Reviews

Shadow Maker: The Life of Gwendolyn MacEwen

Shannon Emmerson
Tags

In search of a more satisfying biography, I pulled out a book I received a few Christmases ago—Rosemary Sullivan's Shadow Maker: The Life of Gwendolyn MacEwen. Sullivan's book made me weep during two separate readings. Intelligent and committed to asking the questions King does not—questions concerning the biographer's authority and claim to interpret a life—the book does what a biography should do. It tells MacEwen's story, it asks questions and it forces the reader to question the "facts" presented and the biographer herself. Another biography by Sullivan, on Elizabeth Smart, is equally powerful, insightful and emotionally compelling. I hope that biographers like Sullivan take up where King has left off with Margaret Laurence. Laurence, I think, deserves a closer look.

No items found.

SUGGESTIONS FOR YOU

Reviews
Kendra Heinz

Big Dread at West Ed

Review of "Big Mall: Shopping for Meaning" by Kate Black.

Reviews
Joseph Weiss

An Anti-war Godzilla

Review of "Godzilla Minus One" directed by Takashi Yamazaki.

Dispatches
Adrian Rain

Schrödinger’s Kids

The log jam is tall and wide and choosing wrong means we don’t make it home