Customer Reviews (1)

Back Cover Copy
It seemed that the whole world had turned out at the station to watch the arrival of the Santa Fe Super Chief. Dolly Damarosch, the famed dirctor, was there with his luscious superstar, Myra Jacobs. Bully Moxon - that lovable performer who tap-danced his way into the hearts of America - was there on the platform. They were all there...waiting. And none of them had any idea that this was the beginning of The Butterfly Plague.

"Funny, colorful, brilliant - you won't be able to put it down!" - Cosmopolitan ... Read more

Customer Reviews (22)

Feeling deeply for tiny unicorns, cats and singing sheep: is God dead?
I don't think I have read many books that are so evocative in their language they make descriptions compelling the way Not Wanted on the Voyage makes them. This is not just a `well-written' book, this is a masterful depiction of an hypothetical Noah's ark trip, one that would have fallen flat on its face if it had been recounted by someone else as Timothy Findley. Before you think Playmobil's storytelling, pick this one up and read it to the end, but only if you are open-minded enough.

Among tiny unicorns, a cat narrator and singing sheep, lies a story at times gory and quite pessimistic in the end.A disappearing God, a bigoted Noah and his blind followers, the cruelty of the outside world and the destitute kept at the bottom of society: this is a story of the magic that has gone out of this world and the fascists who govern on this earth from `what is right'. I cannot recommend this novel highly enough.

I have to say, I don't think the Christians who reviewed this book previously understand anything beyond `it does not fit with my worldview so let's give it 1 star'. This is unfair at best, illiterate at worst and show that the Noah depicted in the book lives in the real world to this day. Put this book on your `to be read immediately' list.

No Bible Necessary for this Voyage
Not Wanted on the Voyage

If you're looking for a Sunday school retelling of the story of Noah's Ark this is not the book you're looking for. However, if you like well written satire and thought provoking prose, this is definitely a book you'll really enjoy. It's like reading the biblical ark story from its own reflection in a fun house mirror: wildly distorted but yet still very recognizable.

Mr. Findley's characters are some of the most interesting in modern fiction including Mottyl, a sentient calico belonging to Noah's wife and a Yaweh who is an all too human deity. Look for talking animals, 7 foot tall angels and dog sized unicorns in a story infused with large measures of Darwinism then blended into a very well crafted, insightful tale which will have you reevaluating many of the key underpinnings of modern organized religion and theology, in general.

I highly recommend this book for people who like to read and think. This is not a summer beach read or a throwaway escapist fantasy. It is heavy, yet thoroughly enchanting, grist for the mental mill. One of the best books I've read in my life.

Huh?
I clearly missed something the other reviewers got.I consider myself fairly well-read and I'm always up for a challenge.However, this book lost me.It seemed to me like it tried to be/do/say too much--and kind of failed.The humor was dim, the plot jagged and depressing.One scene in particular was so horrible I had to put the book down--though I do have to give it to the author for being able to render such horror so intensely.Overall, it left me feeling hollow.

Not Wanted on the Voyage
I discovered this text in a bookshop in Stratford Canada where I go yearly to attend the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. Mr. Findley was a performer there, long ago, and his plays have been produced at the Festival. Knowing nothing about his fiction I picked up the book because of its intriguing premise. I was not disappointed! Mr. Findley has created a world, that due to his prowess with the tools of magical realism, seems utterly believable. From an androgynous devil, to the explanation of the disappearance of unicorns, the text is an enjoyable exercise on the nature of patriarchy, deity worship, the virtues of curious and scientific thinking, and the dangers of power. The character of Mrs. Noyes is a drunk, a battered wife, a loving mother, a choir leader, a pessimist, an optimist, and a devastatingly real human. She is all of us, and is by the far the novel's best creation. If you can find a copy, check online, then you should pick up this novel. It is an excellent piece for a book club. Knowledge of the Bible enhances the text, but is not needed to appreciate it.

Wanting Deeper Characters
Findley's Not Wanted on the Voyage parodies the biblical story of Noah. His God is a depressed tyrant, hundreds of years old: egomanical, megalomaniacal, suicidal. He is feared and hated by his creatures who have begun heaping derision and scorn upon him. Noah is almost as old: God's loyal friend and lieutenant. He is the executor of God's will the way Goehring may have been of Hitler's. Humanity's sinfulness before The Flood is therefore only a life-affirming rebellion against a tyrant.

Another rebellion brews on board the ark lead by Lucy (Lucifer incarnated as a woman who has married one of Noah's sons) and Noah's oppressed alcoholic wife, Mrs. Noyes. Mrs. Noyes, of course, speaks with the animals all the time, feeding and nursing them. The lines are drawn: the empathetic nature-lovers vs. the brutal Yahwist gestapo. The ending is really no surprise, as a return to the earth when the waters recede will be a return to a world ordered by the tyrant and his martinet Noah.

