The Ravine

Description

One morning in Don Mills, Phil and his brother Jay agree to let their friend Norman Kitchen tag along on an adventure down into a ravine — and what happens there at the hands of two pitiless teenagers changes all their lives forever. Years later the horrifying details are still unclear, smothered in layers of deliberate forgetting. Phil doesn’t even remember the names: Ted and Terry? Tom and Tony? It’s only when he descends into a crisis of his own that he comes to realize that perhaps, as he drunkenly tells a crisis line counsellor, “I went down into a ravine, and never really came back out.”

The Ravine is Phil’s book — we read it as he types it, in the basement apartment he’s called home since his wife kicked him out for having an affair with a make-up girl. As he writes, and then corrects what he’s written, we hear how he went from promising young playwright to successful, self-hating TV producer. We listen in on his disastrous late-night phone calls, and watch his brother (once a brilliant classical pianist) weep to himself as he plays Ravel and Waltzing Matilda in a desolate bar. The Ravine tells us all about the influence of The Twilight Zone on Phil’s work and his life — how it helped him meet his wife Veronica and then lose her, and how it led to the bizarre death of his friend, TV star Edward Milligan. Sometimes, when Phil’s drunk, a friend will look at what he’s written so far and call him on it — like when Jay tells Phil that he’s remembered it all wrong: that he was just as good as Phil at tying knots back when they were in the cubs.

Phil’s “ravine” is his attempt to make sense of things, to try to understand how everything went so wrong just as it seemed to be going so right. But The Ravine is also a Paul Quarrington novel, meaning that it’s hilarious and ingenious, quietly working its magic until the reader is at once heartbroken and hopeful. A darkly funny story about loss and redemption, The Ravine is also about how stories are made — how they can pull us out of disasters that seem too much for anyone to bear — and about how, sometimes, what we need to forgive ourselves for is not what we think it is at all.


From the Hardcover edition.

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King Leary

Description

Percival Leary was once the King of the Ice, one of hockey's greatest heroes.  In the South Grouse Nursing Home, where he shares a room with Edmund "Blue" Hermann, the antagonistic and alcoholic newspaper reporter who once chronicled his career, learly looks back on his tumultuous life and times:  his days at the boys' reformatory when he burned down a house; the four mad monks who first taught him how to play hockey; and the time he executed the perfect "St. Louis Whirlygig" to score the winning goal in the 1919 Stanley Cup finals.

   Now all but forgotten, Leary is only a legend in his own mind until a high-powered advertising agency decides to feature him in a series of ginger ale commercials.  With his male nurse, his son, and the irrepressible Blue, Leary sets off for Toronto on one last madcap adventure as he revisits scenes of his glorious life as the King of the Ice.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

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Customer Reviews

"As the old mother would have it, I would not put a thief in my mouth to steal my brains."
Elderly former hockey star Percival Leary, born in one-nine-zero-zero, is contacted at his residence, the South Grouse Nursing Home, one day by a representative of "Canada's best-selling ginger ale beverage" and asked to travel to Toronto to do a commercial for the product. He agrees, taking a nurse and his roommate, Blue Hermann, former newspaper reporter who wrote about Leary (also known by his Indian nickname, Loofweeda). Leary spends a lot of time reminiscing about the antics of his youth, time spent in a reformatory, friend and fellow hockey player Manfred Armstrong Ozikean, glory days as King of the Ice, career ending injury, and two adult sons. The telling involves a lot of bragging, crazy words and humor, and a bit of sadness. The trip itself involves lots of surprises. And although I am not a fan of the sport (and could have done without the two-page dream sequence of Chapter 35), I really enjoyed this unusual, quirky-character-filled, overwhelmingly funny book chosen as the Canada Reads 2008 selection. Also good: Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand and The Perfect Mile by Neal Bascomb.

2008-05-28 | book snob (Oak Harbor, WA USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Quarrington and Dave Bidini Discuss "King Leary" on video
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R33F8VZVU4S2NL www.bookshorts.com/blog -- Congratulations to our friend and colleague Paul Quarrington, and kudos to champion Dave Bidini, in today's KING LEARY'S win on CANADA READS! There is so much great coverage of all the books (isn't soooo Canadian to be soooo even handed in awards stuff - LOL!!) that we just want to add our little piece, directly from the boys themselves.

