Fast forward to today, and the delightful – and delightfully controversial – Guardian poll of great novels has recently arrived, (quite correctly) crowning George Eliot’s monumental Middlemarch the best of an extraordinary literary tradition. Far from challenging that result, I thought it might be fun to publish my own, unsanctioned ballot, yet again offering my paltry contribution to a never-ending debate.

This list was, of course, impossible to put together, and I already regret everything. (A Toronto list with no Robertson Davies on it? For shame!)

That said, it was a joy to compile, the exercise itself a lovely excuse to revisit familiar literary territory, reminding myself why I fell in love with these works in the first place.

Here, then, totally subjective and in no way definitive, are your Toronto Guardian greatest novels of all time.

1. Middlemarch (George Eliot, 1871)

“Blameless people are always the most exasperating.”

For the uninitiated, it can be difficult to understand why this, a late-nineteenth-century novel about the comings and goings in a small English town, merits such adoration. But for those who have encountered it – including, evidently, the bulk of The Guardian’s voters – there’s no denying the strength of its prose, the richness of its characters, and the keen psychological perception of its author, Mary Ann Evans (writing pseudonymously, at a time when female writers were just on the verge of being taken seriously).

The relatively small world of Middlemarch, a fictional town in the English Midlands, is merely the blank canvas onto which Eliot pours her greatest ideas and evergreen insights into the human condition, including the dangers of misguided love (poor Tertius Lydgate), the banality of ego (the name Casaubon now literary shorthand for a certain brand of pomposity), and the agonizing, beautiful possibilities of – and arguments for – human connection.

Perhaps the greatest strength of Eliot’s writing, however, is what’s not on the page – the unspoken thoughts, the barely-concealed truths, just barely perceptible between the lines.

2. One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel García Márquez, 1967)

“The rain would not have bothered Fernanda, after all, her whole life had been spent as if it were raining.”

The most recent entry on this list is the clear standout of twentieth-century fiction, and the one work, to paraphrase Pulitzer prize-winning author William Kennedy, which should be required reading alongside the biblical Genesis.

Here, in Solitude, in its fictional town of Macondo, Márquez acts as both creator and destroyer, bestowing the gift of life – and such beautiful, colourful life it is – with one hand while taking it away – not for nothing does the novel begin with a firing squad – with the other.

Each reader will have their favourite aspect of Solitude, whether it’s the extraordinary life of Mauricio Babilonia, who is forever followed by yellow butterflies, or the harrowing account of the (real-life) Chiquita banana massacre, or any one of the countless stories that play out across the ever-expanding Buendía family tree. All of which are, of course, infused with Márquez’s trademark magical realism and profound humanism.

In his Nobel acceptance speech, Márquez name-checked his “master, Faulkner” (who, not-so-coincidentally, also appears on this list), and it’s easy to understand why.

3. The Magic Mountain (Thomas Mann, 1924)

“Space, like time, engenders forgetfulness.”

A society in decay, a class of insular, comfort-seeking bourgeoisie too blind to see it, and a great war on the horizon. Der Zauberberg’s (accidental?) timelessness means it could have been written any time from the late nineteenth century to today, over a century later – though one assumes that a modern version would reimagine its Swiss sanatorium as a quote-unquote “wellness retreat”.

Superficially a fantasy or even Twilight Zone-esque sci-fi story – how else to explain the inexplicable inability of its characters to depart the mountaintop sanatorium – it’s fundamentally a philosophical text, its archetypal characters – the overly romantic young protagonist Hans Castorp, the nihilistic Leo Naphta, the wonderfully realized humanist Lodovico Settembrini – all based on people Mann knew and admired, or disagreed with (or both).

Most of all, however, Mountain is a weird text, suffused with the unexplained, the off-kilter, the perverse.

4. The Brothers Karamazov (Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1880)

“It’s not that I don’t accept God, you must understand, it’s the world created by Him I don’t and cannot accept.”

You could pick a half-dozen Dostoevskys for this list, though it’s Karamazov, somewhat unusually for an author’s final work, which represents the master at his absolute best. A sprawling meditation on some very nineteenth-century themes – in particular, the relationship between a society and its gods – it’s also a brutal family saga, a bitter satire, and a surprisingly compelling murder mystery (and, eventually, courtroom drama). A stubbornly decomposing monk, a passionate love affair, and an alcohol-fuelled bender are only some of the novel’s many highlights.

