DENISON AVENUE

Christina Wong is a multidisciplinary artist who wrote and now narrates this slice-of-life novel. It's about an elderly Chinese Canadian widow who pushes a cart through Toronto's Chinatown, gathering bottles, cans, and reliving memories. David Innes's outstanding pen-and-ink illustrations, available on an accompanying pdf, are described by the narrator as the story proceeds. Wong delivers part of the dialogue in Toisan, a nearly forgotten Cantonese dialect that was once spoken by many immigrant Chinese. Its singsong cadence, at least to these Western ears, provides verisimilitude but somewhat distracts from the conversational flow. Nonetheless, Wong's performance captures the isolation and displacement often experienced by the elderly, along with the scourge of gentrification. It's a thought-provoking lament for what used to be. D.L.G. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2024]