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2 Beaverton Literature- A to Z

Canada

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Canada Cover

ISBN13: 9780061692048
ISBN10: 0061692042
Condition: Standard
Dustjacket: Standard
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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

The only writer ever to win both the Pulitzer Prize and Pen/Faulkner Award for a single novel (Independence Day) Richard Ford follows the completion of his acclaimed Bascombe trilogy with Canada.

After a five-year hiatus, an undisputed American master delivers a haunting and elemental novel about the cataclysm that undoes one teenage boy's family, and the stark and unforgiving landscape in which he attempts to find grace.

A powerful and unforgettable tale of the violence lurking at the heart of the world, Richard Ford's Canada will resonate long and loud for readers of stark and sweeping novels of American life, from the novels of Cheever and Carver to the works of Philip Roth, Charles Frazier, Richard Russo, and Jonathan Franzen.

Review:

"The first novel in six years from Pulitzer Prize winner (for Independence Day) Ford is a tragic rural farrago composed of two awkwardly joined halves. In the late 1950s, in Great Falls, Mont., teenage twins Dell and Berner Parson have different concerns: Berner's is whether to run away with her boyfriend; Dell's is chess and beekeeping. Their comically mismatched parents — rakish, smalltime schemer Bev and brooding, Jewish Neeva — have problems beyond a joyless union. Bev's stolen beef scheme goes awry, leaving him owing his Cree Indian accomplices. In desperation he robs a bank, roping his wife into the crime, and Dell, peering back much later, chronicles every aspect of the intricate but misguided plan, which left his parent incarcerated and he and Berner alone. Berner runs away, and Dell ends up in the care of a shady family friend at a hunting lodge in Canada, living an even more barren and lonely existence than he had in Great Falls. The book's first half has the makings of a succinct rural tragedy, but Dell's inquisition of the past is so deliberate that it eventually moves from poignant to played out. The Canadian section has a mythic strangeness, but adds little, as Dell remains a passive witness to the foolhardy actions of adults. A book from Ford is always an event and his prose is assured and textured, but the whole is not heavily significant. Agent: Amanda Urban, ICM." Publishers Weekly Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Review:

"One of his generation's most eloquent voices." Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

Review:

"One of the finest curators of the great American living museum." Washington Post Book World

Review:

"A triumph of voice....The writing...is spare, but heartbreaking." USA Today

Review:

"A magnificent work of Montana gothic that confirms his position as one of the finest stylists and most humane storytellers in America...Ford has left the suburbs of New Jersey two thousand miles away and delivered his most elegiac and profound book." Washington Post

Review:

"[R]obust and powerful...tap[s] into something momentous and elemental about the profound moral chaos behind the actions of seemingly responsible people....By depicting tragedies without deep roots in reason or purpose, Mr. Ford has dramatized the frightening discovery of the world's anarchic heart." Wall Street Journal

Review:

"Richard Ford returns with one of his most powerful novels yet...Ford has never written better....Canada is Richard Ford's best book since Independence Day, and despite its robbery and killings it too depends on its voice, a voice oddly calm and marked by the spare grandeur of its landscape." Daily Beast

Review:

"Told in Ford's exquisitely detailed, unhurried prose...Ford is interested here in the ways snap decisions can bend life in unexpected directions....Canada's characters grapple with this in very different ways, and the answers they come up with define the rest of their lives, along with this quietly thoughtful book." Entertainment Weekly

Synopsis:

"First, I'll tell about the robbery our parents committed. Then about the murders, which happened later."

Then fifteen-year-old Dell Parsons' parents rob a bank, his sense of normal life is forever altered. In an instant, this private cataclysm drives his life into before and after, a threshold that can never be uncrossed.

His parents' arrest and imprisonment mean a threatening and uncertain future for Dell and his twin sister, Berner. Willful and burning with resentment, Berner flees their home in Montana, abandoning her brother and her life. But Dell is not completely alone. A family friend intervenes, spiriting him across the Canadian border, in hopes of delivering him to a better life. There, afloat on the prairie of Saskatchewan, Dell is taken in by Arthur Remlinger, an enigmatic and charismatic American whose cool reserve masks a dark and violent nature.

Undone by the calamity of his parents' robbery and arrest, Dell struggles under the vast prairie sky to remake himself and define the adults he thought he knew. But his search for grace and peace only moves him nearer to a harrowing and murderous collision with Remlinger, an elemental force of darkness.

A true masterwork of haunting and spectacular vision from one of our greatest writers, Canada is a profound novel of boundaries traversed, innocence lost and reconciled, and the mysterious and consoling bonds of family. Told in spare, elegant prose, both resonant and luminous, it is destined to become a classic.

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About the Author

Richard Ford is one of America's most lauded literary figures. Winner of both the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Pulitzer Prize for his novel Independence Day, Ford is also the author of The Sportswriter, The Lay of the Land, and the story collections Rock Springs and Women with Men. He is editor of several anthologies, including The Granta Book of the American Long Story and Best American Short Stories 1990. He lives in East Boothbay, Maine.
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 17 comments:
W S Krauss, September 1, 2013 (view all comments by W S Krauss)
In beautiful language, Ford tells the story of his narrator, Dell Parsons. His parents rob a bank and set Dell on a course he never imagined his life would take. He is a victim of circumstances beyond his control and the novel is really about his character and reactions to the chaotic adult world around him. Ford's writing is extraordinary; this book is not to be missed!
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techeditor, April 26, 2013 (view all comments by techeditor)
Although CANADA did not contain much dialog, which ordinarily is necessary to preventing a book from droning on and on, this is so well written that I didn't care--at least at first.

