# The best of Canadian literature? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 1, 2004, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-of-canadian-literature/237648 "2004-04-01T02:17:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hamish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a5b964/32.png) [@Hamish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamish)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2004, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-of-canadian-literature/237648/1 "2004-04-01T02:17:32Z")
I’ve been accepted to grad studies in English Lit at Concordia University, and since I’m hoping to make my specialty Canadian literature, I was wondering what people on the board consider the best Canadian literature they’ve read? What’s essential? And since I know less about French-Canadian lit outside of Gabrielle Roy and Roch Carrier, who are our best French authors? Also, since **Juniper200** asked in another thread: > [@Juniper200](#): > > This struck me as very interesting. For a Demicanadian (grew up a few miles from the Ambassador Bridge, raised on the CBC), my knowledge of Canadian literature is shameful. And the early novels of any nation are interesting. Let me know if you start a thread on this sometime – I’m ripe for education. …what’s our best early literature, prior to the 20th Century? ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2004, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-of-canadian-literature/237648/2 "2004-04-01T02:50:02Z")
That’s a toughie, because as a recent article in Maclean’s indicated, Canadian literature has sunk at the moment. Being Canadian isn’t really a selling point when it comes to getting books on the shelves. However, I recommend you examine some of the fine writers over at John Abbott College out on the western edge of the Island. They have some excellent wordsmiths (about 6 of which I had as teachers during my stay there) including Ken Radu. Congrats on getting into my alma mater! (Yeah, I went to Concordia too.) ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2004, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-of-canadian-literature/237648/3 "2004-04-01T03:06:01Z")
> [@Barbarian](#): > > That’s a toughie, because as a recent article in Maclean’s indicated, Canadian literature has sunk at the moment. Being Canadian isn’t really a selling point when it comes to getting books on the shelves. However, I recommend you examine some of the fine writers over at John Abbott College out on the western edge of the Island. They have some excellent wordsmiths (about 6 of which I had as teachers during my stay there) including Ken Radu. I don’t think that qualifies as “Canadian literature before the 20th century,” unless your professors were amazingly old. The most famous Canadian author of all time is of course Lucy Maud Montgomery. My personal favourite is Robertson Davies - 20th century, but it’s the best I can come up with. I never liked Hugh MacLellan. Perhaps it’s my ignorance, but it seems to me that virtually ALL the greatest Canadian writers are 20th century writers: Robertson Davies Hugh MacLennan Roch Carrier Alice Munro Gabrielle Roy Margaret Laurence L.M. Montgomery Mordecai Richler Stephen Leacock W.P. Kinsella Margaret Atwood Farley Mowat W.O. Mitchell Antonine Maillet ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2004, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-of-canadian-literature/237648/4 "2004-04-01T03:24:52Z")
You forgot Michel Tremblay, **RickJay** 😉 Let me add to that list Leonard Cohen Yves Theriault ---
**Author:** ![Hamish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a5b964/32.png) [@Hamish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamish)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2004, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-of-canadian-literature/237648/5 "2004-04-01T03:43:57Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Perhaps it’s my ignorance, but it seems to me that virtually ALL the greatest Canadian writers are 20th century writers: If we’re talking _only_ writers of long prose fiction, it’s true, the pickings are slim. We have a good number of short story writers, poets, and non-fiction authors of the period, but few novelists. Still, off the top of my head, there is Frances Brooke’s _History of Emily Montague_ from 1769, and epistolary novel and probably our first in English (coming only 10 years after the Conquest). Rebecca Lephrohon had a few in the 19th Century, including _The Manor-House of de Villerai_. If we include poets, there are the Confederation poets (Archibald Lampman, Duncan Campbell Scott, Bliss Carmen). For short story writers, Charles G.D. Roberts’ animal stories come to mind, as do Haliburton’s Sam Slick stories. For non-fiction, the sisters Catherine Parr Traill and Susannah Moodie are the most anthologized. To add to your list, I’d put Joy Kogawa on that list for _Obasan_, which I’m reading now. And while he’s mostly forgotten now, but Ralph Connor was our first novelist who was widely read outside of Canada. His _Man of Glengarry_ (1901) and _Glengarry School Days_ (1902) are now, sadly, mostly footnotes in CanLit courses. ---
**Author:** ![Hamish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a5b964/32.png) [@Hamish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamish)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2004, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-of-canadian-literature/237648/6 "2004-04-01T03:52:20Z")
Also, of course, Gabrielle Roy and Roch Carrier should be on the list. And what about Timothy Findley and Mavis Gallant? I don’t know much about Theriault’s carrier **detop**. Any recommendations? And I guess all this raises the question of who qualifies as a Canadian writer. The science-fiction writer William Gibson has lived here most of his life and his entire writing carrier, yet no one ever seems to describe him as a Canadian writer. