Synopses & Reviews
“There is a vast part of this city with mouths buried in it . . . . Mouths capable of speaking to us. But we stop them up with concrete and build over them and whatever it is they wanted to say gets whispered down empty alleys and turns into wind. . . .” These are among the last words of Professor David Hollis before he throws himself off a ferry into the frigid waters of Lake Ontario. A renowned professor of “forensic geology,” David leaves in his wake both a historical mystery and an academic scandal. He postulated that on the site where a sports arena is about to be built lie the ruins of a Victorian boat containing an extraordinary treasure: a strongbox full of hundreds of never-seen photographs of early Toronto, a priceless record of a lost city. His colleagues, however, are convinced that he faked his research materials.
Determined to vindicate him, his widow, Marianne, sets up camp in a hotel overlooking the construction site, watching and waiting for the boat to be unearthed. The only person to share her vigil is John Lewis, fiancé to her daughter, Bridget. An orphan who had come to love David as his own father, John finds himself caught in a struggle between mother and daughter-all the while keeping a dark secret from both women.
Interwoven into the contemporary story is another narrative set in 1850s: the tale of Jem Hallam, a young apothecary struggling to make a living in the harsh new city so he can bring his wife and daughters from England. Crushed by ruthless competitors, he develops an unlikely friendship with two other down-on-their-luck Torontonians: Samuel Ennis, a brilliant but dissolute Irishman, and Claudia Rowe, a destitute widow. Together they establish a photography business and set out to create images of a fledgling city where wooden sidewalks are put together with penny nails, where Indians spear salmon at the river mouth and the occasional bear ambles down King Street, where department stores display international wares and fine mansions sit cheek-by-jowl with shantytowns.
Consolation moves back and forth between David Holliss legacy and Jem Hallams struggle to survive, ultimately revealing a mysterious connection between the two narratives. Exquisitely crafted and masterfully written, Michael Redhills superlative book reveals how history is often transformed into a species of fantasy, and how time alters the contours of even the things we hold most certain. As complex and layered as the city whose story it tells, Consolation evokes the mysteries of love and memory, and what suffering the absence of the beloved truly means.
From the Hardcover edition.
Synopsis
There is a vast part of this city with mouths buried in it . . . . Mouths capable of speaking to us. But we stop them up with concrete and build over them and whatever it is they wanted to say gets whispered down empty alleys and turns into wind. . . .
These are among the last words of Professor David Hollis before he throws himself off a ferry into the frigid waters of Lake Ontario. A renowned professor of forensic geology, David leaves in his wake both a historical mystery and an academic scandal. He postulated that on the site where a sports arena is about to be built lie the ruins of a Victorian boat containing an extraordinary treasure: a strongbox full of hundreds of never-seen photographs of early Toronto, a priceless record of a lost city. His colleagues, however, are convinced that he faked his research materials.
Determined to vindicate him, his widow, Marianne, sets up camp in a hotel overlooking the construction site, watching and waiting for the boat to be unearthed. The only person to share her vigil is John Lewis, fiance to her daughter, Bridget. An orphan who had come to love David as his own father, John finds himself caught in a struggle between mother and daughter-all the while keeping a dark secret from both women.
Interwoven into the contemporary story is another narrative set in 1850s: the tale of Jem Hallam, a young apothecary struggling to make a living in the harsh new city so he can bring his wife and daughters from England. Crushed by ruthless competitors, he develops an unlikely friendship with two otherdown-on-their-luck Torontonians: Samuel Ennis, a brilliant but dissolute Irishman, and Claudia Rowe, a destitute widow. Together they establish a photography business and set out to create images of a fledgling city where wooden sidewalks are put together with penny nails, where Indians spear salmon at the river mouth and the occasional bear ambles down King Street, where department stores display international wares and fine mansions sit cheek-by-jowl with shantytowns.