OK, so Findley's got a problem with the God of Judaism and Christianity. Readers can embrace his anti-theological stance or not and still be enchanted by a good story. But this isn't that good a story. The characters are flat and the story simply carries out the agenda. I found it hard to care about these any of these characters, either the good-evil or the evil-good. They seemed the product more of a pamphleteer than of an insightful storyteller. This book was published in 1984. Perhaps Findley's powers have since matured. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (38)

Stays with you
The Wars is a novel filled with some very powerful moments of awe inspiring writing. Mr. Findley is at the top of his game with this text.
The story, which flips from the late seventies, to 1915 Canada, to the battlefields of WW I is really a simple tale about people who see so much bad in the world, and yet who also try to do some good, and as with most actions in our lives, it has both good and bad consequences. Mr. Findley does not overly develop any of his characters, a motif of his, and this forces the reader to do a lot of thinking on their own. Some readers (based on some posted reviews) hate to think. But, if you don't allow this novel to digest then you will miss the point.
One of the book's main points is that History is not just faded photos and dates, but rather real lives, and feelings, that in the moment were not history at all. The fact that some day some person will look back at our existence with the cold calculating eyes of a historian is chilling to the reader. The reason is simple, just like the characters in the text who cannot explain their motives or feelings, we too will be judged by those who can only look at our actions, and not know why or the thoughts behind them. A sobering contemplation.
The Wars takes a long hard look at the oft forgotten first world war and makes it real and immediate to the reader. We then gain a greater appreciation of the past, and of our own existence, because we see how all life is "good and ill mixed together".
An excellent choice for book clubs.

An Accomplishment
I came across this book when I had to use another of Findley's work and do some comparison with the awesome "Not Wanted on the Voyage" for my final paper in college. Since then, I've been a fan of Findley. This book is quite easy to read, and for those unfamiliar with his works, shudder not, because Findley writes most delightfully. This is an easy read. I would keep myself from writing too much because there are lots of small surprises in store--my favorite part is probably the gas attack scene.
Characterization is strong; and the flow of the story is well-paced. Findley succeeded in creating a memorable tragic hero inRobert Ross.
When you are done with this, try "Pilgrim: A Novel."

Please read this review before buying 'The Wars'.
I am surprised at the reviews of this novel. I see some people claiming to have literally burned this book and I see a `teacher' who condemns a Governor General's Award winning novel without the courtesy of proper punctuation or even capital letters (on Amazon.ca). And I see people claiming that this novel is the greatest ever produced by a Canadian. The truth is somewhere in between. But make no mistake: it is a classic for good reason.

Anger comes from confusion so it is no surprise to see many angry people reacting to `The Wars'. It is a difficult read. Robert Ross is a difficult character to identify with because Findley holds him at arm's length for almost the entire novel. The only instances I remember where the reader is given direct access to Robert's innermost thoughts are in the opening section, before he enlists in the army. From there we are shown his actions and only the most obvious of thoughts. Much of the novel is presented as hearsay,where the reader sees the toll the war takes on both his family and personal life, and this is perhaps the reason for the negative reviews here: the reader cannot become attached to Robert Ross. Findley does not present empathy as an option. We are forced to examine his actions coolly with little emotion involved save the horror of killing or the pleasure of love. What does this say about Findley's goal with this novel? Why does he not allow us to be close to Robert Ross? Because he is not a hero. He is not a great man. He was the average soldier (or officer, in this case) and his trials were average for the Great War.

This is a novel about World War One written sixty years (or so) after the armistice, and we are now approaching its one hundred year anniversary. So why do readers think it should be a rip roaring adventure of bravery and heroism? Wake up people. It is a novel about the legacy the war has left. It is about how we were and are affected by it and that is why it is written from the point of view or a reseacher/historian. It is about darkness and savagery and how these things are in all of us, only to be revealed by the horrors we subject each other to. Look at the things Robert has to deal with within his own army. Are the Germans the `bad guys' in this novel? We only ever see one, and he shows great humanity and sacrifice. Robert's own army wreaks as much destruction and havoc in the lives of their own soldiers as they do to the Germans. It is not a heroic tale of Us versus Them. It is a cautionary tale of Us vs. Ourselves.

Do not expect `Saving Private Ryan'. Expect `Apocalypse Now'. Do not expect a page turner. Expect a meditation on humanity's darkest hour, and you will not be disappointed. This is a novel to be read by the intelligent and the brave, not the simple and arrogant. Approach it with the right mindset and you will find a classic.

One of the best
One of the best what? One of the best Canadian novels, one of the best war novels . . . take your pick.

Joeseph Jonston must only like stories where there are only good people doing nice things, and where children are sheltered from the scary fact that sometimes the world is a bad place. I think this is the problem when you have a work of art as powerful and brilliant as The Wars --- it gets assigned in high schools, and people who wouldn't know a good book from a hole in the ground are made to read it.

