Recently a friend recommended I read “Hooked On Canadian Books” by T.F. Rigelhof. Of course, I did, as she has excellent taste in books, and I was unexpectedly impressed by the author and the book. Nonfiction and book reviews aren’t areas I tend to wander into as a reader but I was so glad I wandered into Hooked that I asked for an interview and Terry Rigelhof agreed to answer a few of my questions. Because Hooked touches on reading and writing, and because Terry is both a reviewer of Canadian books and a writer, I’ve separated the interview into two parts.
So, I’d like to welcome Terry Rigelhof to The Toronto Publishing Examiner and we’ll just dive right into part one: Terry Rigelhof: The Reader.
Toronto Publishing Examiner: In Hooked on Canadian Book's introduction, you wrote that it was written 'from one reader to another'. Can you explain what you meant by that?
Terry Rigelhof: I’m delighted that this is your opening question because the notion of writing “from one reader to another” is the very heart of the book: Hooked on Canadian Books is intended to be a conversation starter between readers who have at least one increasingly uncommon thing in common – the belief that the reading of novels answers a real need and makes a real difference in our lives, more of a difference than, say, shopping or social networking, necessary as those things may be. Too many reviewers have made too much of my public face as a professional book reviewer – as if Hooked was a collection of my reviews. It isn’t. I didn’t keep track but I suspect at least 60% or 70% of the books I write about are novels I never reviewed. And whenever I do recycle material, it has been re-thought and rewritten wherever I got it less than right the first time.
I became an “accidental authority” on contemporary Canadian novels because of The Double Hook Bookstore and the Westmount Public Library in my hometown and because of Judy Mappin who owned the one and Norah Bryant who ran the other during the most formative years of my writing life. They provided access to more Canadian novels than most people in this country have ever seen, let alone read. And I was fortunate enough to have large blocks of time to read novels for their own sake because (a) I was a college teacher of the classical texts of ancient world – the Middle East, the Mediterranean, the Indian subcontinent and (b) most of my students were more interested in social networking than being tutored during my office hours over the 36 years I was teaching at Dawson College. Every book – no matter when it was published – is brand new to anyone who hasn’t read it. Hooked attempts to rekindle a sense of newness and surprise among readers who have grown tired of the old “canon” and conversations purveyed by professional custodians of CanLit. It’s my answer to anyone and everyone who has asked or wants to ask me, “Have you read a good Canadian novel lately?” The book is meant to be browsed until you find suggestions that seem worth pursuing all the way to your local library or bookshop.
TPE: I definitely found several books to add to my list within the pages of Hooked, and I’m sure I’ll find many that I’ll want to review here. Once I made the decision to spotlight authors, I decided that I would only spotlight those who made an impression on me. You've reviewed books for the Globe and Mail for more than twenty years. In the beginning, you reviewed books that you were 'assigned', is this correct? If so, how has your reviewing 'system' or process changed over the years?
TR: When I published my first fiction in 1981, I’d already been reviewing books for small literary magazines for a couple of years. What I reviewed was something that I discussed with the editor or editors. After I published my first novel (The Education of JJ Pass, 1983), I started getting phone calls from book section editors at newspapers offering me specific books or a choice between two or three books. I wasn’t exclusive to The Globe and Mail until they made me a Contributing Reviewer in the late 90s. Before that I reviewed at various times for The Montreal Gazette, The Ottawa Citizen, The Toronto Star as well as Books in Canada and a number of now vanished literary magazines.
The Globe and Mail named me a Contributing Reviewer in the wake of the GG nomination I had for A Blue Boy in a Black Dress my memoir/essay on the Catholic Church during the Vatican II years and the changes in Catholicism and Canadian religious life since 1967. I was the Globe’s go-to guy for books on the Bible and Christianity in the first instance, memoir in the second, and slowly gravitated toward Canadian fiction. Whatever you might think of my judgments and “enthusiasms”, I am one of the most accurate reviewers in the business. I don’t get incidental details wrong. I read a book twice. I rewrite my review half a dozen times, willingly accept editorial advice, and I never miss a deadline or go over assigned length without permission. Anyone willing to work like that for rates that haven’t changed in ten or twelve years gets to stand near the head the head of the line when books are assigned. A few of us – I can’t say how many – are given lists of forthcoming titles to choose from twice a year. Once potential conflicts of interest and overlapping dates of publication are ruled out, I get pretty much what I ask for. Over the past three years, health problems and the desire to write my own books have kept me from asking for more than three or four books a year.
TPE: As a reader, you said in Hooked that you enjoy reading Canadian authors in particular. Do you think Canadian authors have a distinct or unique voice that sets them apart from other authors?
TR: Yes, I do. But I’d put it in the plural. Canadian authors have distinctive voices and I read them for the variety of ways in which they approach the “novelty” of living in such a diversified country – I mean in terms of people’s backgrounds even more than geographical variations – as we do. Hooked attempts to capture the sexual and ethnic diversity first and foremost.
TPE: You've included many great Canadian authors in Hooked, some I'm sure many readers aren't aware of or haven't read yet. Was it difficult to choose which authors and books you'd include in this book? I hate picking my favorite reads at any time, how did you decide which to include?
TR: From the beginning, I intended this book to generate conversation and debate about what I insist is Our Literature – something that belongs to all of us. It was never meant to be definitive. The ideal response is having a reader tell me their favourite reads -- especially ones I’ve missed out – and then move on to tell me something they’ve discovered in my book that they didn’t know about or had always meant to read but are now reading. Unless this happens, we might as well be dancing in the dark. I included only books that I’d go out and buy again at full price if I wanted to reread it. My only real difficulty was cutting the book by 40,000 words to make it commercially viable. I haven’t said and won’t ever say who or what got cut.
TPE: I can’t imagine having to cut 40,000 words. It gives me chills. Thank you, Terry, for some very astute observations as a reader, both in this interview and in Hooked. I'm curious as to your thoughts on writing as well, which we'll cover in the second part of the interview.
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Some interesting thoughts on Canadian authors and book reviews.
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