The Fishers of Paradise

by Rachael Preston

In 1930s Hamilton, the boathouse community of Cootes Paradise is under siege: the squatters' shacks that line the shores of Dundas Marsh stand in the way of ambitious plans to make the city beautiful. Egypt Fisher and her mother are struggling to keep their lives together in the absence of her father, a con man neither of them has seen for six years. Into this mix walks a handsome drifter and the family falls under his spell, until Egypt’s father unexpectedly returns. Unhinged by jealousy and a harrowing brush with the local mafia, he reveals a family secret that sets Egypt's world off-kilter and poisons her relationship with her mother. When Egypt tries to turn the situation to her own advantage, her lies set in motion a series of events with devastating consequences

Project Bookmark, Canada Bookmark #16

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Book Club, Canada

368 pages, Paperback

First published August 19, 2012

About the author

Rachael Preston is the author of three novels. Tent of Blue, 2002, The Wind Seller, 2006, and The Fishers of Paradise, 2012. In 2013, The Fishers of Paradise won Arts Hamilton's inaugural Kerry Schooley Award for the book that celebrates and is most evocative of the city of Hamilton. Subsequently, Wolsak & Wynn released a reprint edition in April 2016. Project Bookmark Canada has honoured The Fishers of Paradise by making it Bookmark #16. The plaque will be unveiled on the Desjardins Trail along Hamilton's waterfront June 9, 2016.

A native of Yorkshire, England, Rachael has a Master’s degree in English Literature from Queen’s University, Kingston, and also studied at Emily Carr College in Vancouver. After graduation she worked freelance as an editor and copywriter and spent two years as an ESL professor at Asia University in Tokyo. She has taught English in Vancouver, London and the Czech Republic. More recently, she spent eleven years teaching in college and university creative writing programmes. In 2001 Rachael won the Arts Hamilton Literary Award and was nominated for the Journey Prize. In 2006 she won The City of Hamilton Arts Award, Literary, for The Wind Seller and contribution to the arts in that city.

Currently Rachael lives in Nanaimo, BC.

Reviews

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Fishers of Paradise by Rachael Preston and set in Cootes Paradise in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada in the 1930s is brilliantly written! I love the vivid descriptions of the appearance and movement of the characters, the landscape, trails and homes.

I was immediately drawn into this story of the Fisher family with Egypt, her young brother Aidan, their mother Laura and their dog George.

Rachel Preston expertly weaves trials, tribulations, celebrations and surprises in this amazing coming of age story during the Great Depression. I really enjoyed The Fishers of Paradise and give it 5 stars.

Special thanks to Rachel Preston for writing this wonderful book and giving me an autographed copy in exchange for an honest review. Thanks to James Street North Books, Wolsak & Wynn Publishers and also Goodreads.

[Tricia Dower · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautifully written novel full of fascinating history and compelling characters. I lived near Hamilton, Ontario, for a few years but had never heard of the Cootes Paradise boathouse community that was there in the 1930s. Rachel's rich sensory details bring the people and places in this book to vivid life.

[Kat Drennan-Scace · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really great fictional account of Hamilton in the 1930s. The book focuses on the Fisher family who live in one of the ramshackle houses that line Cootes Paradise. Laura and her kids are struggling to make ends meet but surviving, until her husband Ray comes back into the picture after a six year absence (and also making an appearance are a handsome drifter...). I liked how human the characters were - how they all had their bad habits and choices, and how they had to live with them. It was a really neat snapshot of Hamilton, too. She mentioned streets and landmarks that I know which was cool to read about.

If you're interested in historical fiction, family drama or Hamilton reads - this is a good one! (& we're discussing with my book club tomorrow at Terryberry - drop by!)

[David Eden · Rating 5 out of 5]

This beautiful and unassuming novel follows the Fisher family who live in a boathouse on the edge of Hamilton during the Depression. While Laura, the mother, struggles to maintain her dignity in spite of outside circumstances, she reflects on how the choices she made when young have affected her life and the lives of her children. I chose the book for the setting, as I am familiar with these places from my childhood, but the story is so well written, the characters so believable, that I was hooked. Just when I thought the novel would go one way, it went in a different direction. I loved it, and I highly recommend it.

[Jennifer Davy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gave me mixed feelings, I enjoyed the historical look at Hamilton especially Cootes Paradise. The actual story was not my favorite but not because it was not well written, that it was but the sadness of the story left me unsure.