The Wars examines the physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual wages of World War One (I think the plural in the title references the fact that there are so many other "little" wars simultaneously going on within the main character, within his family, within society, etc).

Findley explores his themes with powerful, poetic, and concise prose. The Wars is a short book, and Findley's fluid style means it can be read quickly. However, not a single word is wasted. The prose is rich with fresh imagery, but those images are never just decoration, or descriptive showmanshp --- they all have their purpose and their place. This is one of the calling cards of a great writer.

Some would say the age warning is appropriate. Some of the events of the plot and some of the images are indeed explicitly violent or sexual. They are never gratuitous, and are used to drive home the horror of World War One, but the more squeemish or puritanical readers may find them off-putting.

Total Garbage! and not for kids
This book was a total waste of my time. The plot was bad, and there was something bad about almost every character. What was this guy thinking. If there were negative stars, this book would be -5. And seeing that kids were reading this, I'm getting a Nauseous feeling. Too many issues. And what Idiot would rank this book at even 2 stars never mind 5. This piece of $h!t isn't worth anyones time. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

A gripping read
I don't usually like "mystery" or "suspense" novels, but this book took me by surprise and proved impossible to put down. The plot is not "overlong and overwrought". In fact, Findley builds the story meticulously. Right from the first page a sense of forboding and horror pervades the book, very much as in the model, Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" (also used by Coppola in "Apocalypse Now"). Perhaps not a "successor" to Conrad's novel, but certainly a very worthwhile development from it and one which does not owe its genius to the original. Certainly the reader will get more out of this book having read Conrad.

This book should please suspense readers as well as those after something a little more substantial. I am very surprised the book is not better known and am curious to read more by Timothy Findley.

Findley is a master...
Headhunter is a complex novel which combines images from Conrad's Heart of Darkness (the escape of Mr. Kurtz) and Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (Jay Gatz, the lady in white) into a superb psycological novel.Findley is amaster of the screw-with-your-head type of novel, and he has proved it withHeadhunter.

The novel has countless dimensions that cannot be revealedthrough one reading.I look forward to reading it again (when I get itback from the last person I told "You HAVE to readthis!").

It's lengthy, but definitly worththe time.Enjoy thebook!

Modern day Heart of Darkness
Findley updates the distrubing images and symbolism of Conrad's classic Heart of Darkness, in this riveting epic.The character development is incredibly precise and leaves the reader with a true sense of being invloved with the characters.It is much easier to comprehend if you have read and studied Conrad's book, but a must for anyone who enjoyed the classic.Headhunter is book that will stay with you for the ages.

Real fine.
The Headhunter was good. I laughed, I was amazed, I was scared, I was glad. What more could you ask for. Good job Timothy Findley. Keep up the good work.

kudos to findley' headhunter
This is a superb literary thriller, the thinking person's antidote to hip, but mind-numbing, pop culture referencing. It helps to have some stored up memories of Heart of Darkness, as well as other works such as The Great Gatsby, but its chills do not extend only to the bookish. Warning: This book reveals what "the horror, the horror" means to a late 20th c. audience. It's not for the squeamish, but it is worthy of attention ... Read more

Product Description
On April 17, 1912 -- ironically, only two days after the sinking of the Titanic -- a figure known only as Pilgrim tries to commit suicide by hanging himself from a tree.  When he is found five hours later, his heart miraculously begins to beat again.  Pilgrim, it seems, can never die. Escorted by his beloved friend, Lady Sybil Quartermaine, Pilgrim is admitted to the famous Burgholzu Psychiatriac Clinic in Zurich, where he will begin a battle of psyche and soul with Carl Jung, the self-professed mystical scientist of the unconscious.Slowly, Jung coaxes Pilgrim to tell his astonishing story -- one that seemingly spans 4,000 years and includes such historical figures as Leonardo da Vinci and Henry James. But is Pilgrim delusional?  Are these his memories merely dreams...or is his immortal existence truly a miracle? ... Read more

Customer Reviews (24)

A Different Kind of Novel
This is one of my favorite books. It's definitely a different kind of novel. It has a melancholy undertone that is purposeful and deliberate and keeps the reader in an emotional state with the lead character whose unique situation would lend to restlessness and brooding. I loved the weaving of history and fact with this work of fiction and Timothy Findley handled each situation beautifully. If you are longing for the typical novel, you won't find it here... thank goodness.

An interesting failure
Timothy Findley is a remarkable writer. His prose is finely tuned, and his themes are sweeping. Unfortunately, while he comes up with truly intriguing ideas, and wonderful characters, he can't seem to follow through.

