I’m in the process of doing a final (I hope!) rewrite of a new novel about foreign nannies and hot yoga. I have to be careful when I give that quick summary because I often catch myself saying that it’s about “foreign yoga and HOT NANNIES.” That seems to get a better reaction, actually. Recently, a friend asked me to elaborate. I said “It’s about motherhood and insanity, about domestic help, about first world entitlement, about liberal guilt, about sex and sexuality, about class, about privilege, about beauty, about aging, about scripted identity, about excess, about …” Eventually, I stopped. There was a moment of silence. I added, “It’s more ambitious and sprawling than my previous books. It’s set in Canada, Hong Kong, Philipinnes, Jamaica, and Mexico.” Finally, he spoke: “You haven’t told me one thing about what happens and who is in the damn thing.” True. Maybe that’s because I’m an English teacher and I tend to think of a book more in terms of its ideas or thematic preoccupations rather than its plot. Maybe, it’s because I want you to read the book to find out those details. I hope you’ll be able to do that soon.
For fun – a spoof trailer for The Canterbury Trail (“The Bitch Stole My Life, Part II”).
Angie Abdou has a Ph.D. from University of Calgary and three published books. Her first novel, The Bone Cage, was a Canada Reads finalist in 2011 and the 2012 MacEwan Book of the Year. Her more recent novel, The Canterbury Trail, was a finalist for the 2011 Banff Mountain Book of the Year and won a 2012 IPPY, gold medal for Canada West. It’s a dark comedy about mountain culture. Angie lives in Fernie, BC with her husband and two small children. She teaches full-time at the College of the Rockies.