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The Canadian Patient

“Most Americans probably think Michael Ondaatje is British (try selling ‘The Canadian Patient’).” Why are U.S. readers blind to Canadian fiction?

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No clap-trap announcements and sensation puffs

Debates about the precise contours of Herman Melville’s disgust with Emerson are far less illuminating — and entertaining — than Melville’s words themselves. (“I could readily see in Emerson, notwithstanding his merit, a gaping flaw. It was, the insinuation, that had he lived in those days when the world was made, he might have offered some valuable suggestions.”) I love . . .

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