The first two chapters of Pilgrim are sheer joy. The protagonist, Pilgrim, is introduced as someone who simply cannot die. No matter how many times he commits suicide (successfully) he comes back to life. And he's mute. I found this premise to be wonderfully captivating. Is Pilgrim human? Is he an angel? And what is the real nature of the relationship between Pilgrim and his beautiful protectoress? Why won't he speak? Add to this intriguing premise a glimpse into the private lives of Jung and Leonardo da Vinci and you have a novel that really should not fail.

Yet fail it did. After Findley introduced Pilgrim's private thoughts, I became instantly bored. It would have been much more interesting to have kept Pilgrim a mystery. Shortly thereafter, Findley introduces another plot device - Pilgrim's journals - which supposedly cover roughly four centuries. Again, intriguing. However, the journals are not only dreary, they are completely unbelievable. When Pilgrim's journal makes the outrageous claim that Da Vinci raped a young girl after mistaking her for her identical twin brother, I was completely flummoxed. Identical twins are always the same sex. (They come from a single split zygote.) Of course, Da Vinci isn't around to sue for libel, so Findley can write what he likes. But he really should avoid re-inventing basic biology.

Jung's character wasn't any better. Although Findley tried to explore the great psychologist's inner workings, he did so in such an unconvincing manner that you really don't care. In fact, by the end of the book, it's hard to care about anyone. The secondary characters remained two-dimensional throughout and Pilgrim himself was insufferably dull. Sad to say, the ending, which should have resolved the plot's central mystery contained not the slightest hint of logic. It was as if Findley had not read the beginning of his own book. (Or his editor had not read the end.)

I am afraid that Findley is a writer with a great deal of technique, and a lot of potential, but no ability to pull off a plot. He simply lacks the pacing, the logic and the believability that a good novel requires.

The Immortal Critic of Art and Pschology
The Pilgrim, a suicidal and renown art historian, hates art, as much as he hates life.In fact, the only thing he despises more is psychology in general, and the specific idea that there is but one temporal linear reality.Given this overbearing focus on negativity, it is a miracle that Timothy Findley has created a beautiful tale of about the elegant and not-so-elegant intricacies involved in both the practice of psychology and creation of art.Both the psychologists and the artists are protrayed with brutal specifics, but they seem more ignorant of goodness than practicing of evil.
The author uses artificial contrivances excessively to explain inconsistancies, but on the whole, he sucessfully makes this impossible myth seem almost believable.The protagonist can be neither loved nor hated, yet the reader strives to understand him.Some of the fasinating minor characters are introduced and then abandoned, before they are adequately developed, but a sprinkling of well researched historical figures provide a path for pursuing the plausibilty of some other aspects of this tale even beyond the novel itself.
It was a good read.

Thought Provoking...
I picked this book up quite a few times before I finally decided to read it, basically because I thought it would delve too much into the Jungian concepts, etc, of which I don't have much knowledge...I'd just heard of Jung before I read this!However, the book was really quite interesting, and though it looks like a daunting read, its really not...its thought provoking (as my review title suggests!), and it makes you pause once in a while to think somethings through...something you hadnt really thought of much before, some new concept, and such, but still, it is perfectly understandable...and even if one doesn't have a lot of knowledge of psychology to start off with, it makes one interested in finding out more...or at least it did me!...I would reccomend this for anyone who is looking for a slightly challenging read.

Life Everlasting
In Pilgrim Timothy Findley mixes fiction and fact in a necklace of words that are a feast for the soul. Pilgrim is a man whose past is shrouded in mystery. His story is a remarkable literary gem , a true mosaic for the mind. Findley traverses the heights of imagination in a book filled with passion , adventure and the many textures of life. There is a sparkling freshness to this utterly original creative endeavor.

Pilgrim is as individual as a snowflake. A book which inspires , enlightens and enriches the reader. Pilgrims life is altered by an idealistic Carl Jung who is seeking to serve the betterment of the universe. This book is so well written that at times you forget that its not history , its but a magnificent work of fiction.

Pilgrim is a tremendous achievement. The characters are vibrant , fascinating and astounding. There is a fantastic aura to this piece of literature. Pilgrims is an existence to be celebrated. A mythic existence of presence and being which becomes a journey of understanding and begs the question - What price immortality?

Timothy Findleys artistic vision enchants and inspires. The limitless realities throughout this book make the ordinary extraordinary. Imagination is knowledge and Findley once again proves himself a very wise man. The authentic voice of Timothy Findley takes us to visually stunning places , he paints a vibrant portrait of a man whose very existence is authentic and soul stirring. Pilgrim is a heart centered endeavor that i am profoundly proud to have read. ... Read more

Product Description
On a summer evening a gardener's spade slices a telephone cable into distant silence. The resulting disconnection is devastating. With the failure of one call to reach the house, an ambitious young actor becomes the victim of sexual blackmail. The blocking of a second call leads to murder. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

Did it have potential? ...Eh, I don't want to think about it.
The amount of cigarettes and wine consumed in Spadework makes you wonder how all of the characters haven't keeled over dead within the first hundred pages.

