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Jake Goretzki's Reviews > Wilderness Tips
Wilderness Tips
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She can do no wrong.
A really enjoyable, sun-bleached, nostalgic collection, this. Most of the stories (‘Hairball� is a bit of a Roald Dahl-y exception) feel quite wistful and retrospective, looking back on childhood, early relationships, formative moments and near-misses. I often found them sweetly sobering: the things we don’t know, the people we trusted, the way things might have been�
A few really stood out for me: ‘Death by Landscape� (about the girls� fated canoe trip) was a gorgeous picture of someone coping with a lifetime of tormenting regret. ‘True Trash� (the first one) could be a sort of Canadian ‘Stand By Me�, minus the corpse (I’m a sucker for a what-if like that). And ‘Uncles� � I just adored the description of these kind, overweight men, blinking like bears and the provincial family squabbles. Some great language in there too: I highlighted ‘like watching an ant in a teacup� and that description of ‘Veg� as a peeled potato is pretty unforgettable.
It’s a particular pleasure too for the Canadophile. There are plenty of takes on ‘the Canada that was� (Gothic, provincial, all a bit uptight). It gives good Toronto too (a particular joy for me, having been born there): one of the characters in ‘True Trash� goes on to hang out with the hippies in Yorkville. (Whoooh! Yorkville!) And someone, somewhere, mentions low-rent housing on Spadina. And if there’s one word that will send this 1970s sometime Torontonian into an Instagram-tinted, nostalgic funk, it’s ‘Spadina�.
A really enjoyable, sun-bleached, nostalgic collection, this. Most of the stories (‘Hairball� is a bit of a Roald Dahl-y exception) feel quite wistful and retrospective, looking back on childhood, early relationships, formative moments and near-misses. I often found them sweetly sobering: the things we don’t know, the people we trusted, the way things might have been�
A few really stood out for me: ‘Death by Landscape� (about the girls� fated canoe trip) was a gorgeous picture of someone coping with a lifetime of tormenting regret. ‘True Trash� (the first one) could be a sort of Canadian ‘Stand By Me�, minus the corpse (I’m a sucker for a what-if like that). And ‘Uncles� � I just adored the description of these kind, overweight men, blinking like bears and the provincial family squabbles. Some great language in there too: I highlighted ‘like watching an ant in a teacup� and that description of ‘Veg� as a peeled potato is pretty unforgettable.
It’s a particular pleasure too for the Canadophile. There are plenty of takes on ‘the Canada that was� (Gothic, provincial, all a bit uptight). It gives good Toronto too (a particular joy for me, having been born there): one of the characters in ‘True Trash� goes on to hang out with the hippies in Yorkville. (Whoooh! Yorkville!) And someone, somewhere, mentions low-rent housing on Spadina. And if there’s one word that will send this 1970s sometime Torontonian into an Instagram-tinted, nostalgic funk, it’s ‘Spadina�.
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Reading Progress
Started Reading
February 17, 2013
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February 17, 2013
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2013
February 17, 2013
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Finished Reading
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Ah yes... my parents met in Toronto so me and my older brother were born there. Which makes me a massive fan of the city (though I've only been twice in my life, as an adult). Glad it went well - good to have the different stories (probably makes for more variety and debate I bet). Must come to the next... have already bought it....
I had no idea you were born in Toronto!!
It's such a shame you couldn't make it to the book club, we had such a lively discussion about this book and I got really drunk (again).