Be sure to pick up the new Porkbellys Futures CD fronted by PQ with his long-time musical collaborator Martin Worthy and fab musicians Chas Elliott, Stuart Laughton, and Rebecca Campbell. www.porkbellys.com . PQ's next novel, The Ravine, is now in the stores. www.paulquarrington.org
The Ravine
(c) BookShorts Literacy Program; shot on location at Toronto Public Library, Pape Danforth Branch during FREEDOM TO READ WEEK.

2008-04-27 | BookShorts (Toronto Canada) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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One of the funniest books you will ever read
King Leary is an old man now, but in his heydey he was the king of the ice, leaving opponents clutching at air as he executed the famous St Louis Whirligig. He is tracked down by an androgyous advertising company hack to promote a brand of ginger ale, and together they commence a laughter-inducing trip to the big city to make ads.

This book will have you holding your stomach and wiping your eyes. It would be worth the read just to find out the real meaning of the King's Indian nickname, Loofweda, which he translates as "skates like the wind".

2000-02-18 | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 5

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Canadian Humour about a Canadian sport
King Leary is a very funny novel. I really enjoyed this book because its setting is right around where I live. The characters in this novel seemed real and alive. Paul Quarrington is an author who really gets involved in his work. This novel is a great recommendation to anyone who really enjoy's a good Canadian laugh!

Happy Reading and enjoy!

1999-12-09 (Otterville, Ontario, Canada) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 4

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Hilarious, very human, and touching
Thoroughly enjoyed this book. Based loosely on hockey as it was earlier in the 20th century. Written in the first person, a style of which Quarrington is a master (see also "Whale Music"). Also, like Whale Music, very touching at times.

1999-03-04 (Nanaimo, BC) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 5

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Storm Chasers: A Novel

Description

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Customer Reviews

Dull book
I wasn't overly thrilled with this novel. It was a strange story and didn't hold my interest.

2010-03-13 (Lecanto, FL, US) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 2

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Disappointing
Not a good book AT ALL, and I'm sorry I bought it. I've actually donated it without even finishing it.

2007-10-30 | A. Rogers (USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 1

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Fishing for Brookies, Browns, and Bows: The Old Guy's Complete Guide to Catching Trout

Description

Veteran fisherman Gord "The Old Guy" Deval and his star pupil, Paul Quarrington, do what they do best in this book: talk and write about trout. Each section is devoted to one of three species of trout: brook, brown, and rainbow. Descriptions are given on where to find each fish, everything you need to know about live bait, what lures work best, and how to use them. This is the definitive guide for catching trout, mixing anecdote with practical advice and having a very good time with it all.

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Customer Reviews

Fishing for Brookies, Browns and Bows
This is a nice, readable book on fishing for trout. It is written as a narrative and is not a good reference book because you really can't find anything. Lots of fun anecdotes and you learn a good bit as you read. It also covers techniques other than fly fishing, which is an added plus. For those situations where fly fishing is difficult or impossible there are some very good tips on using other methods. Fly fishing elitists probably won't like this, but for those of us who adapt our methods to the conditions at hand the book offers some good insights. For winter reading when we are dreaming about the coming season, this will get the fires burning.

2008-01-29 (Fredonia, NY United States) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 3

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great practical and enjoyable book
Just happened to pick this book up out of the blue. Little did I know I was buying what is my favourite fishing book, but some very relevant information on some of my local fishing areas.

Although Canadians living in the Toronto area may most relate to the references to fishing in the area, this book should appeal to most fishermen and friends of fishermen with its very humourous and profound portrayal of (this is the best term I can think of) the "fishing lifestyle."

Now what is particularly endearing about the "lifestyle" is that it is not the bass boat rock and roll we associate with those sponsor-laden infomericials we call fishing shows. Nor is this is about elitist fly fishing club types. This is about the obsessive bush-whacker who can't help but stop by a local conservation area on the way back from work to explore some obscure trickle of a stream which might hold aquatic life.

Anyone into stream fishing for trout will be entertained by this book, and learn some valuable techniques. Gord Deval is generous in sharing his "secrets" that so many river anglers jealously guard. Highly recommended!

