Next Time There's a Pandemic

Finished May 18

Next Time There's a Pandemic (CLC Kreisel Lecture Series) by Vivek Shraya

This book is the written portion of the lecture series which was delivered online in March 2021. The series is sponsored by the Canadian Literature Centre based in Edmonton. The lecture series showcases how writers help us understand the textures of life in Canada. Each year, an established author is invited to speak about an issue that is important to them. It could be something close to their heart, something that is key to their experience, something pressing in the current moment, or a combination of these. Traditionally, the lectures are delivered live, at the University of Alberta, and are aired on CBC through the Ideas radio show, as well as being published in book form. The filmed version of this talk can be viewed on the CLC website. This book also includes a follow-up conversation between Shraya and J.R. Carpenter who created the interactive introduction to the lecture. 

This was the first one to be affected by the pandemic and Shraya brings her wide-ranging skills to the work. She is a multimedia artist, a musician, a writer, and a community leader and transgender.

She begins her lecture by talking about the experience that started her thinking about the subject, an interactions with her massage therapist who expressed a very different experience of the pandemic to that point than what she had experienced. She started thinking about what she would perhaps have done differently if she went through the experience again. Here, she organizes her thoughts into five reflections and talks on each one, expanding her inner thoughts and why she thinks these are important. The five reflections are: stay caring; skip the gratitude and say what you feel; nothing is better than something; value artists; and less surveillance, less judgement, more grace. She also includes a list of commitments she came up with in the early days of the pandemic when she considered how we might live differently after the pandemic, and allows space for you to add your own. Also included here is a song she wrote, called Showing Up. 

Each of the reflections will have you taking time to stop and reflect herself, on her words, on what they convey to you, and on your own feelings and thoughts on that aspect. 

I really enjoyed this read and found it reflective of some of my own experiences. Well worth the read. 

The End of October

Finished December 2

The End of October by Lawrence Wright

I started reading this novel in March 2020, but it felt too close to what was happening in the world at that time, so I put it down and moved on to another book. I decided to tackle it again, and it still felt eerily real to me, with so many aspects of the pandemic within its pages relatable to the real-life pandemic. But this time I kept reading, because I truly wanted to know what would happen to Dr. Henry Parsons, his wife Jill and their children Helen and Teddy. 

Henry is a microbiologist working at the CDC and for the WHO. When an outbreak occurs in Indonesia, he travels there on behalf of WHO to investigate. 

The book takes us through scary moments, when Henry first realizes the virulence of the outbreak and then when he realizes that he has lost the moment to contain it. Henry is a dedicated scientist, using his skills to help figure out what he can. Like our pandemic, things are constantly happening that change the situation, and adjustments are constantly being made. 

Also, like our pandemic, authorities don't always give all the information they have, and aren't always clear to the public of the risks and the real numbers affected. 

The side of the book with Henry's family personalizes it more. Jill is a school teacher, worried about her kids in the classroom, but also about her kids at home. With limited access to be able to communicate with Henry, she is forced to make decisions with limited information. She second guesses herself. 

I found the character of Helen the most interesting as she developed. She is in her teens, and is forced to deal with very adult situations. She is scared and very brave. I really liked her.

There are many loose ends here, as there are in real life. We don't know what happens to the Saudi prince that Henry worked so closely with, and the end of the book doesn't tie everything up. But this feels real, and so many of the issues that arise are real: foreign diplomacy, threats of war, suspicion that the virus is manmade, climate change, countries taking advantage of weaknesses to attack other countries, and interruptions to communications and trade. This was still a difficult read, as so many of the issues are real for us now, but it is one that will keep you gripped to the book.  

Life Without Children

Finished September 30

Life Without Children: Short Stories by Roddy Doyle

I always enjoy reading Roddy Doyle and this collection is an intriguing one. This book contains ten short stories, all taking place in Ireland during the pandemic, and all are around relationships.

Box Sets has a couple, Sam and Emer, reacting in their own ways to the pandemic. Sam has lost his job and doesn't muster the energy to look for a new one, instead losing himself in watching season after season of TV series, catching up on many he'd never watched when they came out. Emer is calm but removed. When Sam's frustration reaches a point where he finds himself having angry outbursts, this changes the dynamic and forces change on both of them.

Curfew has issues of health as well as bringing the male character memories of his own father.

Life without Children looks at a couple whose children have left home and how the pandemic changes the family dynamic.

Gone has alternating viewpoints of a couple where the wife has left the home just before the lockdown begins.