[Lorraine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Starts off okay, but the final third was not great at all. The characters are caricatures, though sometimes they're not sure which caricature (like the grandmother, who swings from cantankerous bitch to doting granny in a flash). There's no real story arc, the characters don't really grow or learn. The two kids act both younger and older than their given ages, depending on what the author needs them to be in the scene. The father is un-redeemable and serves no purpose except spoiler of everyone else's happiness. (Same with most of the bullies in the book, as well as the two thugs Egypt sometimes falls in with. What was the point of Joey?) I read the book under the impression that it was a good illustration of what life might have been like in that specific community, but I feel like it was a story from some other book forced to fit into this context for the purpose of some grant. The local references felt like "name-dropping" more than providing setting and context. Also, it felt like the author tried to fit in as many horrible life experiences as possible. I did not get a sense of the place.
Dialogue was not realistic but slipped into cliche, narration and plot were chopping, and the story just didn't keep my attention. I didn't care for any of the characters.
Take a pass on this one and read The People and the Bay: A Social and Environmental History of Hamilton Harbour instead. Even though it's non-fiction, it is much more engaging.

[Susie Moloney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rachael Preston's new book is all about choices--particularly the choices we make rashly--and then the long hard road of living with them.

The first domino falls way back in the day, when Laura Fisher makes her first pivotal choice. When the story begins, she and her two children are living with the consequences of that choice, and in this case there is no 'for better or for worse,' it's all been for worse. There are few pleasures in Laura Fisher's life, and just when there might be a chance for her to start over, to get a little happiness, the dreadful choice from the past shows up on her doorstep in the form of Ray Fisher, Laura's sometimes husband. He worms his way into the heart of his nearly-grown daughter, starved as she is for the male attention, and falls himself, surprisingly, for the son he's never met. It's Laura he can't melt, a result of the choices that he's made.

There are no real bad guys in The Fishers of Paradise. Even Ray Fisher, who is easy to hate in the beginning, manages to make us understand him, and eventually, makes us wish things had been different for him. He, however, like all of the characters in this wonderful novel, have made their choices long before, and the only hope left is that the next generation makes better choices. Even still, when the cycle is finally broken for the children, it's heart-breaking.

This is a wonderful, beautifully written book. Rachael Preston is an amazing writer. This is a story that utterly absolutely OWNED me on every page. It's must read.

I can't wait until she writes another.

[Deborah Sowery-Quinn · Rating 3 out of 5]

At the outset I didn't think I was going to like this book, it started with such a heavily descriptive passage, it read like an essay in which someone was trying too hard to fit in adjectives. However, that was fleeting & I quickly got into the story & the characters. That being said, the book resulted in mixed reviews at my book club: some HATED the characters, others liked them. Since the setting is not far from where I live, the historical aspect of the story was a real plus. The main character is Egypt, a young woman who lives in poverty with her mother and brother in a boathouse community destined to be eradicated. Her father has been absent for years but re-enters their lives along with a young man who at first uses a false identity. The story is about Egypt and her mother and their relationships with the two men in addition to the connection Egypt makes with her maternal grandparents. I thought the character of Egypt was spunky & likeable & the story moved along well & kept me interested.

[Sylvia McNicoll · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hamilton history buffs as well as anyone who enjoys evocative settings will love the rich detail and layering in this story. The Cootes Paradise boathouse community as well as the Fishers who live there are in an uncomfortable transition circa 1930. Sixteen year old Egypt crushes on the same stranger with whom her mother begins a love affair. Errant dad and husband shows up at a most inconvenient time, continuing with his dangerous illicit activities. Download it from Amazon.com for a mere $5.99.

[Steven Buechler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Preston has mixed the right combination of historical and coming-of-age novel together here. Her words are vivid – not only in describing scenes but also in expressing emotions of her characters. There is at times a clear feeling between what a character is feeling and the reader experiencing it themselves. This is a book that should be read at leisure – not to be raced through- in order to appreciate the carefully chosen words and phrases that Preston has used.

http://tinyurl.com/jt5wkh9

[Corinne Wasilewski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Preston is a lovely writer and I've enjoyed all her books, but, I have to say this is my favourite story to date. The plot is well done, the pacing perfect and the characterization impressive. The cast is quite large but even the minor characters are not stock or predictable. I'm still marveling at my response to Laura Fisher and the shocking choice she makes in the end. Preston worked it in a way that Laura is blameless. How amazing is that?

[Jeanette · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read that takes you through through the darkest of nights and back into the light of living with hope without mincing either the darkness or the light. Unpredictability makes it a most difficult book to set aside for tasks that need doing but lose their importance as the story takes over.

[Sue Ramsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great recreation of Hamilton, Ontario in the 1930's. I enjoyed many things about this book, the atmosphere, the characters, the beautiful language and the plot. I think what I loved most about it though is that it has somehow captured much of the spirit of Hamilton. A magical read!

[Wendy Platt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good historical fiction read.

[Jen Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 stars. Loved the setting, the characters, and the historical period.

[Arlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book

[J.P. Willson · Rating 4 out of 5]

One thing I rarely do before reviewing a book is read the reviews of others. In this instance I did- for my own reasons, that really is not relevant for the sake of the review. I was although quite surprised at the range of the opinions voiced. Something I feel has actually hurt the overall rating of the book unnecessarily.
Having said all that, this is a well written tome with a storyline that did keep me engrossed in the story throughout. The sadness I felt for this family was genuine and I regard this as a compliment to the author. To be able to evoke such strong emotion in a reader is indeed a difficult task for a writer and for me reading as much as I do, this quality in a fellow author is something I rarely come across to such depth.
Having grown up in this part of Canada though not in the time-frame indicated, was just the icing on the cake for me.
Certainly recommended.

[Heidi Madden · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book took me forever to get through. The first part has some kind of brutal scenes which turned me off. As well it contains characters that I didn't love so I struggled with it. The setting, in Hamilton's Boat House Community was historically very appealing and super interesting to learn about. I loved reading about my city and how things were nearly 100 years ago. I spent a fair bit of time driving around Victoria Park and the surrounding streets where a lot of the story is set while reading the book. I've actually purchased a copy because I can see myself going back to it and by the time I finished I wanted more but actually getting to that point took a very long time.

[Doris Thomsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fabulous story! Even though this is fiction, Rachel uses the true story of the Cootes Paradise boathouse community as the basis of her book. She uses the locations of Hamilton and it's history.
I loved this book.

[Meg - A Bookish Affair · Rating 3 out of 5]

By now, you guys probably know that I like dysfunctional family stories. "The Fishers of Paradise" definitely falls firmly in the dysfunctional family camp. The Fishers are a mess. Laura, the mother, is just trying to scrape by. Her husband, Ray, is totally an absentee father. He's also very mean and controlling. Egypt, the daughter, is almost grown and is only beginning to realize the secrets that her family has hidden from her. Aiden is much younger and isn't ready to make sense of everything everyone in his family is or is not doing.

The family lives in a small Canadian town in the 1930s where everyone is sort of struggling in their own ways. Everyone in their town lives in houseboats, which I thought was really cool. I had never heard of Cootes Paradise before I read this book but it seems like a really interesting place. I always enjoy armchair traveling.

There wasn't really any one character that I liked in the book, except for maybe Aiden. Laura has made some really bad choices in her life and doesn't seem to learn that it's not too late for her to do things differently to better support her children. I found myself getting very frustrated at her. I really wanted her to change and start making some more mature decisions instead of running away. Ray just did not do anything for me. Again, he never really wised up and matured. Egypt seemed a lot younger than she was supposed to be in the book. I really wish that we could have seen her acting a little more like the almost adult she is supposed to be! I think that I would have liked her character a little bit better then!

This book was written in the third person, present tense point of view, which made for a very interesting reading experience for me. I think this can be a really hard point of view to write in. It took me awhile to get used to it; at first, it felt very clunky. There were a couple occasions where the point of view changed, which kind of took me out of the book.

The writing itself is good. Even though I did not care for many of the characters, Preston had a great way of making you feel for these characters who were in really tough situations. I definitely appreciated that.

[Elsa DeGelder · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't get very far in this book before abandoning it in irritation. I wanted to like it; it was a book my friend had chosen for our book club in good faith, and it sounded promising enough in the synopsis.
And then I started reading it.
I laughed aloud in incredulity when that guy (I suppose he was meant to be The Handsome Stranger In Their Midst) helpfully asked about the neighbouring town and Egypt said, conversationally: "It was an important manufacturing centre and shipping port before they built the railway." Followed by "The houses and mills are all built with local stone. It's very beautiful." Which was a little heavy-handed on incorporating research into a story, I thought, but maybe that's just me.
And the behaviour of the girl and her younger brother (all that eye-rolling and those smart-aleck cracks) that seemed far more in keeping with what you'd see on a modern day sitcom than the 1930s that the story was supposed to be set in.
I guess lazy writing getting published brings out the curmudgeon in me.
Also, how convenient/mercenary that she received grants for subject matter. Which just feels like cheating to me. She must've been laughing (possibly in incredulity, even) all the way to the bank.

[Sara · Rating 1 out of 5]

Reading these latest reviews, I can help but wonder if we all read the same book. I had to force my way to 35% and finally just gave it up. This book is terrible. It just dragged on and on in it's blandness. I rarely give books this low a rating but I just don't see what all the hype is about. The reviews made it sound like a fantastic read and I'm left disappointed.

[Michaela · Rating 1 out of 5]

I almost didn't finish this book, it was very slow and the ending was very blah.

[Barb Halliday · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book! A lovely story, full of detail. I read most of the book in my backyard with fresh air and I encourage everyone to pick this book up for a nice summer read.

[Frida Wahbeh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite interesting especially if you're familiar with the area. However, the ending is totally underwhelming.