So what good can be said of Spadework? Well, its portrayal of the world behind the stage curtain is vivid and intelligent, and there are a handful of moments between characters that really do reflect the raw beauty of human nature.

Everything else, though, rang pretty dim.

The main characters are all basically two-dimensional: when Jane, the protagonist, isn't busy imploding over how rapturously beautiful the Polish repairman is, she's drowning her woes in so much alcohol she's one glass shy of a self-induced coma; Griff, her maybe-but-possibly-not-bisexual husband is first introduced as a loving, caring family man when suddenly Findley flips a switch a third of the way into the novel causing Griff to abandon his family and become an emotionless, subservient sexbot; Will, their son, can't decide if he's a seven year old boy who likes Treasure Island and puzzles or a cynical ninety year old sage.

Interestingly enough, as a fellow reviewer put it, it's the cast of secondary characters who are by far the most engrossing if not sympathetic characters who make up this melodrama. And that's what Findley has failed to do with our main trio, I think--make them gripping, lovable, sympathetic people.

The plot... Well, I won't say it's impossible for things to unfold the way they do in Spadework, but if you're by any stretch a sensible person, you'll put your money on it being probably one of the more unrealistic dramas you've read in a while.

Really 2.5 stars
Inconsistent. That is the best way to describe this novel. As a person who loves the town of Stratford Ontario, and its Shakespeare Festival, I was intrigued and amused by the set up for the novel. Many of the text's characters are in some way affiliated with the Festival, and the little details about daily life in Stratford are fun reading for anyone who has an affinity for the town.
However, the book's plot and most of its dialogue feels cinematic, and not at all in a good way.There are moments (alas only moments) of brilliance in this novel, but they are quickly replaced by soap opera scenarios, and scenes out of left field. Too many times while reading this text, I found myself at a complete loss as to what the purpose was. If Findley's goal was to create a domestic drama, it was simply too unrealistic. The ending reeks of being contrived, and only the most ludicrously optimistic people will find it even the tiniest bit plausible.
I really wanted to love this text. It did not happen. Not my fault, I was predisposed to like it. Findley simply did not provide any reason for me to do so.

Spadework - Bury this book
This novel is to books what "Plan 9 From Outer Space" is to movies.So laughably bad, the only thing that kept me reading it was the wonder that the author could go on for so long and be so consistantly terrible in his writing. I'm not going to reprise the plot, but here's a little background and an example.The main character, Jane, flees from her controlling and straight-laced Southern lady of a mother. When she announces her intention to leave the mother replies (and so help-me-God this is a quote), "...You don' just stan' up an' walk away f'm Cloud Hill.F'm family.You just don' do that.All them years o' history..." It goes on like this, but I'll spare you reading the rest.Real believable dialogue from well-mannered Southern lady isn't it?That's just a small example.The dialogue in this book is all pretty horrible, and the descriptions of conversations only make it worse.People will be having an argument, then suddenly "beam" at each other.The act of opening bottles of wine should really be thought of as a main character it happens so often and with such over-blown description.None of the interaction of any of the characters is believable, in fact, they are so odd there is a kind of sick fascination to reading this as you have never, will never, know people who react or talk like Mr. Findlay's characters.This book is billed as a "National Bestseller".The only plausible explanation I can think of is; (a) Guam is suddenly declared a sovereign nation (b) a shipment of these books is mistakenly shipped to Guam (c) a bookseller on Guam unfortunately sells 3 of these books and is subsequently lynched.A far-fetched scenario you think?Good Lord, let's hope Timothy Findlay doesn't read this review as he would probably think it was a reasonable plot line and explore it for an excruciating number of pages.

Love under pressure in what it's all about.....
Timothy Findley's "Spadework" doesn't conform to any specific type or genre in literary fiction. To begin with, it's most certainly not a murder mystery or thriller the blurb suggests it is - Penguin Books, its UK publisher, should be rapped for being misleading. So, what kind of book is it ? A tale of marital breakdown, lust and ambition among members of a theatrical community in Ontario ? Hard to say.

But love - all sorts of love - takes centre stage in "Spadework". There's conjugal love between struggling stage actor Griffin Kincaid and his prop designer wife Jane, love between parent and child (as between the Kincaids and their son Will), love between family members (as between gardener Luke and his young troubled uncle Jesse), homosexual love or lust of stage director Jonathan for Griffin, mature love between housekeeper Mercy and Luke, and Jane's idealised love for the Bell repairman Milos.According to Findley, love caves in under pressure, its manifest qualities change albeit temporarily.Like an elastic band, it finds its original shape eventually.

