What do you think?
Rate this book
Summer Gone
David Macfarlane’s Summer Gone introduces a writer of incandescent literary skill and beautifully evokes the sometimes painful relationship between father and son.
When Bay Newby is twelve he is sent north for the first time, and he falls in love with the life of ritual, beauty, and stark privilege of summer camp. Then the death of his baby sister calls him home, and it will be twenty-three years before his next “perfect summer.” The summer he spends with his young son will contain loss also, but also discovery and redemption. Summer Gone is a novel of layered experience, of life, death and love as seen through the eyes of a young boy as he grows into a wiser–and more haunted–man.
When Bay Newby is twelve he is sent north for the first time, and he falls in love with the life of ritual, beauty, and stark privilege of summer camp. Then the death of his baby sister calls him home, and it will be twenty-three years before his next “perfect summer.” The summer he spends with his young son will contain loss also, but also discovery and redemption. Summer Gone is a novel of layered experience, of life, death and love as seen through the eyes of a young boy as he grows into a wiser–and more haunted–man.
287 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
6 people are currently reading
244 people want to read
About the author
David MacFarlane
38 books12 followersDavid MacFarlane is a Toronto, Canada author, editor and magazine writer.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
April 5, 2024
Biggest regret? The time I wasted reading this book that I can never get back. Finished the last 60 pages today which, I must admit, I had to skim through. The only reason I kept with it was because someone said the resolution at the end was great, surprising, or something like that? Were we reading the same book? Don't bother. I agree with some of the other readers' comments about how confusing this book is re. the constant switching of character's stories, the jumping back and forth in time, very annoying...Also glad I got it at Goodwill for less than a dollar :) I can't believe this book was shortlisted for a Giller prize. I won't read any of his other books, that's for sure.
August 21, 2018
You know those beginnings of chapter novels, in which the author sets the scene describing the terrain, the weather, the atmosphere? Summer Gone contains whole chapters like that. At times, you want to yell, "Oh do just get on with it!" But, as they say, patience is a virtue. And, in the case of this novel, its reward is substantial. Reading Summer Gone in summer in New York City, I was drawn back some 60 years to my summer camp and later my daughter's, the sight of ground-pine growing next to shady dirt paths, the musty smell of camp cabins at the beginning of summer, the sound of old, dried leaves crunching underfoot, campers singing "Oh you can't get to heaven" on the camp bus. Summer Gone evokes all those sights, those long-lost sounds, that campfire smell.
The central metaphor of the novel is embodied in the technique for rowing a canoe. As Bay's camp counselor, Lark, says, "If you only use a forward stroke, if you just pull through the water, you can go fast, but you'll end up suddenly way over here. . . if you only use the pry of the stroke, you get stuck back here, back in the past and you can't get anywhere. . . . So that's the question . . . . How do you hold onto the line in the middle? How do you find a balance . . . ." If the novel is about the balance between past and present, the thrust forward and the pull backward (the correction), it is also about the ineffable gaps in our lives. Just as the young Bay plays the Beatles' "All My Loving" over and over, not for its beat or its melody but for the exquisite pause in the middle before the melody rushes back in, so the novel returns to the silent pause between action and reaction. There is the world before Bay's parents die and the world after, the world before Bay's affair and the world after. There are the cottage summers that really took place, decades apart, and the cottage summers Bay makes up year after year. There is the "mental hiccup" of Bay's son Caz's learning disability, that inexplicable break. The lucky ones in Summer Gone are the characters such as Felicity Larkin, who go to their summer cottages year after year, swimming in the same spot every summer morning, going through the before and after routines of cottage life: arriving, taking down the shutters, putting in kindling; leaving, putting the shutters back up, restoring the cabin to its hibernating state. . . . the ones who get to dip in their oars, forward and back, over and over, imprinting the lessons of rowing deep into their psyches. Not everyone has the good fortune of those annual summer treks to camp or to cottages. But even those who go only a handful of times, carry those sensory memories always. We just need a book such as Summer Gone to bring us back there.
