Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald

Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald

Today is the 17th anniversary of the Westray Mine disaster in Cape Breton, Canada. And by coincidence, I had just finished this incredible book by a Canadian author, Ann-Maire Macdonald. It would not be an exaggeration to say it was one of the best books I've read in a long time (other than History of Love, of course). Powerful. I felt like falling on my knees. She seems to be famous in Canada as well as in lesbian circles. It's not a lesbian book but there might have been a  lurid scene or two. I'm not sure. I closed my eyes when I came to it. I may be undecided, too. Which one?

It really wasn't lurid. I just wanted to use that word. Twice.

Also, by coincidence, I found this book in the store at the same time as I was working my through my copy of the Passamaquoddy-Maliseet Dictionary by David A. Francis and Robert Leavitt. I am enjoying the dictionary very much. I've always needed a polite way to say "Come visit when you're sober." However, Linda now has a way to say "This man, they say, was very bad, but his wife was a good woman."

Did anyone see The Linguists (2008) on PBS last February? What a treasure for all of us to have a dictionary like this. I am enjoying it but am also deeply disappointed as I had hoped to gain a few new two letter words with which I could trick my Scrabble opponent/siblings into believing they were legitimate English Scrabble words. To paraphrase Roy Scheider  from Jaws (1975), "Robert, if you want to play Passamaquoddy-Maliseet Scrabble, then you're going to need a bigger board." Those are some long words. But, I propose that at the next get-together we all play Scrabble. I'll bring the dictionary.