In April I read The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank, and 28 Seconds by Michael Bryant. Same initials! Weird!

These reviews were originally posted on Goodreads.

The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank

I enjoyed this book, and immediately passed it on to a friend. It’s about a series of relationships and a young woman’s growing confidence in herself as she navigates adult life. The relationships, not just romantic but also family and friendships, are clear and real, and the writing is witty. Actually I think my favourite thing about this book is that the protagonist is a smart-ass, often making light of serious situations or choosing the absurd over the sexy. It’s compelling and, for me, relatable.

(I realized while I was reviewing Commonwealth why I was so muddled when I started reviewing this book — both books feature relationships between a younger female protagonist and a much older male writer. It was too much for my little brain to keep the two plotlines separate. Anyway, they make great companion books since the style is quite different.)

28 Seconds: A True Story of Addiction, Tragedy, and Hope by Michael Bryant

The event of August 31 2009 that 28 Seconds centres on was an event I was very much aware of at the time, both personally and politically. Michael Bryant had been my provincial representative in the riding of St Paul’s, and a friend of mine worked for him when he was Attorney General. So it was shocking to hear that he had been involved in a bike/car crash in which the cyclist had died.

The personal connection was the only thing that prevented me from jumping to the same conclusion that most of Toronto jumped to: that this was a rich, entitled white guy in an expensive convertible running over a cyclist out of carelessness or anger.

The truth is much more complex and layered and interesting. Bryant unfolds it here with humility and grace, explaining and exploring the nuances, coincidences, and consequences.

The most interesting takeaway for me was Bryant’s perspective of the criminal justice system from the inside, a perspective most former Attorney Generals never get. This book, written in 2012, contributes a different kind of fuel to the fire under the movement to defund the police. Bryant is palpably frustrated with the police’s focus on conviction over evidence, and he writes about his now-ex-wife’s lasting fear and contempt of police. And these are well-connected, affluent white people.

This is the second memoir I’ve read by someone, not in my personal circles but just one or two connections away. I don’t know if there’s any more to say about that other than I’m lucky to be part of a world where people I know write memoirs and get them published. I’m so nosy and curious about people that a book-length memoir is really the only thing that will satisfy me.