A Towering Work of Fiction

Hédi Bouraoui, a poet and professor, was a finalist for the Trillium Award when his most recent novel was first published in French as Ainsi parle la Tour CN.Translated into English in 2009, Thus Speaks the CN Tower is a testament to the author’s poetic abilities and political insights. Born in the Maghreb and professor emeritus of French at York University, Bouraoui is in the unique position of exploring our great experiment—multiculturalism—from what he likes to call the “three solitudes”—the anglo, the immigrant and the francophone.

Thus Speaks the CN Tower paints a portrait of the beauty and challenges of the city of Toronto, and in wider reflection Canada, from the perspective of the 553 metres of concrete erected in 1976 as the Canadian National Tower. I have to admit, it is a unique device. What would the Arc de Triomphe say about Paris? Or the Brooklyn Bridge about New York post 9/11? Interestingly enough, the tower’s voice is...