Ruth Anne Latta

  My review of Gail Godwin's "Getting to Know Death" is available at the link below:   https:// compulsivereader.com/2024/08/ 28/a-review-of-getting-to- know-death-a-meditation-by- gail-godwin/

  A review of Long Island by Colm Tóibín July 20, 2024 Reviewed by Ruth Latta Long Island by Colm Tóibín Picador May 2024, Hardcover, 304 pages, ISBN-13: 978-1035029440 “You can’t repeat the past,” says Nick Carraway in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s great American novel,  The Great Gatsby .    Jay Gatsby replies, “Why of course you can.” As many readers know, the tragedy of Fitzgerald’s novel    is that Gatsby can’t win Daisy Buchanan away from her husband. His success in American does not bring him what he wants most, and he ends up dead in the swimming pool of his mansion on Long Island. In  Long Island , Colm Tóibín’s new novel, Eilis Lacey Fiorello, protagonist of his earlier novel,  Brooklyn , is supposedly living the American dream with her husband and children in an family cul-de-sac on Long Island. An immigrant to America from Enniscorthy, Eire, she has paid one visit home, shortly after her arrival in the United States in 1951.    Twent...

  I, too, a sister had, an only sister - She loved me dearly, and I doted on her; To her I poured forth all my puny sorrows; (As a sick patient in a nurse's arms,) And of the heart those hidden maladies ­ That e'en from friendship's eye will shrink ashamed. O! I have waked at midnight, and have wept Because she was not!     (From Samuel Taylor Colderidge's poem, "To my friend, with an unfinished poem"     a condolence poem from 1794.) This past June 1st was the second anniversary of my sister, Sandra's, death. I still miss her badly and wanted to post something on that date, but couldn't think of anything good enough. Then, watching the movie, "All my Puny Sorrows," based on a Miriam Toews novel, I looked up the Coleridge poem from which the quote comes. Sandra was my best friend and close confidante. Every so often I think, "I must phone her and tell her about...." and it takes a moment for me to remember that I can't. That rem...

  God willing, I'll be signing copies of  my latest novel, "A Striking Woman," at Indigo's Pinecrest store, 2735 Iris Street, Ottawa, on July 14, 2024, from 1 to 3 p.m.  "A Striking Woman" is a story of true love and trade union organizing. Do drop by and say hello. Here is a short excerpt from the novel: The year? 1946.  The place?  "Meadowvale," QC, where Frank and Jacqueline are union leaders in a cotton mill workers' strike. The scene? Their office in the union hall.     "Your eyes are awfully red," [Frank said.]  His eyes, through his lenses, were pools of concern.     "I was just having a weak moment." [Jacqueline replied.]"Some cloistered nuns here in town are in novena under the spiritual direction of the monseigneur, praying for the defeat of the union."     Frank perched on the edge of her desk.     "In a novena? That reminds me of a story. A man went to confession and told the priest that he couldn...

My Friend, Miss Dorothy Jane      When I was very young, there were no children’s programs like Mr. Rogers’ Neighbourhood, Captain Kangaroo or the Muppets .  Yes, television had been invented, but it didn’t exist for me. We lived on a Northeastern Ontario backwoods farm in a house where light was furnished by coal-oil lamps and later, a gas lantern. The power came later, when I was of school age.   We had books, and radio, though. My mother read to me and my sister every night and eventually I learned to decipher those little black marks on the page for myself. One of my favourite stories was “Thumbelina,” about a child so tiny her mother used a walnut shell as her cradle.  Stolen by a toad, who wants her as her son’s bride, Thumbelina escapes, and is befriended by a fish, a butterfly, a mouse and a swallow.  In the end, the swallow saves her from marriage to a  mole by flying her off to a faraway land where she meets a prince just her siz...

This past Thursday was "Show and Share" morning at the Coffee, Companionship and Conversation group at St. Mark's Anglican Church, Fisher Avenue, Ottawa.  Often we have guest speakers on various topics. Realizing that members of the group have hobbies, interests and pet projects, the organizers decided to give participants the opportunity to show and share them.  We had the story of a rescue cat who became its owner's best friend; displays of soapstone carvings, hand-painted china, and unique hand-crafted greeting cards; a presentation on the therapeutic value of colouring, a flautist's performance accompanied on piano, and an author talking about her latest historical  novel - moi. Because the novel was inspired by ( very very loosely based on) the early life and career of trade union organizer Madeleine Parent (1918-2012) I talked for five minutes about her life and work,  about meeting with her, and about why I decided not to attempt a biography but to write a ...