The central metaphor of the novel is embodied in the technique for rowing a canoe. As Bay's camp counselor, Lark, says, "If you only use a forward stroke, if you just pull through the water, you can go fast, but you'll end up suddenly way over here. . . if you only use the pry of the stroke, you get stuck back here, back in the past and you can't get anywhere. . . . So that's the question . . . . How do you hold onto the line in the middle? How do you find a balance . . . ." If the novel is about the balance between past and present, the thrust forward and the pull backward (the correction), it is also about the ineffable gaps in our lives. Just as the young Bay plays the Beatles' "All My Loving" over and over, not for its beat or its melody but for the exquisite pause in the middle before the melody rushes back in, so the novel returns to the silent pause between action and reaction. There is the world before Bay's parents die and the world after, the world before Bay's affair and the world after. There are the cottage summers that really took place, decades apart, and the cottage summers Bay makes up year after year. There is the "mental hiccup" of Bay's son Caz's learning disability, that inexplicable break. The lucky ones in Summer Gone are the characters such as Felicity Larkin, who go to their summer cottages year after year, swimming in the same spot every summer morning, going through the before and after routines of cottage life: arriving, taking down the shutters, putting in kindling; leaving, putting the shutters back up, restoring the cabin to its hibernating state. . . . the ones who get to dip in their oars, forward and back, over and over, imprinting the lessons of rowing deep into their psyches. Not everyone has the good fortune of those annual summer treks to camp or to cottages. But even those who go only a handful of times, carry those sensory memories always. We just need a book such as Summer Gone to bring us back there.
December 2, 2015
In this novel MacFarlane explores the idea of summers in cottage country and three generations of father and son relationships. It is also about time, how we try to capture and hold on to it despite its fleeting nature and how we try to go back and retain what it has meant to us.
Bailey Newling, (called Bay), loves the summers. As a boy growing up in small town in Cathcart Ontario, he dreamed of summers in the northern cottage country. He is a lonely boy who had only one true childhood friend, lost to him at a young age. As Bay reminisces, we see him grow older and move to Toronto where he has a job editing a magazine, marries his wife Sarah and has a son named Caz. Caz appears to have a learning disability and Bay finds this frustrating and at times annoying; he has no patience with his son and they remain distant from each other.
Bay also becomes disenchanted with his work. He once edited a respected literary journal which has a new owner and has morphed into a lifestyle magazine. What keeps him going through these disappointments in his life are his dreams of summer, summers of his imagination that he has not experienced but wished he had. He is enthralled by their myths, their possibilities and their promises. These summers of his are filled with crickets and loons, the creosoted stained walls of cabins, the granite shores, night time campfires and especially, canoes. They all flow from his one experience at camp, where he met Peter Larch an eighteen year old counsellor who was an expert canoeist.
Later in life, Bay now divorced and in poor physical condition because of poor health habits, takes his son on a canoe trip. Canoeing over the water, struggling through the portages and reminiscing by the campfire, he tries to connect with the son from whom he has been estranged for so many years. Initially the trip is engulfed in great gulfs of silences but a signature event finally allows them to connect.
This story is beautifully written and reveals Bay’s life over three summers. The first, when he was twelve and first attended camp and met Peter Larch; the second when he and his wife Sarah and son Cruz rented a cottage near the old campsite, and the final summer when Caz was twelve and he and his father shared a canoe trip.
During these reminisces, time flows back and forth and folds in on itself. Memories overlap, starting in one summer and ending in another. Stories are included within stories. Critics have praised MacFarlane for the way he has described time, but I found it distracting and at times annoying. The shifts in time are not always marked by spaces or chapters and it is a style that takes some accommodation on the part of the reader.
But I cannot fault the writing. McFarlane beautifully evokes the northern landscape of cottage country, the fresh water rivers and lakes, the pines and the weathered docks. MacFarlane even points a wary finger at the future, warning about uncontrolled developers hacking away at this pristine environment which will be ruined forever if care is not taken.
A lovely book, well written and an enjoyable read.
Bailey Newling, (called Bay), loves the summers. As a boy growing up in small town in Cathcart Ontario, he dreamed of summers in the northern cottage country. He is a lonely boy who had only one true childhood friend, lost to him at a young age. As Bay reminisces, we see him grow older and move to Toronto where he has a job editing a magazine, marries his wife Sarah and has a son named Caz. Caz appears to have a learning disability and Bay finds this frustrating and at times annoying; he has no patience with his son and they remain distant from each other.
Bay also becomes disenchanted with his work. He once edited a respected literary journal which has a new owner and has morphed into a lifestyle magazine. What keeps him going through these disappointments in his life are his dreams of summer, summers of his imagination that he has not experienced but wished he had. He is enthralled by their myths, their possibilities and their promises. These summers of his are filled with crickets and loons, the creosoted stained walls of cabins, the granite shores, night time campfires and especially, canoes. They all flow from his one experience at camp, where he met Peter Larch an eighteen year old counsellor who was an expert canoeist.
