CBC Toronto reporter Mike Wise kept his own One Book blog during the month of February. It’s worth a visit to get his take on how the book mixes with his idea of Toronto, past and present. Because Consolation dwells a lot on the experience of being a newcomer in this city of newcomers, most Torontonians can likely find a personal way to relate to the story. Wise writes:
My great, great, great grandfather George Davies Wise and his wife Elizabeth Ann Bunker came to Toronto in 1868, a mere 12 years after the events in Consolation. I couldn’t help but imagine the city they encountered as I was transported back in time with Hallam’s journey. Redhill’s description of the challenges faced by new arrivals from England struck a chord with me: my relatives left behind their pasts in farming and engineering, and settled in what we now know as Leslieville, where they got jobs as brickmakers.
I wonder how different or similar the contemporary immigrant experience is in Toronto — if the technological and industrial changes between the mid-1800s and today could be stripped away. I didn’t move to Toronto in 2000 to make bricks or open an apothecary, but I could relate to Hallam’s as he figured how the city worked, and how he could fit into it.
Though February is over, more Spacing One Book posts will follow in the next couple weeks, part of our continued solidarity with the slow reader.