5. Tess of the d’Urbervilles (Thomas Hardy, 1891)

“Beauty to her, as to all who have felt, lay not in the thing, but in what the thing symbolized.”

Hardy’s protofeminist masterpiece has a double possessive in its title – the “d’” simply means “of the” in French – for good reason.

While it takes a while for that reason to become apparent, its story of the Durbeyfields and d’Urbervilles, and of the relationship between the titular Tess and her “cousin” Alec, is at once heart-rending and infuriating. By the end, it’s impossible not to embrace the same righteous anger with which Hardy, seething with frustration at the compromised morals of the Victorian era, wrote this work.

6. David Copperfield (Charles Dickens, 1850)

“Accidents will occur in the best-regulated families.”

Unabashedly sentimental, righteously polemical about social ills as only Dickens can be, Copperfield is the one work which hews closest to Dickens’s own life, though to mistake it for autobiography would undermine the sheer inventiveness of its world and, just as importantly, its characters. Wilkins Micawber may be literature’s most affable spendthrift, but Uriah Heep is easily its most insidious villain. Very ‘umble, indeed.

7. The Sound and the Fury (William Faulkner, 1929)

“Caddy got the box and set it on the floor and opened it. It was full of stars.”

Its reputation for inaccessibility is both accurate and beside the point. Yes, large swaths of Fury (its title, incidentally, a reference to one of the great moments in Shakespeare) are largely impenetrable when you first encounter them. But, for those with the patience and the wherewithal to persist, what appears at first ambiguous and opaque soon reveals itself to be something both sacred and profane.

The best of the Yoknapatawpha cycle, Fury‘s dysfunctional family saga contains some of the most memorable, and memorably drawn, characters in the canon, including the frustrated Benjy, the tragic Caddy, and not one but two ill-fated Quentin Compsons (one of whom would go on to narrate another Faulkner masterpiece, Absalom! Absalom!).

8. Madame Bovary (Gustave Flaubert, 1856)

“Without understanding what she wanted, he had a foreboding of something terrible.”

Madame Bovary is so sick and so twisted that it’s both incredibly easy and perversely difficult to recommend. A masterpiece of despair, of malignancy, and of hypocrisy (the saga of Hippolyte’s foot is truly horrifying), it’s an endlessly enjoyable read, as likely to make you flush with anger as gasp in revulsion. As an indictment of bourgeois life – and more generally, of the lies we, as humans, love to tell ourselves – it is unparalleled.

I choose to believe that the widely attributed Flaubert quote, “Bovary, c’est moi”, is apocryphal, since god knows why anyone, let alone poor Emma Bovary’s creator, would wish to identify with her.

9. Germinal (Emile Zola, 1885)

“Over the open plain, beneath a starless sky as dark and thick as ink, a man walked alone along the highway from Marchiennes to Montsou, a straight paved road ten kilometres in length, intersecting the beetroot-fields.”

A searing indictment of inequality by yet another master of humanist literature, Germinal is a harsh, blazingly angry depiction of the horrors of nineteenth-century coal mining, though the conditions it describes could easily apply to far too many places today.

Protagonist Étienne Lantier, an author-surrogate if there ever was one, arrives in northern French mining town Montsou in search of employment, only to encounter a society mired in despair, where everyone from the youngest child to the eldest grandfather must descend into the mines to eke out a (miserable, sick) existence. A rousing shot across the bow of the corporate class, it should be required reading for every young person with a conscience – and by all of us in the 99%.

10. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë, 1847)

“This was a demoniac laugh – low, suppressed, and deep – uttered, as it seemed, at the very keyhole of my chamber door.”

I went back and forth on a few different Brontës for this final entry, but ultimately the romantic, eerie, and deliciously unpredictable Jane Eyre won out.

From a literary perspective, Eyre is brilliantly written, representing an important step in the development of modern fiction due, in no small part, to Brontë’s unusually penetrating insights into human behaviour. And as a mystery with a tinge of the supernatural, it is altogether spine-chilling, a non-horror novel with hair-raising horror elements.

