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Covered Bridge
Winner of the Governor General's Award and the Mr. Christie's Book Award
In this award-winning paean to country life we find Hubbo O'Driscoll, whom we first met in Easy Avenue, now living in the lower Gatineau with his guardian aunt and uncle. When the local covered bridge -- home to a wayward ghost and her lovelorn postman -- is threatened by development, Hubbo must devise a strategy to save it.
141 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 1, 1990
1 person is currently reading
19 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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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 25, 2019
I love the way Brain Doyle writes, he carries you away getting lost in the characters and the story and before you know it you have come to the end. This is a little gem!
March 8, 2012
What a strange book. My cover is different- mine is a hardcover book with a covered bridge on it. I have an intense interest in covered bridges, past and present, and that's why I bought this book. The story takes place in Ontario, Canada in 1950 and is narrated by a boy named Hubbo O'Driscoll. He has recently moved to this farming community with his guardians. The covered bridge may be haunted by a woman who jumped from it to her death in the swollen waters below. Regardless, the farmers are hired by a French contractor to build a new iron bridge nearby and then tear the old wooden bridge down. Hubbo and Mr. Driscoll are determined that this doesn't happen to the old bridge, which made me feel warm towards them. One quote I really like: "In my travels I have learned that without a past, we have no future." The author uses a lot of alliterative names and some of the book reads like a tall-tale; the characters are certainly unique. And the chapters are episodic.
October 21, 2012
An interesting book, though I'm not sure who would read it these days. There are so many concepts so foreign to younger readers I would think they may need to read it with a grandparent to have attitudes and behaviours of small town early fifties explained to them. I also thought it strange Hubbo was the only child in this place. I found the chapter names being written as tabloid newspaper headings amusing. The characters were an interesting mix and small town solutions to problems seemed plausible.
October 23, 2009
I only read the first few chapters of this book and had to stop. Not bad, I was just in a romantic mood when I started it and there was not enough romance for me. It inspired me to start writing my own story which I am still writing. A similar plot line, with hauntings but mine is more intense and more intense. Rudy's Junkyard = LOVE. :)
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews