Reviews
A review in RED letter, a Toronto-based publication http://www.girlcancreate.com/CMS/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=76&Itemid=105#7
A review of Coming Attractions 07 in The Spec, from Hamilton, ON http://www.thespec.com/Entertainment/Books/article/356843
A review in Monday Magazine, Victoria’s alternative weekly. http://www.mondaymag.com/ And search under Arts, “A Bone to Pick”
And this one, just out in the Fall Boulevard Magazine:
By The Book by Greg Pratt
Boulevard Magazine, Victoria, BC www.victoriaboulevard.com
Julie Paul is another local writer, and her first collection of short stories, The Jealousy Bone (Emdash, 2008), is creating quite a bit of buzz. For good reason: Paul’s writing is snappy and concise, with lots of insightful moments disguised as everyday observations. Although The Jealousy Bone appears to be a collection of tales about relationships, the book goes much deeper. In “False Spring,” a character wanders around Victoria wearing a coat—and nothing underneath it; “Boring Baby” finds the protagonist stuck with a baby that is just that: “Feeding on Demand” has a mother exhausted from trying to breastfeed her daughter. Through these events the reader learns about the characters and finds they are more than just modern people in modern relationships—they are human, and they have struggles large and small.
Paul has a way with words, be it sharp one-liners (“The computer icons grin like perfect teeth,” a one-sentence paragraph in “Backstory,” is both humourous and chilling) or elaborate prose tying together the lives of several loosely connected characters. If this collection of stories is any indication, Paul has a great future if writing ahead of her. I can only imagine the joy—and critical acclaim—a full-length novel would bring.