The LRC 100 (Part One)

All comparisons are odious and lists are by nature comparisons. Therefore all lists are odious, and I for one have a lot of trouble making them up. A list called The LRC 100: Canada’s Most Important Books is a recipe for a brawl, as there will be many disagreements about what should or should not have been included. In fact, the list itself—we’re told—is a product of furious though presumably civil wrangling among its compilers. We hope no tea-cups were thrown.

My own long-ago experiences after the publication of Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature—a book that has made it onto the dreaded 100, though with a disparaging note attached to it—would indicate that the editors of this list will receive more than one sackful of hate mail. Some will rail against what they feel is a biased exclusion of their favourites, others will denounce the effort in its entirety as elitist, racist, centrist, socialist, capitalist, stodgy, radical...