Sadly, we said goodbye to Denison Avenue on Day 2 of Canada Reads. This book combined powerful prose (Christina Wong) and beautiful pen and ink drawings (Daniel Innes) and focused on a Toronto neighbourhood known as Chinatown. It was a beautiful compilation, depicting the grief and loss of an elderly woman as she adjusted to the death of her husband while coping with the gentrification and changes in her neighbourhood.

Naheed Nenshi provided a calm, measured and defence and it was easy to see how his approach would have made a difference in his role as the past mayor of Calgary (during several disasters) and as a community builder. He personifies someone that I would like to sit down and have a coffee with. I love that he shared that Canada Reads has helped him to start reading again and that the author of Denison Avenue had a goal of changing one person’s life – this has likely be exponentially realized as the book is now a Canadian best seller!

With each phase of today’s show, conversation covered one book at a time. Today’s conversation on Dennison Avenue had Mirian describing it as “gut-wrenching” while Dallas shared that although the story was “not tied up in a bow… that is life” which was a powerful comment. There was criticism by Heather that the narrator’s, first person voice did not sound like an old women since she used modern and millennial vocabulary while Naheed challenged that this was part of the author’s craft. He was correct when he said that Denison Avenue “did the best job bringing people together to overcome something” and I think that it is clear that there is strategy in voting and this year, in my humble opinion, the best book was voted off today.

As diverse a group of books (ranging from a combination of fiction and beautiful drawings, short-stories, dystopian fiction, horror), so are the defenders. I gravitate to the kind, calm and positive approach of Naheed, find Heather to be very academic and almost clinical in her expert, writing feedback, see the drama in Mirian’s approach, am still figuring out Kudakwashe’s voice and hoping that Dallas gains more confidence and is able to share his comments in a deeper manner. It has to be difficult to think on their feet and have quick responses!

Quote of the day: “All novels have flaws, they are just like human beings” (Heather O’Neill, Canada Reads 2024)

My goodreads review: I am thankful that this book was flagged to me by the Canada Reads long-list and wish that I had read it in a paper version so appreciate the beautiful drawings more. It is a poignant tale of seniors living in their neighbourhood (Chinatown) as it changes. It is about love, loss, kindness, grief, comfort and every day coping. It is beautifully written and a book that I would like a hard copy to re-read, slowly, to take in the dialogue (written often in both Cantonese and English), the memories and think about the areas depicted in the art. This book would make very interesting discussion as we often don’t think about seniors, their lives, their memories and what they have to offer as well as the changes in community and the impacts on the long-term residents. This book is reflective, thought-provoking and will stay with me.