“Romance readers are avid and they are the most open-minded readers of all types of readers.” — Mirian Njoh, Canada Reads (televised March 4, 2024)
TWO DECADES after launching a nation-wide books competition with literary fiction from internationally renowned writers of the genre like Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje, the Canadian national broadcaster CBC has opened up Canada Reads to the romance genre.
In a joint radio, television, and online broadcast this evening, comedian Ali Hassan hosted a discussion of five books by Canadian authors with celebrity guests: an actress, an athlete, an author, a fashion model, and a former mayor of the western city of Calgary.
The guest judges wore eye-catching outfits as they sat around the CBC studio table, piles of books at their sides.
Heather O'Neill's red blouse with matching tiered skirt and bright lipstick suggested a grown up Little House in the Prairie aesthetic.
The actress Kudakwashe Rutendo wore a powder-blue dress with a flounced hem and a trend-conscious red shoulder bow. Meanwhile, Mirian Njoh's dress — paired with pink framed cat-eye glasses — was green with black and colourful patterns, summery with short flaring sleeves.
Dallas Soonias wore a long coat in geometric patterns in tan and brown ombré, the black lines matching his mustache.
Ali Hassan selected a sweatshirt with Arabic lettering in lines across it, like Bart's chalkboard messages in The Simpsons. Former mayor Naheed Nenshi kept his outfit cozy: a black zip-up knit sweater, worn over a lilac-coloured shirt.
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| Canada Reads 2024: Day One (screen grab) CBC on YouTube. March 4, 2024. |
THE BOOKS lying beside them span many genres.
Bad Cree is a horror novel set in a Nehiyaw (known in English as Cree) community. Denison Avenue is multimedia fiction about life in a Chinese-Canadian neighbourhood in Toronto. Shut Up You're Pretty is a short story collection of growing up Black Canadian in an eastern Canadian city.
The Future is a dystopian novel by French-Canadian author Catherine Leroux, translated into English by Susan Ouriou.
Meet Me at the Lake is the romance novel. Written by Carley Fortune, who had already published the popular romance Every Summer After, its plot obeys the 'second chance' trope: protagonists meet again after a failed first romance. In this case, their meeting takes place against the backdrop of a popular lake for holiday outings, in the forests of Ontario.
As each book in the Canada Reads competition is also championed by one of the guests, the fashion influencer Mirian Njoh spoke in praise of Meet Me at the Lake — and of the romance novel genre in general.
"If we're talking about opening up people to reading and to new reading, romance is the way to go," she said.
Fellow judge Heather O'Neill said that she'd been skeptical of the romance genre altogether. But Meet Me at the Lake did not remain bogged down in historical conventions of the genre: it focuses on an equal partnership and a supportive relationship, rather than on the hunt for a rich mate.
O'Neill added, "I was excited that it was on the list, just because we are going to have that huge audience listening, and they can try out new things — look at our wares."
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| Cover of Meet Me at the Lake Berkley (Penguin Random House) |
Former mayor Naheed Nenshi also praised the book.
"I am a cynical, old, single man, so I thought I was not in any way the target market. But I'm so happy it's here"
He added, "I love that Carley Fortune is using her new-found fame to really shine a light on other Canadian authors."
In a prerecorded message, the author herself told Njoh that the novel had had a strong impact on some readers. They had mentioned being inspired to find help or to take different life directions.
"This book has made a difference, and in defending it, you are helping it reach more people."
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I’m about to tell Jamie that he’s wrong, that it’s a very big deal, but then I see an excuse in the corner of my eye. A very tall man is wheeling a silver suitcase up to the front desk, and there’s still no one behind it.
Excerpt from Meet Me at the Lake (Berkley, 2023)
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IN THE END, however, all judges except Njoh voted Meet Me at the Lake out of the competition.
Njoh, disappointed but philosophical, attributed to the vote amongst other things to a continued reluctance to accept romance novels as literature.
Perhaps the judges also took into account, like voters for Hollywood awards when considering the film Barbie, that the book has already achieved great popularity before it entered the competition.
Nenshi said that Denison Avenue was a "book that only a few hundred people have looked at before Canada Reads" that is now "a number one bestselling book in Canada."
At the other end of the spectrum, Meet Me at the Lake is a bestseller, published in the Penguin Random House group, which has over 185,000 ratings on Goodreads. So, like every other contender on Canada Reads, the author was already a winner.
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