Reviews

Canary by Nancy Jo Cullen

beckyblake's review against another edition

I don't usually rate books by friends, but I will say that I breezed through this fantastic collection of stories in two days flat, hitchhiking all across Canada on journeys fueled by Nancy Jo Cullen's striking prose. Many of the characters in these stories are common-place folk at uncommon places in their lives, and Cullen deftly introduces each them, often just before a point of self-revelation, making for an intimate and gritty collection full of tough and tender moments.

haileybartolomeu's review against another edition

3.0

Still haven’t figured out how I feel about these stories.

caseythecanadianlesbrarian's review against another edition

5.0

Nancy Jo Cullen’s short story collection is the epitome of what I love about Canadian fiction: it’s brash, it’s ordinary, it’s clever, it’s rooted in place, it’s focused on everyday characters, it’s weird. To top all of this off, it’s also very, very queer. What’s extraordinary about this book’s treatment of LGBQ sexuality, though, is that the stories never centre around the characters’ queerness. There are no coming-out stories. Homophobia is never used as a plot device. Dealing with ‘being gay’ is not the focus of a single piece. The stories are actually about the complexities of LGBQ peoples’ lives and a lot of the fascinating, mundane, difficult, heartbreaking things that happen to them that have little or nothing to do with their sexualities....

See the rest of my review on my website: http://caseythecanadianlesbrarian.wordpress.com/2013/07/18/its-brash-its-weird-its-everyday-canadian-its-nancy-jo-cullens-short-story-collection-canary/

meghan_is_reading's review against another edition

woo! Canadian short stories. good stuff

laurenbdavis's review against another edition

4.0

Lots of great stuff here, and Cullen has a wry and insightful point of view.

voidboi's review against another edition

2.0

I was looking forward to reading this, and it didn't hold up to my expectations. I want collections of short stories to either display a variety of ideas and styles, or to meditate upon a theme- this didn't do either. Instead, all the stories blended together. Almost all the stories contained dysfunctional relationships, but none of them felt particularly real or interesting. Maybe this style works for some people, but for me it fell flat.

jooniperd's review

4.0

these stories are really good - gut-punchy, dark and twisty but hopeful too. sort of, there are moments of kindness. the dynamics of family - and how complicated and messy they can be - are well captured.