Elaine Kalman Naves
Awards: Winner of the 1999 QSPELL Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction
Immigrant writers who have made their homes in Montreal grapple with difficult questions like reconciling loyalty to their origins and to their own most private selves with the need to find a readership, and their desire to belong to the society where they live. Putting Down Roots follows the author's exploratory journeys among writers of Italian, Haitian, Arab, South Asian, and Chinese origin, as well as those writing in Yiddish, Spanish, and Hungarian.
Literary Criticism 1998"For many of the writers discussed in Putting Down Roots, success in their ancestral homes has preceded translation and acceptance in Canada, where too little is known about their culture and literary tradition to allow for much of a foothold among Canadian readers. It may be that Putting Down Roots goes a certain distance toward opening up the possibility for such footholds. ...[Kalman Naves] provides a map of the unusual cultural terrain of Montreal's polyglot writers' community." -Norman Ravvin, Canadian Jewish Studies Vol.6"A fascinating look at the rich and varied voices and languages of the immigrant writers of contemporary Montreal...Naves has made a valuable contribution to the literature on Canadian immigrant literature." -Carol A. Stos, Canadian Book Review Annual
Other books by Elaine Kalman Naves:
Writers of Montreal
Robert Weaver: Godfather of Canadian Literature
Portrait of a Scandal: The Abortion Trial of Robert Notman
180 pp 9" x 6"
ISBN13: 9781550651034
CDN $17.00 US & International
US $17.00
Yellow-Wolf & Other Tales of the Saint Lawrence
They Were so Young: Montrealers Remember World War II
Renewing Our Days: Montreal Jews in the 20th Century
Of Jesuits and Bohemians
A Jewel in a Park: The Westmount Public Library 1897-1918
A City with a Difference: The Rise and Fall of the Montreal Citizens Movement
Canada's Forgotten Slaves: Two Hundred Years of Bondage