Set in Toronto’s Chinatown, Denison Avenue by Christina Wong is a moving tale about loss and grief, loneliness, and of aging in a society that doesn’t respect elders as well as the negative effects of gentrification on culture and tradition. The story moves at a quiet almost gentle pace as we accompany the protagonist, Wong Cho Sum, an older Chinese woman as she tries to deal with her grief after the death of her beloved husband in a hit+and-run accident. She fills her days wandering the streets of Chinatown collecting bottles and cans partly for the money and partly to keep moving as a distraction from her loss and loneliness. And, as the years pass, she notices the changes in the neighbourhood and how the things that made it unique are replaced with the characterless but expensive trappings that accompany gentrification.

Wong’s prose is beautiful, often lyrical, softly and quietly meandering with Wong Cho Sum’s travels and thoughts. It should be noted that Denison Avenue is described as a graphic novel but, at least on the reading app I used, the story and amazing line drawings by Daniel Inness are separate, drawings appearing in the frontispiece and after the story. A truly unique reading experience, one that I will not easily forget.

Thanks to Netgalley and ECW Press for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review28 s Helin67 7

Canada Reads 2024 Book 3 of 5

This is a book I hope every Torontonian reads.

I don't know that I can fully articulate this book's impact on me. Denison Avenue is a book about grief and having to carry on because time doesn't slow and change is persistent. I knew I would be disproportionately affected by this story and was prepared to cry but I'm honestly a bit embarrassed by just how much I cried. Don't worry, I really think it was just a me thing, you're probably just going to be sad.

Christina Wong truly illustrates with words by utilizing font size/opacity and allowing room on the page for the text to breathe. I don't think I've ever read a life flashing before eyes that was as striking as the way she wrote it. Followed by Daniel Innes' detailed illustrations, watching Cho Sum walk through her neighbourhood, the one she remembers vs what exists now, is the perfect end.

My one critique is I wish there were just a few more moments of illustration throughout the actual novel. I know this isn't truly a graphic novel (even though based on some maybe it was listed as one prior to release?) but the moments with the citizenship letter or "Loved Now yours to Love" handwritten were so wonderfully woven in that I craved more.

Concerning Canada Reads, I think the story's reliance on the setting will be its downfall. I can see it being argued that those who don't know this Toronto neighbourhood won't have the same experience with this book. Can't say that I'd disagree. A lot goes unsaid because the locations are so familiar and hold meaning to those who know the city. If I wasn't from here I'd have probably wanted to reference a map while reading. It otherwise fits the theme and I would love to see this novel gain a broader readership Ducks did after its win last year.22 s ? Susan G789 59

I am thankful that this book was flagged to me by the Canada Reads long-list and wish that I had read it in a paper version so appreciate the beautiful drawings more. It is a poignant tale of seniors living in their neighbourhood (Chinatown) as it changes. It is about love, loss, kindness, grief, comfort and every day coping. It is beautifully written and a book that I would a hard copy to re-read, slowly, to take in the dialogue (written often in both Cantonese and English), the memories and think about the areas depicted in the art. This book would make very interesting discussion as we often don't think about seniors, their lives, their memories and what they have to offer as well as the changes in community and the impacts on the long-term residents. This book is reflective, thought-provoking and will stay with me.2024-reads wish-list18 s4 comments Sunni | vanreads237 90 Read

Wong Cho Sum is an elderly Chinese woman who lives in the Chinatown-Kensington neighbourhood in Toronto that is rapidly changing. Her husband dies in a tragic accident one day. To work through her grief, she starts to slowly make new friends, takes on picking cans as a new way to pass time, and picks up new activities. As she walks through the city streets, she reminiscences times with her husband, and thus, the city’s past as well. The neighborhood around her is changing, with old buildings getting torn down, old shops being replaced, new languages Mandarin start to replace Cantonese and Taishanese, and new wealthier neighbors start moving in.

This story is a homage and love letter to the older Chinese Canadian generation and the Toronto that they lived in, a preservation of its history before it is gone. It has the sorrowful tone you might feel thinking about the past.

