IN SEARCH OF CANADA THROUGH WORDS
Noah Richler and his new book take centre stage at RootsWords have always been important at Roots. Starting with the choice of name for the company in 1973 and the early literature for customers explaining the then-exotic negative heel shoe, Roots Co-Founders Michael Budman and Don Green have always understood that well chosen words – written and verbal – matter greatly.
In all the company’s communication material – advertising, press releases, signs, posters, internal emails, The Source – the words go a long way in defining the essence of Roots, from the products to the ethos of the company. It’s no accident Roots has long been a big proponent of literacy, supporting campaigns that encourage reading, especially among young people. Words, and by extension stories, are an essential component of any culture and culture is a big part of what Roots is all about.
That’s most evident in a campaign now underway at Roots called Smarten Up. The sub-title is “Reading opens doors.” Launched in conjunction with Indigo Books, the initiative not only advocates literacy but also shows that even in an age dominated by TV and the Internet, books still have pride of place. To stimulate reading, to make books more vital and inviting is a goal Roots firmly supports.
At the heart of the current campaign is one book and author, who has a long history with Roots, but not just as a customer. Noah Richler may strike some as an unlikely figure to be featured so prominently in a retail clothing store chain. No one has ever accused him of being a style maven or a fashion pathfinder. But Roots has long celebrated people of achievement in various fields and as such he fits the bill perfectly.Noah is nothing if not a man of words, both in their written and spoken form. As an accomplished writer and journalist working in the print and broadcast media, Noah revels in and savours words. He grew up in a home where literature and good writing were the order of the day, thanks largely to his late father, celebrated novelist Mordecai Richler. And, like his father, Noah creates all kinds of compelling things on the page with words.
His new book, entitled This Is My Country, What’s Yours? is but the latest example. It was published earlier this month to great acclaim (See box that follows this article) and it’s already on bestseller lists. But long before the book was even printed, Roots chose to feature it and its author in stores across Canada this fall, celebrating the book and promoting reading.
Noah is tickled pink by the attention from Roots. "I'm delighted to be featured by Roots for all sorts of reasons, not least because I've been shopping at Roots for the past 25 years,” says Noah. “I'm really pleased because Michael and Don did not hesitate when I challenged them about their in-store promotions. I said to them, 'Look, you've done heaps for athletes and for deejays and for film stars but what have you done for Canadian writers lately?' Roots is imaginative and spontaneous enough that they took up the conch immediately, and I was fortunate that they chose my book to prove that they are champions of the written word too. That's important in this country."
Like Roots, Noah is a champion of Canada, especially in his new book. More than two years in the making, This Is My Country, What’s Yours? is a self-described literary atlas of Canada. Through the work of the country’s most celebrated novelists, short story writers, and storytellers, the book presents a bold cultural portrait of contemporary Canada. It is at once an impassioned literary travelogue and a vivid depiction of Canadian society, its authors, and the idea of writing itself. In preparing the book and related radio series, Noah traveled extensively throughout Canada, interviewing scores of the country’s literary heavyweights.
"Canada itself is a kind of fiction, an act of the imagination,” says Noah, who now lives in Toronto after growing up in Montreal and London, England. “One writer said to me, 'The map of Canada is our proper flag,' and I think that's a very appropriate way to think of a country that almost defies thinking about. The place is big and various and wonderful and cannot be neatly defined.”
Next week, the new Roots Rosedale store in Toronto will host an event in honour of Noah and the publication of This Is My Country. Produced in conjunction with his publisher McClelland and Stewart, the evening will have a Canadian/organic theme. If it proves anything like the previous book launch that Roots hosted earlier this year (for Reflections of the Moon on Water by Xiaolan Zhao), the evening will attract major figures from the literary world. Guests at that event last winter included writers Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje, and book publishers Ann Collins of Random House and Louise Dennys of Knopf Canada.