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2004, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-of-canadian-literature/237648/7 "2004-04-01T04:07:14Z")
Funny, I hear Gibson referred to as a famous Canadian novellist all the time. I didn’t include him because I think his work sucks. Another contemporary and well-read example is Douglas Coupland. Again, I do not like his work - despite his obvious talents I find his work largely pretentious, frequently cartoonish, and everything after “Generation X” has been trite. I think an interesting discussion would be WHY the great, great bulk of Canadian literature is post-1900. A rock-stupid but possible true explanation would be that prior to 1900, there just wasn’t a lot of Canada. The population of Canada in 1867 was only about 3 million, few of whom were well educated. Canada did not have the educational or literary infrastructure at the time it later possessed. We tend to unconsciously compare our history to that the the United States, but we are in many respects a younger country; we were in 1890 where they were in about 1790, and I don’t know that a very high percentage of America’s great authors did their best work before 1790. ---
**Author:** ![Kid\_A\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Kid\_A\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kid_A_1)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2004, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-of-canadian-literature/237648/8 "2004-04-01T04:09:28Z")
Here’s another: Douglas Coupland, author of the classic **Generation X**. ---
**Author:** ![Kid\_A\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Kid\_A\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kid_A_1)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2004, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-of-canadian-literature/237648/9 "2004-04-01T04:10:45Z")
And **RickJay** beat me to it. Must be my slower “guest” access. ---
**Author:** ![Hamish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a5b964/32.png) [@Hamish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamish)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2004, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-of-canadian-literature/237648/10 "2004-04-01T04:23:46Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Funny, I hear Gibson referred to as a famous Canadian novellist all the time. I didn’t include him because I think his work sucks. > > Another contemporary and well-read example is Douglas Coupland. Again, I do not like his work - despite his obvious talents I find his work largely pretentious, frequently cartoonish, and everything after “Generation X” has been trite. I have to admit, I do like both of those authors. I’m not sure I’d include either of them on a course syllabus of CanLit, though, except for maybe a Gibson story I once read about a horrifically gentrified Vancouver, I think in _Burning Chrome_. > [@](#): > > I think an interesting discussion would be WHY the great, great bulk of Canadian literature is post-1900. A rock-stupid but possible true explanation would be that prior to 1900, there just wasn’t a lot of Canada. The population of Canada in 1867 was only about 3 million, few of whom were well educated. True for novelists. But we had a large number of poets and short-story authors whose work has been simply forgotten. One thing I noticed, looking over my anthologies and poetry collections of CanLit, is that a majority of our pre-20th Century prose writers are women – Brooke, Lephrohon, Traill, Susie Frances Harrison, Sara Jeanette Duncan. There are quite a few prominent male poets, but only Haliburton and Roberts stand out as male prose writers. I wonder why? There’s no shortage of male prose writers in the 19th Century in other Western nations. > [@](#): > > Canada did not have the educational or literary infrastructure at the time it later possessed. We tend to unconsciously compare our history to that the the United States, but we are in many respects a younger country; we were in 1890 where they were in about 1790, and I don’t know that a very high percentage of America’s great authors did their best work before 1790. True enough again. I seem to recall, there was some worry in the 18th Century as to whether America would ever produce a writer of substance. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2004, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-of-canadian-literature/237648/11 "2004-04-01T04:30:08Z")
Put me down as another fan of Robertson Davies. And isn’t SF writer Robert J. Sawyer Canadian? ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2004, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-of-canadian-literature/237648/12 "2004-04-01T04:38:49Z")
