Welcome to Roncesvalles, er, Copernicus Avenue!

On a Saturday morning not too long ago Toronto author Andrew J. Borkwoski conducted a tour of Toronto’s  Roncesvalles  neighbourhood,  the setting for his recent collection of short stories Copernicus Avenue from Cormorant Books.

An oddball group of readers and tag-a-longs met at the corner of Howard Park and Roncesvalles Avenues. This included the author (wearing a sun hat and holding a megaphone), an aging hippie avec Lennon-style sunglasses  that filled with more clearly defined happy faces the longer she stood in the sun,  a Toronto history expert and me.

Part tour, part history lesson,  Borkowski conducted us through the Polish neighbourhood he was raised in. Today, it’s gentrified by young, hip parents pushing strollers and sipping lattes, but back in the post-WWII era things were very different. We discovered that one of the oldest trees in Toronto lives here as well as the city’s first Goodwill, then called Crippled Civilians (mercifully, some things have changed). At one time, a former MP lobbied to change the name Roncesvalles to Copernicus in honour of the Polish scientist who discovered that the universe was not—shocker—earth-centric. (Borkowski followed his lead, when naming his book, so he could change the location of landmarks like libraries and hardware stores on the street.)

As we walked along, stopping at various landmarks and shop fronts, Borkowski gave us a glimpse into the inspiration of writing certain scenes and characters.  Standing up on benches, he would address us (and any curious onlookers we collected along the way) in a thick Polish accent as he read excerpts from the book.    Even with all his familiarity with the place, he still finds the street and it’s character hard to nail down: “I walk up and down Roncesvalles and don’t see what’s here now, I see what was here 30 years ago.”

If only all authors gave a tour of their stories.
Read the review of Copernicus Avenue, published in Broken Pencil Summer 2011.

*Photo taken by Motion Blur Studio, www.motionblurstudios.com, during the Toronto Exploration Society’s walk of the neighbourhood.