Christina Wong is the story writer and Daniel Innes is an illustrator who has drawn a photo story capturing spaces in Toronto as they change over time.

One thing I didn’t love was the English in parentheses outside of the anglicized Cantonese and Taishanese. I think it’s personal styling preference, but I would have d it italicized. The parentheses wasn’t enough to separate the two and it kept pulling me out of the story to jump between reading the two.

Lastly, I have personal complicated feelings about these stories, mostly because I feel as a constant transplant, I’m never from anywhere and always a gentrifier. I’ve been in Canada for over 10 years now and get the sense that the older Chinese generation really don’t the newer immigrants from the mainland. Sometimes I understand. We haven’t had to go through the same racism the older generations have. They paved the way for us. We don’t appreciate it enough, and I hope we continue to remember these stories. Still, it makes me sad, because I don’t this divide, and I know that my parents immigration was nowhere near an easy one. It too was painful and I wish there was more unity between the old and new Chinese immigrants in Canada.

Thank you ECW Press for the review copy!

Visit my Instagram @vanreads for more of my .9 s Wendy1,770 620

I thought this was the perfect book for Canada Reads 2024 theme "one book to carry us forward".
Bringing together both visual art and fiction this is a deeply moving story about gentrification, aging, grief and vulnerable Chinese Canadian elders.3500-2024 feb-249 s1 comment Anna3

Perhaps it's my lived experience as a first generation Canadian witnessing aging immigrant grandparents navigating the challenges of language, isolation, and disconnect. Maybe it's my recent trip to Toronto, during which I wandered the streets on foot, giving the setting of the book life in my imagination... but Denison Avenue spoke to me in a way I would have never expected. With a unique multilingual format I thought I would struggle to understand and connect with the characters but quickly I was sucked into the struggles and heartbreak in the first half of the book. The only reason I would not rate this book 5 stars is that, in comparison to the first half, the second half dragged on a little bit for me. I was gutted in the first two-thirds and then the emotional impact slowly wore off. Either way, what an ode to a changing Toronto and to the turbulent experiences of newcomers to Canada, even once they've lived here for years. Don't let the format scare you off and buckle in for some big feelings.8 s midori134

“The things that mattered most to us, the things we held onto, tell others who we once were.”

“Sometimes, the memory of something can be enough, and sometimes it is never enough. We hold on to whatever we can.”

“We assume there will always be another time, another moment. Why do we wait?”

This was simultaneously the best and worst thing I could have read right now. Regarding the latter, I must have cried from the first 10 pages right through to the end. This story is such a remarkable capture of the mundanity and heaviness of grief, the dragging of time and the desire to be distracted, to be anywhere else other than inside your head.

More than that, it’s an incredibly powerful statement on old age, and the way society treats the elderly. We see value in productivity and fail to appreciate the knowledge, experience, and adversity they carry. It also unflinchingly captures the real-time gentrification of Toronto’s Chinatown/Kensington Market district, a historically distinctive and culturally rich place that’s slowly being overtaken by run-of-the-mill, overpriced, mass-manufactured corporate sameness. For a work of fiction, it’s incredibly real: the experiences of our main character, Wong Cho Sum; the loss of cultural diversity in Toronto; the themes of aging, grief, change. I really hope it wins Canada Reads. 7 s2 comments Allison ?hikes the bookwoods?922 94

My inner pragmatist balked at the entire premise of Denison Avenue. Scrounging for recyclables while sitting on a mortgage-free million dollar home makes absolutely no sense to me. I get that there was emotional value in the home, but there comes a point when facts cannot be ignored.

This book is as much about the city as it is about the protagonist, and I understand what it is to see things change and not it, but time stops for no one and progress will not be cowed into submission.