Whenever I’m trying to bring new readers into the fold, I’ll often start with this – followed by Daphne du Maurier’s brilliant Eyre-alike Rebecca.

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For more classic recommendations, check out our 2022 exploration of the greatest films of all time, or our picks for the best reads for the impending apocalypse.

The post Middlemarch and Beyond: The Greatest Novels of All Time appeared first on Toronto Guardian.

What makes her different isn’t just what she’s achieved, it’s how she carries it.

She’s a luxury real estate broker and a very successful and well-regarded custom home builder based in Toronto, known for creating high-end homes that are as functional as they are beautiful. But none of it came easy, and none of it was guaranteed.

Rose leads with instinct and intensity.

She will walk a construction site in the morning, negotiate deals in the afternoon, and sit down at night to write the kind of truth most people avoid. Her book INDESTRUCTIBLE isn’t just a title; it’s a mindset she has had to live, especially when life forced her to slow down and face
things most people never see coming.

She’s not interested in playing a role or fitting a mould. She builds, she writes, and she shows up fully, whether it’s for her clients or her family.

Rose doesn’t separate business and life. She’s proof that both can exist in the same breath and still be powerful.

***

Which ’hood are you in?

The Kingsway in South Etobicoke. It’s home, and it’s also where I’ve built a lot of my business and relationships.

What do you do?

I’m a luxury real estate broker, custom home builder, and author. I build and sell high-end homes, but I also write about the parts of life people usually keep hidden.

What are you currently working on?

Growing my real estate and construction businesses while writing my next book. UNMASKED – Bracing for Impact. It goes deeper into what success really costs, and what it takes to keep going when life doesn’t go as planned.

Where can we find your work?

Instagram and LinkedIn. My book Indestructible is available online on Amazon. You can also follow me on Instagram.

The post “A Day in the Life” with: Writer Rose Barroso appeared first on Toronto Guardian.

Otis is the author of two published books, The Gifted and Song of Seasons, the latter of which was recently released. These works mark the beginning of a developing body of writing, as he continues to work on several additional projects that expand both his storytelling and his exploration of different styles and genres. Through his writing, Otis aims to create engaging narratives that resonate with readers and encourage curiosity, imagination, and emotional connection.

Originally from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Otis draws inspiration from everyday experiences, people, and the diverse communities that surround him. In addition to his writing, he is committed to giving back to his community. He regularly volunteers at a local food bank, supporting efforts to help those in need and strengthen community connections.

When he is not writing, Otis enjoys spending time developing new ideas for future books while continuing to engage with his local community and creative pursuits.

***

Which ’hood are you in?

Bathurst Manor

What do you do?

I am a Canadian novelist who writes purely out of passion and the love of the game. I am someone who would pay others so that I could write, and I am fortunate enough that I do not have to. I simply love it and view it as a form of art; where if a picture is the equivalent of a thousand words than a book is the equivalent to at least 50 pictures.

What are you currently working on?

Currently, I am working on my third book… which I don’t want to talk about because I do not want anyone to steal the idea. In between that, I get up to too many other things. From volunteering at a food bank every week to helping out at my family’s business, I am usually busy.

Where can we find your work?

In bookstores in Canada, as well as on Amazon. Unfortunately, I do not use social media, but I am working on a website, where I will post some short works of mine for free. It will also have a way for people to reach out to me if they want to.

The post “A Day in the Life” with: Author Michael Otis appeared first on Toronto Guardian.

His parents were born to immigrants who arrived in Vancouver in 1908. His father’s early years were spent in Fernie, BC, prior to attending UBC in the late 30s and then enlisted in the Canadian Air Force as a flight navigation instructor. His mother was born in Vancouver. Both parents met after an introduction from my mother’s brother, who also attended university, something rare for the sons of Canadian immigrants in the 1930s in British Columbia.

Henry was the second of six children who were introduced to work at a very early age, progressively moving from work in the family’s machine shop, boat building yard and then onto working as a deckhand, mate, and occasionally Captain of the company’s tugboats operating all over the BC Coast.

