book review
True to his name, Karemaker weaves empathy throughout Feast of Fields
July 15, 2018At the most basic level, Feast of Fields is graphic novelist Sean Karemaker’s love letter to the protagonist’s mother, Hanne. After a bad day at school, timid and lonely Sean finds comfort in listening to his mother’s childhood memories, taking place in a Danish orphanage. A testament to her resilience and understated strength, this autobiographical graphic novel pays homage to Hanne’s dedication to her family and to herself. Perhaps the significance of this tale lies in its focus on people and experiences, rather than the emotional traumas. As such, it validates all the other migrant stories that may…
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The Moment is a beautifully written, heart-wrenching woman-loving-woman novel
July 4, 2018Don’t let the cover fool you; if you’re expecting a cliché young adult romance, look elsewhere. The Moment is one book that I return to year after year because the way T. C. Anderson weaves words is artistry that deserves…
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Meghan Parker’s comic book thesis is informative and adorable
July 1, 2018Meghan Parker, an SFU grad student, did something really cool when she created her thesis Art Teacher in Process: An Illustrated Exploration of Art, Education, and What Matters. She realized that writing about art wouldn’t work as well as making…
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Cheesy to gritty: the turning point for Batman’s character
June 19, 2018In February 1986, DC Comics began publishing Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, a four-issue comic mini-series by Frank Miller, Klaus Janson, and Lynn Varley. By the 1980s, people were used to seeing Batman as a source of cheesy one-liners and…
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Introducing a hiker’s best friend
June 11, 2018I’m going to be honest: I know absolutely nothing about hiking and I haven’t been hiking in years. Picking up the thick paperback that is SFU alum Stephen Hui’s 105 Hikes In and Around Southwestern British Columbia was a bit…
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Hungry poems for sobering histories
May 30, 2018Though the premise of a poetry collection on Ukrainian-Canadian women sounds straightforward, Laisha Rosnau taps into a long, ugly, and complicated history that includes concentration camps, global waves of immigration, westward expansion, government abuse, urbanization, shifting conservatism, the patriarchy, and…
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Identities: A Short Story Collection is an illustrative and powerful read
May 21, 2018An adjunct professor in SFU’s Beedie School of Business, Yabome Gilpin-Jackson, sets her foot into the fiction arena and holds her own with some of the best fiction I have ever read. Identities: A Short Story Collection is an enticing summer…
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If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler: a book to experience
May 8, 2018You pick up a new novel, but the pages are out of order. You pick up a new copy, containing only the first chapter, but that chapter makes you desperate for the next. You search for the next chapter and…
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The House of the Spirits shows Chilean history through the lens of magic realism
January 23, 2018The House of the Spirits is the first novel by Chilean author Isabel Allende (published in 1982). Allende delivers a text rich in reflections and retellings of the political atmosphere of Chile in the mid-20th century, told through the story…
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Medicine Walk is a well-crafted story that examines the nuances of family
November 15, 2017Richard Wagamese’s Medicine Walk is almost guaranteed to be one of the best modern novels you’ll ever read (and that’s coming from an English major). One of the main reasons this book is such a success is that the prose…
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Simon Fraser University’s independent student newspaper since 1965.
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For promotional inquiries: [email protected]
Simon Fraser University’s independent student newspaper since 1965.
For advertising inquiries: [email protected]
For promotional inquiries: [email protected]