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Mattsbookaday
Street of Riches | Gabrielle Roy
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Pickpick

Street of Riches, by Gabrielle Roy (1955, trans. 1957 🇨🇦)

Premise: A series of stories about the author‘s childhood in Manitoba‘s francophone community.

Review: This was a marvelous surprise. These stories — seventy years old themselves, but recounting events of thirty years earlier — strike a perfect balance: You feel the foreignness of this version of Canada from a century ago, while also seeing the seeds for the country we‘ve become. Cont.

Mattsbookaday But it‘s the little common touches of universal humanity that I‘ll remember most about this tender and beautiful, deserved Canadian classic.

Bookish Pair:This would be an interesting pairing with a more contemporary collection, such as Bernardine Evaristo‘s Girl Woman Other (2019).

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
2d
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merelybookish
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Quite the epigraph!

blurb
merelybookish
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Reminds me of The Dud Avocado but with a married protagonist. Its chaotic and messy and, at times, quite dry and witty. The letters from her mother are priceless.
First time reading Gallant who is known more for short stories so not sure where this novel ranks.
My plough through #Canlit continues. But chose this for the Ben's Read Good challenge: a book with 15 letters in the title.

review
merelybookish
Street of Riches | Gabrielle Roy
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Pickpick

Loved!
Roy was a successful mid-century 🇨🇦 writer. Her novel Tin Flute still gets assigned in Canlit classes but otherwise her reputation has dimmed. Which, it turns out, is a shame because this is wonderful! A semi-autobiographical collection of linked stories told from the perspective of a young girl growing up in a large French family in Manitoba. Nothing flashy. Just lovely, rich insights into the complexity of people through innocent eyes.

merelybookish I pulled this off my shelf for the #192025 challenge. So glad I did!! @Librarybelle 1w
Sace I just ordered a copy from ThriftBooks. When I googled the author, I saw that some consider her “the Canadian Willa Cather”. I generally dislike comparisons like this, but I am a fan of Cather. 1w
Librarybelle This sounds good! 1w
See All 8 Comments
merelybookish @Sace Interesting! She's from the prairies so I guess that fits. Also her style is unadorned like Cather's so it's not totally inaccurate. I will be excited to hear what you think!! Also, be forewarned that it does contain some ideas about race (the first story is called The Two Negros) that are not okay. 1w
Sace That comes with the territory when reading older books. 1w
Suet624 Sounds like one I would enjoy. Stacked! 2d
merelybookish @Suet624 I think you'd enjoy it too!! 2d
kwmg40 Another fan of Gabrielle Roy here. I've not read Street of Riches but I really liked Where Nests the Water Hen, also set in Manitoba. 6h
60 likes3 stack adds8 comments
blurb
merelybookish
Street of Riches | Gabrielle Roy
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Nice to see the river open again. And a duck!
More 🇨🇦 #Canlit 🇨🇦 for my #weekendreads.
Print: Streets of Riches (1957) by Gabrielle Roy
Audio: Beautiful Losers (1966) by Leonard Cohen. (This one is challenging. 😬)
@rachelsbrittain

eclectic-reader Hi, Margot 👋 I hope you are doing well 3w
merelybookish @eclectic-reader Hey Scott!! I'm doing okay. How are you? 3w
eclectic-reader @merelybookish I'm okay; it's been a strange winter: political turmoil, waylaid by covid & blizzards & then had to move in February. Settling into spring now. Def enjoying the calm. 3w
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eclectic-reader Also, I'm curious why you say the Cohen is challenging. Is it the format or the content? I love him as a singer, but I haven't read any of his novels. I can see how some of his novels might not work so well, though... 3w
merelybookish @eclectic-reader Agree it has not been an easy winter for lots of reasons! Hope you like your new place. Is it still in NKC? As for the Cohen....well ... It's postmodern and so difficult to follow (allusive, plot-less, meandering, etc.) AND sexually explicit to the extreme. Every sexual act, organ,and conquest is described at length. Repeatedly. It's A LOT!! 🤣 3w
eclectic-reader I hope that your family is doing okay. I'm still in the same area, I moved only a few minutes away from my old place. The Cohen does sound like a lot. I think I had one of his novels on my shelves, don't think I'll bother.
Although the following isn't really explicit, it was certainly a very unusual and intense novel by a singer
3w
49 likes6 comments
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Moss_Croft
As for Me and My House | Sinclair Ross
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LiteraryHoarderPenny
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Another quick read from the library. So far I‘m quite liking it.

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LiseWorks
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#FoodandLit #Canada I made Cabbage Rolls it is unclear as to who invented this lovely dish, but we do have a lot of Ukrainian immigrants that came to Canada in the early 1900 s. I learned how to make it from a French Canadian lady. The recipe is very easy.
1. Cook beef with onions and add beef broth pouch until cooked. Cook rice separately. Mix the two together and add soya sauce. Don't be cheap but taste. ⬇️

LiseWorks Add cayenne peper to spice it up. Put the mix in leaves of cabbage and roll to put in casserole dish. Take a can of Campbells tomato soup. Mix with full can of water and mix. Sladder all over cabbage rolls and put cover on it and bake in over until cabbage is cooked. Serve with sour cream 😋 5mo
julieclair Yum! 5mo
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Catsandbooks Tasty! 🇨🇦 5mo
Texreader Positive I‘d love this (other than the cayenne) 5mo
LiseWorks @Texreader the cayenne is a personal choice. It is something I decided one day to add and now my family likes it lol 5mo
Dilara I had something pretty similar in Hungary 😁 https://budapestcookingclass.com/hungarian-stuffed-cabbage-rolls-recipe-toltott-...
I guess every country where cabbage grows would have its own take on the dish 😁
5mo
LiseWorks @Dilara, this is the recipe my mom used to do with the rice uncooked with tomato sauce. But when I made mine for my dad, he loved mine more than my mom's. The campbell soup has spices in it that give it flavor, and yes, everyone has their own take on how to make them. I had some in Saskatchewan, and theirs had sausage in it. 5mo
28 likes8 comments
review
Gleefulreader
We Meant Well: A Novel | Erum Shazia Hasan
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Pickpick

Read this one for the Heliconian Lecture Series. Maya works for a NGO in an unnamed African country and is asked to rush in site when a young woman from the community accuses one of the staff of rape. It is an examination of what the meaning of charity is, the chasm between the community and the visitors to that community. It is also a story of bias and complicity. Parts of the book didn‘t work and there is some clunky language, so a low pick.