4. Do you think that “Ship Sail! Sail Fast!” portrays the corn growing beside the train tracks, as a suitable hiding place?
5. Would you say that the man on the train sees ghosts or real men and women, escaping?
6. In “The Cradle Will Fall,” how does the author use dialogue to describe memoir?
7. What is the main point in “They’re Not Coming Back”? The child’s animosity towards her mother? Or the mother’s neglect of her daughter?
8. In “If the Bough Breaks,” what has happened to the white girl who comes into the salon?
9. What does the figure of Christophe contribute to “If the Bough Breaks”?
10. The title of this collection of short stories – There Are No Elders – is from a poem by a West Indian poet, the 1993 Nobel Laureate, Derek Walcott. The title of the Walcott poem, “The Saddhu of Couva,” is from the book, The Star-Apple Kingdom. The following is a selection of the poem from which the title is extracted:
I talked too damn much on the Couva Village Council.
I talked too softly. I was always drowned
by the loudspeakers with the greatest pictures.
I am best suited to stalk like a white cattle bird
on legs of sticks, with sticking to the Path
between the canes on a district road at dusk.
Playing the Elder. There are no more elders.
Is only old people.
What do you think Clarke sees as the meaning of the title There Are No Elders for this book? How does it work for the book as a whole?
Related Reading
Algoo-Baksh, Stella. Austin C. Clarke: A Biography.
Toronto: ECW Press, 1994.
Baldwin, James. The Fire Next Time.
New York: Vintage, 1992.
Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. Translated by Richard Philcox.
New York: Grove Press, 2005.
Fanon, Frantz. Black Skin, White Masks. Translated by Charles L. Markmann
New York: Grove Press, 1967.
Lovelace, Earl. Salt.
New York: Faber & Faber, 1996.
Whintrop, Jordan D. White Over Black: American Attitudes toward the Negro, 1550 – 1812.
University of North Carolina Press. Institute of Early American History and Culture: Williamsburg Press, 1968.
THE EXILE CLASSICS SERIES ~ 1 TO 29
THAT SUMMER IN PARIS (No. 1) ~ MORLEY CALLAGHAN
Memoir & Essays 5.5x8.5 280 pages 978-1-55096-688-6 (tpb)
It was the fabulous summer of 1929 when the literary capital of North America had moved to the Left Bank of Paris. Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Joyce, Ford Madox Ford, Robert McAlmon and Morley Callaghan... amid these tangled relationships, friendships were forged, and lost... A tragic and sad and unforgettable story told in Callaghan’s lucid, compassionate prose. Also included in this new edition are selections from Callaghan’s comments on Hemingway, Joyce and Fitzgerald, beginning in that time early in his life, and ending with his reflection on returning to Paris at the end of his life.
NIGHTS IN THE UNDERGROUND (No. 2) ~ MARIE-CLAIRE BLAIS
Novel 6x9 190 pages 978-1-55096-015-0 (tpb)
With this novel, Marie-Claire Blais came to the forefront of feminism in Canada. This is a classic of lesbian literature that weaves a profound matrix of human isolation, with transcendence found in the healing power of love.
DEAF TO THE CITY (No. 3) ~ MARIE-CLAIRE BLAIS
Novel 6x9 218 pages 978-1-55096-013-6 (tpb)
City life, where innocence, death, sexuality, and despair fight for survival. It is a book of passion and anguish, characteristic of our times, written in a prose of controlled self-assurance. A true urban classic.
THE GERMAN PRISONER (No. 4) ~ JAMES HANLEY
Novella 6x9 64 pages 978-1-55096-075-4 (tpb)
In the weariness and exhaustion of WWI trench warfare, men are driven to extremes of behaviour.
THERE ARE NO ELDERS (No. 5) ~ AUSTIN CLARKE
Stories 6x9 159 pages 978-1-55096-092-1 (tpb)
Austin Clarke is one of the significant writers of our times. These are compelling stories of life as it is lived among the displaced in big cities, marked by a singular richness of language true to the streets.
