Hello, dear readers. This month we are chatting about The Break by (fellow Winnipegger) Katherena Vermette.
As always we’d love to know what you think. Did you love it? Hate it? Feel indifferent?
Here are some questions we’ll be pondering for our podcast discussion:
- The Break is a dark and difficult read. But important because of the hard truths it depicts. Do you enjoy reading books from which you can learn (and maybe even gain strength from a character’s harrowing experience)? Or do you turn to books for mindless escape? A bit of both?
- The cold of winter is almost a character in itself in the novel. Often the cold is juxtaposed with the warmth of another’s body, a baby’s breath, a soothing hamburger soup, Kookoo’s embracing hands. What brings you warmth on a frigid Manitoba winter’s day?
- The Break has multiple narrators with multiple points of view. Do you enjoy this type of storytelling? Or do you prefer one narrator?
- The novel has been discussed with the idea that monsters sometimes live inside us, not that we are actually monsters. What do you think?
- “The Break” is full of Winnipeg landmarks and locations, yet the city name “Winnipeg” never appears in the text. Did having the story set in a familiar place add to the experience, or was it distracting?”
- The individual narrators in “The Break” represent a community. How do you define “community”?
You can comment below, on social media, or email us your answers and thoughts to wpl-podcast@winnipeg.ca