Besner bringing memoir to Free Press book club
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Monthly Digital Subscription
$1 per week for 24 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $4.00 plus GST every four weeks. After 24 weeks, price increases to the regular rate of $19.00 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
Monthly Digital Subscription
$4.75/week*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $19 plus GST every four weeks. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Winnipeg Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
*$1 will be added to your next bill. After your 4 weeks access is complete your rate will increase by $0.00 a X percent off the regular rate.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/06/2023 (824 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The Free Press Book Club is pleased to welcome Neil Besner to the next virtual meeting on Monday, June 26 at 7 p.m. to read from and discuss his memoir Fishing With Tardelli: A Memoir of Family in Time Lost.
Ethan Cairns / Winnipeg Free Press files Neil Besner
Published by ECW Press in May 2022, Fishing with Tardelli is a literary rumination on Besner’s early years, spent primarily in Brazil (doing plenty of fishing) and Montreal. (He would eventually settle in Winnipeg, where he taught in the English department at the University of Winnipeg until his retirement in 2017, and now splits most of his time between Toronto and his cottage at Lake of the Woods.)
While the rich, literary narrative style of Fishing with Tardelli reads almost like fiction, everything is as Besner recalls it having happened. “In my humble view, memory is all we have — it’s very, very important to get things right, to tell the truth,” he told the Free Press in an interview last June prior to the Winnipeg launch of his book. “The events in the book are the things I remember. They’re small-t true.”
Fishing With Tardelli
In the Free Press review of Fishing With Tardelli, Douglas J. Johnston said “these are slices of family history filtered through a merging of literal and literary landscapes and seascapes. His childhood accounts of catching fish off the coast of Rio with just a handline are striking, the writing at once lyrical and grittily descriptive.”
Besner will be joined by Free Press columnist Niigaan Sinclair, Chris Hall of McNally Robinson Booksellers and Free Press manager of engagement Erin Lebar for the virtual book club meeting on Monday, June 26 at 7 p.m. He will read from Fishing with Tardelli, discuss his work and answer questions from viewers and readers.
Copies of Fishing With Tardelli are available to purchase at McNally Robinson; there is no cost to join the book club and virtual discussion, which will be available to replay after the event on the Free Press YouTube channel.
To join and for more information on current and future book picks, visit the Free Press Book Club.
Ben Sigurdson
Literary editor, drinks writer
Ben Sigurdson is the Free Press‘s literary editor and drinks writer. He graduated with a master of arts degree in English from the University of Manitoba in 2005, the same year he began writing Uncorked, the weekly Free Press drinks column. He joined the Free Press full time in 2013 as a copy editor before being appointed literary editor in 2014. Read more about Ben.
In addition to providing opinions and analysis on wine and drinks, Ben oversees a team of freelance book reviewers and produces content for the arts and life section, all of which is reviewed by the Free Press’s editing team before being posted online or published in print. It’s part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Fishing with Tardelli: A Memoir of Family in Time Lost
By Neil Besner
ECW Press, 152 pages, $22
Ben Sigurdson
Literary editor, drinks writer
Ben Sigurdson is the Free Press‘s literary editor and drinks writer. He graduated with a master of arts degree in English from the University of Manitoba in 2005, the same year he began writing Uncorked, the weekly Free Press drinks column. He joined the Free Press full time in 2013 as a copy editor before being appointed literary editor in 2014. Read more about Ben.
In addition to providing opinions and analysis on wine and drinks, Ben oversees a team of freelance book reviewers and produces content for the arts and life section, all of which is reviewed by the Free Press’s editing team before being posted online or published in print. It’s part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Advertisement Advertise With Us