Later in life, Bay now divorced and in poor physical condition because of poor health habits, takes his son on a canoe trip. Canoeing over the water, struggling through the portages and reminiscing by the campfire, he tries to connect with the son from whom he has been estranged for so many years. Initially the trip is engulfed in great gulfs of silences but a signature event finally allows them to connect.
This story is beautifully written and reveals Bay’s life over three summers. The first, when he was twelve and first attended camp and met Peter Larch; the second when he and his wife Sarah and son Cruz rented a cottage near the old campsite, and the final summer when Caz was twelve and he and his father shared a canoe trip.
During these reminisces, time flows back and forth and folds in on itself. Memories overlap, starting in one summer and ending in another. Stories are included within stories. Critics have praised MacFarlane for the way he has described time, but I found it distracting and at times annoying. The shifts in time are not always marked by spaces or chapters and it is a style that takes some accommodation on the part of the reader.
But I cannot fault the writing. McFarlane beautifully evokes the northern landscape of cottage country, the fresh water rivers and lakes, the pines and the weathered docks. MacFarlane even points a wary finger at the future, warning about uncontrolled developers hacking away at this pristine environment which will be ruined forever if care is not taken.
A lovely book, well written and an enjoyable read.
November 2, 2011
A wonderfully well written book, at times told by an unnamed un-introduced narrator who’s identity we see slowly looming throughout the novel, at times told by Bay Newling the lead character whose life the story revolves around. He tells of the important summers of his life spent north amongst the cottages and inlets of the Waubano Reaches and of why summer itself holds such relevance for him.
David Macfarlane uses a unusual narrative technique, the story meanders through time and theme as Bay tells of the stories that make up his life but drifts between one summer and another, merging his stories and flashing back and forth. He tells of his parents lives seen through his childish eyes, the lives of his wife and son and the way his actions have and will affect them. The narration centres upon certain key events in Bays life, a childhood school friend, a summer spent at camp, a boyhood affection for a counsellor, a vacation with his family, a trip with his son, a mistake made once. Throughout the tale whether Bay or the nameless someone are doing the telling, the themes are consistent, summers, canoeing, family, natures fragility and strength, guilt, death and remorse.
Each key event is alluded to, circled around, left alone, returned to, abandoned and finally - although not fully - explained. The reader is left to piece together the fragments of the stories that have been told out of sequence but in such a way that the reader is left with a pictures of events that is multi layered and filled with more insight than would occur if the story were told in a linear fashion. Each event, some major, some relatively small is given such depth of meaning by Bay and described over and over again in such different ways with different words that the reader is drip fed knowledge upon knowledge to refer back to later. It is an effective technique well employed, the whole novel is beautifully written.
David Macfarlane uses a unusual narrative technique, the story meanders through time and theme as Bay tells of the stories that make up his life but drifts between one summer and another, merging his stories and flashing back and forth. He tells of his parents lives seen through his childish eyes, the lives of his wife and son and the way his actions have and will affect them. The narration centres upon certain key events in Bays life, a childhood school friend, a summer spent at camp, a boyhood affection for a counsellor, a vacation with his family, a trip with his son, a mistake made once. Throughout the tale whether Bay or the nameless someone are doing the telling, the themes are consistent, summers, canoeing, family, natures fragility and strength, guilt, death and remorse.
Each key event is alluded to, circled around, left alone, returned to, abandoned and finally - although not fully - explained. The reader is left to piece together the fragments of the stories that have been told out of sequence but in such a way that the reader is left with a pictures of events that is multi layered and filled with more insight than would occur if the story were told in a linear fashion. Each event, some major, some relatively small is given such depth of meaning by Bay and described over and over again in such different ways with different words that the reader is drip fed knowledge upon knowledge to refer back to later. It is an effective technique well employed, the whole novel is beautifully written.
June 18, 2017
This is an absolutely beautiful book. A multi-generational story about a family in Canada, experiencing life both in the city and at the cottage, with their summer experiences showing us what their lives were like.