Consolation moves back and forth between David Hollis's legacy and Jem Hallam's struggle to survive, ultimately revealing a mysterious connection between the two narratives. Exquisitely crafted and masterfully written, Michael Redhill's superlative book reveals how history is often transformed into a species of fantasy, and how time alters the contours of even the things we hold most certain. As complex and layered as the city whose story it tells, Consolation evokes the mysteries of love and memory, and what suffering the absence of the beloved truly means.
From the Hardcover edition.
About the Author
Michael Redhill is the publisher and one of the editors of
Brick, a literary magazine, and the author of the novel
Martin Sloane, a finalist for the 2001 Giller Prize, and the short story collection
Fidelity. He has also written four poetry collections, including
Asphodel, published in 1997, and
Light-Crossing, published in 2001. His most recent works for the theatre are
Goodness and
Building Jerusalem, winner of a Dora Award.
Consolation, Redhills second novel, was shortlisted for the 2007 Toronto Book Award. In an interview with the Edmonton Journal, he described how he was inspired by a real photograph taken in thirteen parts in the winter of 1856 as part of a campaign to entice Queen Victoria to choose the city as the capital of pre-Confederation Canada: “I knew there was something in the pictures I wanted to write about. But the more I scribbled things down, the more I began to recognize a resonance between that dead city, no stitch of which exists anymore, and modern Toronto. The attitude and striving is still prevalent.” He adds: “Its a strange, self-loathing city that at the same time is constantly striving to be world class and noticed. The city never tends to think about its own needs; it thinks about what other people might find impressive.”
Michael Redhill lives with his partner and their two sons in France.
From the Hardcover edition.
Reading Group Guide
1. In an interview with
Toronto Life, Michael Redhill said that he wrote
Consolation out of love and anger. How do you see these two motivations at play in the novel?
2. Marianne says to John: “You make no choices. You allow yourself to be moved by other things. . . . Youre like powder that has to have some ingredient added to make it active.” Do you agree with her judgment or do you think shes too hard on John? How does John grow as a character over the course of the novel?
3. John says to Marianne, with respect to her husband, “You loved him, but you didnt accept him.” Would you call this a fair comment?
4. Why do you think the author chose to leave the end of the novel open? How would the stories continue in your view? Does Jem return to Toronto to be with Claudia? Can John and Bridget ever pick up where they left off?
5. Do you think that the character Howard Rosen is correct in thinking that Sam was based on him?
6. “Time was linear: it went forward and back. But up and down was organic, it was growth and decay…” Discuss the theme of time in relation to photography, urban development and the characters subjective experiences.
7. What resonances, if any, did you notice between the historical and contemporary narratives?
8. Both David Hollis and Jem Hallam comment on the isolation experienced by Torontonians. For David, its a symptom of modernity. For Jem, its the result of a harsh climate. Do you agree with either view?
9. Both David Hollis and Sam Ennis, dying men, describe themselves as lucky. Why do you think they feel this way?
10. David asks John, “Do you think youre awake?” What does he mean by that? How would you answer that same question?
11. Discuss the role of family in Consolation, especially with respect to John and Jem.
12. Do you think the struggles of Victorian- and Miller-era Toronto are all that different? Why or why not?
13. How does the Toronto depicted in Consolation compare with the view you have of the city either first-hand, through other books youve read or movies youve seen? Did the novel change the way you look at your own community-its past, present and future?
14. Loss permeates the novel-loss of life, love and the remnants of the past. How do the main characters cope with loss? How are they consoled?
15. Were you surprised to find out who narrates Jem Hallams story? How did the discovery affect your reading of the novel as a whole?
16. Jem refused to mail his letters to his family because they were “full of lies too egregious for sending.” Howard Rosen described Johns manuscript as “trying to fix a lie with another lie.” Discuss the role of deceit in the novel.
17. Both Jem and David are faced with tremendously difficult decisions: Jem, to let Claudia stay with him or fend for herself; John, whether or not to drive David to the ferry docks-and his death. Do you think each character makes the right choice?