Last summer when I was WIR at the Toronto Reference Library, I went to some stellar book launches. My friend Jeffrey Round’s launch at Charlie Pachter’s Moose Factory Gallery last June was a stand-out. The Moose Factory Gallery is open to the public and if ever you’re visiting the AGO in Toronto, the Moose Factory is steps’ away. It’s filled with Charlie Pachter’s work--lots of images of the queen and her moose together and apart, and many other provocative and rewarding pieces. Fittingly for a hot event, Jeff’s launch was held on the hottest night of the year. The Moose Factory is a large space, but people (99% of whom were gay) were cheek to cheek (and mighty handsome cheeks they were). The food was tasty and the wine was so plentiful that I don’t honestly remember whether the book being launched was Jeff’s mystery “Death in Key West” or his literary novel, “The Honey Locust”. Whichever, Charlie Pachter made certain Jeff’s book got one great send-off, and that’s all any writer ever hopes for.
A.S. Byatt’s launch of “The Children’s Book” at Harbourfront was more sedate. Ms. Byatt was interviewed on-stage by Eleanor Wachtel and the most shocking moment came when Ms. Byatt said she found the entire Bloomsbury Group ‘tedious’. The people who admire A.S. Byatt tend to be the same people who admire the Bloomsbury group. Our collective gasp of horror at Ms. Byatt’s apostasy still echoes along the lakeshore in front of Harbourfront.
I’ll be reading at Harbourfront on the weekend of July 23rd. That occasion will be the book launch for the 12th Joanne Kilbourn novel, “The Nesting Dolls”. I hope we’ll have fun, but I promise no gasp-worthy moments.