Canary (Trade Paper)

Description

An ALA 2014 Over the Rainbow Selection
An Amazon.ca Best Book of 2013: Top 100/Editors’ Pick
A Vancouver Sun Favourite Read of 2013

“Reading Cullen … is a little like drinking booze. Definitely not wine, because it’s not all that genteel, and not beer, because it’s not all that commonplace, but hard liquor because it’s edgy, fast-acting, more than a little disorienting and frequently mixed with something sweet.”—The Globe & Mail

What has to die before you force yourself to change? That’s the question facing the always quirky and often-queer characters of Canary. From the communal showers of a hot yoga studio to seedy pubs on Vancouver’s East Side, from Catholic merchandise salesmen to hitchhiking teenage lesbians, the people and places of Nancy Jo Cullen’s debut are asphyxiating slowly on ordinary life. Yet in this joint-smoking urban underground, we also glimpse the families, communities, friends and strangers from whom unexpected kindness comes as a breath of fresh air. Trashy but poignant, comic and profound, Canary hangs luminous above the coal-heap of fiction debuts—and proves Nancy Jo Cullen a writer of astonishing depths.

Praise for Canary

“Cullen’s prose is volcanic even when she’s describing the most domestic situations possible—the language is full of subterranean rumbles that simultaneously disturb and delight. The writing is always surprising, always bright, even in the most somber moments. Moving and funny, these stories will break your heart in the very best way.”—Suzette Mayr

“Nancy Jo Cullen mines humanity’s beautiful fault-lines. There is not one lousy story in this bunch, but there are plenty of lousy people, all of them gleaming with the shimmer of real. Cullen knows just where to find the funny in tragedy, and how to make words feel like life.”—Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer

“Comic and sad at the same time.”—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“Every story in Nancy Jo Cullen’s debut collection skates along the edge of weirdness. These characters are just a tiny bit off, drawing the reader into their delightful eccentricities … Cullen ups the ante on any traditional coming-out story arc and instead drops LGBT characters and references in everyday life, just as they’d always be. A welcome new voice in queer fiction.”—Lambda Literary

“Cullen writes with tragicomic wisdom about the stuff of life – coming of age, sexuality, fertility, death – creating down-to-earth characters via straightforward and unadorned prose … Canary combines a plenitude of characters with themes that have universal and enduring appeal. The collection balances a sensitive understanding of the perils and challenges women face with a sympathetic and affectionate take on flawed male characters; there’s not a weak story in this bunch. Cullen is a writer to watch.”—Quill & Quire, starred review

“A taken-for-granted sexual transiency is the most strikingly contemporary feature of these stories; if it were written a decade ago the fact that many of the characters are gay, lesbian or bisexual would be seen as a political statement. But in Canary the sexuality of the characters doesn’t define their identity, and is in fact often as transitory and up-for-grabs as every other aspect of their unsettled lives. The quietly radical assumption implicit in the book is that sex isn’t a matter of fixed identity but of opportunistic action … in story after story Cullen won me over. Their people and situations rang close to life … Cullen deserves all the acclaim she’s going to receive.”—The Globe & Mail

“At her best, Cullen manages to write about rejuvenation and reconstruction in a way that feels absolutely fresh … vibrant and engaging.”—The National Post

“There’s a wonderful shape-shifting that occurs with humour and Cullen has found that place that is both poignant and profound. Gay and lesbian characters appear in every story, which is such a gift when most fiction writers exclude lesbian, gay and transgender people in their work.”—Vancouver Sun

“Small, colourful, and only too quick to take flight.”—Georgia Straight

“Fresh and non-squeamish humour, present in quirky touches and entire situations, marks Cullen’s stories … This is a great collection, with something of Raymond Carver’s understated realism—but with an entirely original voice.”—Alberta Views Magazine

“The people in Nancy Jo Cullen’s stories are just like you and me–raw, complicated, slightly off-kilter in a world that seems to be rushing by a little too quickly. Her characters–working class, many queer–are deep thinking, humorous people who move through with their often tumultuous lives with a kind of imperfect grace.”—In Conversation with Trevor Corkum

“Cullen’s stories are full of these unexpected moments of giddy freedom, when the heavy responsibilities of daily life lift, and the characters can take a deep breath and remember who they really are … The narrators of these stories are plain-spoken, and while they sometimes over-share the messy details of their lives, they always tell it like it is. The stories collected in Canary are fresh, immediate and exciting.”—CultMontreal

“In Canary, Cullen’s skills with characterization make her stories pop … Cullen’s debut is a testament to why human relationships remain the best fodder for funny, dead-serious fiction. Her stories are slightly off-kilter, and always bang-on in delivering first-rate characters who show us all the ache in being human and all the wonder of human connection.”—The Telegraph Journal

“Consider your most embarrassing moment, suffered because of your family or not. Go on, dredge up that ineradicable instant of humiliation when you were a child, adolescent or young adult, it doesn’t matter what happened, when or where. Nancy Jo Cullen has you beat. The denizens of Canary, her first book of fiction, have soared, crashed, relocated, compromised, given up and started over more often than most of us. This collection is very good … there is plenty here to satisfy, the narrative arc running high and long … robust, with a wide, compassionate embrace.”The Winnipeg Review

“Canary is the best new Canadian fiction I’ve read this year. Pick it up, and pick it up now.”—Casey the Canadian Lesbrarian