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A Hole in the Ground
It's 1998, and the Town of Beaverly is home to Canada's deepest but least exploited sinkhole. For years, Mayor Conrad Lemon's efforts to transform it into a tourist attraction have been unsuccessful, as have most of his plans to put Beaverly on the map. When an emergency thrusts Beaverly in the spotlight, Mayor Lemon is determined to make the most of it... no matter what. At his side (against her will) is Jemima MacNaught, assistant editor of The Beaverly Modicum, who finds herself forced to choose between loyalty to her profession and her town, though she's not sure she wants to stick with either.
With A Hole in the Ground, longtime Québec humor columnist and broadcaster Ross Murray has written a novel that's a tribute to small towns, small newspapers and the people who keep them running, through holes and high water.
http://www.blurb.ca/b/7234017-a-hole-...
With A Hole in the Ground, longtime Québec humor columnist and broadcaster Ross Murray has written a novel that's a tribute to small towns, small newspapers and the people who keep them running, through holes and high water.
http://www.blurb.ca/b/7234017-a-hole-...
273 pages, Paperback
Published July 17, 2016
7 people want to read
About the author
Ross Murray
5 books7 followersRoss Murray grew up in Antigonish, NS but has lived on the Canada-U.S. border in Stanstead, Quebec for over 30 years. For 11 of those years, he was editor/publisher of the weekly Stanstead Journal. He went on to write an award-winning humour column for The Sherbrooke Record and also recorded a bi-weekly radio piece for “Breakaway” on CBC’s Quebec Community Network. He has published three collections of his humour and a novel, A Hole in the Ground (2016). Also a playwright, Ross directed his original comedy All Together Now for Borderline Players in 2019 and Bride of Memphre in 2023. His work has also appeared at McSweeneys, Points in Case, Font Magazine, Havehashad and elsewhere.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 26, 2016
A humorous and heartwarming look at small-town life. The life of a small-town newspaper reporter particularly rings true.
October 3, 2018
Engaging, rip-roaring, bright and fun...just as reported in the Beaverly Modicum.
March 10, 2017
This was an entertaining read. I enjoy stories about small town characters, and Ross Murray's characters are well developed and quirky. The writing was humorous, the chronology easy to follow and the plot carried me along easily to the end. I had a few other books I was struggling with when I picked this up, and while it was slightly slow to start, once I got a few chapters in I was invested in the protagonist and put the other books aside until I finished this one. It's nice to find a book with characters you can care about that is on the humorous side without too much angst.
October 9, 2016
A little slow to get into, but worth the [minimal] effort to keep reading until the end, at page 273.
I am a big fan of humourous writing, especially Dave Barry, and Ross's columns have always reminded me of Barry's style, i.e., very, very funny. But, could Ross successfully transfer his humour to the novel format as Barry did? Well, the short answer is "Yes."
The story takes place in a small town, and features several very endearing characters, notably reporter Jemima MacNaught (and kudos to Ross for selecting a woman as his central character), the town's mayor Conrad Lemon, the crusty small town newspaper owner Leon Hubacek, and Julian, the young naturalist who arrives in Beaverly not to explore the almost-famous sinkhole, but rather to focus his attention on the local turtle species. Sprinkled throughout the novel are clever wordplays on names of local businesses and buildings (my personal favourite is the Corey Hart Centre for Continuing Education) designed to "up the cuteness ante" and attract tourists, as well as brief and hilarious forays into the history of Beaverly, originally called Beverly, but infested by Canada's favourite rodent, hence the name change.
The story itself is engaging and takes several surprising turns along the way. Stylistically, the chapters range from straight narrative to "archival entries" from The Beaverly Modicum newspaper, to marked-up drafts of newspaper articles, to the records of Bernadette Poulin, the Beaverly town manager (an art form unto themselves) and finally, to correspondence between the major characters.
While there is a fully-developed plot line, I'd say that the primary reason for undertaking A Hole in the Ground is to enjoy the interaction among the characters expressed in such amusing ways, and to revel in the peculiarities of the Canadian small town.
Note: there are several other books available with the same or similar titles, but accept no subsititutes!
I am a big fan of humourous writing, especially Dave Barry, and Ross's columns have always reminded me of Barry's style, i.e., very, very funny. But, could Ross successfully transfer his humour to the novel format as Barry did? Well, the short answer is "Yes."
The story takes place in a small town, and features several very endearing characters, notably reporter Jemima MacNaught (and kudos to Ross for selecting a woman as his central character), the town's mayor Conrad Lemon, the crusty small town newspaper owner Leon Hubacek, and Julian, the young naturalist who arrives in Beaverly not to explore the almost-famous sinkhole, but rather to focus his attention on the local turtle species. Sprinkled throughout the novel are clever wordplays on names of local businesses and buildings (my personal favourite is the Corey Hart Centre for Continuing Education) designed to "up the cuteness ante" and attract tourists, as well as brief and hilarious forays into the history of Beaverly, originally called Beverly, but infested by Canada's favourite rodent, hence the name change.
The story itself is engaging and takes several surprising turns along the way. Stylistically, the chapters range from straight narrative to "archival entries" from The Beaverly Modicum newspaper, to marked-up drafts of newspaper articles, to the records of Bernadette Poulin, the Beaverly town manager (an art form unto themselves) and finally, to correspondence between the major characters.
While there is a fully-developed plot line, I'd say that the primary reason for undertaking A Hole in the Ground is to enjoy the interaction among the characters expressed in such amusing ways, and to revel in the peculiarities of the Canadian small town.
Note: there are several other books available with the same or similar titles, but accept no subsititutes!
February 2, 2017
The novel takes quite a while to get going but in the meantime, there's plenty of absurd humor to amuse here: I particularly enjoyed the two Rashoman-like scenes in the novel, and Murray deftly creates images that contain both humor and pathos (An example from one of the early chapters: "The woman's shapeless grey T-shirt was emblazoned with an image of Steve Urkel and hung limply over an unfortunate pair of stirrup pants. The expression on her face said 'Everything up to this point had been a mistake.'")
The story--I'm not sure if there's enough to qualify as a plot--remains unfocused, careening from lampooning small-town government, the decline of print journalism, and environmentalism, while never bothering to explore any of these subjects in depth. For me, that made it difficult at times to see where the story was going, and discern why I wanted to travel there with it.
I really enjoy absurdist humor and there is lots here that I loved: Mayor Lemon and his quest for a Tim Horton's deserves a story of its own. The novel is at its best when the Mayor tries to impose his vision onto the town, facing criticism from the local newspaper editor and the petty rivalry of the volunteer fire chief. The novel is less successful with the love triangle that makes up a good chunk of the book.
The story--I'm not sure if there's enough to qualify as a plot--remains unfocused, careening from lampooning small-town government, the decline of print journalism, and environmentalism, while never bothering to explore any of these subjects in depth. For me, that made it difficult at times to see where the story was going, and discern why I wanted to travel there with it.
I really enjoy absurdist humor and there is lots here that I loved: Mayor Lemon and his quest for a Tim Horton's deserves a story of its own. The novel is at its best when the Mayor tries to impose his vision onto the town, facing criticism from the local newspaper editor and the petty rivalry of the volunteer fire chief. The novel is less successful with the love triangle that makes up a good chunk of the book.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews