Canada Reads heads into Friday with three books

The Canada Reads series to determine a single book to be read by all Canadians is now down to three books.

Three of the five all-star panellists musicians John Samson of the Weakerthans and Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo and author Donna Morrissey voted againstthe only short story collection, Natasha and Other Stories by David Bezmogis.

"I wish it wasn't being punished for its form because I think its form is valid," musician Steven Page of Barenaked Ladies said in defence of the book, after panellists said they found it easier to compare short stories with other short stories, rather than novels.

Thepanel, which also includes author and broadcaster Denise Bombardier, then debated the endings of the three remaining books Stanley Park by Timothy Taylor, The Song of Kahunsha by Anosh Irani and Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill.

Panellists, all winners of previous Canada Reads,were divided on the effectiveness of Stanley Park 's ending, with Cuddy pronouncing it "bizarre but probable," but Samson saying it falls flat.

"I had trouble with the end because I didn't agree with the idea that you can be saved [from the forces of globalization] by going underground," Samson said.

Globalization was a strong theme in the book, with the main character, Jeremy, "trying to define the soil on which he stands," Cuddy said.

Lullabies for Little Criminals which ends with the main character, Baby, having a reunion with her father and beginning an unlikely new love was "a happy ending straight from Hollywood," Bombardier said.

The fantasy elements of the book were a "lovely device," but didn't work, Cuddy added.

Samson disagreed, saying:"She tells herself a story to get through all she is living I don't think you can consider her reliable as a narrator."

The Song of Kahunsha ends when the main character, an orphan boy on the streets on Bombay, has gone over a "major threshold," Morrissey said.

"He's seen the darkness out there in the work and he's seen it in himself," she said, adding that the book doesn't really end on a hopeful note. "It's possible to have compassion for the child, but I don't know how I'd feel about him when he's a man."

The Canada Reads panel plans to choose a single book on Friday. The Canada Reads series is airing daily this week on CBC Radio One at 11:30 a.m. (12 noon NT) and 7:30 p.m. (8 p.m. NT).