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I adored Never Cry Wolf, but you often hear that a writer has one good book in him (or her), and after that it is all downhill. Furthermore, I looked in the library catalog and Mowat had dozens of titles! I had no idea which ones to try, they had odd titles! So I picked up this reader, to get an idea which of the titles I might want to pick out.
After reading this collection, I decided I wanted to read them all. Mowat is simply the best Canadian writer, and one of the top of this century, in my humble opinion. I have now read five of his books, and my collection continues to grow. Even the books that are represented as children's books (like The Dog Who Wouldn't Be) are a joy to adults as well.
Mowat has the keen eye of observation that Mark Twain had, but without the viciousness of the satire... he is much more coy and subtle in his musings on families and nature. Many of his works involve the Arctic north, Saskatchewan, the high seas, and animals; but I have yet to find a poorly written chapter in any of his works.
If you want some proof that Mowat is worth buying, pick up this Reader and see for yourself. I read a few small portions to my writers club as samples of excellent writing, and they loved it. It reads smoothly, like a storyteller would speak, like a Garrison Keilor tale.
He is a controversial figure, is my understanding. Purportedly, he is not allowed to visit the United States, because in one book he claimed to shoot his rifle at overflying US warplanes. Who knows if this is true; Mowat admits to a bit of freedom in embellishing a tale; which is only right, since it is more fun that way. Don't worry about these details, just read some of it and enjoy it.
Used price: $112.23
Cosmetically, the book is a two-face: while cover design by Chris Nurse is nothing short of outstanding, the internal layout is not without blemish. For example, outside margins are too wide, story titles are not always at the same height in the page, and the author's name is italicised in some but not all of the instances. Another gripe I have is that page numbers on the right-hand pages are left-aligned; plus, headers have no indication about the stories presented below them: these will give you a bad time if you want to riffle through the book to look up a specific something. There are a few extra typesetting warts and moles as well, as I noticed some characters showing up in a different size than the rest of the text, uneven spacing between words, typos derived from bad OCR, and so on. I sincerely encourage RazorBlade Press to pay more attention to internal design in the future, and run a few spell checks as well. Still, don't let appearances fool you, because the writing on these pages is top-notch.
In the whole, I was not in the least disappointed by Hideous Progeny while expecting quality work. Many short stories surprised me by their original angles, and all are very well written. The subjects are quite varied too, although some do overlap a little - it seems inevitable given the limitations inherent to their collective premise. I have my favourites, of course: Peter Crowther's piece is shocking yet touching at the same time, and the idea behind "Mad Jack" is a simple but nevertheless brilliant one. "The Banker of Ingolstadt" is perhaps the funniest in the book, and I found Steven Volk's "Blitzenstein" to rank among the best.
Whatever shortcomings the book has, they're quickly overwhelmed by the superb fiction it it, not to mention a downright gorgeous cover. For £6.99, it's well worth getting Hideous Progeny: not only will you be adding a fine specimen of a book to your library, you'll also be helping small press business to thrive. Because I want to see more from RazorBlade Press. Oh yeah.
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The book comes fully equipped to provide the reader with everything needed to acquire a very close familiarity with the major attributes of this beautiful repertoire of popular song, including simple musical notation or "lead sheets" of all the songs (a basic knowledge of music notation is needed, and Chapter 1 fills that gap, if required), perceptive discussions of lyrics as they relate to the melodies, harmonies, and rhythms of the songs, and, as a special and unique innovation, a compact disc that provides the reader with easy access to the music. Moreover, background material places each song in its historical-social context. Implicitly, for each song, the author answers the question: "Why has this song withstood the test of time to become a classic?"
The writing style is informal, bright, and often humorous, without in any way "writing down" to the audience. It is a pleasure to read. The text and the accompanying compact disc, which includes recordings especially made for this volume, are beautifully matched. And the performances by baritone Richard Lalli and pianist Gary Chapman are superb. On two of the tracks we also hear the author as arranger and pianist, testifying to his close connection to this music as a performer.
Accessible, intelligent, and highly enjoyable, this book and recording will make delightful additions to the libraries of a broad range of readers/listeners -- from those who are already familiar with this repertoire and who seek an enriched understanding of the songs and their contexts, to those who may be hearing and learning of these alluring works for the very first time.