No Credit River

by Zoe Whittall

“It is a confusing thing to be born between generations where the one above thinks nothing is trauma and the one below thinks everything is trauma.”

From acclaimed novelist and television writer Zoe Whittall comes a memoir in prose poetry that reconfirms her celebrated honesty, emotional acuity, and wit. Riving and probing a period of six years marked by abandoned love, the pain of a lost pregnancy, and pandemic isolation, No Credit River is a reckoning with the creative instinct itself.

Open and exacting, this is a unique examination of anxiety in complex times, and a contribution to contemporary autofiction as formally inventive as it is full of heart.

Genres: Poetry, Memoir, Queer, Canada, Nonfiction, LGBT, Biography Memoir

75 pages, Paperback

Published October 29, 2024

About the author

Zoe Whittall's latest novel, The Best Kind of People, spent 26 consecutive weeks on the Globe bestseller list, was shortlisted for the Giller Prize, was Indigo Best Book of the Year, Heather's Pick, Globe and Mail Best Book, Toronto Life Best Book of 2016, Walrus Magazine Best Book of 2016 . The film/TV rights have been optioned by Sarah Polley who will write and direct. She has two previous novels and three collections of poetry, and has written for the televisions shows Degrassi, Schitt's Creek, and The Baroness Von Sketch Show. She won the KM Hunter award for literature, and a Lamda Literary award for her second novel, Holding Still for as Long as Possible. Her debut, Bottle Rocket Hearts, was named one of the top ten novels of the decade by CBC Canada Reads, and one of the Best Books of 2007 by The Globe and Mail and Quill & Quire magazine. She has published three books of poetry, Precordial Thump, (exile, 08) The Best Ten Minutes of Your Life (McGilligan Books, 01) and The Emily Valentine Poems (Snare Books, 06.) The Globe and Mail called her "the cockiest, brashest, funniest, toughest, most life-affirming, elegant, scruffy, no-holds-barred writer to emerge from Montreal since Mordecai Richler…”. She was born in South Durham, Quebec, resided in Montreal during the early 1990s and has lived in Toronto since 1997.

Reviews

[Tina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved reading NO CREDIT RIVER by Zoe Whittall (thank you Bookhug Press and ZG Reads)! I was excited to read this poetry collection since I loved her two other novels The Spectacular and The Fake. I loved the prose forms and how these poems were autofiction about her life experiences such as an intense breakup, writing life and relationships. I loved the wit and the interconnection between these poems and her novel The Spectacular. I loved this line: “If I always choose to read, my memoir will be mundane” and “finishing the internet” which made me laugh. I loved how one poem referenced an earlier poem. My fave poems are I Don’t Know Where I’m Flying Until I Get to the Airport and Layover in the Winnipeg Airport. This was one of my fave reads from last month and I’m very excited to read whatever Whittall writes next!

Thank you to the publisher for my ARC!

[Chelsey-Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This just might be the best thing I’ve read all year and the poetry that has touched me the deepest in a hot minute. So so beautiful.

after an anxious day i thought to myself maybe i should finish this library book instead of doom-scrolling before bed, and i have to tell you i need to go buy my own copy of this so i can highlight and annotate because it is fucking beautiful and i think i need it on my shelf for the rest of my life.

Thinking to myself words all week that then appeared on the page (“How long can I go on having this long nervous breakdown of a life?” p. 26) mixed in with other beautiful parts of life, queer life!, and getting older as a woman (or as a “””woman”””) and grieving relationships and grieving things we wanted and figuring out how we love and are loved… this was just a very beautiful read and felt like the hug i really needed before bed.

i will definitely be reading everything zoe has ever released. below are a few of the excerpts that i noted down for my eventual personal highlighted copy. i wont spoil the closing line but it is fucking perfect

“To fall for someone you have to be vulnerable, to hold a teaspoon of existential terror in your mouth and let it go.” p. i

“But the trouble is, I have so few hobbies. I like to read and write and watch films and see plays and have conversations and buy presents for people when they’re not with me to surprise them, but the thing I like best is having a crush, being in love, asking people questions about what they believe and how their life has been so far and what they’re afraid of and how brave they are with certain things and what do they value and do you like to read on a beach, do you want to read Zadie Smith’s essay on the difference between joy and pleasure?”, “I like people too much to be this afraid of people or afraid to love people. And the anxiety is not poetic.” p.63

“It’s no wonder that the almost marriage between Mr. I’m Sorry Your Feelings Are Hurt and Ms. I Want What You Want (but will resent you for not giving me what I never admitted to want) didn’t work out.” p. 7

“But worry beams from me. No one is attracted to the anxious.” p.17

Heartbreak That Doesn’t Fade with Time (p.67-68) in its entirety

[Salem ☥ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I adore prose-poetry. This is so far from the insufferableness of the modern poetry I usually read, and I took my time with each poem—savoring every one. I can tell it was not from a place of maliciousness, but I still wish Whittall hadn't misgendered Leslie Feinberg.

