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Article: The art of survival. (Canadian novelists)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- June 30, 1990
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1990 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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TlMES have changed since a Canadian writer famously described the literature of his country as: "Boy meets girl in Winnipeg, and who cares?" Even Canadian bookshops used to treat Canadian fiction as second-rate, relegating it to shelves labelled something like Canadiana". Now four and a half of the best writers of fiction in English are Canadians. The half is Brian Moore, who is also claimed by the United States, where he lives, and by Ireland, where he was born. The other four are pure Canadians: Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro and Robertson Davies of Ontario, and Mordecai Richler of Quebec.
Everybody agrees that the fiction they and other Canadians write is not ...