Findley's characterisation doesn't always succeed. His supporting characters like Mercy, Luke, Milos and Claire fare much better than his protagonists. With each page, I found Jane increasingly shrill and irritating and I began to feel she deserves what's happening to her.....until Milos turns up and she wanders into a dream world of her own and becomes interesting as a human being once again. Griffin's character is the most problematic. He's supposed to be desperate and ambitious and his sudden abandonment of his family for Jonathan's casting couch is a move that suggests he has sold his soul to the devil - remember Rosemary's husband in "Rosemary's Baby" ? - but in truth, he's a wimp and his return to the family fold after Jonathan's confessional is a bizarre twist that strains credibility and ends the story on a hastily executed feel-good note.

Quite apart from revealing his roots as a playwright, Findley's liberal use of asides and self directed utterances to punctuate his narrative is also a devise that doesn't quite work. Indeed, I found it unhelpful and distracting and gives the novel an incongruous feel about it. There is nevertheless much to enjoy in "Spadework". The good parts are excellent and they'll make it all worthwhile for you.

Not even bad enough to be good
I have read good reviews of this book and the only thing to conclude is that there's so little good writing coming out of Canada that anyone who can actually spell is considered a genius.

This so-called novel is full of bizarre, unbelievable people who are supposed to be all connected but aren't.There are about three separate storylines running through the pages and the only thing they have in common is that the characters know each other.

The whole mess is really a screenplay with no character development, no plot, no suspense and no thought.What it has, though, is a lot of hand mannerisms for the director to use when filming starts.Cigarettes are lit--excuse me, "lighted"--and bottles of wine are uncorked, with grim and relentless monotony.The ending is a montage of saccharine resolutions that belies everything that the author himself put in place.

The main character, Jane Kincaid, has supposedly fled her repressive Southern upbringing to get as far north as possible, ie. Toronto (right).You don't believe a word of it.Her mother is a foolish caricature of the psychotic Southern matriarch. Her husband is either straight or gay, but not even the author knows.They have a few sketchy friends, a housekeeper, a kid and a dog. They all drink and smoke and wring their hands, then the book ends.

Oh yes, keep a look out for bizarre appearance of Troy, Jane's old boyfriend.This has got to be the most useless and inane thing ever written in the history of the world.I finished the book last week and I still haven't figured out what the hell purpose he served.

Jackie Collins writes trash that's so bad it's fun to read.Timothy Findley writes trash that's leaden, pretentious, and no fun at all.Why does he get all the respect?I wanted to give this thing no stars, but one is the minimun.Sorry about that. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A murder mystery?
Findley's book, Telling of Lies, is supposed to be a murder mystery. A man is found dead in his chair at a beach resort. He is an elderly man, so his death is not remarkable, yet the doctor who first examines his body suspects foul play. All well and good. Murder mysteries are supposed to be about foul play. The only problem is that the good doctor never gives the slightest hint as to WHY he suspects foul play. I kept going back over the pages, trying to find some logic behind his conclusion. The evidence to support it eventually arrives at the end of the book, by which time I had lost interest.

While I enjoyed the telling of the tale - Findley is a good writer - the lack of logic, the loose ends that are never tied up in any satisfactory way, the unconvincing nature of the characters and their interactions, simply did not produce a good novel.The greatest drawback, however, was the device through which the story is told - a journal. It was nearly impossible to get a sense of any plot continuity with the all the jumbled (undated!) journalentries. And while the back story of the narrator was interesting, it really didn't serve any purpose other than to further bog down the story.

One of these days Findley will write a good novel. But this wasn't it.

A rich and interesting mystery from a fine novelist
Timothy Findley is a former actor and radio performer and scriptwriter from Canada who has written one incredible novel (_Not Wanted On the Voyage_) and quite a few good ones. There is no such thing as a"characteristic" Findley novel, and this is no exception.

With_The Telling Of Lies_, the author takes on the murder mystery genre, but ofcourse it's not your typical mystery. It takes place on the south coast ofMaine, at a resort hotel with an assortment of characters. Thenarrator/protagonist, a middle-aged woman, not only tackles and solves themystery, but intersperses the main plot with memories of her experiences ina Japanese prisoner-of-war camp during the Second World War.

The story iswell told. I liked this book better than _Famous Last Words_ (though it isa less complicated and momentous story) and _The Piano Man's Daughter_,about as much as _The Butterfly Plague_ and his memoir/essay collection_Inside Memory_, but not as much as his masterpiece, _Not Wanted On theVoyage_. ... Read more

Product Description
Findley exposes the sharp changes in the traditional institutions of love andmarriage and family through a vivid terrain of images and insightful stories.10,000 print. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Leaves you wanting more...
This collection of short stories explores the inner lives of people driven by various dark, shameful secrets: compulsion, alcoholism,incest. The writing is excellent. Findley uses both dialogue and narration to let us see the story from the perspective of the protagonist. What we see is that each character is confused about her or his own motivations and choices. Memories, perceptions, beliefs weave together into tapestries with gaping holes. Thus we, the readers, come to understand that we, too, wouldn't have a clue what to do in the character's situation.