On some very good fatherly advice, Henry attended the University of British Columbia and then obtained an MBA degree from the University of California, Berkeley. With an MBA under his belt, Henry arrived in Toronto on August 14, 1969, for his first job in the corporate world and where he met his wife Christine, the mother of his four children. Three of Henry’s kids live in Toronto, and his eldest daughter Jessica, lives in New York with her three children.

Henry’s career is a very long way from the tug boats of his youth and has encompassed corporate jobs of increasing responsibility, building and operating a leading strategic market research company, cofounding a successful ad agency, investing, diverse range of businesses in Canada and the US, spending time as a director in the 1990s for two years on the Board of Kids Help Phone and donating to various charities.

Currently dividing this time between a home he and his partner Louise built on the West Coast of Vancouver Island, and at their farm in Caledon.

***

Which ’hood are you in?

Since arriving in Toronto, I have lived mostly life in the Annex, Yonge and St. Clair and Forest Hill. Our last home in the city was in a beautiful condo in the DuPont Avenue Road area before Covid persuaded us to live at the Caledon farm, where we live with our two Vizslas and now three cats, part of the year, then drive everyone out West for the winter months.

What do you do?

I enjoy time in nature, both of our farm and our property in British Columbia, while remaining active in several of the businesses that I’ve invested in, providing strategic guidance, mentoring, and helping younger entrepreneurs develop their business ideas.

What are you currently working on?

Currently working on perfecting my Salmon and Halibut Fishing skills and enjoying my Boat Rosie on Vancouver Island, travelling with my partner and my children and grandchildren. I just published my new book, “Fool’s Gold: Angel investing and the Fine Art of Losing Money.”

Where can we find your work?

Anyone with an interest in Angel investing, or sometimes it’s called start-up early-stage investing, will find my book available on Amazon, Indigo, and at select bookstores. “Fool’s Gold: Angel investing and the Fine Art of Losing Money” contains lessons learned over 60 years and how to avoid the potholes in land mines that wait both the novice and even seasoned investors in this high-risk area.

The post “A Day in the Life” with: Writer Henry Fiorillo appeared first on Toronto Guardian.

Spencer first caught the world’s attention when he summited Mount Kilimanjaro using his hands and a wheelchair—a seven-day climb reaching 19,340 feet, all to raise awareness and funds for clean water and global education.

That incredible journey went on to inspire the feature documentary Redefine Possible: The Story of Spencer West, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. More than anything, it reflects Spencer’s belief that physical and other barriers can be challenged and changed through community, courageous vulnerability, and a whole lot of creativity.

Today, Spencer is one of the most recognizable and influential disability advocates in the world. With a social community of over 4 million followers on TikTok and millions more across other social media platforms, Spencer shares his stories encouraging people to let go of expectations that quietly limit their lives. Those lessons actually apply to anyone facing challenges, loss, or self-doubt.

His new book, BREAK FREE: Stop Following Expectations and Start Following Yourself (on bookshelves May 12) reflects on the lessons he learned navigating disability, community and purpose.

I had a chance to catch up with Spencer to find out more!

Can you tell us what it was like to share your personal story to such a young and very large crowd?

Spencer: I was very humbled to have the opportunity to speak to such a large and youthful crowd. When a crowd of that size cheers the stage literally shakes! That being said, speaking to a room of school age folks always felt so empowering. Young folks have a very powerful voice, platform and have the power to really transform the world in such miraculous ways. The fact that I got to witness and maybe even help empower them further was a real gift.

You’ve continued with more public speaking. What is it like for you to have a platform?

Spencer: My speaking has evolved over the years. Although the fundamentals stay the same, the topics and things I am passionate about evolve. I think the world will always need stories to help motivate and empower, but for me, the exciting work is expanding people’s minds and understanding of the world and identities. One of my favourite keynotes to deliver is Leveraging Talent with Disabilities. I talk about my own employment journey as a disabled person, using my lived experiences to help companies break down ableist myths that prevent them from hiring folks like me. For me, as long as I have a platform I want to use in service of my community and others, especially at this time in our history where politicians are using marginalized people and their identities to weaponize fear, hate and division. I hope to be the light that counteracts that through dialogue and my own lived experience.

I’ve heard kids ask you questions, and you’ve been generous with answering them. Some even made me laugh, but what’s it like from your perspective, and what do you wish people would ask you?

