"Being named to any top ten list is cause for celebration; having your book named one of the Top Ten Books of 2007 by Quill & Quire means you are definitely doing something right. Zoe Whittall landed in that stratosphere with her debut novel, Bottle Rocket Hearts (Cormorant Books, 2007). The book is an edgy, neo-punky look at growing up queer in Montreal in the mid-90s—around the time of the cliffhanger sovereignty referendum. The Globe & Mail, which included the novel in its Top 100 Books of 2007, said it best: “Zoe Whittall just might be the cockiest, brashest, funniest, toughest, most life-affirming, elegant, scruffy, no-holds-barred writer to emerge from Montreal since Mordecai Richler.” Whittall was also named “best emerging writer” by Now Magazine. She is also the author of two highly regarded books of poetry, The Emily Valentine Poems and The Best Ten Minutes of Your Life.
Zoe Whittall is one of a new breed of fresh, young Canadian writers, one who should be on everyone’s “to be watched” list."
----My bio from the Sunshine Coast Writers' Festival where I will be appearing this August.
Praise for Bottle Rocket Hearts:
"Zoe Whittall might just be the cockiest, brashest, funniest, toughest, most life-affirming, elegant, scruffy, no-holds-barred writer to emerge from Montreal since Mordecai Richler...Bottle Rocket Hearts is a major statement about lessening unhappiness by overcoming the small dishonesties that creep into everyday life." - The Globe & Mail
"A woeful and hilarious ode to the last days of a girl's childhood. Whittall has created characters who combine the lumimous joie-de-vivre of Oscar Wilde with the self-destructive fury of Johnny Rotten. A portrait of Montreal in the mid-nineties that successfully recreates its hedonistic, Salvation Army band, gender-bending glory." Heather O'Neill, author of CBC Canada Reads winner, Lullabies for Little Criminals
"Whittall's background as a poet shines in every paragraph. Her poetic voice hits hard and with beauty…Bottle Rocket Hearts will resonate with queer readers. For heterosexual readers I suspect it will provide a jarring dose of reality of the dangers still faced by gay men and lesbians -- simply because of whom they love. Gutsy, gritty, urban and sleek, Bottle Rocket Hearts is a compelling story told by a writer skilled in her craft. It leaves me wanting more." - Karen X. Tulchinsky for The Vancouver Sun
“Bottle Rocket Hearts is a coming-of-age tale that goes down like a cherry posicle…her writing makes noises; it has a heartbeat. This sensitive treatment of a difficult subject will be a classic. Buy it, read it, keep if for your daughters.” – Now Magazine
“Coupland-esque…Zoe Whittall’s lively and winsome narrative of a queer girl’s maturation in ‘90s Montreal evokes a convincing milieu…” - The Toronto Star
“Whittall pulls off a believable coming-of-age story…Bottle Rocket Hearts [is] a Bilgundsroman worth reading.” – The Quill & Quire
“Hearts aflutter over debut novel…Bottle Rocket Hearts is an achingly good read…Whittall’s writing is eloquent and infused with snippets of Canadiana. Her writing style is Coupland-esque. It’s a book I devoured page after page…one I didn’t want to end. This book comes alive for the reader and is a lovely coming-of-age story for women to reflect on and perhaps even relate to their daughters.” - The Calgary Herald
“…a short, snappy tale of youth slumming, first love and its nasty symptoms.Alternately poppy, absorbing and subversive – Whittall pulls some surprising punches here..” – FFWD Magazine
This is my description:
Bottle Rocket Hearts is bursting with the neuroticisms of the mid-twenties heart. Leonard Cohen meets Trainspotting (and falls in love).
Montreal. 1995. Riot Grrl's been bought and sold back to us as the Spice Girls. Gays are gaining some legitimacy but queers are rioting against assimilation. Eve holds a protest sign in one hand and a girl's heart in the other. Revolution seems possible, when you're 18, like Eve.