Nurse focuses on health and death in the context of a family.

Masks has a man walking through the streets, finding himself frustrated and disgusted by the discarded masks that he see everywhere and taking an unusual and provoking action as a result.

The Charger is told by a man who has come late to the ownership of a cellphone and, in the context of a stressful situation, finds himself focused on finding the phone charger, while he feels alone despite having all four of his daughters living back home during this time. The situation brings back the feelings from his childhood of abandonment.

The Funeral has Bob and Nell as a long-married couple with Bob's reaction to the death of his mother and the circumstances of his position as the responsible son.

Worms has Joe finding himself with earworms linked to specific places or tasks in his life, a quirk that at first he keeps to himself and then when his wife Thelma learns about it and joins in, finds himself reacting emotionally in a negative way until he realizes his underlying feelings towards her.

The last story, Five Lamps, has a man defying the lockdown and driving for hours to the city to look for his estranged son. He walks the streets, returning to his car each night, interacting with the shopkeepers and homeless as he plans on what to say to repair the relationship.

These stories show Doyle's skill with showing the complexities of human relationships, the emotions and resentments, the closeness and the frustration, all set within a very stressful time for everyone. A brilliant collection

The Blondes

Finished January 4

The Blondes by Emily Schultz

This book is part science fiction, part satire, and part social commentary. Hazel Hayes is a Ph.D. student studying the aesthetics of fashion and what our idea of beauty is. She applied for a grant to study in the U.S. and is in New York City. But, as the book opens, she verifies her suspicion that she is pregnant. The father is her Ph.D. supervisor back in Toronto, a married professor several years her senior. As Hazel decides to return to Canada, she witnesses an attack at a subway station that is deeply disturbing, and reinforces her decision to return home. But things aren't that easy.

As the world becomes away of these attacks, like the one Hazel saw, it becomes clear there is a new and unknown disease running rampant in the world, and it seems to be chiefly affecting blonde women. This includes not only natural blondes, but also dyed blondes, and there is a run on hair dye and head shaving becomes a thing. As we see Hazel struggle to get back to Canada, running into barriers related to the pandemic, we see the societal reaction as the attraction to blonde becomes a fear as well, both types of power. Hazel is a natural redhead, putting her in the uncertain category by the powers that be. As she encounters more outbreaks of the disease, personal losses, and limits to her freedom, I couldn't help but think of our current situation. 

I also found the gender aspect interesting. This pandemic does not seem to affect men, except as victims of the women's attacks, and there are many scenes of the male as enforcer, rulemaker, etc. that also reflect some of the societal realities that we see in our world.

Crossing the border and the outcome of that for her was tense, and I felt the disorganization that is now showing signs in some of the government actions around our pandemic. 

I really enjoyed this read, as it both brushed against our current situation, but was also vastly different. A good read for these times, and I think it would be a great book club choice. Lots to discuss.

Hamnet

Finished October 6
Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

This book imagines the life of William Shakespeare's family in a new way, focusing on his wife and children. The book jumps from 1596 when Hamnet died at the age of eleven back to 1580 with William's first meeting with his wife Agnes (her real name in history is sometimes Agnes and sometimes Anne), their courtship, marriage, and growing family.
In real history the cause of Hamnet's death isn't specified, but the plague was an active disease in this time, with the theatres that Shakespeare's plays among others played in closing for a few months in "plague season" throughout the country.
When William first met Agnes, he was tutoring Latin and still living with his father, John, a glover. Here, we see their courtship, not necessarily approved of by either family, but occurring in places where they wouldn't draw a lot of attention.
Agnes is a very interesting character, a woman whose mother died when she and her brother were both young, who spent a lot of time outdoors, who gained a knowledge of the use of herbs and plants from her mother and what her mother left behind, who had a kestrel and had bees. She is a strong personality and more than an equal to her husband. She also has a sixth sense. She knows the future in many cases, just through touching someone and once married starts running a natural healing business from her home. She senses her husband's challenges, particularly with his domineering and sometimes violent father, and works to push him to what she can sense his future will be, even if it causes issues within their relationship.
The young Hamnet is an exuberant boy, but very close to his twin sister Judith, and as Judith gets sick near the beginning of the book, he worries and tries to find help for her, a situation that is very traumatic for him. As I read, knowing that Hamnet would not survive this illness, I felt for Agnes and William and watched how they dealt with this loss.
This book won the Women's Prize for Fiction award earlier this year, a well-deserved honour.