Gil Adamson

Snapshot of Covid Life of an Apartment

CW: Covid

Five Canadian writers contribute to a short anthology of micro fiction that depict the connections and fractures between the people of an apartment during the acknowledged height of the pandemic.

I like the idea for this project much more than the result. There's no doubt these are great writers and decent narrators, but I didn't connect with any of the stories or their links. It almost seems like it might be too much of a naturalistic snapshot without a lot of emotional weight, not enough space to explore, and competent prose that doesn't sparkle. There are serious and sad events happening, but, as somone who cried at the drop of the hat when I am bought in, I was reminded just how autistic I am.

I will mention that my partner and I being in seriously in the at risk category due to our chronic conditions that we are looking at a version of lockdown living indefinitely, so perhaps this somewhat laissez-faire attitude to Covid kept me at a distance.… (more)

Described in the blurb as "part literary Western and part historical mystery", Ridgerunner was a finalist for the 2020 Giller Prize, and my pick for winner of that prestigious award.

Set in late 1917 in western Canada and Montana, it focuses on 12-year-old Jack Boulton whose father is the infamous ridgerunner, a notorious thief. This a great story with lots of history and humour. I marvelled at the contrast between the wilderness (and wildness) in western Canada while the rest of North America was occupied with the war in Europe.

Read this even if you aren't a fan of westerns. You won't regret it.… (more)

Gil Adamson's RIDGERUNNER is a very good book - beautiful writing, interesting characters with depth and backstories. I was caught up in these unusual lives - a lapsed, deeply disturbed and dangerous nun; a former U.S. Marshal/bounty hunter from the Oklahoma territory, now an old gunsmith/hermit; and of course the principals: the Ridgerunner himself, the eccentric William Moreland, first introduced in Adamson's previous book, OUTLANDER; his consort Mary Boulton, myterious heroine of that earlier book; and their son, Jack Boulton, just entering puberty. The setting is the high Rockies of Alberta, in and around the town of Banff in the years of the Great War. Most of the young men are gone. There is an internment camp near town, filed with "enemy aliens," Canadian emigrants from the enemy countries, mostly Ukrainians, who were rounded up and imprisoned the same way the U.S. interned Japanese-Americans during the Second World War. The plot concerns the future and welfare of the boy, Jack, whose father has disappeared on one of his many wanderings.

So, beautiful language, fascinating characters, okay? The problem - and it's a minor one really, because of those first two things - is that there's not a whole lot happening, not a lot of forward momentum in the story for the first 300 pages or so. It's all backstories and character development. Which is not all bad. I'm all for character-centered books. And it's all redeemed by the last hundred pages, when things really get rolling with the introduction of a vicious camp guard who comes after Jack, and what happens next. And whoo! Things suddenly start happening very quickly. Violence, very intense. Pages turn faster and faster. Followed by a great denouement and Epilogue. Making it all worth the journey. This Gil [Gillian] Adamson is one hell of a writer. Start with OUTLANDER, then read this one. Very, very highly recommended.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER… (more)