Where have all the authors gone?

I've recently been reading books about Nairobi (Green City in the Sun, Barbara Wood) and England (the Royal Gardeners, Alan Titchmarch) and have enjoyed countless Wilber Smith books about early pioneers and European Adventurers of South Africa, Rhodesia, and other parts of the African continent. Alexander McCall Smith does a wonderful job of describing Botswana in his novels of the #1 Ladies Detective Agency. In all my reading i feel somewhat saddened by the fact that there arent such novels talking (positively, not depressingly!) about the adventures of people pioneering or living in Manitoba or Madagascar.

Perhaps Madagascar is still too new a country, still developing it's own written history and culture, since i have noticed that many malagasy havent the answers to my queries of malagsy history themselves. Moreover, Kenya has been on the beaten track of European and other adventurers for a lot longer than Madagascar has. Indeed, Madagascar continues to be sidelined in many other ways and perhaps literature and historical fiction arent high on their developmental checklist. To be sure, i may also be missing out on Malagasy gems of fiction and history since i havent access to Malagasy or French written word. Mores the pity.

But Manitoba! Surely there has already got to be some good fiction about life in Manitoba that isnt written in that insiduous Canadian Literature mode! I cant tell you how tired i am of the Canadian penchance for it's particular "artsy" way of writing. (bah! and for those who dont know me well enough to understand that this critique doesnt mean i'm throwing out the babe with the bathwater - i DO appreciate this literature, i just wish i could find something OTHER than!) Is there Manitoban historical fiction in the style of Wilber Smith or Alexander McCall Smith? Maybe i just dont know about it. Or... maybe Manitobans think of their province with such malignancy that they dont regard it as a place worthy to write popular fiction about. It is a particular beef of mine, actually, this Manitoban un-pride, or rather, this pride of being disdainful of our province. Where does that come from? (see, there's a good topic for a book!) It is my highly biased opinion that much of Manitoban un-pride comes from a lack of good literature and good writing about the place. Who cares about slogans, for goodness sake?! I've often thought it would be so inspiring to read articles or short stories, or novels! extolling the fantastic things about our province! The reasons why i miss Manitoba, for example, could fill up a novel, i'm sure. But i recognize that i am definitely not the sort of writer who should embark on such a mammoth project (sticking up for Manitoba to Manitobans requires an extremely clever person in my opinion). I'm simply frustrated that there isnt already a plethora of talented authors who have taken on such a task. I want to be able to go to the English book store or library and take out a series by one author on the saga of life in Manitoba and be able to sit down and read it easily (not with force like one would pull teeth or read The Diviners, for example. I think the Diviners is a fantastic book, even though i have been unable to get through it myself, but good grief! Does Manitoban writing have to be put on my bookshelf next to Russian Authors, categorized as "read only if required to in a literature class" or, "read to gain prestige from literary snobs"?!) Alas.

I'm not about to go systematically and critically through my experiences of reading Manitoban literature, but i stand by my conclusion that there is a niche here that has yet to be filled and i yearn to read that niche-filler's novels. I yearn to read about the unique and positive idiosyncrasies of Manitoban life in a mode of writing that is easy and mainstream, let's say. I know we dont like to be mainstream in Manitoba, or at least that's what the literature i've read so far tells me, but i reckon it'd be a boost to our provincial self esteem if we could use that means to communicate our story.

Should anyone know of such a book i would be flabbergasted and immensely pleased to hear of it and taste it for myself. Please let me know.