Works by
Norman Levine
(Writer)
[October 22, 1923 - June 14, 2005]

Biography and Memoirs

• Canada Made Me (1958, 1993)
  Norman Levine's Canada Made Me, first published in England in 1958, is a bitter, critical reassessment of the moral and cultural values of Canada. His account of his three-month journey from Halifax to Ucluelet, a fishing village on the west coast, is an unconventional portrait of Canada's underbelly. The book ends with the words: `I wondered why I felt so bitter about Canada. After all, it was all part of a dream, an experiment that could not come off. It was foolish to believe that you can take the throwouts, the rejects, the human kickabouts from Europe and tell them: Here you have a second chance. Here you can start a new life. But no one ever mentioned the price one had to pay; how much of oneself you had to betray.'
  
  Canada Made Me was regarded as so controversial that it did not appear in a Canadian edition until 1979. Critical opinion, however, has slowly swung around to the point the book was recently described in the Globe and Mail as a `laconic classic'. For this new edition Norman Levine has written an introduction which traces the book's publishing history and reputation.

Novels

• She'll Only Drag You Down (1975)

• From a Seaside Town (1970)
  Joseph Grand, the hero of From a Seaside Town, is a travel writer struggling to eke out an existence in an English seaside town. He introduces us to the small circle of relatives and companions who figure in his life. As he explores the sequence of events that led him to his present state of limbo, it becomes apparent that his crisis is not merely financial but also a crisis of personal identity. A Canadian Jew, Grand has spent a lifetime seeking to submerge his past. Now as a consequence, he discovers that he belongs nowhere. By turns comic and moving, this beautifully observed and beautifully written novel is a striking example of Norman Levine's artistry.
  
  From a Seaside Town has quietly become a classic. It is a book which simply will not go away.

• The Angled Road (1952)

Poetry

• I Walk By the Harbour (1976)

• The Tightrope Walker (1950)

• Myssium (1948)

Short Fiction

• The Ability to Forget (2003)

• By a Frozen River: The Short Stories of Norman Levine (2000)
  This collection of short stories comes from one of Canada's most celebrated authors. Norman Levine has been publishing fiction for the last 25 years. His stories have an international reputation and have been published and translated all over the world. Norman Levine has long been established as one of Canada's best-known short story writers. His signature use of sparse prose and poetic language has lifted the art of short story writing to a higher form. Norman Levine's stories have been translated in various languages throughout the world and have appeared in a wide variety of literary journals and magazines. By a Frozen River centers on the life of a Canadian writer living abroad who relives his youth through trips back to Canada and visits from various Canadian relatives. The narrator of these stories effortlessly recalls his past and the reader participates with pleasure in these journeys, sharing experiences of fulfillment, disappointment and nostalgia. One doesn't easily leave Levine's stories behind. As the narrator of "Champagne Barn" says in the concluding line: "I would carry that sound with me long after I left."

• Something Happened Here (1991)

• Champagne Barn (1984)

• Why Do You Live So Far Away? (1984)

• Thin Ice (1979)

• Selected Stories (1975)

• I Don't Want to Know Anyone Too Well and Other Stories (1971)

• Canadian Winter's Tales (1968)

• One Way Ticket (1961)

See also:

• Norman Levine (1989) by Larry Mathews and Lawrence Mathews