[Meg Scarbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

don’t you just love it when you know it’ll be a Very Good Book from the first few pages. I opened this baby up (digitally) and WHAM 5 stars smacked me in the face.

(I think if I ever wrote any form of memoir it would just be a waffling stream of consciousness, just like my inner monologue vomiting all over the page)

I love long poems, stories about nothing and everything. For such a short book, it holds so much emotion, heartbreak and grief. Every single word was absolutely delicious

I look forward to reading everything Zoe Whittall has ever published

Thank u to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Lauren | Wordsbetweenlines · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the fake so went into this with expectations for something similar, which was unreasonable as this was a book of prose and poetry.

This was such an interesting concept as the book followed Zoe before, during and after a relationship.

I loved how real the relationship translated on the page and that it wasn’t dressed up. It had the gritty parts exposed as well.

Pub Date: Oct 29

Thank you zgreads for the copy 🤍🤍

[Lindsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uproariously Hilarious. Sardonic and Raw – A Visceral Dive into Life’s Darker Corners, a Morose yet Deftly Voyeuristic Reality Balm.

How did the book make me feel/think?

I loved this book!!! I took a test.

WRITTEN: 11 November 2024

[Chanel Chapters]

Reminiscing about past relationships

[Mia Caven · Rating 5 out of 5]

France’s Ha meets Girls except it’s queer and modern

[Riley (runtobooks) · Rating 4 out of 5]

- autobiographic prose poems told over 6 years
- poems centre around themes such as grief, pregnancy, failed relationships, and pandemic isolation
- whittall sorts thru their past in a non-linear way that still paints a clear image of the nuances of queer love & existence
- toronto setting a big bonus

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Confirmed that “memoir in verse” is my favourite genre.

[andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

thanks to NetGalley and Book*hug Press for the advanced digital copy.

this one is out October 29th, 2024.

--

i think it takes a super talented writer to dabble in stream-of-consciousness writing and make it both legible and compulsively readable. fortunately for anyone that gets to read this gem, zoe whittall is absolutely a super talented writer.

this one is pretty short, but packs a punch. i found myself audibly saying "ow" several times and welling up with tears as this prose wanders through a pandemic and dissects feelings of grief, aging, a lost relationship, and that scary will i/won't i feeling pertaining to the possibility of becoming a parent.

i'm not the biggest fan of works that dabble in the theme of motherhood (long story, but i think the intimacy of it is hard to button down without coming off, well... creepy) but i think that zoe touches on the tenderest parts of you when you read about her journey in a way that makes empathy easy.

ultimately, it feels like a book that where a lot of time wasn't taken artfully constructing lines and poems, which i really loved because for a book about trauma the writing served as a gateway into sharing her experiences and understand how similar pains exist in your own life as opposed to simply observing hers.

zoe whittall, i'm a fan. i REALLY wish this was about 300 pages longer, though.

[Brice Montgomery · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and Book*hug Press for the ARC!

Zoe Whittall’s No Credit River is a wonderful collection of autofictive poems, allowing readers to understand the author’s pain while maintaining a healthy distance.

I was previously unfamiliar with Whittall’s work, but I want to read more of it because she has such a distinctive capacity for identifying the symbolic weight of the mundane. For example, she describes her partner trapping a cockroach before realizing that neither person in the relationship is someone who can kill. Throughout the brief book, there are so many observations like this that rattle the reader with their precision.

I also really appreciate how the whole project is framed. In Whittall’s opening line, she writes, “It’s a confusing thing to be born between generations where the one above thinks nothing is trauma and the one below thinks everything is trauma.” It’s an effective way of illuminating how ill-equipped we all are for life, even though we must all face it. It also allows the speaker to genuinely wrestle with challenges instead of immediately dismissing them with the comfort of a label.

This is the perfect book to share an afternoon with, and I have little doubt that it’s one that will continue to expand with re-reads.

[Kat Attack. · Rating 4 out of 5]

“If you feel your feelings physically in your body, you can release them. “

My first book by Zoe Whittall but certainly not my last.

This a memoir told over a collection of prose poetry that oscillate between past and present over a six year period, before the pandemic and during the lockdowns.

The anxiety that Zoe feels is palpable in these 74 pages, you can’t help but feel her pain, her loss, her indecision. For many of us we have been in the same space, being an adult woman in your 30s and 40s is really weird and can be unnerving and unsettling. Zoe bares all here, sharing deeply intimate vulnerable moments and in the end you’ll feel like she is your friend and you let out a sigh of relief that someone else knows how it feels.

Some of my favourite pieces (that I have a vision to turn into a bit of an art project):

Tell Me How You Know, What You Know.
I’d Like a Double Espresso & The National on Repeat.
Stolen Daylight
The Somatic Craze

Thank you bookhug press and zgreads for my copy in exchange for an honest review. No Credit River will be available October 29th and I can’t think of a better time to read this. When the weather starts to change and a new season is on the horizon.

