Life on the Praries?

Growing up I hated Canadian literature. I think from the beginning I had a sense that the place I lived had a very weird history, culture, one I didn't quite understand. I hated all the books about surviving the north, the books about hockey, about Canadian history, but most of all I hated the books about growing up on the prairies. The Stone Diaries and Wild Geese, for example, critically acclaimed books that I despised. It's not a little annoyance that I'm talking about, but, well, pure hatred. Now that I am older and have travelled to, and lived in various other countries I have a grudging respect for Canada. It's not as weird as I always thought and our history is even, maybe a little bit interesting, the people are nice and our TV shows are so tacky, and yet, wonderful. So, with that in mind, this year I enrolled in a Canadian Literature course. I noticed that Wild Geese was on the syllabus and after much whining, ordered it from Amazon. It's time for a new appreciation for Canadian Literature I told myself. So far the course has been surprising, in a good way, the poetry and novels I've read so far have been... good. I was relieved. Canadians can write after all! But then, I read Stone Angel, by Margaret Laurence.  I have to admit that this book is incredibly well written, but I found all my annoyance at Canadian Literature coming back. Why must all the characters in novels about growing up on the prairies be so, absolutely, dreadfully un-likeable? It's like everyone who grew up on the prairies thought they had to write a book about cold and unloving people from the prairies are, how hardy they are  and how completely unable to find happiness they are. My  frustration with these books comes from my own personal experience. I grew up here on the prairies, my parents and grandparents grew up here. And, okay, Canadians aren't the warmest people alive, this is true but, my family was always warm and loving. True, we are hardy, what other word can there be for people who brave 6 months of -40 degree weather? And, contrary to the image of backwater rednecks who refuse to change, the people I know are constantly changing and looking out for the next thing. My mom was just telling me yesterday that she went to visit my grandparents and the whole time they (my grandparents) were on their iPads. My grandparents are the characters that these books are supposed to be about. They grew up in poverty, on the prairies, and yet, now they are well off, and more importantly, HAPPY. Something, characters in these books, never,ever find. So, even though I could keep going on about how these books are contrary to my own experience I think the thing I hate most of all is that, they are supposed to be 'realistic' and yet, I would find it difficult to name anyone as aggressively un-likeable as the protagonists in these books. The bottom line is that it's really hard to root for a main character that you just wish would drop dead so the book would end.