The lament for the way things were could have been the saving grace for me, but the style of the writing was insufferable. The dialogue was excessive, with the main character often speaking to herself in full sentences. It felt manufactured just to put in more of the Toisan dialect. The choppy narration was also difficult to read. There were enough encounters with the protagonist struggling with English for the reader to empathize with her. The inner monologue had absolutely no reason to be so stunted.canadian set-2000-present x-canada-reads5 s Audrey1,786 103

I loved this so much. There is a sense of poignancy and grief throughout the narrative as Wong Cho Sum navigates the sudden death of her husband to a hit and run driver. She starts to collect cans, not only for the income, but to give her something to do. And, as she notices changes, not all for the better, in Chinatown, she thinks about the past and the changes in the community as it gentrifies. And, as she goes through the days, weeks, months and then years, there is that everlasting grief as she attempts to age in place. The drawings at the back are amazing, depicting the changes in the community. It's completely eye catching and can also stand alone.

Staff pick: November 2023, December 2023staff-picks5 s Natasha Penney181

My feelings I’m this book aren’t fully formed so consider this a first impression review. I’m happy Canada Reads put this book on my radar. I’m glad I read it. It’s a timely story - emotional, poignant and powerful. The illustrations are a beautiful addition and add gravitas to the sense of place the wonderful prose already paints. There’s a relevance to this book I wasn’t expecting. The immigrant experience selected here is sad to me, but it feels it could be universal. Are their lives small and insular? That is also sad. There’s an isolation to the story that was quite hard for me. But ultimately it helped shape the story. There are LAYERS here and three books into this year’s Canada Reads finalists, I truly believe if this book is debated well, it can win. Here’s hoping it doesn’t fall victim to the unfortunate format of the show, or a light treatment of the inevitability of change. It doesn’t mean it ever comes without tremendous cost. 4 s Andrew Di Rosa43 4

4.5 for me.

An incredibly touching novel about aging in place and the repercussions and effects of Toronto’s gentrification of its most vulnerable. In this instance, a Chinese Canadian elder who is trying to maintain life and culture in a place that keeps moving, evolving, devolving and destroying her culture.

It’s also a terrific story about grief and being alone in a place that’s constantly changing. It’s quite stunning and, as my friend Helin stated, a must read for any resident of Toronto. It depicts a neighbourhood we’ve all walked through or lived in or passed by and it’s alive and moving and never ceases to show the harsh reality of Toronto life, as well as the beauty of trying to find your way. It’s a story of resilience and triumph, of loss and acceptance, all in BEAUTIFUL illustrations, and simple, yet very methodical prose.

My one issue is I would have d to see more art integrated though, but that’s a personal preference.
5 s Ania131

I read this book for Canada Reads. I read the e-book version. I want to find a copy of the book at a book store so I can see what it was meant to look . I loved this story. It was heart breaking. I loved how the author presented the story.4 s3 comments Jaclyn263 1 follower

:(canadian graphic-novels poc4 s1 comment Kandice337

WOW! What a unique book. Un anything I've read before. I'm excited this made the shortlist for Canada Reads this year. I think it fits the theme perfectly, "One book to carry us forward."

This book is all about change. We follow Wong Cho Sum as she grieves the sudden death of her husband all the while slowly losing her neighbourhood to developers.

There is so much that can learned from this book. The illustrations are beautiful, yet heartbreaking evidence of gentrification in downtown Toronto.hoopla4 s Carolyn1,510 89

3.5 rounded up

I really d our main character. I felt for her pain and her loss (of husband, of community, of landmarks in her neighbourhood). Watching her begin to blossom as a newly single person was hopeful. The ending seemed to trail off and I didn't care for the no-text, illustration portion. So it ended a bit weak for me.2024 diverse-books own-voices5 s Lillian39

Honestly, I felt misled by this book. It was listed as a graphic novel on NetGalley, though the majority of the book is text that at times wanders around the page to signify certain emotions or thoughts. The illustrations in this book all come at the end and depict how the neighborhood where this story takes place has changed due to gentrification. It felt a lost opportunity having all of the illustrations at the end, and not woven throughout the book - perhaps at the beginning and end of each chapter. The sudden transition from text to illustration felt an abrupt end to the story when I thought there were still 100 pages left of the narrative.

