King Leary

Description

Percival Leary was once the King of the Ice, one of hockey's greatest heroes.  In the South Grouse Nursing Home, where he shares a room with Edmund "Blue" Hermann, the antagonistic and alcoholic newspaper reporter who once chronicled his career, learly looks back on his tumultuous life and times:  his days at the boys' reformatory when he burned down a house; the four mad monks who first taught him how to play hockey; and the time he executed the perfect "St. Louis Whirlygig" to score the winning goal in the 1919 Stanley Cup finals.

   Now all but forgotten, Leary is only a legend in his own mind until a high-powered advertising agency decides to feature him in a series of ginger ale commercials.  With his male nurse, his son, and the irrepressible Blue, Leary sets off for Toronto on one last madcap adventure as he revisits scenes of his glorious life as the King of the Ice.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

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Customer Reviews

"As the old mother would have it, I would not put a thief in my mouth to steal my brains."
Elderly former hockey star Percival Leary, born in one-nine-zero-zero, is contacted at his residence, the South Grouse Nursing Home, one day by a representative of "Canada's best-selling ginger ale beverage" and asked to travel to Toronto to do a commercial for the product. He agrees, taking a nurse and his roommate, Blue Hermann, former newspaper reporter who wrote about Leary (also known by his Indian nickname, Loofweeda). Leary spends a lot of time reminiscing about the antics of his youth, time spent in a reformatory, friend and fellow hockey player Manfred Armstrong Ozikean, glory days as King of the Ice, career ending injury, and two adult sons. The telling involves a lot of bragging, crazy words and humor, and a bit of sadness. The trip itself involves lots of surprises. And although I am not a fan of the sport (and could have done without the two-page dream sequence of Chapter 35), I really enjoyed this unusual, quirky-character-filled, overwhelmingly funny book chosen as the Canada Reads 2008 selection. Also good: Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand and The Perfect Mile by Neal Bascomb.

2008-05-28 | book snob (Oak Harbor, WA USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Quarrington and Dave Bidini Discuss "King Leary" on video
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R33F8VZVU4S2NL www.bookshorts.com/blog -- Congratulations to our friend and colleague Paul Quarrington, and kudos to champion Dave Bidini, in today's KING LEARY'S win on CANADA READS! There is so much great coverage of all the books (isn't soooo Canadian to be soooo even handed in awards stuff - LOL!!) that we just want to add our little piece, directly from the boys themselves.

Be sure to pick up the new Porkbellys Futures CD fronted by PQ with his long-time musical collaborator Martin Worthy and fab musicians Chas Elliott, Stuart Laughton, and Rebecca Campbell. www.porkbellys.com . PQ's next novel, The Ravine, is now in the stores. www.paulquarrington.org
The Ravine
(c) BookShorts Literacy Program; shot on location at Toronto Public Library, Pape Danforth Branch during FREEDOM TO READ WEEK.

2008-04-27 | BookShorts (Toronto Canada) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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One of the funniest books you will ever read
King Leary is an old man now, but in his heydey he was the king of the ice, leaving opponents clutching at air as he executed the famous St Louis Whirligig. He is tracked down by an androgyous advertising company hack to promote a brand of ginger ale, and together they commence a laughter-inducing trip to the big city to make ads.

This book will have you holding your stomach and wiping your eyes. It would be worth the read just to find out the real meaning of the King's Indian nickname, Loofweda, which he translates as "skates like the wind".

2000-02-18 | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 5

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Canadian Humour about a Canadian sport
King Leary is a very funny novel. I really enjoyed this book because its setting is right around where I live. The characters in this novel seemed real and alive. Paul Quarrington is an author who really gets involved in his work. This novel is a great recommendation to anyone who really enjoy's a good Canadian laugh!

Happy Reading and enjoy!

1999-12-09 (Otterville, Ontario, Canada) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 4

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Hilarious, very human, and touching
Thoroughly enjoyed this book. Based loosely on hockey as it was earlier in the 20th century. Written in the first person, a style of which Quarrington is a master (see also "Whale Music"). Also, like Whale Music, very touching at times.

1999-03-04 (Nanaimo, BC) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 5

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Cigar Box Banjo: Notes on Music and Life

Description

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The Ravine

Description

One morning in Don Mills, Phil and his brother Jay agree to let their friend Norman Kitchen tag along on an adventure down into a ravine — and what happens there at the hands of two pitiless teenagers changes all their lives forever. Years later the horrifying details are still unclear, smothered in layers of deliberate forgetting. Phil doesn’t even remember the names: Ted and Terry? Tom and Tony? It’s only when he descends into a crisis of his own that he comes to realize that perhaps, as he drunkenly tells a crisis line counsellor, “I went down into a ravine, and never really came back out.”

