Antonio Michael Downing shares 3 books that are 'ahead of their time'
The Toronto-based writer is the author of the memoir Saga Boy
Antonio Michael Downing is a Trinidadian Canadian musician, activist and writer. His memoir, Saga Boy tells the story of his childhood in Trinidad and the cultural dislocation that came with immigrating to Canada.
His grandmother, who features prominently in Saga Boy, taught Downing how to read the bible aloud as her eyes worsened and sparked a love for powerful storytelling that has carried into the books he now reads. The books that compel him the most are the ones that "grow in relevance".
"To be ahead of your time, what's clear is that you need immense moral courage and a kind of clarity that you have to listen to," Downing said to The Next Chapter's Ali Hassan.
He shares three contemporary classics that ask readers to look beyond their biases and push narratives forward.
Motherhood by Sheila Heti
The unnamed narrator of Sheila Heti's Motherhood spends the novel preoccupied with a single question: should she have children? Searching for a satisfying answer, whether it ultimately be 'yes' or 'no,' the narrator consults her partner, her family and her body, breaking down the philosophical underpinnings of motherhood.
Heti has written eight books of fiction and nonfiction, including How Should a Person Be?, and lives in Toronto.
"You always know a great writer when they can take something that's commonplace, like a woman approaching middle age, and unpack it in a way that just fills it with newness," said Downing.
"The thing that I feel makes it ahead of its time though, is how she situates it in the conversation of women's bodily autonomy."
Sheila Heti is a noted Canadian playwright and author of fiction and nonfiction whose work has been translated in over a dozen languages. Her novel Motherhood was on the shortlist for the 2018 Scotiabank Giller Prize. Her other books include Pure Colour and Alphabetical Diaries.
Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing by Tomson Highway
Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing is a play which was first performed in 1989 at the Theatre Passe-Muraille in Toronto. Set in the fictional Wasaychigan Hill Indian Reserve, the story follows the mythic figure of Nanabush and seven "Wasy" men. Centred around the game of hockey, the play is a tale of both tragedy and comedy.
"Tomson Highway I consider a national treasure," said Downing.
"It's a really Cree-centric investigation of the spiritual break with tradition and how and he situates that as the cause of why men in particular…being alienated from their traditional roles and and how that shows up as in a very Christian world as misogyny and being angry at women and violence. So it's really heavy stuff, but he kind of uses the comedy as a doorway into it."
Highway is an acclaimed Cree novelist, children's author, playwright and musician. Highway's work includes Canadian theatre classics like The Rez Sisters, the novel Kiss of the Fur Queen and children's novels Caribou Song, Dragon Fly Kites and Fox on the Ice.
He was appointed as an officer of the Order of Canada at the end of 2021 for his contribution to theatre and Canadian culture.
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
First published in 1956, Giovanni's Room is a literary exploration of desire and loss. In 1950s Paris an American man is conflicted between the woman he just proposed to and the Italian man he becomes deeply attracted to. A foregrounding novel of gay literature, James Baldwin weaves a complex story of heartache.
Downing noted how Baldwin continually pushed against being typecast as a Black writer.
"They say you're not allowed to write about anything but that experience, the Black experience, and that's true today, said Downing. "So you can imagine in 1956, in one of the greatest literary left turns of all time, he decides to write a book with no Black people in it."
Baldwin was an American writer and civil rights activist who died in France in 1987. He is most known for his novels Go Tell It on the Mountain and Another Country, as well as the essay collection Notes of a Native Son.
Antonio Michael Downing's comments have been edited for length and clarity.
