-Day Novel Contest is run during the September long weekend. The winner will be announced in January.
• The Man Booker Prize was awarded to Howard Jacobson on October 12, 2010. The shortlist had been announced September 7, 2010. Canadian writer Emma Donoghue was shortlisted for Room.
• There is a new Danish literary award, the inaugural Hans Christian Andersen Literature Prize. It was awarded last week to J.K. Rowling, a whopping $95K… like she needed the money.
• Finalists for the National Book Award (USA) were announced on October 13, 2010.

If you want more information on Literary Prizes (both Canadian and internationally), I highly suggest you visit CanLitAwards.com. Fantastic, comprehensive, up-to-date database of literary awards.