ALPHABETICAL DIARIES
by Sheila Heti (Knopf Canada) 2024
To create Alphabetical Diaries, Sheila Heti catalogued 10 years of her diary entries from 2012 to 2022, entering individual sentences into a database and then organizing the sentences alphabetically. From that database of nearly 500,000 words, she culled the sentences down to an 80,000-word, genre-bending text. For a certain generation of readers, Heti has become something of a cultural touchstone. To me, Alphabetical Diaries achieves exactly what Heti does best, stringing together what may at first appear to be fragmented thoughts on the nature of life, love, art, and sex, together into a cohesive and compelling though unconventional narrative. — Ally Shap
SECRET SEX: AN ANTHOLOGY
edited by Russell Smith (Dundurn Press/ Rare Machines) 2024
Premised on the belief that anonymity often reveals authenticity, this anthology asked 24 Canadian writers to submit short pieces of fiction about sex under the shroud of secrecy. The stories reflect the diversity of the writers themselves, differing as greatly in style and tone as the authors do in age, gender, and ethnicity. Some are titillating and sincere, while others are ripe with irony and embarrassment. As a whole, the collection captures the complexity and multiplicity of sex as a topic of discussion and an inevitable part of daily life. I was particularly moved by one story at the beginning of the anthology entitled “Comets,” author unknown. — Ally Shap
MARCEL DZAMA
Introduction and edited by Sarah Milroy; essay by Guy Maddin (McMichael Canadian Art Collection) 2023
Born in Winnipeg in 1974 and first gaining prominence in the 1990s, Canadian artist Marcel Dzama has had 14 solo exhibitions and has received international acclaim for his provocative and haunting work. Marcel Dzama, the book that accompanies Dzama’s show at the McMichael Gallery in Kleinberg, just north of Toronto, not only features stunning images of his art, journals, and personal photo albums, but also texts in which the artist discusses his Winnipegger-Italian-Greek-Norwegian-Ukrainian roots and his lovely dadaist influences. The book includes an essay by filmmaker Guy Maddin on Dzama and Tom Thompson and their shared fascination with the Canadian landscape. Whether you’re a longtime art lover or simply eager to learn about something new, Marcel Dzama is both dreamy and inspiring. — Daphne Guima
BRICK – ISSUE 112
(Cypress Ave Inc.) Winter 2024
Since 1977, Brick Literary Journal has published some of the best Canadian and international literary non-fiction. Brick 112, Brick’s 2024 winter issue, features a fragment of one of my favourite recently read books, The Memoirs of Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, a piece about Ludwig Wittgenstein (whose Private Notebooks I’m currently adoring) and even an interview with the editor of the new annotated edition of Mrs Dalloway — one of the prettiest books in our store. If you’re looking for an antidote to the bland predictability of top 10 lists and Goodreads recommendations scattered across the internet, look no further than Brick 112. — Daphne Guima
This article appeared in the 2024 May/June issue.
