How Home Sweet Home by Mordecai Richler inspired Dave Bidini to start a community newspaper
Jane van Koeverden | CBC | Posted: July 20, 2017 8:33 PM | Last Updated: July 21, 2017
July 1, 2017 marks 150 years since Confederation in Canada. CBC Books is creating the great Canadian reading list — a list of 150 books curated by you.
Musician and author Dave Bidini adds Home Sweet Home by Mordecai Richler to the reading list.
"You may or may not know that I am starting a newspaper. This fact may or may not be important to this story — okay, it's important — but after re-reading Home Sweet Home, Richer's non fiction essay collection, I was even more determined to go back to newspapers, reminding myself that a lot of this brilliant writing first appeared on inky newsprint smudged by love. So: important then (stunning, hilarious, sad and tight, fine prose) and important now. Some books follow you around in life. This is one of them."
Dave Bidini is a musician, journalist and writer living in Toronto. He was a founding member of the rock band Rheostatics and he is the only person to have been nominated for a Gemini, Genie and Juno, as well CBC's Canada Reads.