non-fiction

The Hamilton Spectator gives Waking Nanabijou a great review

Jeff Mahoney from The Hamilton Spectator recently gave Waking Nanabijou: Uncovering A Secret Past a glowing review. Here is some of what he had to say.

Jim Poling Sr.’s story is more than his own and it’s more than his colourful family’s. It’s the story of his country, both its compassion and its hardness, its prodigious physical beauty and its bureaucratic ugliness. In a narrative that moves with lightness and speed (despite carrying great weight), Canada itself (the history, culture, and geography) is like a force of magnetic influence pulling the different parts together. At almost every point in Waking Nanabijou, the events of Poling’s life are coloured by, or give personal colour to, the larger themes that have come to define our national identity. Some of his best descriptions … [are of] the robust landscape of the Canadian north, which Poling paints onto the page in evocative and judiciously detailed prose, reflecting the author’s great love and knowledge of the outdoors … I’m convinced that Poling could have lived the life of a monk and still found words to make it scintillate. That’s the real secret of Waking Nanabijou.
-The Hamilton Spectator, December 22, 2007

To read the whole article click here.

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About the author

Erin is a publicist for Dundurn Press. She reads a wide variety of books (maybe even too many!) and wields a vast amount of positively optimistic power over what should and shouldn't be done in the universe.