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Denison Avenue

Christina Wong
Illustrated by Daniel Innes
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Denison Avenue

Christina Wong
Illustrated by Daniel Innes
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Overview

CANADIAN328 PAGESENGLISH
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Overall rating: 4.470588 / 5 from 34 reviews.

AI Generated Review Summary

Denison Avenue is a poignant book that combines visual art and fiction to tell the story of Wong Cho Sum, an elderly Chinese Canadian woman navigating life in Toronto's gentrifying Chinatown. Customers praise the gorgeous illustrations and engaging narrative, highlighting the book's beauty and its meditation on loss, aging, and gentrification.

Summary topics

  • Illustrations Quality (29%): Based on many customers, the illustrations in this book are described as gorgeous, fabulous, and amazing.
  • Story Engagement (25%): Many customers appreciated the book for its engaging story about the changing life of Cho Sum.

Review topics: ["book","story","illustrations","read","written","writing","pages","sums","characters","view","details","neighbourhood","life","woman"].

Review highlights

  • "Excellent story and illustrations!" — Gail
  • "I loved this book - the illustrations, the way it is written, moved me." — MP N.
  • "The beautiful art work made this a unique book and keepsake" — AAC

Reviews

Not What I was Hoping For

"I ordered this online based on a recommendation. It is not what I expected. There are hand drawn pictures, like a comic, but they are located at the end of the story, they are not dispersed throughout the text. Some pages read like a novel, but other pages are just a few short, spread apart lines. I found that it was weirdly written."

— Justin (2/5)

So good!!

"I related so well to this book coming from a Toronto toisan family ♥️"

— Mel C. (5/5)

An Entertaining Journey in Words and Art

"⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A fun and easy read, filled with entertaining content and lots of great drawings. Perfect for a light, enjoyable experience!"

— Jem J. (5/5)

Great book!

"Wonderfully written, giving a glimpse into the lives of others. Building understanding and empathy for those lives I didn’t know anything about. The dual language was very interesting, giving me a better sense of an immigrant experience. The graphic art of how the community has changed was wonderful."

— Anne (5/5)

nice book

"The pages are so nice and heavy and the artwork an extra bonus"

— Stacy (5/5)

Powerful and heartbreaking.

"""I became a part of it, the way nondescript buildings blend into the city, largely ignored, and only visible if you really cared to notice. "" 5 stars. But damn, this one hurts. ""Denison Avenue"" is unlike anything I’ve ever read before. This is an emotional story about love, loss, grief, culture, aging/seniors, gentrification, and longing. I saw someone write on Goodreads, “For a work of fiction, it’s incredibly real” and I could not agree more. Wong’s prose is lyrical and poetic—there’s a softness to such deep themes. Wong Cho Sum, an elderly Chinese-Canadian woman, tragically loses her husband and must cope the rest of her days in solitude and displacement as the community around her is erased. The subtleness of Sum’s narrative speaks to how elderly immigrants find difficulty in expressing and coping with grief and trauma. They don’t want to burden other’s with their troubles, and to avoid causing issues, make themselves small and unnoticeable. ""I got up from the table, amidst the commotion, and left. There was nothing for me there. And I wonder if this was how you felt. "" The meditation on grief and how it never truly fades, but you learn to live with it day by day is aching. Wong Cho Sum’s story is raw, real, and forever engrained in my heart. ❤️‍🩹"

— Toteofbooks (5/5)

Publication quirks didn't work

"Although the storyline of sudden widowhood and its ensuing and bewildering challenges was compelling, I found the literary devices (smaller and fainter typeface to indicate fading of life, and overuse of a second language) to be a distraction. The second part of the book (again, the device of turning it upside down. . . why?) held some charm, as I found myself looking for the main character and her bottle cart, and recognized certain streetscapes and landmarks. I had looked forward to this book, but the quirky presentation didn't work for me."

— Writerjudyink (1/5)

Touching Snapshot (s) of a Time & Place.

"A Small Treasure for anyone living, or who has lived in TO's Core. Artwork lovely Extra Bonus. You will never look at a Bottle Picker the same way again."

— Todd (5/5)

Textured portrait of a life in a changing Toronto

"A few months ago I heard Naheed Nenshie advocate for Christina Wong’s DENISON AVENUE on CBC’s Canada Reads, and his articulate, passionate synopsis painted a compelling picture of the story therein. In turn, I advocated for our monthly book club to read the book. Having spent most of my adult life living in downtown Toronto within close and passing proximity to Denison Avenue, I truly enjoyed reading the detailed descriptions of the textures, smells, and rituals, both mundane and specific, that define the main character’s life both within and without her home on Denison Avenue, situated in Toronto’s Chinatown. This is a world I have passed by hundreds of times yet, often failed to ‘see’. The story offers a revelatory and thoughtful portrait of the main character, Wong Cho Sum, as an aging, newly widowed person, and the changing urban world in which she finds herself. The culturally specific details lend engaging authenticity while the compassionately written story taps into the wider and more universal story about a changing, singular life in a rapidly changing world. I also enjoyed the graphic layout of the book story, though a few of my book club mates were confounded and dismayed by this. Daniel Innes’s detailed pen and ink illustrations that accompany the story, are laid out not as a ready visual narrative, but rather, as a world to immerse oneself and as compliment to the story."

— M W. (5/5)

Aging in place

"Loved the story of the Chinese immigration population , it resonates with lots of 1 generation immigration stories ."

— Anna (4/5)

Q&A

  • Published date: May 02, 2023
  • Language: English
  • No. of Pages: 328
  • Publisher: ECW Press
  • ISBN: 9781770417151
  • Dimensions: 6.0" W x 0.65" L x 9.0" H
“In Denison Avenue, we watch a recent widow desperately tread water in a city drowning under waves of gentrification. This tender lyrical novel is an anthem of grief, a swan song to cities as we know them and the loved ones we lose along the way.” — Catherine Hernandez, author and screenwriter of Scarborough, the novel and film

Daniel Innes’s extensive portfolio includes painting, installation, graphic and textile design, illustration, sign painting, and tattooing. He uses traditional commercial art techniques, with a focus on the process. He has a special interest in creating works that have the possibility of an immersive physical experience.

Daniel was born in the north end of Toronto and has lived in the Spadina–Chinatown neighbourhood for over 20 years. Watching the neighbourhood change over the years has ended his love affair with Toronto. His time is now spent between Toronto and his studio (an artist residency project) in Hyōgo, Japan.

Christina Wong is a playwright, prose writer, and a multidisciplinary artist who also works in sound installation, audio documentaries, and photography. Her plays have been performed at Factory Studio, Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace, and Palmerston Library Theatre. Her work has also appeared in TOK Magazine, the Toronto Star, and on CJRU 1280AM.

Christina grew up with the sights, smells, and sounds of Toronto’s Chinatown and Kensington Market neighbourhoods, which have shaped her identity and view of the world.

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