Three writers I met on the road, in Ottawa

I was in Ottawa last weekend to participate in a Books and Brunch event at the Ottawa International Writers Festival. During the event, I shared a moments with each of the three other authors who were talking and reading that morning.

Before sitting down at the head table – I felt like we were at a wedding – Roy MacSkimming and I got into a conversation about the similarity between Carl Jung’s and Sir Wilfrid Laurier’s love lives. (MacSkimming’s historical novel is called Laurier in Love). Both of these men were married, but had long-term ongoing affairs with another woman. In both cases, the “other woman” represented someone with whom there was a physical, but also intellectual, compatibility. Perhaps a bit ahead of their time, these men valued womens’ opinions and minds and liked to talk to women on this level. Of course, this also led both to cheat on their wives. Not so nice. And, in Jung’s case, his lovers – he had more than the one during his marriage – didn’t always get credit for the ideas they gave him. Check out Deirdre Bair’s biography of Jung if you’re interested in hearing more of the salacious details.

After taking my seat, I got into a short chat with Lawrence Martin, author of the best-selling Harperland, an investigation into the inner workings of the current prime minister of Canada. I felt way out of my league politically so avoided the subject, but finally admitted I did not keep up much with what was happening in Canadian federal politics. He seemed a little dismayed by that, and in general felt young people were becoming increasingly uninvolved and uninformed. I reassured him, though, that I had been keeping up with the Toronto election for mayor and that, in fact, Facebook had been used by my friends and acquaintances during the whole municipal campaign as a forum for debate and information gathering. That cheered him – and me – up, but I also resolved to become more informed about politics on a countrywide scale. After listening to his talk about the manipulative way that the Harper administration has handled the media – he even compared it to the Kremlin in the 80s – I realized how important this is.

Lastly, I had a very nice time chatting with Charlotte Gray, who was sitting next to me. Early on, I remarked that her book about the Yukon gold rush – Gold Diggers – was interesting to me because I grew up in Denver, also a city founded by a gold rush. This led to me explaining how I left Denver to go to McGill University in Montreal, met my wife, came to Toronto, got divorced, and now am not sure where I’m going to be living in the future. She listened to my story quietly while finishing her breakfast and then observed: “You keep leaving families.” In a way, it’s not exactly correct – I’d say I was collecting families, as I’m still close with both my own family and my ex’s – but nonetheless, I still loved getting an up close and personal glimpse of Gray’s biographical mind in action.

   

Copyright © MicahToub.com 2010