Service doesn’t get a mention? Anyone who can write an epic poem called “Ballad of the Ice-worm Cocktail” with a straight face has got to be a serious talent. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![MoodIndigo1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e8c25b/32.png) [@MoodIndigo1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MoodIndigo1)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2004, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-of-canadian-literature/237648/13 "2004-04-01T04:44:21Z")
Yes, Robert Sawyer is Canadian. To the list of French Canadian (or Quebecois) authors already mentioned, I’d like to add: Hubert Aquin: his novel “Prochain épisode”, though not an easy read, is a very important work. Victor Levy-Beaulieu is a cultural icon, a huge writer. Gaston Miron, Emile Nelligan, Saint-Denys Garneau, Alain Grandbois, Anne Hébert are a few important poets who come to mind. ---
**Author:** ![MoodIndigo1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e8c25b/32.png) [@MoodIndigo1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MoodIndigo1)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2004, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-of-canadian-literature/237648/14 "2004-04-01T04:45:51Z")
Yann Martel, the Booker-Prize-winning author of “Life of Pi” is Canadian. ---
**Author:** ![alice\_in\_wonderland](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alice_in_wonderland/32/176_2.png) [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2004, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-of-canadian-literature/237648/15 "2004-04-01T05:27:21Z")
I’m a big Barbra Gowdy fan - she’s won and been nominated for quite a few prizes in her time, including the Booker (I generally enjoy the books by the Booker winners and nominees). I just finished reading The Romantic (her latest) and I thought it was fabulous. Also, I’m surprised I haven’t seen Timothy Findley mentioned by anyone - he’s really a master of the morose. (Unless I missed his name somewhere in this thread…) ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2004, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-of-canadian-literature/237648/16 "2004-04-01T06:28:35Z")
William Shatner, anyone? 😃 For your speculative fiction needs: James Cameron, William R. Dickson, Dave Duncan, Spider Robinson, Charles De Lint, Phyllis Gotlieb, A. E. van Vogt. I don’t read much by Canadian authors outside of this genre - Canadian authors tend to, well, suck. They have a real CBC stench about them, in my opinion. Of course, in university courses they will probably completely ignore the good sci-fi bunch in favour of the likes of ol’ sourpuss, Atwood. ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2004, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-of-canadian-literature/237648/17 "2004-04-01T07:48:42Z")
> [@Hamish](#): > > I don’t know much about Theriault’s carrier **detop**. Any recommendations? Here is his [bibliography](http://felix.cyberscol.qc.ca/LQ/auteurT/theria_y/oeuvr_yt.html) **Hamish** , it’s in French but it should give you an idea. As for a recommendation, I would suggest his most famous novel _Agaguk_… And for other authors : Germaine Guevremont with _Le Survenant_ Marcel Dube, influential playwright of the 50s and 60s Gratien Gelinas, another playwright, especially _Ti-Coq_ and _Bousille et les justes_ Henri Lemelin _Les Plouffes_ Felix-Antoine Savard _Renaud, maitre-draveur_ ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2004, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-of-canadian-literature/237648/18 "2004-04-01T07:50:22Z")
> [@featherlou](#): > > William R. Dickson Don’t you mean Gordon R. Dickson ? ---
**Author:** ![Quint](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/76d3ee/32.png) [@Quint](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quint)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2004, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-of-canadian-literature/237648/19 "2004-04-01T08:03:49Z")
> [@Gorsnak](#): > > Service doesn’t get a mention? > > Anyone who can write an epic poem called “Ballad of the Ice-worm Cocktail” with a straight face has got to be a serious talent. 🙂 His work is certainly Canadian, but I’m pretty sure he wasn’t. ---
**Author:** ![the\_Lady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bb73d2/32.png) [@the\_Lady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_Lady)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2004, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-of-canadian-literature/237648/20 "2004-04-01T14:14:13Z")
Paul Quarrington - for your wacky fiction. His _Whale Music_ won all sorts of awards. Guy Gavriel Kay - a very popular fantasy writer from Winnipeg. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-of-canadian-literature/237648.md?page=2)