Comments on: Canada, by Richard Ford

By: KevinfromCanada

KevinfromCanada — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 14:24:38 +0000

Brucie: Since you like Ford, I’d say give it another 60 pages. It is slow but there are a number of short story-like set pieces along the way. Ford does proceed from incident to incident in the book so if you could mentally adjust yourself to looking at it as “stories in sequence”, that might help. Then again, I did not like the novel that much so maybe abandoning it might be the best advice.

By: Ol Brucie

Ol Brucie — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 05:14:11 +0000

i’m 60 pages in and, wondering if I should continue, came to this page. I’m still wondering. I am a big Ford fan but both Lay of the Land and Canada are so slow of pace that I am losing my admiration. His short stories are still wonderful to read but perhaps because they are just that, short.

But what strikes me most about Canada is that the writing seems dull compared to his other work. Even in Lay of the Land there were several breathtakingly skillful sentences. Canada seems sort of ordinary.

By: KevinfromCanada

KevinfromCanada — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 20:44:21 +0000

Welcome back, Tom. Ford does have the same descriptive powers in this book that are present in the Bascombe novels — my problem was that I was comparing him to some other authors whom I very much admire and whom I think captured the same landscape more effectively. And I don’t think his central character is quite up to Bascombe.

By: Tom Cunliffe

Tom Cunliffe — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 19:57:59 +0000

I am a great admirer of Richard Ford, but based on the Bascombe novels. Ford’s writing has the power sometimes to stop me in my tracks and make me want to copy whole paragraphs into my journal. However, Canada is very different to the Bascombe novels and was probably in need of a good editor. Your review is excellent as always and makes me want to revisit the book.

By: coetsimer

coetsimer — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 06:52:18 +0000

Thanks for the information, Kevin. I live a little too far from Calgary to make the WordFest events. I did meet Ford once many years ago in Ottawa at a public reading just after publication of ‘Independence Day.’ His reading style did complement the ruminative rhythm of his text. He was also happy to talk about southern Alberta and Montana when I spoke to him afterward about my admiration for his novel ‘Wildfire.’ Ford is, as can be imagined from his work, a gentleman, and on all of the above grounds I’d recommend attendance at the WordFest event. I’d be interested in meeting Warren too. But alas! on another occasion, back on Canadian soil.

By: KevinfromCanada

KevinfromCanada — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 14:27:46 +0000

coestsimer: Many thanks for the extensive and thoughtful comment. I think it shows that those who have engaged more deeply with Ford in his previous works than I did are likely to find much more in Canada than I did as well.

As an aside, I should note that both Ford and Warren will be appearing in my hometown in Calgary in the next few weeks as part of WordFest programming — alas, not together so no chance to explore the similarities/differences at the same event. Ford is a special event Sept. 24, Warren part of the general festival which starts Oct. 9. They will someplete the southwestern Saskatchewan trifecta for WordFest — Guy Vanderhaeghe was part of it last year.

By: coetsimer

coetsimer — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 07:37:59 +0000

I am late weighing in on Ford’s ‘Canada’ but found the novel genuinely compelling. What has not been mentioned above is that Ford has returned to territory of his earlier (and shorter)novel ‘Wildfire’ which initially stirred my interest in this writer. ‘Wildfire’ is also told from the point of view of a teenage boy who, in ‘Wildfire”s case, witnesses his mother’s adultery while his father is off in the Montana mountains fighting forest fires. The bank robbery by Dell’s parents in ‘Canada’ is an even more distrurbing event, but the incidents in both books release a well-justified psychological (or existential, if you wish) insecurity that creates a sustaining tension throughout. I have generally found that Ford is especially adept at re-creating the anxiety of characters who find themselves in some unholy jam of their own or others’ making. Ford’s technique of slowing releasing the facts of his tales on this always taut narrative foundation carries ‘Canada’ through the late summer in Great Falls, the autumn in southwestern Saskatchewan and to an elegiac (but never sentimental) denouement in Windsor, Ontario. To me, the sole flaw in Ford’s book is the too-rapid disclosure of the “intriguing” background of Dell’s Saskatchewan guardian, which should have been released in hints and fragmentary evidence over several chapters rather than in a too-definitive narrative by the Métis Quarters. I’m surprised in all the reviews of Ford’s book I’ve seen to date that there hasn’t been any probing discussion of the portrayal of the two principal aboriginal characters. Without trying to put the cat among the pigeons, I would credit Ford for having bravely created two realisitic portraits of marginalized survivors of neglected communities. They would not appear that way if film producers hand-cuffed by prevailing political correctness ever get their hands on this work — and frankly I do see good film possibilities here since more perhaps that any previous Ford work, ‘Canada’ contains a dramatic plot carried by significant actions — robbery, murder — and not only by the ebb and flow of personal interactions and injustices. Towards the end of ‘Canada,’ Dell offers some rather obvious signposts to the inspirational antecedents to this work — ‘Heart of Darkness’, Hemingway’s Nick Adams stories, ‘The Great Gatsby.’ I found these late references actually add savour to what I had just read, and the book does create an atmosphere conducive to meditation. I certainly didn’t want to move on to the next book on my to-read pile — at least not the same day.

Since Dianne Warren’s ‘Cool Water’ has been mentioned, I note that this summer, on KFC’s blog recommendation, I read this work and enjoyed it immensely. Perhaps I will return to it in another blog comment in time. I would not suggest ‘Cool Water’ as a substitute exploration of the (apparently increasingly) fascinating literary landscape of southwestern Saskatchewan. Both ‘Canada’ and ‘Cool Water’ are worth reading in their own right.

By: Max Cairnduff

Max Cairnduff — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 16:35:59 +0000

A troubling final thought Kevin. Many writers, many great writers, take a few novels to find their feet. Sometimes a distinctive voice takes a while to emerge from the influences that inspired it.

By: KevinfromCanada

KevinfromCanada — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 16:28:26 +0000

Max: I think a number of the comments provide some balance to my opinion — if they don’t persuade you, I suspect you can give this one a miss. And I have already said I find Watson and Vanderhaeghe more to my taste in novels set in this part of North America. If you haven’t read any Ford, I’d certainly point to the Bascombe trilogy ahead of this one.

Good point about reputations. John Irving was good enough for a series of books that I bought and struggled through three or four before abandoning him two books back (including his most recent release). I’d also agree that sometimes it takes a few books for an author to find his or her momentum — alas, in the new publishing work I suspect that a cool reception to a debut book makes it unlikely that any more will be published.

By: Max Cairnduff

Max Cairnduff — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 16:21:41 +0000

Well argued Kevin. I must admit that this – “he simply isn’t interesting enough to sustain a book that extends to 418 page” put me completely off the book. I’m vastly more tempted by Larry Watson, or a return to Vanderhaeghe (which is overdue anyway).

Reputations have a momentum. Once one is acquired it rolls on a good few years and it can be hard to set oneself against it, or even if not against it to question it. Sadly that’s true for bad reputations too, which are also often undeserved but which can take on a life of their own independent of the actual work.