Spencer: It’s funny because I was quite open about people asking me questions. But as I’ve gotten older and really started to understand my identity of being disabled, I’ve come to realize it’s not my job to be everyone’s educator all of the time. What I mean by that is, if I’m at the grocery store or shopping for clothes, I don’t always want to share my story with a complete stranger. There’s this weird assumption that in order for people, specifically adults, to understand my experience, they are entitled to ask me very intrusive and inappropriate questions. However, you don’t need my medical history to understand my experience.

The question I wish people would ask me more often is “How are you finding the accessibility there?” That being said, I have a soft spot for kids who ask me questions because most of the time, they just need you to validate what they are seeing. I’ve heard everything from “Did a shark eat your legs?” “Were you in a magic show accident?” “Did you leave them in your other pants?”

Do you feel that the public has certain expectations from people in society that do not fit the “standard box” and what have you experienced? 

Spencer: Absolutely. This is the entire crux of my new book, Breaking Free. From the moment we enter the world, expectations are thrust upon us. Who you should marry. What your career should be. What “success” is supposed to look like, or basing your value on how much your body can perform. The list goes on and on! What I have experienced and highlighted in the book is that every time I broke free of those expectations and did what was right for me, everything worked out. I had to learn how to listen to my heart’s desire again because that voice had been silenced by all the spoken and unspoken expectations that are put on us.

How can we change that thinking? 

Spencer: The framework for my new book is pretty simple. It all comes down to self-trust, self-confidence and understanding the difference. Self-trust is knowing and listening to what your heart is telling you to do. Self-confidence is believing you can actually do it. So many of us have one without the other. As I mentioned earlier every time, I was authentic to who I was, that’s when the magic happened. Roughly 20 years ago, I returned home to the United States from a transformative volunteer trip to Kenya and packed up my entire life and moved to Toronto to become a motivational speaker. I had never done anything that wild before. I had all the self-trust in my path to becoming a speaker, but very little confidence. What builds confidence was small wins, having mentors to work with me on speaking, setting small attainable goals and reaching them. These wins helped build the internal architecture to live life on my own terms and not someone else’s.

What else can you tell us about your latest book and what inspired you to write this? 

Spencer: I wrote this book for anyone who has ever felt trapped in a job, relationship, city and wasn’t sure what to do or how to get out of that trap. I use stories from my life as a road map on all the things I did to break free. Also, I didn’t want this book to just be about my story because I understand being queer and disabled isn’t everyone’s experience. Which is why at the end of every chapter I have included questions for reflection, new perspectives to ponder and activities to help folks start exploring how they can break free in their own lives. Starting with “Where in your life right now does it feel like nothing fits?” I want folks to stop accepting that this is the way your life is, and start wondering what else your life could be.

No doubt, people will take away some interesting learning points from this book. But now that it’s ready to hit the bookshelves, what do you really hope readers will take from this? 

Spencer: My book is based around one of my favourite quotes from The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. He writes, “Maybe the journey isn’t so much about becoming anything. Maybe it’s about unbecoming everything that isn’t really you, so you can be who you were meant to be in the first place.” I hope, through my story, reflective questions and activities, folks can start to explore who they were meant to be in the first place as well.

That’s a great quote. I’m going to savour that one. Will you be going on tour with this book? If so, how can we learn more? 

Spencer: The best way for people to stay in the know with what I’m up to and how they can support me and the book is to follow me on social media (TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube) @Spencer2TheWest or check out my website at www.spencer2thewest.com. Also, I am starting a book club where folks can join other friends and me once a week in a facilitated experience using the questions and activities at the end of each chapter to dive deep into Breaking Free and exploring how they can break free in their own lives. Check out my website for more info!

What’s next on your “live life” list? 

Spencer: For now, it’s just getting this book and message out into the world and continuing to create content online about my life and the intersectionality of being queer and disabled and all that comes along with that.

And finally, what are you reading these days? 

Spencer: I’m currently reading The Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas, and recently I read The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk. I am obsessed with that book!

Thank you so much for taking the time to chat!

The post Spencer West Breaks Free From Expectations in His Latest Book appeared first on Toronto Guardian.