Words At Large

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To celebrate Valentine’s day, host Shelagh Rogers sent writer and professor Aritha van Herk on a mission to track down the most passionate tales of love and lust in Canadian fiction. Van Herk reports that she struggled with her task at first, but found three lush romances to recommend: What Casanova Told Me by Susan Swan, Bear by Marian Engel and The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje.

What Casanova Told Me (Random House) is a story told through the eyes of young Canadian woman, archivist Luce, who discovers that one of her ancestors had a wild affair with the legendary Casanova. And what better way to learn how to live passionately than to go to the ancient lands of Italy and Greece to research one of the world’s greatest lovers? Watch a Bookshorts film featuring this book.

Bear (McClelland & Stewart) tells the unconventional love story between another unhappy archivist, Lou and…well…a bear. Through their relationship, which does become sexual, Lou learns to heal and love herself. This book won the 1976 Governor General’s Award and made the list of CBC’s Peter Darbyshire's 2005 list of the “10 most memorable sex scenes in Canadian literature”.

Van Herk also strongly recommends Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient (Random House). She explains why the movie, as beautiful as it is, is no match for experiencing Ondaatje’s luscious prose. The book unveils the damaged lives of four individuals who meet in Italy near the end of the Second World War. This book won both the Man Booker Prize and a Governor General’s award in 1992. Check out this reader’s guide from the publisher.

Also on the show, author Lynn Crosbie drops in to chat about her latest book, Liar, A Poem, (House of Anansi Press) and Tara Quinn, from Brick magazine, and literary agent Dean Cooke explain the heartbreak of editors who are in the business of accepting, and rejecting, would be authors.

First aired on February 14, 2009, on The Next Chapter. [runs 14:35]

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