2003-11-18 (Brooklin, ON, Canada) | Helpful Votes: 4 | Rating: 5

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The Boy on the Back of the Turtle: Seeking God, Quince Marmalade, and the Fabled Albatross on Darwin's Islands

Description

In The Boy on the Back of the Turtle, Quarrington attempts to discover his own little niche in the cosmos. Cruising the volcanic Galapagos Islands on a 90-foot liner in the company of his daughter, age 7, and his father, age 73, he tries to find his place as a Son, as a Father, as a Mortal frolicking beneath the heavens. Given that the Galapagos is the historic site of God’s greatest setback, he points out, it is a fitting place to play out the battle within him. Quarrington employs his trademark combination of wry wit and poignant observation as he takes readers on a wide-ranging investigation of everything from blue-footed boobies, careerism, taxonomy, and the nature of creation to pirates, frigate birds, Herman Melville, and the precarious ecology of the islands and the planet. The exploration of questions big and small make this an enlightening voyage for the reader as well.

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Customer Reviews

Islands for insight
What prompts sixty thousand people per year to visit an isolated group of barren, arid, volcanic islands? They tramp dusty trails, peer into bushes and caves, suffer equatorial sun and strange animals almost without a murmur of complaint. A few, like Paul Quarrington are seeking some answers. Sometimes it's The Answer that's sought. These pilgrims are trailing the man who conceived the best idea anyone, any time, ever had. They retrace the footsteps of Charles Robert Darwin, who visited the Galapagos Islands, then returned home to think about what he'd seen. What Darwin saw and thought led to the first understanding of how life, the universe and everything, actually works.

Quarrington visited the Islands with his daughter Carson, seven years old, and his father, "ten times that age". Quarrington, in an illustrious account, sought what Darwin found - a Great Insight. In keeping with that quest, his narrative is highly personalized and introspective. That is, after all, what "insight" is - looking inward. He recounts his boyhood adoption of divine Special Creation of the universe. Over the years, however, he came to understand how unsatisfying divine creation is in explaining life. As with those thousands of others, he came to see a pilgrimage to the islands as a likely source of enlightenment.

He admits the symbolism of visiting the Galapagos with three generations. The account explains his travails as both a son and a parent. Where does "natural selection" fit in his dealings with his father and his daughter? He examines his own life, what he knows of his father's and how confesses to how adroitly Carson manipulates him. Through it all, Quarrington gives snippets of Darwin's life and thinking, that of natural selection's critics and how many questions have been pondered and answered. In order to accomplish this, he relies on a bevy of writers listed in a five-page bibliography. That's an enterprising effort for a writer listed as a "humourist". Yet, the humour, rich with ironies, is in full flower in this lucid account. Between the science, the charming [and sometimes not so charming] wit, he has provided a singularly readable account of one man's wrestling with the attempt to find something divine, where divinity has no place. It's a book reflecting what many have experienced, although likely with less success.

In the end, Quarrington does achieve an insight. Perhaps even an Insight. While it's doubtlessly his own, unique in a way that may keep only its conceiver satisfied. Still, he accomplishes it after strenuous effort. He achieves it very early one morning in his kitchen, sipping a single malt and expressing contentment at what he has wrought. That's not a bad environment for gaining Insight. If he attains well-being from what he's wrought, who are we to dismiss it? He's made the effort, laid out his own path, and, like those pilgrims following Darwin's trail, perhaps we can follow Quarrington's example. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

2003-10-16 (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) | Helpful Votes: 8 | Rating: 5

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From the Far Side of the River : Chest-Deep in Little Fish and Big Ideas

Description

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Customer Reviews

Paul's Book of Fish *
Paul Quarrington's fishing adventures are a delightful read. Almost a sequel to his previous "Fishing With My Old Guy", this work is broader in scope and deeper in insight. Quarrington isn't afraid to examine himself closely while travelling or fishing. The result is a strongly personalised account of who he is and who he relates to in the sport. An avid fisherman, he makes clear that "Catching", while desireable, is clearly secondary to "fishing" itself. There's obviously far less stress involved in "fishing" than occur when landing a record size is the goal. "Fishing" for itself offers a greater variety of experiences, which he recounts in his jocular style.

It's the variety that makes this "Paul's Book of Fish". Beginning with a quest for the majestic Steelhead on Vancouver Island, he crosses the Rockies to the Bow for Rainbow, and the Red River near Winnepeg for the monstrous Catfish found there. An opportunity to examine wider vistas takes him to the Bahamas for the quirky Bonefish. It's difficult to resolve which is more humorous, the antics of the Bonefish or those of the guides he encounters there. As he relates, guides are a major element in fishing away from local waters. Their status is always an issue. When their self-image confronts that of the fisherman's, the clash can be explosive.