The story itself follows Wong Cho Sum, an elderly Chinese Canadian woman as she suddenly loses her husband and takes to collecting cans as a way to keep grief and loneliness at bay. For me, what this story lacked was any sort of interior narrative or dialogue. So much of this book consists of scenes where we follow Cho Sum's actions and descriptions of what she sees, or memories of her previous life with her husband. Which provides context for her character and background, but made the story and the themes it was trying to explore (grief, gentrification, having to face a rapidly changing world as a vulnerable elder) feel very surface-level, or hinted at rather than truly explored.

I was given early access to an arc of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. netgalley4 s Michelle Leung131 23

Wow wow wow. Simply stunned by this and so glad #CanadaReads put a spotlight on this beautiful book. A love letter to Toronto’s chinatown, Kensington market and the lives of the elders living there who have been slowly pushed out by gentrification and classicism. I loved how much of the text was in Cantonese, Mandarin and Toisanese which my late grandmother spoke. I didn’t expect all the memories of us to come flooding back so strongly as I read this story. The book references many iconic businesses and restaurants I would frequent as a young girl with my grandmother in the early 90s. She always had a little cart for Chinatown groceries and would always be dressed in black stretchy pants , floral shirts and blow her nose in a handkerchief we didn’t think we washed that often (lol). Our weekend trips together on the streetcar are seared in my memory. The moving illustrations are an unforgettable part of the reading experience as well. Love, love the library shout outs - especially references to summer reading club, the museum and arts pass program , the seniors always coming in to read the Chinese papers , Lillian H Smith and Sanderson branches etc. Made me smile and cry. I adored all the wonderful little details and the inclusion of hand written pen markings and describing decor and elements inside homes.3 s Kathleen987

4.6 stars
Denison Avenue (words by Christina Wong and illustrations by Daniel Innes) is a moving story that illuminates the untold lives of Chinese Canadian elders.
This novel is one of the five books shortlisted for 2024 Canada Reads debates and is the second one that I have read.
Encompassing ink art work and fiction, Denison Avenue follows Wong Cho Sum who, living in Toronto's quickly changing Chinatown-Kensington Market, begins to collect bottles and cans after the sudden death of her husband as a way to keep grief and loneliness at bay. In her long walks around the city, Cho Sum meets new friends, confronts classism and racism, and learns how to build a life in a neighbourhood that is being destroyed and rebuilt, leaving elders her behind. A poignant meditation on loss, aging, gentrification, and the barriers that Chinese Canadian seniors experience in our biggest cities, Denison Avenue beautifully combines visual art, fiction, and the endangered Toisan dialect to create a book that is truly unforgettable. canadian-author canadian-literature3 s CynthiaA780 29

Cristina Wong has gifted us an exquisite and eloquent story of love, loss and belonging. And Daniel Innes has illustrated this story with precision and stark beauty. Cho Sum came to Canada in 1958 to join her husband and together they built a life in a house on Denison Avenue in Toronto’s Kensington Market neighborhood, close to China Town. Her husband is killed in an accident and she must learn how to survive in a neighborhood that is changing too fast. This is an introspective, poetic story of one woman, but also of a place that shaped lives. I must credit the physical quality of this book, printed by ECW press. The pages are thick and glossy. The layout includes a use of white space that is as much a part of the story as the words and the sketches. A special book in every way. 3 s1 comment Dana Kim11 1 follower

soul crushing, vivid, and tender reading experience my god this just hit me in all the right places3 s Jacob Rose23 8

I don’t normally read character driven stories, I tend to favour stories that are plot driven. But this is an enjoyable read. Certain chapters are formatted as if blending poetry and prose but not in a weird way. I the way the author portrays the passing of time - the moments and the years.
Also I hear a melody when I read “Denison avenue” so I want to use it in a song. 3 s Alex Jonker5

My first CBC Canada Reads of the year! Loved this one - heartbreaking story, beautiful illustrations. 3 s Kelly (miss_kellysbookishcorner)778

Title: Denison Avenue
Author: Christina Wong & Daniel Innes
Genre: Historical Graphic Fiction
Rating: 4.50
Pub Date: May 2, 2023

T H R E E • W O R D S

Creative • Complex • Moving


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