[Eva · Rating 4 out of 5]

First line: “It is a confusing thing to be born between generations where the one above thinks nothing is trauma and the one below thinks everything is trauma.”

Having read The Fake and The Best Kind of People (especially loved that one), I was excited to read some of Whittall’s poetry in prose. In No Credit River Whittall speaks to anxiety, relationships, writing, and the yearning to be a mother and miscarriage. The poems in prose are told in a non linear fashion stopping in at various memorable midpoints including birthdays, literary events, and anniversaries.

I found myself pleasantly immersed in the author’s writing and recognized some of the anxieties she wrote of. This was the perfect read for a rainy day cozied up under a blanket. I look forward to reading more of Whittall’s writing in both her fiction and poetry collections.

Thank you to @zgreads and @bookhugpress for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinions. No Credit River publishes October 29, 2024.

[Kira K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thoughts:
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. This book is full of beautifully raw emotions transformed into poems. Through love, heartbreak and even a miscarriage, Whittall shares her feelings as she experiences them without holding back. However, the poem title font can be a little difficult to read, especially the G’s and Z’s.

Favourite Quote:
“Of course a poet likes to be in love. To fall for someone you have to be vulnerable, to hold a teaspoon of existential terror in your mouth and let it go. Intimacy is the only cliff jump I like.”

[Maureen Long · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book covers so much ground in a short little nugget of prose that felt genuine and relatable. While I wasn’t always able to follow every detail, as someone also with ADHD (as the author shares she has) I feel like the ways this book is written works very well with my brain, it is a bit fleeting and circular/ cyclical in nature. It left me puzzling together pieces of the story. The content of this book is raw and courageous. It’s always a joy to read about the experiences of other queer people.

[Sam - Spines in a Line · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was tentative going into this one, as I often am with poets I'm unfamiliar with but I really enjoyed the prose-like format of this collection. And I'm always up for a sad, reflective read. It's a very personal telling of the author's own experiences but there's still room for relating to shared themes of breakups, grief, family and love.

[The Nightwatch Desk · Rating 4 out of 5]

"No Credit River" is a prose-poetry memoir that explores complicated subjects like queerness, longing for motherhood, authorhood, miscarriage, devastating breakups, and prolonged grief. It's vulnerable to the point that it feels like reading someone's diary or their personal letters. I liked that the chapters came together to tell the story of a relationship from beginning to end.

[Ocean · Rating 5 out of 5]

i INHALED this book. i could not put it down.
as an aging queer of a certain experience, there are many many books that i do not relate to, despite enjoying the writing. what a rare treat, good writing that is very relatable. this book is like swimming in a lake on a cold day. jarring, and a reminder that you're alive.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is poetry mixed with prose and even though I did not relate to most of Zoe Whittall's experiences I still appreciated reading these poems. She writes about grief, relationships, mental illness, her pregnancy and miscarriage, being queer and aging. I will be checking out more of her writing after finishing this book.

[Kevin Krein · Rating 5 out of 5]

at all of 70 pages i was honestly sad that there was not more of this book. simply remarkable in how vivid and specific whitall can be about places/people/events, but also there is this very intentional ambiguity to a lot of it that makes it unfold in a haze. like a memory you are on the cusp of forgetting and trying desperately to cling to what you have left.

[Enid Wray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting collection but when all is said and done I feel like I’m left wanting - wanting more, like the surface has only just been scratched here.

Thanks to the publisher and Edelweiss for granting me access to an early digital review copy.

[Keaton Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are so many gut punches packed into these 70 pages and I love getting beat up by Zoe Whittal's prose. This little memoir is not dense, but it's expansive. I love when authors create a world of mood from what seems like a peek around a corner. My third book from her and looking forward to more.

[Eden Boudreau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zoe Whittall writes from a place that is so raw and vulnerable, it feels as if she has cracked open her chest, pulled out her heart and put it on display for us. No Credit River is the cathartic queer read everyone should have on their shelves.

[Alexis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book, which focusses on intense grief after ending a long relationship. There are notes from a pandemic inside this. From reading this book, I learned I also write poems that could be considered "auto-fiction."

[Elly · Rating 5 out of 5]

i fell deeply in love with the writing in this book, it was smooth and harsh. it reminded me of a love that drove me crazy, that made me mad, as live does. zoë depicts this insanity intertwining with love perfectly. the cover art is also beautiful. deeply sad and also deeply beautiful.

[Caitie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved this

[w o r d s · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't understand prose poems until this book.

[Kirsten Fogg · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first Zoe Whittall read. A memoir in prose poetry vignette-style about anxiety, how we try to twist ourselves into the perfect partner, and the pain of miscarriage and lost love.

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5!