What is Ify Chiwetelu reading on set?
Ify Chiwetelu is a contributing writer on CBC's Baroness von Sketch Show and the co-host of Now or Never on CBC Radio One. In between shooting sketches on the set of the Baroness von Sketch Show, Ify tries to squeeze in a few pages. Right now, she's absorbed in the heartfelt emotion of Zoe Whittall's The Best Kind of People.
I actually met Zoe in the writer's room of Baroness von Sketch during the second season. I got to know her comedic voice as well as the delight that she is as a person before I knew her fiction.
When I'm reading The Best Kind of People I feel like my heart is in my throat the whole time. It starts in such a visceral and abrupt way, in an abrupt setting and it just holds you there for so long. The book centres around rape and how people deal with rape survivors and the impacts of being accused — how it can impact an entire family. It deals strongly with women. I'm still in the midst of it. I'm so panicked as to what is going to happen. I'm tense. I'm real tense.
Ify Chiwetelu's comments have been edited and condensed.