The Ravine is Phil’s book — we read it as he types it, in the basement apartment he’s called home since his wife kicked him out for having an affair with a make-up girl. As he writes, and then corrects what he’s written, we hear how he went from promising young playwright to successful, self-hating TV producer. We listen in on his disastrous late-night phone calls, and watch his brother (once a brilliant classical pianist) weep to himself as he plays Ravel and Waltzing Matilda in a desolate bar. The Ravine tells us all about the influence of The Twilight Zone on Phil’s work and his life — how it helped him meet his wife Veronica and then lose her, and how it led to the bizarre death of his friend, TV star Edward Milligan. Sometimes, when Phil’s drunk, a friend will look at what he’s written so far and call him on it — like when Jay tells Phil that he’s remembered it all wrong: that he was just as good as Phil at tying knots back when they were in the cubs.

Phil’s “ravine” is his attempt to make sense of things, to try to understand how everything went so wrong just as it seemed to be going so right. But The Ravine is also a Paul Quarrington novel, meaning that it’s hilarious and ingenious, quietly working its magic until the reader is at once heartbroken and hopeful. A darkly funny story about loss and redemption, The Ravine is also about how stories are made — how they can pull us out of disasters that seem too much for anyone to bear — and about how, sometimes, what we need to forgive ourselves for is not what we think it is at all.


From the Hardcover edition.

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Storm Chasers: A Novel

Description

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Customer Reviews

Dull book
I wasn't overly thrilled with this novel. It was a strange story and didn't hold my interest.

2010-03-13 (Lecanto, FL, US) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 2

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Disappointing
Not a good book AT ALL, and I'm sorry I bought it. I've actually donated it without even finishing it.

2007-10-30 | A. Rogers (USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 1

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The Spirit Cabinet

Description

After a long, slow climb out of the strip clubs of Europe, Jurgen and Rudolfo have hit the big time in Las Vegas, headlining a magic act as slick as their own buffed and usually half-naked bodies. Rudolfo is content orchestrating the spectacle and attempting to twin his soul with Jurgen's. But Jurgen hungers for more--and finds it in a mysterious collection of magician's paraphernalia that once belonged to Harry Houdini. With the knowledge he finds there, and his own faith in the unknown, Jurgen becomes the miracle worker of the Las Vegas strip. "Darkly comic, deeply sad, and always ironic" (Library Journal), The Spirit Cabinet takes dead aim at the place within us that yearns for miracles. "It is not a book about magicians and their pursuit of magic," wrote Alan Beaton in The National Post; "it is a book about human beings, and their pursuit of faith."

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Customer Reviews

A spirited novel
The Spirit Cabinet is a novel about magic and Las Vegas. At least that's the impression you get from the cover-the upper half is a dove cupped in a quick hand, perhaps ready to vanish. The bottom is a slice of the Las Vegas Strip. And the quote on the cover (this is the paperback) starts out by saying the book is "entirely magical." And it's right.

But this is a novel that's about a lot more than either magicians or casinos. It's about the search for knowledge. It's about losing sight of what's wonderful around us. And it's about regaining that sight.

Quarrington builds an interesting narrative structure. There are actually three stories unfolding at once: one in the literary present, one in the near past, and one that fills in the backstory. It's sort of like a magic trick where you watch something disappear while at the same time seeing it take shape and seeing it reappear. It's quite effective, and certainly works better than just trudging through the chronology.

Superficially, the novel is about a pair of flamboyant Teutonic headlining magicians named Jurgen and Rudolofo who seek to buy a collection of magical books and items that once belonged to Harry Houdini. Among the items is the Davenport Spirit Cabinet of the title, a poorly-gaffed (or is it?) teleportation device.

Reading the last paragraph, you might have rolled your eyes. Jurgen and Rudolfo...could they be a thinly-fictionalized send-up of Siegfried and Roy? And isn't that a rather obvious excuse for comedy?

Actually, Jurgen and Rudolfo are complex characters who get more development than anyone in the book. In the hands of a lesser writer, they might have been a cheap gag, but Quarrington animates them so convincingly that they come off as larger than life but not cartoonish.

