British Gas Black Bird Author: Michel Basilieres Hardcover Not yet available - PreOrder Today This item has not yet been released. You may order it today, and we'll ship it to you when it arrives at our warehouse. Our Price: $34.95 Our Sale Price: $24.46 Savings: $10.49 (30%) Ordering is 100% secure . Spend $39 or more at chapters.indigo.ca and your order ships free!. ( Details ) ISBN: 0676975275 Published: March 2003 | Published by Knopf Canada From the Publisher With comic brilliance and a delight in the macabre, Michel Basilières holds a fun-house mirror up to a defining moment in Canadian history and reveals, among other things, a family having a very bad year. Holed up in a shambling house at the base of Mount Royal is the family Desouche: three generations of English- and French-Canadians caught in the gears of a national emergency. Their world is dark and hard, but alive with hope and expectation. When one of the eldest, an Anglo Montrealer, dies at the hand of one of the youngest, a militant separatist, so begins a year of turmoil and change that culminates in the October Crisis. Grave-robbing Grandfather consorts with prostitutes and mad scientists, loses an eye and gains a new vision. His disenchanted wife bonds with his canny pet crow. Mother sleeps her grief away through the seasons, while Father ineffectively schemes to get rich quick. Meanwhile, their twin children, Marie and Jean-Baptiste, find their personal ambitions clashing with their public actions as they derail each other at every turn. In this wholly original novel alive with misfortune and magic, Michel Basilières uncovers a Montreal not seen in any other English-Canadian novel: a forgotten blue-collar neighbourhood in between the two solitudes. Gothic, outrageous, yet tender and wise, Black Bird is as liberating as the dreams of its wayward characters, and as gripping as the insurgencies that split its heart. About the Author Michel Basilières grew up in Montreal with his French father and Anglophone mother. He was ten years old at the time of the October Crisis, which he still remembers vividly. He now lives in Toronto, where he works as a bookseller while writing his second novel. Review Quotes “ Black Bird rocks. An exuberant new Quebec voice that speaks for all of us living in the spaces in between.” -- Susan Swan “When someone tells you that a first novel is ‘brilliant’ or ‘stunning,’ they’re usually lying and they know it. But occasionally a book comes along that’s as good as the jacket cover blurb says it is. Michel Basilières’ first novel is a work of enormous love; it’s intelligent without the pirouettes, literate without showing off. And very funny. It’s that rare thing among novels, a book you should actually read twice.” -- David Gilmour “ Black Bird is a great, wonderful monster of a novel, from the history of Frère André’s black heart to the screeching of the crow, Grace, from its astounding descriptions of Montreal to its observations of the compulsions and frustrations of one Family Desouche, it ushers in a new, hilarious, wildly imaginative, powerful and heartfelt voice.” -- Edward Carey “If ever a book defied description it is Black Bird . Covering themes as big as Canada itself and as dangerous as the battle field of family life, it is outrageous, hilarious and surreal. It is a remarkable creation, brilliantly original.” -- Mary Lawson “The delightful, macabre nature of Michel Basilières’ novel doesn’t hide the real sweetness of a writer who so obviously loves his fellows, especially when they are at their worst. Basilières’ comic sensibility is as black and shining as a crow’s wing. I believe Lovecraft must be sitting up in his grave and grinning.” -- Gail Anderson-Dargatz Reader Reviews Average Reader Review: Number of Reviews: 2 1. Blackbird - Dead On Reviewer: Spanner McNeil from LaSalle, Quebec (bronxbooks@openface.ca) Date: 2/7/2003 12:13:14 PM Thank God someone out there can still write without catering to the namby pamby ' Oh I'm so cute' crowd of self indulgent writers. This is the real stuff - Montreal, the last half of the century, a post modern kick in the head, seeing through the skin of society, flipping the bird, and telling a great yarn. A yarn, a story, and a crisp manner of using words just as if the author had not spent a lifetime in front of the television. If you like literature, a story, and a gothic pre-hip smash up - buy this book, brag to your friends, and let's face it - the book is cheaper than a cable bill and will outlast every drama on the tube, and probably win you a couple beers down at the tavern. Was it a drama, comedy, satire? Folks, it's just the kind of great read you remember from your favorite Sunday goofing off couch. 2. Black Bird Reviewer: Natalie Shahrasebi from Ottawa, Ontario (n_shahrasebi@hotmail.com) Date: 1/31/2003 11:48:26 PM This book personifies the greatness that writers possess when so dedicated to their art. A piece of the writer's life has been put into each page, sentence, and word. A great book that gives the reader a sense of being privileged, to be able to read such a work art, that you don't want to put down. I highly recommend it! 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