Ken McGoogan, in his thoughtful essay You, you and you, but not you (Aug. 8), attempts to square that old circle of just who, or what, constitutes an English-Canadian author or novel. McGoogan, a literary maven of some renown himself, relies on what he ultimately terms “sensibility,” a quality embracing either a writer's Canadian upbringing or a novel's Canadian location, preferably both.
According to McGoogan, writers such as Man Booker-nominated Ed O'Loughlin (Not Untrue and Not Unkind) – born in Toronto and raised for a mere six years in Edmonton before heading across the Pond – are clearly not Canadian. Six years is not enough time to acquire a Canadian “sensibility,” it seems, and I'd have to agree.
McGoogan goes on to qualify “who counts” by stating that books written by Canadians that have nothing to do with Canada are nevertheless Canadian if the author came of age in this country. So, Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale (set in the U.S., author raised in Canada) and Margaret Laurence's The Tomorrow-Tamer (set in West Africa; Canadian-raised author) are in. Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance and Brian Moore's Judith Hearn (neither author raised in Canada; neither book set here) are out. But why do these arguments falter?
Let's look, for instance, at Carol Shields. Raised in the U.S., she came to Canada in 1957, at 22, when she married. An American “sensibility,” no? She is best known for her novel The Stone Diaries (1993), the only book to win both the Governor-General's Award and the Pulitzer Prize. It is largely set in Canada, but also the U.S.
Using McGoogan's criteria, the book might be considered both Canadian (Canadian content) and not Canadian (U.S.-raised author with U.S. setting). Ditto Larry's Party (1997), set in both countries. And what of 1980's Happenstance, set entirely in the U.S.? Not Canadian, I guess. And her non-fiction work Jane Austen (2001)? I know that McGoogan is looking at fiction, but why stop there?
I suppose that a Canadian is someone who has a logical reason to think he [or she] is one — Mavis Gallant
This holds true for so many other authors who were not reared in Canada but came to live most of their lives here. Jane Rule's 1964 novel Desert of the Heart is set entirely in the U.S, though Rule herself moved to Vancouver in 1956, at 25. Canadian or not? Her 1971 novel Against the Season is not set in Canada. Which is it? Is Catherine Gildiner's very fine memoir Too Close to the Falls (1999) not Canadian because it is set in the town where she grew up (Lewiston, N.Y.)? Her novel Seduction is set partly in Toronto. Semi-Canadian, then?
McGoogan rightly states that immigrant authors – a term I am uncomfortable with, since Canada is largely an immigrant nation – are “producing some of its most exciting works.” He includes Michael Ondaatje, even though Ondaatje did not come to Canada until he was 20, and even though Ondaatje's early significant works – The Collected Works of Billy the Kid (1970), Coming Through Slaughter (1976), Running in the Family (1982) – have nothing to do with Canada. Nor does his recent, award-winning Divisadero. McGoogan also mentions Rawi Hage, who didn't arrive in Canada until he was 27, and whose brilliant first novel, De Niro's Game (2006), is set in Lebanon. Are there contradictions here?
Instructively, McGoogan points to one writer who is arguably Canada's – and indeed the English world's – finest short-story writer: Mavis Gallant. Because Gallant spent her formative years largely in Canada – she left in 1950 and resides in Paris – she, according to McGoogan, can be counted as a Canadian writer and her stories, largely set outside Canada, can be said to therefore “speak to” Canadians.
