About this title: This novel exploring notions of fate and identity is an early work by one of modern Canada's most celebrated writers, the first in his Deptford Trilogy. The story portrays the complicated fortunes of four characters linked together by a snowball thrown on December 27, 1908 in the Canadian town of Deptford: Boy Staunton (who threw it), Mary Dempster (who was struck by it), Paul Dempster (who was born prematurely as a result), and Leola Cruikshank (who marries Staunton years later). The story is narrated by a schoolteacher named Dunstan Ramsay, who is involved in various ways with all these ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books
Date Published: 1977
ISBN-13:9780140167948ISBN:0140167943
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Clean, unmarked, some yellowing from age. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 272 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books
Date Published: 1977
ISBN-13:9780140043877ISBN:014004387X
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Cover has minor wear, no folds or creases, pages are clean and unmarked. (US). Glued binding. 272 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Very Good. 0140167943 Great condition Soft Cover book, clean pages, mild creases to spine, light edge/corner rubs, this book is GREAT! Shop & Save With US. read more
Edition: Later Printing
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books, U.K.
Date Published: 1980
ISBN-13:9780140043877ISBN:014004387X
Description: Good. No Jacket. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. Creasing to wraps. Small tear at bottom of spine. Light shelf wear. Solid copy with clean pages. read more
"This is the first book of The Deptford Trilogy, and it can be read by itself as well. The book, the first I've read from Canada, is a novel ideas which follows the life of a boy from a small town. In his adult life in Toronto and elswhere, he finds his fate mingled with that of other erstwhile denizens of the same town. The narrative, a little too short, contains loose ends that don't come together to the last pages, so it's a good, even read. Solid writing moves the story and forms the core of the book."
"Recommended to me by a very nice librarian with a wild mustache when I said I was looking for something sort of like Margaret Atwood. He also compared it to John Irving, which I think is incredibly apt.
Very very good, with an incredibly disturbing and wonderful ending (that echoes the beginning). The characters are fascinating but also have weight and don't just feel merely quirky or symbolic - it succeeds at the important double job of being artistically complex and being a good story.
It's about agency, roles, and using symbolism and narrative to interpret life, among other things.
It also has charming pages-long monologues in the manner of Brothers Karamazov and gets away with it.
Such a complex little story that it would be worth rereading! I hadn't ever heard of the author but I will have to read more by him."
"One of the better books of Davies that I read sometime ago. I had just written a book myself about two alter-ago male characters seeking redemption and an early reader told me that it smacked of The Fifth Business - so I read the Davies version. I am gald that there were only faint parallels but the Davies version made me question some of the shallower parts of my book ( which is still to seek publication)."
"It's very long, and I didn't finish it, but ... I thoroughly enjoyed Books 1 and 2 of the trilogy. The 2nd book is noteworthy for those of us who are interested in psychology. I thought the discussion of theatre, spectacle and circus was really interesting (and made me want to read "Water for Elephants" which I also enjoyed). I became very interested in Davies from reading this book, and hope to read his plays at some point. He's a former actor."
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