Clearly Jurgen and Rudolfo aren't everyman protagonists that the man in the street can instantly identify with. No one in the book is: I really can't think of anyone that isn't freakish to one degree or another, or just a loser. But Quarrington, being a gifted novelist, touches on universal themes that help the reader identify with all of these characters (or at least most of them-the Criss Angel-ish Kaz is played mostly as an inept villain). There's plenty of subtext about the power and danger of belief, which might appeal to those with shaky belief structures, but there's an even more universal theme running under that: the search for the father. Every major character is dealing, in one way or another, with the failure or abdication of his/her father, or father figure. You don't notice at first, but thinking about the book you realize: that's the common thread. It's not done in a hokey way, either: there's no fetishization of victimhood, or lame angst. Instead, Quarrington tells stories that seem natural and personal.

2008-05-21 | writer, historian (Las Vegas, Nevada) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Spirit Fusion
"The Spirit Cabinet" uses the world of magicians and magic as an allegory for an exploration of self-worth. Much of the story takes place through the eyes of Rudolfo, who is the showman partner of Jurgan. The two come from colorful pasts. They are lovers as well as partners in a magic act. The novel contains several romantic graphic gay sexual encounters, one in a hail storm & one on an exercise bike. Rudolfo has a flare for working with animals, most notably Samson whose thoughts & fears are most humanely told. Samson is like the cowardly lion, although at times he's alternately bored or suffering from indigestion. The plot revolves around an auction where Jurgan buys a collection of books & magical equipment that belonged to Harry Houdini. This apparently contains secret magical information. We're not absolutely clear about what happens within the spirit cabinet, but Jurgen appears to undergo a transformation where he becomes increasingly less material, his body translucent, and less responsive to physical gravity. The culmination event reminded me of the idea of spirit fusion presented in The Urantia Book. Other magicians swirl in subplots. Preston the Adequate steals Jurgen & Rudolfo's lovely assistant Miranda. Envious magician Kaz tries to steal the Houdini collection. There is also a chauffeur from the African Dogon tribe who appears to have magical qualities. Quarrington peoples the novel with a collection of oddballs who all seem to question their self-worth. The quasi-mystical becomes magical and possible. Jurgen's climax where he seems to explode skyward into luminous bits is wonderful. The barriers to enjoyment come from the construction which is a bit hard to follow. One chapter is in the present, the next in flashback, and another in a dream. Sometimes it's hard to tell what's what, which may be the point. Overall, this is an interesting and entertaining tome, if a bit off-center. Enjoy!

2003-03-24 (Winterville, NC United States) | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 4

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difficult
I was a big fan of Whale Music and a couple other Quarrington books, so I jumped at the chance to buy this, not knowing it existed. I have tried for weeks to get into it, but so far... after six chapters, I am just not there. There is no doubt that Paul Quarrington is an amazing writer, but this story has just not grabbed me yet.

2002-06-20 | Flagship Recordings (Studio City, CA USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 3

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Good writing, a little hard to swallow
I have to say I enjoyed this book, but saw room for improvement. While Quarrington's descriptive and narrative style is quite tasty and the plot decidedly provocative and well-researched, I found the telling a little loose and frayed around the edges and the last portion of the book seemed rushed and clumsily tied together. It takes place in a believable world (if you can call Las Vegas believable) where magic (not mere illusions) exists and animals have emotional and intellectual maturity. These devices worked and their "unrealness" was "believable" and enjoyable. Yet, for example, when one's lover/partner starts to turn literally translucent, begins wasting away before your eyes and performing ACTUAL magic learned from ancient books & scrolls and paraphernalia, one would probably react with something other than sulking, annoyance and self-centered anger. This is the sort of unbeleivability that I disliked about this book, even for it's well drawn characters, good humor and surprising twists of plot. Also, some of the out-of-chronological-order storytelling left me confused and back-tracking rather than being able to watch the subplots eventually fall satisfyingly into place. In sum: Enjoyable but not wholly satisfying.

2001-06-27 | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 3

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This strange life
Superstar magicians and entertainers Jurgen and Rudolfo buy Houdini's collection of magicians' artifacts and paraphernalia, including the Davenport Spirit Cabinet, at an auction. As Jurgen delves into the collection, he drifts from his partner and lover, as well as becoming more disconnected from their show. Jurgen disappears, leaving Rudolfo adrift and depressed, until he ultimately follows his love. Shifting between the present and the past, Quarrington explores the notions of faith in each character's life. Maybe not as potent as Katherine Dunn's "Geek Love" or anything by John Irving, Quarrington's book is quite a remarkable story of oddball characters that compels the reader onward.

2000-08-28 | blissengine | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 4

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Civilization and Its Part in My Downfall

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