The narrator is a grown man recounting, in the first part of the book, his parents' crime when he was 15 years old. I loved this part enough to make plans with my husband to visit Richard Ford's book event at a library three hours away. My only criticism is that the boy he remembers sounds more like an 8-year-old than a 15-year-old.

I could also criticize an incident near the end of this part, but that would be a spoiler. You'll know it when you get to it. Then you'll agree it was unnecessary, and maybe you'll throw the book against the wall like I wanted to.

But I didn't. I read Part 2. And I didn't like it, at all. I pretty much thought the narrator was a 15-year-old wimp. This is when he ends up in Canada, and all the Canadians he deals with are wierdos. Their actions are never explained, and neither are his.

Part 3 is better because he's an adult. But here, too, his actions are never adequately explained.

In spite of a great beginning, CANADA turned out to be a disappointment.
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jlo, January 26, 2013 (view all comments by jlo)
I loved this book! Beautiful language and writing, poignant and chilling.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780061692048
Author:
Ford, Richard
Publisher:
Ecco
Author:
Ford, Richard
Subject:
General Fiction
Subject:
Literature-A to Z
Subject:
Literary
Copyright:
2012
Edition Description:
Hardcover
Publication Date:
20120522
Binding:
Hardback
Language:
English
Pages:
432
Dimensions:
9 x 6 x 1.33 in 17.78 oz
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Related Subjects


Featured Titles » Arts
Featured Titles » General
Featured Titles » Literature
Featured Titles » New Arrivals
Featured Titles » Staff Favorites
Fiction and Poetry » Literature » A to Z
Fiction and Poetry » Literature » New Arrivals
Fiction and Poetry » Westerns » General
Canada Used Hardcover
0 stars - 0 reviews
$19.50 In Stock
Product details 432 pages Ecco - English 9780061692048 Reviews:
"Publishers Weekly Review" by , "The first novel in six years from Pulitzer Prize winner (for Independence Day) Ford is a tragic rural farrago composed of two awkwardly joined halves. In the late 1950s, in Great Falls, Mont., teenage twins Dell and Berner Parson have different concerns: Berner's is whether to run away with her boyfriend; Dell's is chess and beekeeping. Their comically mismatched parents — rakish, smalltime schemer Bev and brooding, Jewish Neeva — have problems beyond a joyless union. Bev's stolen beef scheme goes awry, leaving him owing his Cree Indian accomplices. In desperation he robs a bank, roping his wife into the crime, and Dell, peering back much later, chronicles every aspect of the intricate but misguided plan, which left his parent incarcerated and he and Berner alone. Berner runs away, and Dell ends up in the care of a shady family friend at a hunting lodge in Canada, living an even more barren and lonely existence than he had in Great Falls. The book's first half has the makings of a succinct rural tragedy, but Dell's inquisition of the past is so deliberate that it eventually moves from poignant to played out. The Canadian section has a mythic strangeness, but adds little, as Dell remains a passive witness to the foolhardy actions of adults. A book from Ford is always an event and his prose is assured and textured, but the whole is not heavily significant. Agent: Amanda Urban, ICM." Publishers Weekly Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
"Review" by , "One of his generation's most eloquent voices."
"Review" by , "One of the finest curators of the great American living museum."
"Review" by , "A triumph of voice....The writing...is spare, but heartbreaking."
"Review" by , "A magnificent work of Montana gothic that confirms his position as one of the finest stylists and most humane storytellers in America...Ford has left the suburbs of New Jersey two thousand miles away and delivered his most elegiac and profound book."
"Review" by , "[R]obust and powerful...tap[s] into something momentous and elemental about the profound moral chaos behind the actions of seemingly responsible people....By depicting tragedies without deep roots in reason or purpose, Mr. Ford has dramatized the frightening discovery of the world's anarchic heart."
"Review" by , "Richard Ford returns with one of his most powerful novels yet...Ford has never written better....Canada is Richard Ford's best book since Independence Day, and despite its robbery and killings it too depends on its voice, a voice oddly calm and marked by the spare grandeur of its landscape."
"Review" by , "Told in Ford's exquisitely detailed, unhurried prose...Ford is interested here in the ways snap decisions can bend life in unexpected directions....Canada's characters grapple with this in very different ways, and the answers they come up with define the rest of their lives, along with this quietly thoughtful book."
"Synopsis" by , "First, I'll tell about the robbery our parents committed. Then about the murders, which happened later."

Then fifteen-year-old Dell Parsons' parents rob a bank, his sense of normal life is forever altered. In an instant, this private cataclysm drives his life into before and after, a threshold that can never be uncrossed.

His parents' arrest and imprisonment mean a threatening and uncertain future for Dell and his twin sister, Berner. Willful and burning with resentment, Berner flees their home in Montana, abandoning her brother and her life. But Dell is not completely alone. A family friend intervenes, spiriting him across the Canadian border, in hopes of delivering him to a better life. There, afloat on the prairie of Saskatchewan, Dell is taken in by Arthur Remlinger, an enigmatic and charismatic American whose cool reserve masks a dark and violent nature.

Undone by the calamity of his parents' robbery and arrest, Dell struggles under the vast prairie sky to remake himself and define the adults he thought he knew. But his search for grace and peace only moves him nearer to a harrowing and murderous collision with Remlinger, an elemental force of darkness.

A true masterwork of haunting and spectacular vision from one of our greatest writers, Canada is a profound novel of boundaries traversed, innocence lost and reconciled, and the mysterious and consoling bonds of family. Told in spare, elegant prose, both resonant and luminous, it is destined to become a classic.

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