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The Low Life: Five Great Tales from Up and Down the River
Young readers will delight in this beautiful collector's edition containing five classic novels from Brian Doyle, the recipient of numerous literary awards. In Angel Square, young Tommy confronts the issue of racism after his best friends father is beaten up because hes a Jew. In Up to Low, young Tommy and Baby Bridget, the girl with the trillium-shaped eyes, discover that living, healing, and dying are not always what they seem. Easy Avenue, based on Great Expectations, finds Hubbo ODriscoll torn between his poor but fun friends and the rich but shallow kids. In Covered Bridge, the local covered bridge home to a wayward ghost and her lovelorn postman is threatened by development, and Hubbo must devise a strategy to save it. Finally, Uncle Ronald tells the story of Old Mickey, who is 112 years old. He cant remember what he ate for lunch today, but he can remember every detail of what happened one hundred years ago, when he and his mother ran away from his violent father to take refuge in the hills north of Ottawa. Brian Doyles] stories are funny beyond words and not occasionally heartbreaking in the same way. The Globe and Mail
400 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 1999
14 people want to read
About the author
Brian Doyle
74 books3 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
My very first piece of writing I published myself. I wrote in block letters, on the playground of Angelesca Square after a fresh snow fall, huge letters that airplanes could see, these words: MY BEST FRIEND GERALD IS A BASTARD.
For some reason (it was 1942) I wanted the Germans, who were coming any minute now to drop bombs on us, to know about Gerald. I'd overheard my parents talking sadly about Gerald being illegitimate and how sorry they felt. I thought if the Germans knew about Gerald and his problem and that he was my best friend they'd turn around and go home and not drop their bombs on us, here in Lowertown, Ottawa, Canada.
Of course, they never arrived (such was the power of radio those days) but they were the intended audience of my first sentence. First published sentence.
To communicate in clear, written sentences has been my vocation ever since.
In the middle of a teaching career I began dabbling in the genre of youthful narration in the tradition of Twain's Huck Finn. At the same time, I met the flower of the flock, the estimable, the eximious, the nonpareil editor and publisher, Patsy Aldana of Groundwood Books.
Together we have produced a dozen books and we're still cooking. The books are set in the Gatineau river valley and Ottawa. They are funny and sad! They are read by people of all ages though the narrators are young. The narrators are the age of the child who saw the Emperor's nakedness. They are clear eyed, candid, smart, unsophisticated and inexperienced.
The books have multiple layers, resulting in reluctant readers discovering them while elsewhere they are studied in university courses.
They have been translated in seven different languages and have been awarded national and international prizes too numerous to list here. They have been adapted to radio, stage and film. I have appeared in twenty performances of our book Angel Square on the stage of the National Arts Centre.
There has also been an opera and there's talk of a ballet. I have rinsed out my long-sleeved leotard and am waiting by the phone for the audition call.
I spend a lot of time at my cabin in the Gatineau Hills, sometimes with my four grandchildren and their parents, keeping in touch with the trees and the river and the rocks and keeping my ears and eyes open for those Luftwaffe bombers.
My very first piece of writing I published myself. I wrote in block letters, on the playground of Angelesca Square after a fresh snow fall, huge letters that airplanes could see, these words: MY BEST FRIEND GERALD IS A BASTARD.
For some reason (it was 1942) I wanted the Germans, who were coming any minute now to drop bombs on us, to know about Gerald. I'd overheard my parents talking sadly about Gerald being illegitimate and how sorry they felt. I thought if the Germans knew about Gerald and his problem and that he was my best friend they'd turn around and go home and not drop their bombs on us, here in Lowertown, Ottawa, Canada.
Of course, they never arrived (such was the power of radio those days) but they were the intended audience of my first sentence. First published sentence.
To communicate in clear, written sentences has been my vocation ever since.
In the middle of a teaching career I began dabbling in the genre of youthful narration in the tradition of Twain's Huck Finn. At the same time, I met the flower of the flock, the estimable, the eximious, the nonpareil editor and publisher, Patsy Aldana of Groundwood Books.
Together we have produced a dozen books and we're still cooking. The books are set in the Gatineau river valley and Ottawa. They are funny and sad! They are read by people of all ages though the narrators are young. The narrators are the age of the child who saw the Emperor's nakedness. They are clear eyed, candid, smart, unsophisticated and inexperienced.
The books have multiple layers, resulting in reluctant readers discovering them while elsewhere they are studied in university courses.
They have been translated in seven different languages and have been awarded national and international prizes too numerous to list here. They have been adapted to radio, stage and film. I have appeared in twenty performances of our book Angel Square on the stage of the National Arts Centre.
There has also been an opera and there's talk of a ballet. I have rinsed out my long-sleeved leotard and am waiting by the phone for the audition call.
I spend a lot of time at my cabin in the Gatineau Hills, sometimes with my four grandchildren and their parents, keeping in touch with the trees and the river and the rocks and keeping my ears and eyes open for those Luftwaffe bombers.
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July 12, 2025
I loved these stories, ostensibly for young adults, but beloved by and worthy of being read by readers of all ages. There is a warmth and humor here that is rare among storytellers, and the sylvan setting of the Gatineau River country of Quebec and Ontario is itself a character in some of these tales, excepting "Angel Square" and "Easy Avenue", both of which are decidedly urban in tone. Most of all these stories have heart and a sense of belonging, reflections of a place and time clearly beloved by the author. Highly recommended!
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