100 LOVE SONNETS (No. 6) ~ PABLO NERUDA
Poetry 5.5x8.5 232 pages 978-1-55096-108-9 (tpb)
As Gabriel García Márquez stated: “Pablo Neruda is the greatest poet of the twentieth century – in any language.” And this is the finest translation available, anywhere!
THE SELECTED GWENDOLYN MACEWEN (No. 7) GWENDOLYN MACEWEN
Poetry/Fiction/Drama/Art/Archival 6x9 352 pages 978-1-55096-111-9 (tpb)
“This book represents a signal event in Canadian culture.” —Globe and Mail The only edition to chronologically follow the astonishing trajectory of MacEwen’s career as a poet, storyteller, translator and dramatist, in a substantial selection from each genre.
THE WOLF (No. 8) ~ MARIE-CLAIRE BLAIS
Novel 6x9 158 pages 978-1-55096-105-8 (tpb)
A human wolf moves outside the bounds of love and conventional morality as he stalks willing prey in this spellbinding masterpiece and classic of gay literature.
A SEASON IN THE LIFE OF EMMANUEL (No. 9) ~ MARIE-CLAIRE BLAIS
Novel 6x9 175 pages 978-1-55096-118-8 (tpb)
Widely considered by critics and readers alike to be her masterpiece, this is truly a work of genius comparable to Faulkner, Kafka, or Dostoyevsky. Includes 16 ink drawings by Mary Meigs.
IN THIS CITY (No. 10) ~ AUSTIN CLARKE
Stories 6x9 221 pages 978-1-55096-106-5 (tpb)
Clarke has caught the sorrowful and sometimes sweet longing for a home in the heart that torments the dislocated in any city. Eight masterful stories showcase the elegance of Clarke’s prose and the innate sympathy of his eye.
THE NEW YORKER STORIES (No. 11) ~ MORLEY CALLAGHAN
Stories 6x9 158 pages 978-1-55096-110-2 (tpb)
Callaghan’s great achievement as a young writer is marked by his breaking out with stories such as these in this collection... “If there is a better storyteller in the world, we don’t know where he is.” —New York Times
REFUS GLOBAL (No. 12) ~ THE MONTRÉAL AUTOMATISTS
Manifesto 6x9 142 pages 978-1-55096-107-2 (tpb)
The single most important social document in Quebec history, and the most important aesthetic statement a group of Canadian artists has ever made. This is basic reading for anyone interested in Canadian history or the arts in Canada.
TROJAN WOMEN (No. 13) ~ GWENDOLYN MACEWEN
Drama 6x9 142 pages 978-1-55096-123-2 (tpb)
A trio of timeless works featuring the great ancient theatre piece by Euripedes in a new version by MacEwen, and the translations of two long poems by the contemporary Greek poet Yannis Ritsos.
ANNA’S WORLD (No. 14) ~ MARIE-CLAIRE BLAIS
Novel 5.5x8.5 166 pages ISBN: 978-1-55096-130-0
An exploration of contemporary life, and the penetrating energy of youth, as Blais looks at teenagers by creating Anna, an introspective, alienated teenager without hope. Anna has experienced what life today has to offer and rejected its premise. There is really no point in going on. We are all going to die, if we are not already dead, is Anna’s philosophy.
THE MANUSCRIPTS OF PAULINE ARCHANGE (No. 15) MARIE-CLAIRE BLAIS
Novel 5.5x8.5 324 pages ISBN: 978-1-55096-131-7
For the first time, the three novelettes that constitute the complete text are brought together: the story of Pauline and her world, a world in which people turn to violence or sink into quiet despair, a world as damned as that of Baudelaire or Jean Genet.
A DREAM LIKE MINE (No. 16) ~ M.T. KELLY
Novel 5.5x8.5 174 pages ISBN: 978-1-55096-132-4
A Dream Like Mine is a journey into the contemporary issue of radical and violent solutions to stop the destruction of the environment. It is also a journey into the unconscious, and into the nightmare of history, beauty
and terror that are the awesome landscape of the Native American spirit world.
