Best-of book attempts to dictate the best in Atlantic Canadian writing - a tough task in 229 pages. It opens readers up to a wealth of regional talent, leaving one questioning and yearning for more

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Review by Heather Craig

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In Atlantic Canada's 100 Greatest Books, Trevor Adams and Stephen Clare attempt to fill a tall order, to present and celebrate the greatest Atlantic Canadian books. Choosing to stick with prose - fiction and non-fiction - they include side-bars of some alternate choices from various authors, and refer to numerous people from a variety of book-related pursuits who were consulted while assembling this list. With choices from each of the four Atlantic provinces, and books from the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as the past decade, their list is filled with popular and well-known reads as well as some lesser-known works.

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Each entry is accompanied by a quick synopsis of the book and/or description of its overall importance, and is sometimes accompanied by quotes from various literary journals, critics or professors of literature.

Adams and Clare have plugged themselves into a growing book-listing trend, an interesting topic regardless of particular choices, and this is a glossy, catalogue-like resource of various books related to the region that are still available and worth reading.

The authors state in the preface that they intend to "spark debate and discussions" and, for book lovers, as with every reading list, it provides fodder for thought and pointers for what you could be reading next, from old and still worthy standbys such as L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables (#2) to less well-known classics like New Brunswick's own James De Mille's A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder (#83) to a large number of recently published and acclaimed novels by the likes of Lisa Moore and Lynn Coady.

The book suffers, however, from the size of the project, and individual coverage of books varies in quality and length from quick abstracts to lengthier, more polemical synopses. The topic, 100 greatest books, feels too broad for a 229-page book. There isn't room to allow for rich commentary or strong argument on each choice.

No arguments here about the "tremendous" wealth of talent to choose from, but the list is heavily weighted toward books from or about Nova Scotia and excludes some worthy books from other regions and genres.

Unbelievably, there is only one book listed by an Acadian author (Antonine Maillet's Pélagie: The Return to a Homeland). The list includes books not written by Canadians (including John Wyndham's The Chrysalids, #72. The authors argue the book is "rooted in the region.") What this text ends up giving is a quick lit fix, and that may or may not be good enough for readers.

The authors' decision to exclude poetry and plays from their list is a difficult choice to understand despite the stated reason in the preface. With so many great Atlantic Canadian poets to choose from, surely it would have been a no-brainer to include the likes of John Thompson, Alden Nowlan, Milton Acorn - to name only the first three that quickly spring to mind. Yet Adams and Clare state: "We decided not to include poetry and plays in our overall rankings. It is hard for Atlantic Canadian writers to get poetry and plays published and even more difficult to get the books into wide circulation." Surely that would make it all the more important to celebrate the great ones who have made it into wide circulation, while encouraging readers (who are, after all, also consumers) to become aware of great poetry that has not made it into "wide circulation."

While kudos are due to Adams and Clare for injecting a growing trend with some Atlantic Canadian choices, this book is ultimately an uneven resource. If it gets readers to a library or a bookstore, reading and buying Atlantic Canadian books that are worthy of the attention, however, then perhaps it's worth it.

Heather Craig is a poet and writer based in Grand Bay-Westfield.