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Fiction Literary

The Silent Partner

by (author) Herb Curtis

Publisher
Goose Lane Editions
Initial publish date
Oct 1996
Category
Literary

  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780864922144
    Publish Date
    Oct 1996
    List Price
    $16.95

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Description

Corry Quinn starts off on the wrong foot. When he's very small, his mother dies. Then his feckless father, heading down the road from his Miramichi village to Toronto, deposits Corry with his Uncle Kid. Now, this is a pretty good arrangement: Kid knows full well that Corry's father will never come back to Silver Rapids, and he and Corry get along fine. But Corry is a sad young fellow.

One winter day, angry and miserable, he sticks his tongue to an icy railroad spike. By the time the infection clears up and he gets out of hospital, half his tongue is gone, and he will never talk properly again. Strangely enough, his accident improves his life. He and Kid understand each other well, Kid talking, Corry writing notes. Kid is an ageing hippie with a heart of gold and a shed full of home-grown weed. This, not Kid's tiny fishing gear shop, supports the two of them. Eventually, after many tragicomic adventures involving girls, fish, and the elusive eastern cougar, both Kid and Corry grow up. Together they find simple yet cunning ways to turn their chub hole into a magical salmon pool, the shed into a sporting camp, Kid into an outfitter, and Corry into a man with a voice.

About the author

Herb Curtis (b. 1949) has lived all his life in New Brunswick; he moves between Fredericton and the Miramichi, where he guides visiting salmon fishermen. His masterpiece, The Brennan Siding Trilogy (Goose Lane, 1997), is a compilation of his first three novels, The Americans Are Coming (1989, 1999), The Last Tasmanian (1991, 2001) and The Lone Angler (1993). A different version of "The Party" appears in The Last Tasmanian.

Herb Curtis' profile page

Editorial Reviews

"A leading Canadian humorist in the Stephen Leacock tradition."

<i>Canadian Book Review Annual</i>

Other titles by

Miramichi Dictionary

by (author) Doug Underhill
edited by Herb Curtis

The Americans Are Coming

Reader's Guide Edition

by (author) Herb Curtis
afterword by David Richards

Bruno Bobak

The Full Palette

edited by Bernard Riordon
by (author) Herb Curtis, Laura Brandon, Gordon Smith, Marjory Rogers Donaldson & Roslyn Rosenfeld
introduction by Herménégilde Chiasson

Atlantica

Stories from the Maritimes and Newfoundland

by (author) Lesley Choyce, Alistair MacLeod, Joan Clark, Wayne Johnston, Carol Bruneau, Maureen Hull, David Helwig, Herb Curtis, Anne Simpson, Lynn Coady, Donna Morrissey, J.J. Steinfeld, Budge Wilson, John Steffler, Helen Fogwill Porter, Wayne Curtis, Bernice Morgan, David Adams Richards, Joan Baxter & Sheldon Currie

The Last Tasmanian

by (author) Herb Curtis

Home for Christmas

edited by Sabine Campbell
by (author) Ray Guy, Ann Copeland, Robert B. Richards, Maureen Hull, David Helwig, Kelly Cooper, Anne Simpson, Sue Sinclair, Susan Haley, Mary Tunney, Harry Bruce, Bernice Morgan, Brian Bartlett, Syr Ruus, Herb Curtis, Lynn Coady, Ted Russell, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Ephie Carrier, Jess Bond, Patrick O'Flaherty, David Weale, Robert Gibbs, Paul Bowdring, Clarissa Hurley, John Steffler, Wayne Johnston & Mary Jane Losier

Luther Corhern's Salmon Camp Chronicles

by (author) Herb Curtis

The Lone Angler

by (author) Herb Curtis
narrator Richard Donat

The Brennen Siding Trilogy

by (author) Herb Curtis

Gifts to Last

Christmas Stories from the Maritimes and Newfoundland

by (author) Walter Learning, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Deirdre Kessler, Alistair MacLeod, Tessie Gillis, Clive Doucet, Carol Bruneau, Lawrence O'Toole, Antonine Maillet, Alden Nowlan, Helen Fogwill Porter, Joseph Sherman, Ray Guy, M.T. Dohaney, David Adams Richards, Jon Conway Dewar, Ellison Robertson, Deannie Sullivan-Fraser, Herb Curtis & Grahame Woods