THE LOVED AND THE LOST (No. 17) ~ MORLEY CALLAGHAN
Novel 5.5x8.5 302 pages ISBN: 978-1-55096-151-5 (tpb)
With the story set in Montreal, young Peggy Sanderson has become socially unacceptable because of her association with black musicians in nightclubs. The black men think she must be involved sexually, the black women fear or loathe her, yet her direct, almost spiritual manner is at variance with her reputation.
NOT FOR EVERY EYE (No. 18) ~ GÉRARD BESSETTE
Novel 5.5x8.5 126 pages ISBN: 978-1-55096-149-2 (tpb)
A novel of great tact and sly humour that deals with ennui in Quebec and the intellectual alienation of a disenchanted hero, and one of the absolute classics of modern revolutionary and comic Quebec literature. Chosen by the Grand Jury des Lettres of Montreal as one of the ten best novels of post-war contemporary Quebec.
STRANGE FUGITIVE (No. 19) ~ MORLEY CALLAGHAN
Novel 5.5x8.5 242 pages ISBN: 978-1-55096-155-3 (tpb)
Callaghan’s first novel – originally published in New York in 1928 – announced the coming of the urban novel in Canada, and we can now see it as a prototype for the “gangster” novel in America. The story is set in Toronto in the era of the speakeasy and underworld vendettas.
IT’S NEVER OVER (No. 20) ~ MORLEY CALLAGHAN
Novel 5.5x8.5 190 pages ISBN: 978-1-55096-157-7 (tpb)
1930 was an electrifying time for writing. Callaghan’s second novel, completed while he was living in Paris – imbibing and boxing with Joyce and Hemingway (see his memoir, Classics No. 1, That Summer in Paris) – has violence at its core; but first and foremost it is a story of love, a love haunted by a hanging. Dostoyevskian in its depiction of the morbid progress of possession moving like a virus, the novel is sustained insight of a very high order.
AFTER EXILE (No. 21) ~ RAYMOND KNISTER
Poetry 5.5x8.5 240 pages ISBN: 978-1-55096-159-1 (tpb)
This book collects for the first time Knister’s poetry. The title After Exile is plucked from Knister’s long poem written after he returned from Chicago and decided to become the unthinkable: a modernist Canadian writer. Knister, writing in the 20s and 30s, could barely get his poems published in Canada, but magazines like This Quarter (Paris), Poetry (Chicago), Voices (Boston), and The Dial (New York City), eagerly printed what he sent, and always asked for more – and all of it is in this book.
THE COMPLETE STORIES OF MORLEY CALLAGHAN (Nos. 22-25)
Four Volumes ~ Stories 5.5 x 8.5 (tpb) (tpb)
v1 ISBN: 978-1-55096-304-5 352 Pages
v2 ISBN: 978-1-55096-305-2 344 Pages
v3 ISBN: 978-1-55096-306-9 360 Pages
v4 ISBN: 978-1-55096-307-6 360 Pages
The complete short fiction of Morley Callaghan is brought together as he comes into full recognition as one of the singular storytellers of our time. “Attractively produced in four volumes, each introduced by Alistair Macleod, André Alexis, Anne Michaels and Margaret Atwood, and each containing ‘Editor’s Endnotes.’ The project is nothing if not ambitious... and provides for the definitive edition.”
—Books in Canada
And, so that the reader may appreciate this writer’s development and the shape of his career – and for those with a scholarly approach to the reading of these collections – each book contains an on-end section providing the year of publication for each story, a Questions section related to each volume’s stories, and comprehensive editorial notes. Also included are historical photographs, manuscript pages, and more.
