The Winnipeg Review
Amy Attas reflects on The Light That Remains in the Winnipeg Review:
A labyrinth, as I understand it, is a maze where every path leads to the prize; there are no dead ends. Walking a labyrinth is said to be illuminating, as the combination of forward movement and a simple route drops the participant into meditation. Place Canada, with all its faults, at the centre. Each path is a story that explains who we are. In high-school history, I walked the path of the Iroquois and Huron, the English and the French. But Canada is more than that. It is the Armenians in Montreal who were deported by the Ottomans during the First World War. It is the Ukrainians in Manitoba who were systematically starved out of the Soviet Union. The Chinese in Vancouver who escaped the Japanese army in World War II. Lyse Champagne’s collection of stories, The Light That Remains, is a diary of modern Canada, a labyrinth that guides readers to a deeper understanding of this country. As in walking a labyrinth, the reader can relax, trusting Champagne’s deft writing to guide us towards what it might mean to be Canadian.