Second-Hand Glory: Reading Undersong
Kenneth Radu's visit to Dorothy and William Wordsworth's cottage informs and enlightens his reading (and rereading) of Kathleen Winter's exquisite Undersong.
Kenneth Radu's visit to Dorothy and William Wordsworth's cottage informs and enlightens his reading (and rereading) of Kathleen Winter's exquisite Undersong.
Ann Charney is an award-winning writer who was born in Poland and has spent most of her life in Montreal, where she has worked as a columnist for Maclean’s and a feature writer at Saturday Night as well as publishing four novels and a collection of essays entitled Defiance in their Eyes.
The carousel towards the latter end of the Brighton Pier, just before the roller coaster, is grotesquely beautiful, and enthrals the children and older bystanders for that reason. So vividly painted, the horses eerily distorted as they circle and bob, transfixed on a silvery pole to which half-terrified and half-delighted kids hang on and ride. Like all such carousels, this one unapologetically violates principles of aesthetic restraint, nightmarishly stunning as it spins to blaring music above the water.
"Let’s remember that Venice is a fish, after all. She sprang from the lagoon like a miraculous birth. If she is to swim freely, her waters must be respected and protected. How can we allow these titans of steel and smoke to threaten the vitality of the most original city in the world?”