December Reading

Here are three books I read this month:

Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden tells the story of two Cree Indians who volunteer for the Canadian Army. With shooting skills obtained in the Northern Ontario bush, they become snipers in trench warfare during WWI.

Mafiaboy by Michael Calce with Craig Siverman is the story of a fifteen-year-old living in the suburbs of Montreal, who launches DOS (denial of service) attacks on CNN, Yahoo, eBay, and Amazon in early 2000. The RCMP, with the help of the FBI, arrest him.

Rawi Hage

Cockroach by Rawi Hage is set in the immigrant communities of downtown Montreal. A restaurant busboy, from the Middle East, tells a story with echoes of Kafka's "Metamorphosis", Leonard Cohen's Beautiful Losers, and Dostoevksy's Notes from the Underground.

Links:
http://www.walrusmagazine.com/
http://mafiaboybook.com/
http://www.anansi.ca/authors.cfm?author_id=441

Recent Movies

Here is a list of movies I've seen recently (October & November):
Fallen Idol (1948) director Carol Reed - based on story my Graham Greene
The Bourne Supremacy (2004) - from novel by Robert Ludlum
Bryon (2003) d. Julian Farino - biography of the poet
Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man (2005) d. Lian Lunson - tribute concert to the poet
Sylvia (2003) d. Christine Jeffs - biography based on the lives of poets Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes
Juno (2007) d. Jason Reitman (Canadian) - written by Diablo Cody
Shakespeare Wallah (1965) d. James Ivory - screenplay was a collaboration of James Ivory and writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
A History of Violence (2006) d. David Cronenberg (Canadian) - based on graphic novel by John Wagner and Vince Locke, screenplay Josh Olson (for which he nominated for an Oscar for best adapted screenplay).

A further note on Cronenberg's History: I'm tempted to call it a remake of his movie The Dead Zone (1983), not only because he uses small Ontario towns and masks them as American. The plots are similar: man has a secret and must kill his evil twin to survive. Viggo Mortensen = Christopher Walken (and they both have a limp in the movie). William Hurt = Martin Sheen.

See my website for a list of movies seen and books read by me.

Can Lit page

Like many Canadians I don't read as much Canadian literature as I would like. I've just created a webpage to list Canadian fiction writers. It is interesting to note the large number of foreign-born Canadian writers. I started separating the authors by place of birth. If you have info to add to this page, send me an email. http://home.cogeco.ca/~thenorthdoor/giller.htm

Photos shows Joseph Boyden winning the Giller Prize for 2008 (National Post)

The Vice Principal now available for ordering

http://www.lulu.com/content/4323541

see also North Door Books new homepage:

North Door Books

New Publication Date for THE VICE PRINCIPAL and other stories

The month of October has been such an unlucky month, North Door Books will be pushing the publication of The Vice Principal and other stories one week forward. The book will be available sometime during the week of November 2nd to 8th. If you would like an email announcing its availability, please send a request to thenorthdoor@cogeco.ca

Publishing Date Announcement

The Vice Principal and other stories, a book of fiction by John G. Paterson will be published by North Door Books on October 31, 2008.

New Title at NDB

The Vice Principal and other stories by J.G. Paterson
contents:
1. Greenfield Village
2. The Vice Principal
3. The Delay
4. West City Rocks
5. The Chinese Claimant
6. Public Skating
7. The March Singularity
8. The Eye of the Fomorian
9. Parrot and Ev@rgreen
10. Robert Phippes
11. Popper
I continue to edit the stories. I hope to have the book available at Lulu.com in the Fall of 2008.
As with my first book, Jon Hart, this collection of stories will be self-published in trade paperback under North Door Books and available at Lulu.com.