Laskin Publishing / Les Éditions Laskin
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
“The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
And I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep …”
— Robert Frost
MONTRÉAL
(May 19, 2013) An erudite dog's perspective on life in and around Montréal and
the Laurentians during the 1970s unearths a meticulously crafted tale about the
human condition. As we follow Daisy, a flaxen-haired cocker spaniel, on her
life's journey, we join others in theirs: Monique and Harry and their three
children; feisty Aunt Iréne; Monique's cougar friend Marina and her dalliance
with Monique's son; Brunhilde the singing teacher; a pair of sociopathic
cockatoos and, through their language and music, they share their stories with
Daisy, the all-seeing, all-hearing witness.
With her
lyrical and poetic writing, Montréal author and musician/conductor Bernadette
Griffin shares her love of classical and 60s music alongside the great poets
Rilke, Whitman and Frost. Like Racing in the Rain, Canine Confessions
gives us a mind- and heart-expanding view of the world as experienced by
man's best friend.
As Gazette
literary critic Ian McGillis wrote, “Bernadette Griffin renders a dog's-eye
view more vividly than most writers render a human's. I
will never forget Daisy, and you will never forget Canine Confessions.”
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For further information or a review copy, please contact:
Mary Metcalfe
Laskin Publishing
Tel: 819.426.3695
Mobile: 819-983-8054
I was born in La ville de Québec
and went to school there. And as early as Grade One, I fell in love
with learning—and with the piano in the school lobby. For every morning,
a thunderous version of The Maple Leaf Forever was played on it, marching us two by two into the lobby and up into the classrooms, like soldiers marching into battle.
Soon
enough I was having piano lessons with Sister Camilla Gertrude—that is,
eight years of lessons, plus exams and recitals and going to Saturday
afternoon symphony concerts at the Palais Montcalm with maestro Wilfrid Pelletier.
What will I do now? I asked myself on leaving high school, my piano books now stuffed away in a drawer. First , you better leave home, I thought, the world is waiting and it may tell you who you are and what to do.
So I went to Montréal and to nursing school, and after graduation and
caring for patients and teaching students as a clinical instructor,
again I asked, What now?
“You
can marry me,” my piano-playing musician boyfriend said, and I did, and
we made a home, a real home with children and a dog and a cat—and a
piano. And there I was, caring for my children and playing the piano,
playing, playing, scales, chords, arpeggios, studies, inventions,
partitas, sonatas, until the Royal Conservatory of Toronto said,
“enough, take this diploma.”
Soon
I was in my studio, teaching others to play the piano, all the while
also singing at church and soon directing the church choir. Why not learn about singing now and conducting a choir with and without orchestra? I thought, and I did, founding the Donovan Chorale, a concert choir, and later Les Chanteurs d’Orphée de Montréal ,
a chamber ensemble dedicated to the performance of contemporary works,
the two groups singing and singing, their singing so fresh, so
heartfelt, enough to win the praise of music lovers and critics alike,
not to mention one prize after another, their performances regularly
airing on CBC radio and Radio-Canada.
What will I do now? I asked myself, looking at my bank account. First go to school again, learn more about the languages you speak, French and English, read and study.
And I did, read and study until Concordia University said, “hey, you
deserve a diploma for all that, you can translate from one language to
another, medical texts and documents.” And I did, all the while learning
how to write my own words and sentences and stories, and that is what
all of it has come to… trying to make it all true and beautiful.
- Bernadette Griffin, Author
Canine Confessions (May 2013)
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