Canada Reads: True Stories picks a winner
Written by on February 9th, 2012 in Latest News.
After a controversial four days of debate, the Canada Reads: Right Tales panel has chosen a winner for CBC’s annual battle of the books.
Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter by Carmen Aguirre is the winning book, after votes from panellists Anne-France Goldwater, Arlene Dickinson and the book’s defender Shad.
The non-fiction book is Aguirre’s memoir of being taken from her home in Vancouver by her mother, who was part of a revolutionary movement opposing Augusto Pinochet in the 1970s. Aguirre grew up amid political struggle, torn in her teen years between boys and pop music, and political activism.
Rapper Shad said he found Aguirre’s tale compelling and defended both its portrayal of complex family dynamics and a youth spent amid struggle.
The other book that had still been in the running during Thursday’s debate was Ken Dryden’s The Game, a memoir of the 1979 Canadiens hockey season, defended by actor Alan Thicke.
Aguirre, who is preparing for the one-woman show, Blue Box, to be staged at the National Arts Centre, said she listened to the Canada Reads debate from her hotel room in Ottawa.
“I’m in a state of shock. What I want to say is ‘Shad I like you,’” she said after her win.
“It has been an absolute honour to be in the company of the four other books, which I read very quickly. They were fantastic.”
Aguirre will be a guest on CBC’s cultural affairs show Q on Friday.
Goldwater, the Quebec family lawyer who stirred controversy earlier in the week by referring to Aguirre as a terrorist and questioning the truth of another book, Marina Nemat’s Prisoner of Tehran, said she came into the final Canada Reads discussion undecided.
“The challenge for us is if we are ready to set aside our preconceived notions about these books, open our ears and listen to the debate,” she said.
