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Stanley Park
by Timothy L. Taylor
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About This Book
ISBN13: 9781582432076 |
Only 1 left in stock at $16.95!
Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments:
Jeremy Papier, the new Alice Waters of the Vancouver food world, is fast becoming known for his radically rear-guard cuisine — tradition-steeped dishes that celebrate the bounty of the Pacific Northwest. His restaurant, The Monkey's Paw Bistro, is always fully booked, but, unfortunately, it's more an artistic triumph than a reasonably run business. Far too costly ever to turn a profit, it is kited by Jeremy on dozens of maxed-out credit cards. An old family friend, Dante Beale, owner of a worldwide chain of cookie-cutter coffeehouses, is willing to bail the restaurant out — for the price of sole control. It's a business proposition made in hell, one strenuously opposed by Jeremy's pretty young sous chef, the incorruptible, plainspoken Jules. Jeremy's problems deepen when his eccentric-academic father — a "participatory anthropologist" half Joseph Mitchell, half Joe Gould — loses himself among the homeless in Vancouver's Stanley Park. He lives as they do (he's especially adept at catching and roasting sparrows) and soon involves Jeremy in researching a "cold case" crime, the true-life murder of two children slain in the park in the early 1970's.
Timothy Taylor — the writer who "everyone in the Canadian literary community today is talking about" (Globe and Mail) — weaves together the disparate, brightly colored strands of his story with unerring skill and unflagging comic invention. Stanley Park, already a Canadian best seller, is a comic novel of the first order — and a memorable literary debut.
Review:
"Stanley Park grabs an audience in a way that augurs a wide readership. [It's] like Babette's Feast or Chocolat. They all celebrate a meal that never was, and a hope that the right meal can be turned into a Eucharist. Enjoy!" Vancouver Sun
Review:
"Taylor has written a sort of cook's version of the anti-WTO protests, striking a heartfelt and entertaining blow against conformity." Publishers Weekly
Review:
"[T]he greater suspense involves the plight of Chef Papier's popular but financially imperiled new restaurant, and the greater pleasure derives from the deliciously detailed descriptions of his culinary creations. Anyone who likes to eat will be fascinated." Dennis Dodge, Booklist
Review:
"Timothy Taylor writes straight, strong, unadorned prose....He's well in command of his material, writes great dialogue, keeps his story, yes, cooking. Stanley Park...thrums with a powerful sense of the city, urban surfaces as well as primal currents. Also food...Taylor is as good as the American novelist Jim Harrison when it comes to writing about textures and tangs, colours and sensations." Quill & Quire
Review:
"[Stanley Park] is a modern morality play with Jeremy Papier?s very soul at stake....[A]n assured debut that stands well above many first novels. Taylor is a writer of undeniable talent who has proven himself adept at both the long and short form, and whose wave will no doubt reach the shores." Stephen Finucan, Toronto Star
Review:
"Delicious first novel must be savoured. [This] intelligent and leisurely...novel serves up chi-chi restaurants, Blood and Crip sous chefs and exotic culinary dishes, but it is also a pointed comment on the act of creation — whether someone is working toward a soufflé, a movie, a work of art or a romp in the sack....[O]ne thing is clear: the talented Timothy Taylor...is very good at writing about food, on a par with Jim Harrison or Sara Suleri....You?ll never look the same way at a weary chef or the loaded, coded words of a menu in your hands." Mark Anthony Jarman, Globe and Mail
Review:
"Vancouver breathes in Stanley Park, from its architecture and granola culture to its status as an American TV-show haven. It is a cosmopolitan, big city pushing to become an international, economic hub. It is also a natural wonder, with an ocean and a mountain range within spitting distance, a rainforest, and enough red tendencies to elect quite a few NDP governments. Jeremy is at once an élitist and a man of the people. Bravo to Timothy Taylor for capturing this tension so well....This is a poweful début; expect to hear a lot from him." Todd Babiak, Edmonton Journal
Review:
"A charming first novel...unflaggingly intelligent." Maclean?s
Review:
"Your mouth waters as you read Timothy Taylor's first novel. Not since Isak Dinesen's Babette's Feast has so lavish a table been set for a reader. If Margaret Atwood's first novel The Edible Woman put you off food, this one will put you back on it....In Stanley Park he does for the restaurant business what John le Carré does for spying; he makes it alluring. And he does for food what Patrick Suskind does for perfume; he makes it exciting....Timothy Taylor has written a novel with a plot to return to, characters to remain with, and themes to think about. The quest for authenticity, for instance, isn't an easy one, either for fictional characters or real people. His style skips along merrily....He also casually slips in some of the most mouth-watering recipes ever sprinkled on the pages of Canadian fiction." J.S. Porter, National Post
Review:
"Taylor manages to weave several disparate worlds into a fascinating and surprising story....Stanley Park is no one's idea of a murder mystery. Rather, it explores the father-son relationship in a way that hasn't often been done in literature." Linda Richards, January magazine
About the Author
Timothy Taylor is a winner of the Journey Prize, the Canadian equivalent of the O. Henry Award, and the only writer ever to have had three stories chosen for a single volume of the annual Journey Prize Anthology. His debut collection, Silent Cruise and Other Stories, will be published by Counterpoint in Fall 2002. Born in Venezuela in 1963, he lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, and is currently at work on a second novel.
What Our Readers Are Saying
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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
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rllaird, September 5, 2006 (view all comments by rllaird)
In the midst of a second reading, I realize Taylor's novel is better than I thought on the first pass a few years ago. Superb craftsmanship and command of language serve his imagination well.
Product Details
- ISBN:
- 9781582432076
- Author:
- Publisher:
- Counterpoint Press
- Location:
- Washington, D.C.
- Subject:
- General
- Subject:
- Literary
- Subject:
- Restaurants
- Subject:
- Mystery & Detective - General
- Subject:
- Mystery fiction
- Subject:
- Restaurateurs
- Subject:
- Vancouver
- Copyright:
- 2002
- Edition Number:
- 1st U.S. ed.
- Edition Description:
- Us
- Series Volume:
- no. 295
- Publication Date:
- May 2002
- Binding:
- Hardcover
- Language:
- English
- Pages:
- 423
- Dimensions:
- 8.46x5.80x1.33 in. 1.29 lbs.