The book certainly displays the author's virtuosity as a writer. It includes two pairs of stories that show events from two perspectives: a character in the moment of crisis, and the same character reflecting on a longer chain of events. It explores several different writing techniques. It weaves autobiographical moments from the life of the author into the lives of different characters.

My criticism applies to most of the stories, except for the two where the character reflects on events over time. Each story opens us onto a moment of confusion, madness or sudden clarity. And at the end of the story, we are perched at that moment, wanting to know what happens next. It seems somehow to be a failure of the author (or perhaps the genre of the horror short story) to bring the story to a climax and then abruptly end it, because the author doesn't know where to take the character from there.

Overall, this is a very good read, and one that can teach a reader a lot about writing. I read it in one sitting!

Don't Throw Stones
I believe that "Stones" is one of the lesser known books by Findley, and is somewhat weaker than most of his popular works."Stones" is made up of multiple stories happening to various Canadian characters.The stories generally take up only one chapter andthen you don't hear from those characters again.I enjoyed reading this,but am not always a fan of this type of work.I often find myself attachedto a specific story and am then disappointed when it is dropped foranother; I find myself wanting to know what else happened.However, it isan interesting collection of characters and an interesting portrait ofCanadian life. ... Read more

Product Description
Why are contemporary writers of fiction in Canada so obsessed with photography? Timothy Findley's The Wars, Michael Ondaatje's Coming Through Slaughter, Margaret Laurence's The Diviners, and Alice Munro's Lives of Girls and Women all present the photograph as a virtual analogue to the act of creating narrative. Lorraine York examines four Canadian writers of fiction whose works span the literary schools of modernism, magic realism, and postmodernism. For Canadian postmodernists, photography becomes a means of examining, in an acutely self-conscious way, their need to break out of the traditional confines of narrative form. ... Read more

Product Description
Canadian Fiction Studies are an answer to every librarian's, student's, and teacher's wishes. Each book, about 80 pages in length, contains clear, readable information on a major Canadian novel. These studies are carefully designed readings of the novels; they are not substitutes for reading them. Each book is attractively produced and follows the same format, so students will know exactly what to expect:

A chronology of the author's life The importance of the book Critical reception Reading of the text Selected list of works cited ... Read more

Product Description
In this first full-length study of Timothy Findley, Lorraine York argues that his novels and short stories are part of a system of war texts. Not only is Findley's fiction haunted by the specter of war, it is a compulsive testament to the infinite repetitions of war in our domestic, gender, and class conflicts. Influenced by feminist literary theory, the workings of literary intertextuality, and the new historiography, York shows how war as a literary device as well as various historical wars, documents of war, and literary war texts inform the novels and stories of Timothy Findley to such an extent that war becomes an integral part of their signifying systems. ... Read more

Product Description
Timothy Findley is a writer obsessed with time and place. His fiction and drama return again and again to the two world wars, the Holocaust, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the Cold War. His cast of characters includes people of varied racial, ethnic, and class backgrounds, different sexual orientations, multiple ages, diverse political stripes, and, of course, a number of animals and birds, so powerfully characterized that they seems as real to Findley's readers as Wallis Simpson or Sir Harry Oakes. His work provides us with a rich standpoint from which to review, question, and interpret the culture, politics, myths, and history of contemporary society. This collection of nine essays provides readers with original perspectives on Findley's work from influential critics and new scholars. It includes articles on both the lesser-known works, such as the short fiction, drama, and early novels, as well as on the major works, including Headhunter and The Piano Man's Daughter. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume argues that the work of these writers has been shaped by Ontario painting, which was, until the mid-1960s, the province's pre-eminent art form. The three introductory chapters situate the five writers in the context of contemporary Ontario culture, blurring the boundaries between disciplines. This is a direct contrast to the dominant critical approach, which has been to place Ontario (and other Canadian) art in a national, mythic, and disciplinary context. The volume includes chapters providing relevant background about Northrop Frye and Ontario historians, as well as Ontario visual artists. This study will also interest scholars of cultural history and interdisciplinary studies. ... Read more

Product Description
A writer of international reputation, Timothy Findley's career encompasses successes in theatre, film, television, radio, and works of literature that have been translated into many languages and have received wide acclaim. Carol Roberts uncovers the life and career of the man who has been called a master storyteller. Roberts also extensively documents Findley's own stories about himself and his works. Always insightful and sometimes quirky, these stories capture Findley's excessive, mad, marvelous, puzzling, disturbing, and utterly brilliant vision. ... Read more