CONTRASTS: IN THE WARD ~ A BOOK OF POETRY AND PAINTINGS (No. 26) ~ LAWREN HARRIS
Poetry/16 Colour Paintings 7x7 168 pages
ISBN: 978-1-55096-308-3 (special edition pb)
Group of Seven painter Lawren Harris’s poetry and paintings take the reader on a unique historical journey that offers a glimpse of our country’s past as it was during early urbanization. “This small album of poetry, paintings, and biographical walking tour ought to be on every ‘Welcome to Toronto’ (and ‘Canada’) book list. Gregory Betts’s smart, illustrative writing, which convinces by style as well as content, and Exile Editions’ winning presentation, combine to make Lawren Harris: In the Ward a fresh look at the early work of one of Canada’s most iconic modernists.” —Open Book Toronto
WE WASN’T PALS ~ CANADIAN POETRY AND PROSE OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR (No. 27) ~ ED. BRUCE MEYER AND BARRY CALLAGHAN
Poetry/Prose 5.5x8.5 320 pages ISBN: 978-1-55096-315-1 (tpb)
For decades the literature of Canada’s experience in World War One lay ignored and was dismissed by readers, critics, and literary historians. Here, at last, is the imaginative testimony of those who served in the trenches and hospitals of the Great War. These pages chronicle the struggle to put into words the horrors, the insights, and the tribulations that ultimately shaped a nation’s character. In the voices of Frank Prewett, W. Redvers Dent, nurse Bertha Carveth, fighter pilot Hartley Munro Thomas, and other members of a generation that gave their lives and their souls to the war, this is the first anthology since 1918 of poetry, fiction, essays, songs, and illustrations that adds an important new chapter to Canada’s literature. Preface and Introduction by Bruce Meyer; Foreword by Barry Callaghan; Afterword by Margaret Atwood.
LUKE BALDWIN’S VOW (No. 28) ~ MORLEY CALLAGHAN
Novel 5.5 x 8.5 196 pages 978-1-55096-604-6
A timeless classic, highly recommended by generations of readers and educators.
A story of a boy and his dog and their adventures, which will appeal to the many children who are dog lovers. It is also a sensitive story of love and loss, and of making a new life for oneself. Although it was first published seventy years ago, only a few details (such as clothing) really indicate that it is not a contemporary story.
Luke is not yet 12 when his father dies of a heart attack, leaving him an orphan. Small for his age and something of a loner, he moves from the city to the country to live with his aunt and uncle. He is naturally homesick and grieving the loss of his father. His well- meaning and kindly aunt and uncle do their best for him; but his only real friend and comfort becomes Dan, the farm’s elderly, one-eyed collie. Practical Uncle Henry considers Dan useless now that he is too old to be a watchdog and decides that Dan should be “put down.” Luke, whose sense of dignity and loyalty transcend the practical, frantically tries to save Dan’s life, providing for heart-racing suspense as he makes his stand against the expedient world of adults.
Foreword by Jane Urquhart
COYOTE CITY / BIG BUCK CITY : TWO PLAYS (No. 29) ~ DANIEL DAVID MOSES
Drama 5.5 x 8.5 260 pages 978-1-55096-678-7
Respected First Nations Canadian playwright and Governor General’s Award finalist Daniel David Moses is known for using storytelling and theatrical conventions to explore the consequences of the collision between Native and non-Native cultures. Coyote City and Big Buck City are the first two in his series of four City Plays that track the journey of one particular Native family between a world of Native spiritual traditions and the materialist urban landscape in which we all attempt to survive. Coyote City, a tragedy, begins with a phone call from a ghost that sends a young Native woman, Lena, her family in pursuit, on a search in the city for her missing lover Johnny. Big Buck City, a farce, tells the story of Lena’s subsequent reunion in that city with her family just in time for the nativity – it is Christmas – of her own miraculous child.
www.ExileEditions.com
Table of Contents
COVER
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
If The Bough Breaks
Ship, Sail! Sail Fast!
In An Elevator
Beggars
Not So Old, But Oh So Professional
Just a Little Problem
They’re Not Coming Back
The Cradle Will Fall
Questions for Discussion and Essays
Related Reading
Guide
Cover
Contents
There Are No Elders Page 16