Essex County

The CBC’s Canada Reads starts broadcasting next week.

For those who don’t know:

Started in 2001, Canada Reads is CBC’s annual battle of the books, where five Canadian personalities select the book they think Canadians should read. Each personality selects a book to defend and the books are eliminated one by one until a winner is declared. The debates air on CBC Radio One. Jian Ghomeshi has hosted Canada Reads since 2008.

In 2011, the contenders are:

• Debbie Travis, defending The Birth House by Ami McKay

• Ali Velshi, defending The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis

• Georges Laraque, defending The Bone Cage by Angie Abdou

• Lorne Cardinal, defending Unless by Carol Shields

• Sara Quin, defending Essex County by Jeff Lemire

I’d love to see Essex County win. Not simply because I’m a fan of graphic novels getting love on the literary stage, but also because books so forthright and well crafted are rare in any format. It’s a frank, haunting, causality of lives. Complicated and unresolved – the characters are rendered in the rough and sketchy style, where detail seems as once scarce and almost overwhelming.

I used to live in Windsor, Ontario, which abuts the actual Essex County. Lemire captures the sense of a wide-open farmland that can feel so isolating and confining at times. It’s not the Essex County everyone experienced, but Lemire’s is palpable and recognizable.

Anyways, that’s my vote.

The Canada Reads debates will air on CBC Radio One on February 7, 8 and 9 at 11 a.m. and again at 8 p.m. (2:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. in Newfoundland).