Product Description
Moral Metafiction examines Findley's novels, from The Last of the Crazy People through The Telling of Lies, for the ways in which their use of metafictive devices pose specifically ethical challenges for readers. Findley's novels dramatize the process of interpretation and interrogation of dominant discourses from the point of view of those subjects either already marginalized by history or who choose to repudiate dominant texts and thus become marginalized. As re-visionist texts, these novels tell history from the losers' point of view, and in the process of explicating how dominant discourse is constructed, they create the possibility of other constructions and seek to express counterdiscourses. But they also make clear that such expressions are themselves constructions: their ethical challenge lies in problematizing readers' knowledge of dominant history and in asking readers to choose their constructions carefully. ... Read more

Product Description
Famous Last Words is part-thriller, part-horror story; it is also a meditation on history and the human soul. In the final days of the Second World War, Hugh Selwyn Mauberley scrawls his desperate account on the walls and ceilings of his ice-cold prison high in the Austrian Alps. Officers of the liberating army discover his frozen, disfigured corpse and his astonishing testament - the sordid truth that he alone possessed. Fascinated but horrified, they learn of a dazzling array of characters caught up in a scandal and political corruption. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

A fantastic post-modern read
Interesting that The Wars deals with the First World War and one man's personal transformation both before the war and during it.Famous Last Words, in a sense, picks up where the other novel left off.While the author's fictional protagonist/antagonist Mauberly is the inadvertent co-narrator of the story, the novel really focuses on varying characters and motives both during and after the Second World War.

The most intriguing part of this novel is the discovery of Mauberly's writings on the walls of a European hotel room and the impending decisions to be made about its historical importance.American soldiers have to decide whether to preserve the historical narrative written by a questionable character or destroy all memory--artistic or otherwise--of a gruesome war.

One gets the sense that Findley is making a post-modern comment on the myth of truth-telling and the conflict between art and politics.But also, the irony of Findlay as storyteller commenting on the subjectivity of storytelling is not lost.

All the Findlay elements are here in this novel: intrigue, mystery, psycho-analysis, and moral ambiguity.It does not have the power or punch of The Wars, but it is a confusingly fascinating read.

A great read...although sometimes too complicated
Findley's "Famous Last Words" is an excellent novel, although sometimes wordy. In reading other works by Findley I found many similarities in the plot. Findley truly mixes fact and fiction in a believable fashion. This book was set well before my time, but I found Findley's use of fiction was in all the right places. The main plot of the secret underbelly of a fascist conspiracy to take over Europe transpiring before, during, and after WWII that featured a writer named Maulberely was interesting but confusing. Famous Last Words is unique, and exciting, providing the realization that not everything is as it seems...

The Electric Moment
To begin with, every reader of this book should first read the poem "Hugh Selwyn Mauberly" by Ezra Pound, since this fictional persona of Pound's ends up beingthe central character of this fascinating book.The book works mainly on two levels: 1.) That of the intrigues, relationships and a certain "cabal" surrounding the rise of the Fascists and Nazis to power and their eventual defeat, all plausible (I did some research), and historically based, which makes the book the page-turner that it is. 2.) Theembedded questionings of human motivations and actions and meditation-provoking sections futher calling into question what ultimately comprises history.

This second aspect is what makes the book more than just your average historical thriller.Findley has a fine manner of putting events into a poetic, philosophical cast. - But the book meanders a bit much, and somehow lacks a certain panache and poetic/philosophical heft that detracts from its effectiveness-Perhaps this is inevitable in a book that weaves in and out of so many different intrigues, betrayals and deceptions while at the same time employing a prose style that is downright contemplative at times.In other words, the two levels don't quite seem to mesh as they should.

Aside from a little muddlednesss, however, this is a very fine piece of literature.It will having you turning the pages in excited bewilderment while at the same time pondering the questions it provokes about mankind and history.

There is an intriguing passage in the middle of Mauberly's narrative where he imagines a future historian, a "dread academic, much too careful of his research" who will completely botch things in his account of these times "because he will not acknowledge that history is made in the electric moment, and its flowering is all in chance....There is more in history of impulse than we dare to know."---So, can a "true" history be written after all?Or does a fictional account, such as this book containing a narrative written by a fictional character, have the famous last words?

Fascinating Novel
This is available in New York Stores. Fascinating novel of intrigue and suspense

Extraordinary Fiction!
Timothy Findley's new novel is the result of a poetic and limitless imagination which goes beyond the confines of national boundaries and places him securely among the most original creative writers in thetwentieth century. With a rich, brilliantly crafted plot, this novel ofgripping international intrigue is one of his best yet. Ingeniuscharacters and a fantastic plot make this novel a brilliant example ofFindley's genius.A captivating piece of fiction. ... Read more