Big Mall by Kate Black
CBC Books | Posted: March 18, 2024 4:18 PM | Last Updated: March 20
A deep dive into the history and psychology of malls
Kate Black grew up in West Edmonton Mall — a mall on steroids, notorious for its indoor waterpark, deadly roller coaster, and controversial dolphin shows. But everyone has a favourite mall, or a mall that is their own personal memory palace. It's a place people love to hate and hate to love — a site of pleasure and pain, of death and violence, of (sub)urban legend.
Blending a history of shopping with a story of coming of age in North America's largest and strangest mall, Big Mall investigates how these structures have become the ultimate symbol of late-capitalist dread — and, surprisingly, a subversive site of hope. (From Coach House Books)
Kate Black is a Vancouver-based writer whose essays have been published in Maisonneuve, The Walrus and The Globe and Mail. She was named one of Canada's top emerging voices in nonfiction by the 2020 National Magazine Awards and RBC Taylor Prize.