Fishing, to Quarrington, is not idle time. It can be ideal time, but when introspection intrudes, the result can be serenity or distress. Quarrington was surely almost unique in choosing fishing as a means of coping with the events of 11 September 2001. He confesses it was his form of escape from the "disaster of unexampled order" that had occured that morning. His personal disasters, a lost marriage and a lost father, further weighted his burdened mind. In the Bow River, well within urban boundaries, he reminds us that Isaak Walton, dean of fishers, declared fishing a "contemplative pursuit". While thus employed Quarrington floats in thoughts "like a shipwrecked man in a sea of debris and sharks". He ponders, for example, what proportional disaster might befall the fish he seeks. By the end of the evening, a small moment of good fortune helps redeem the day.

In the final essay, he returns to Vancouver Island. Always a self-effacing man, the Tsunami Lodge, Canada's most up-market fishermen's haven, nearly overwhelms him. He uses devious means to be sent there, knowing it's beyond his reach. He's in constant fear of exposure, but wants to record the extravagance some fishermen will expend in their pursuit. It's a compelling piece, especially given that the article "never got written". Until now. This finale is Quarrington at his finest. His evasive dealings with the lodge owner, his alcoholic ramblings with colleague Jake MacDonald, and, of course, time on the water all provide an image of a man for whom fishing is far more than idle sport. The whole collection provides views of fishing no "outdoors" magazine can offer. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

* With humble apologies to Richard Flanagan

2004-01-22 (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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Paul's Book of Fish *
Paul Quarrington's fishing adventures are a delightful read. Almost a sequel to his previous "Fishing With The Old Guy", this work is broader in scope and deeper in insight. Quarrington isn't afraid to examine himself closely while travelling or fishing. The result is a strongly personalised account of who he is and who he relates to in the sport. An avid fisherman, he makes clear that "Catching", while desireable, is clearly secondary to "fishing" itself. There's obviously far less stress involved in "fishing" than occur when landing a record size is the goal. "Fishing" for itself offers a greater variety of experiences, which he recounts in his jocular style.

It's the variety that makes this "Paul's Book of Fish". Beginning with a quest for the majestic Steelhead on Vancouver Island, he crosses the Rockies to the Bow for Rainbow, and the Red River near Winnepeg for the monstrous Catfish found there. An opportunity to examine wider vistas takes him to the Bahamas for the quirky Bonefish. It's difficult to resolve which is more humorous, the antics of the Bonefish or those of the guides he encounters there. As he relates, guides are a major element in fishing away from local waters. Their status is always an issue. When their self-image confronts that of the fisherman's, the clash can be explosive.

Fishing, to Quarrington, is not idle time. It can be ideal time, but when introspection intrudes, the result can be serenity or distress. Quarrington was surely almost unique in choosing fishing as a means of coping with the events of 11 September 2001. He confesses it was his form of escape from the "disaster of unexampled order" that had occured that morning. His personal disasters, a lost marriage and a lost father, further weighted his burdened mind. In the Bow River, well within urban boundaries, he reminds us that Isaak Walton, dean of fishers, declared fishing a "contemplative pursuit". While thus employed Quarrington floats in thoughts "like a shipwrecked man in a sea of debris and sharks". He ponders, for example, what proportional disaster might befall the fish he seeks. By the end of the evening, a small moment of good fortune helps redeem the day.

In the final essay, he returns to Vancouver Island. Always a self-effacing man, the Tsunami Lodge, Canada's most up-market fishermen's haven, nearly overwhelms him. He uses devious means to be sent there, knowing it's beyond his reach. He's in constant fear of exposure, but wants to record the extravagance some fishermen will expend in their pursuit. It's a compelling piece, especially given that the article "never got written". Until now. This finale is Quarrington at his finest. His evasive dealings with the lodge owner, his alcoholic ramblings with colleague Jake MacDonald, and, of course, time on the water all provide an image of a man for whom fishing is far more than idle sport. The whole collection provides views of fishing no "outdoors" magazine can offer. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

* With humble apologies to Richard Flanagan

2003-08-22 (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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