Reviews for O Canada

The average rating for O Canada based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-03-02 00:00:00 Paul Pruitt There are a handful of Canada travel narratives, but this is far and away the best one. Jan Morris's O Canada! Travels in an Unknown Country (also published as: City to City: Canada through the Eyes of the Greatest Travel Writer of our Day) differs from the others in that it possesses - oh, what's that called? - oh, yes: quality penmanship. I imagine the contents would be a bit too lettered for some, sad really because it's so eloquently written, even if it is a bit dated. It was published in 1990. Admittedly, Morris takes a bit of warming up to: she's an intellectual; eccentric and perhaps a touch snotty, and you may need a dictionary when taking her up. But her deft descriptions and wry insight win you over quickly enough. When she has a go at what, for example, St. John's Newfoundland is like, or what the prairies resemble, you feel as though you're there; you can practically smell it. And then there's the criticism: at one point, Morris says: "I suppose it could be said, actually, that the most interesting thing about Canada is its alliance, whether fortuitous or contrived, between the fearfully dull and the collosally romantic." This is funny because the other Canadian travel narratives out there, in bookstores, in my opinion, fall into one of these two categories while Morris's effort seems to be out of print, only available from used bookstores and libraries. Ms. Morris is Welsh. The weak attempts by Canadian writers is a bit perplexing as Canada has an overgenerous number of good novelists. Perhaps no one's interested in reading a travel account about Canada. Perhaps it'll take another non-Canadian to update and expand on Morris's effort, ten vignettes regarding ten Canadian cities. Jan Morris recently released a sort of best-of her travel writing. I would like to read it.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-12-17 00:00:00 Kurt Freund Most travel essays focus on local sites, food, weather, and culture but Jan Morris's book on Canada is preoccupied with the personalities of Canadians. She takes the extremely condescending view that all Canadians are naive, cute, peaceful, quirky colonialists. I know Morris is a well respected travel writer but I just kept thinking "fuck off with this bullshit" throughout the entire book. Might try her book on Venice though, I'm interested to see if she labels the Venetians with trite stereotypes too.