A Short Sad Book
- Publisher
- New Star Books
- Initial publish date
- Mar 2017
- Category
- Literary
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781554201297
- Publish Date
- Mar 2017
- List Price
- $19.00
Add it to your shelf
Where to buy it
Description
With an Introduction by Erín Moure and an Afterword by George Bowering.
These days, Canada is a heavyweight of world fiction, boasting some of the gaudiest names in the literary firmament, its schools graduating great writers by the frontlist. It's easy to forget that it was not always so. Forty years ago, George Bowering saw a country still struggling to find itself in its books, and decided to write A Short Sad Book about it. Did he know he was writing if not The Great Canadian Novel something like it? Originally published in 1977, A Short Sad Book has plenty of what you'd expect any Great Canadian Novel to have plenty of: geography, love, loons crying in the wilderness, lots of beavers. There's a romance between Sir John A. and Evangeline, a Purdy good detective named Al hot on the trail of whoever killed Tom Thompson (yes, that one), terror in the form of white rabbits from the Black Mountain, Riel, Dumont, postmodernism (there's even a character named "George Bowering"!!), and cameos by Gertrude Stein as the muse, Frank Mahovlich as the travel agent, and Jack McClelland as himself. Poet/translator Erín Moure provides an introduction for this new edition, peeling back just enough layers of Bowering's short but incredibly rich novel to show even more layers underneath. Bowering's own Afterword provides additional context. A teachable moment in Canadian literature if ever there was one.
About the author
George Bowering
George Bowering, Canada’s first Poet Laureate and co-founder of the avant-garde poetry magazine TISH, was born in the Okanagan Valley.
A distinguished novelist, poet, editor, professor, historian and tireless supporter of fellow writers, Bowering has authored more than eighty books, including works of poetry, fiction, autobiography, biography and youth fiction.
In 2002, Bowering was recognized by the Vancouver Sun as one of the most influential people in British Columbia.
In 2011, he received the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence in British Columbia.
Other titles by George Bowering
Good Morning Poems
a start to the day from famous English-language poets
Could Be
New Poems
Soft Zipper
Objects, Food, Rooms
Writing and Reading
Essays
if wants to be the same as is
Essential Poems of David Bromige
No One
Some End / West Broadway
10 Women
The Dad Dialogues
A Correspondence on Fatherhood (and the Universe)
