Synopses & Reviews
In his first work of fiction since 2004's Standing on Richards, George Bowering, Canada's first Poet Laureate, reminds us why he is one of our country's most interesting writers. In a series of ten stories introduced by archival photographs, Bowering leads us through the glory days of 1960s Vancouver, when the Hotel Vancouver boasted an understreet level bar whose businessmen swooped in and out in trenchcoats; and a time when Japanese tourists with cameras were a novelty.
The Box breaks with the conventional genre of short stories, weaving together biography, autobiography, parable, and drama. Here is fourteen-year old Drew, transplanted from the coast to the Okanagan, and working at his first summer job picking prunes for the town MILF. Here, too, is the extraordinary tale of minor-league pitcher Bunny Watson who strings together an amazing twenty wins without a loss. Bowering trades witty barbs with the poet Phyllis Webb in the experimental story Phyllis's Questions, while the title story The Box explores romantic and platonic relationships as the characters play with the art of opening a box. At times cerebral, The Box is always playful, clever, and entertaining.
Each of the ten stories in The Box has previously appeared, sometimes in different form, in the Vancouver Review, Matrix, dANDelion, filling Station, Rampike, Open Letter, Prism International, The Capilano Review and on CBC Radio One's Sounds Like Canada.
Synopsis
Fiction. THE BOX breaks with the conventional genre of short stories, weaving together biography, autobiography, parable, and drama. Here is fourteen-year old Drew, transplanted from the coast to the Okanagan, and working at his first summer job picking prunes for the town MILF. Here, too, is the extraordinary tale of minor-league pitcher Bunny Watson who strings together an amazing twenty wins without a loss. Bowering trades witty barbs with the poet Phyllis Webb in the experimental story "Phyllis's Questions", while the title story "The Box" explores romantic and platonic relationships as the characters play with the art of opening a box. At times cerebral, THE BOX is always playful, clever, and entertaining.
About the Author
George Bowering taught English at Simon Fraser University from 1972 until his retirement in 2001. Canada's first Poet Laureate, he is an Officer of both the Order of Canada and the Order of British Columbia. He was one of the founders of the poetry publication Tish, served as and has received two Governor General's awards: the first, for poetry, in 1969 for The Gangs of Kosmos and Rocky Mountain Foot and the second, in 1980, for Burning Water, reissued by New Star in 2007. Bowering is well-known for his love of baseball, about which he has also written. He is the author of nine novels, five books of short stories, and numerous volumes of poetry, including Autobiology (New Star, 1972). Bowering has said he writes about history because it is "so damned interesting." In September, he trekked to New York to watch the Yankees play their final series at Yankee Stadium.