The stories intertwine, as Bay takes us through his story, and trails off into sub-histories, they all come back and meet up around a cottage that acts as the common thread. I would have liked to see Bay talk about his father, but then perhaps have taken a daughter instead of a son to the campsite to make it a little less male-dominated. I also found that the chapters were VERY long. I read a trade paperback version and some chapters were 50+ pages long. Although I understand why due to the nature of the storytelling, I also have a job and kids, constant daytime distraction and exhaustion at night. It was hard to find time to get through a full chapter all at once, and that hurt the flow of the story. So, I took a star off for male-dominance and long chapters. However, this really is a beautifully told story with scenes that really take you outside in a canoe, or by the fire, with Bay.
*Warning: If you have recently quit smoking, pass on this one. I don't think I've ever read such a wonderful description of the joys of smoking in such detail, not once, but a few times in this book.
Recommended for beach and cottage reading!
The stories intertwine, as Bay takes us through his story, and trails off into sub-histories, they all come back and meet up around a cottage that acts as the common thread. I would have liked to see Bay talk about his father, but then perhaps have taken a daughter instead of a son to the campsite to make it a little less male-dominated. I also found that the chapters were VERY long. I read a trade paperback version and some chapters were 50+ pages long. Although I understand why due to the nature of the storytelling, I also have a job and kids, constant daytime distraction and exhaustion at night. It was hard to find time to get through a full chapter all at once, and that hurt the flow of the story. So, I took a star off for male-dominance and long chapters. However, this really is a beautifully told story with scenes that really take you outside in a canoe, or by the fire, with Bay.
*Warning: If you have recently quit smoking, pass on this one. I don't think I've ever read such a wonderful description of the joys of smoking in such detail, not once, but a few times in this book.
Recommended for beach and cottage reading!
October 27, 2017
I always finish a book. This one took all my will & dedication to read from beginning to end. Whew!
December 2, 2024
Summer Gone to me was a literary work of art. I'd never heard of David Macfarlane, yet this was a book that sat on my shelf for ions - it is 25 years old! Shortlisted for the Giller Prize as a debut novel, the recognition was well earned. Read in 2 days, I couldn't put it down.The story was told by Bay as he took his 12 year old son CAZ on a canoe trip, remembering and reliving the year he went to camp as a boy.
I visualized the characters, so well developed, northern Ontario being one of them. The story drifted from one scene to another and back again, and he did this so well. It was not hard to follow. He put something out without an answer and then we found out how it turned out in due time. I found myself chuckling many times. While I often find novels 'too flowery' in their descriptions I loved and felt all of his - 'he smoked like a chimney, like a field, like a furnace, like a five-alarm fire'. (pg 97) 'It was a little gap that had never left him-a sudden feint, a two-beat rest in an old song, a crack of silver air. It was a vacuum into which everything rushed. It was story he had never told. It was the emptiness that lies between an outstretched hand and someone who is no longer there' (pg 193)
I wish that this book could continue to sit on my shelf, however it fell apart while reading it. Perhaps I'll find another copy somewhere .....
I visualized the characters, so well developed, northern Ontario being one of them. The story drifted from one scene to another and back again, and he did this so well. It was not hard to follow. He put something out without an answer and then we found out how it turned out in due time. I found myself chuckling many times. While I often find novels 'too flowery' in their descriptions I loved and felt all of his - 'he smoked like a chimney, like a field, like a furnace, like a five-alarm fire'. (pg 97) 'It was a little gap that had never left him-a sudden feint, a two-beat rest in an old song, a crack of silver air. It was a vacuum into which everything rushed. It was story he had never told. It was the emptiness that lies between an outstretched hand and someone who is no longer there' (pg 193)
I wish that this book could continue to sit on my shelf, however it fell apart while reading it. Perhaps I'll find another copy somewhere .....
July 11, 2025
I liked this book a lot. The author writes beautiful and intricate descriptions of scenes outdoor and indoor, and paints in-depth psychological portraits in the service of what is essentially a father-and-son narrative. As other reviewers have noted, it bogs down a bit in places, but part of what the author seems to be trying to communicate is a feeling about place and time, the feeling of portent that nevertheless remains unfulfilled but persists as a sort of nostalgia for what never was but seems like should be. In this novel, that feeling takes the form of the idea, or ideal, of summer, specifically summer in northern Ontario. There are unresolved complications galore here, but there is also a depth and authenticity of feeling and human failure that seems to me rather rare in contemporary literature.
August 26, 2017
In fairness I didn't quite finish this book - ironically because it got ruined by rainwater whilst camping in Algonquin Park which is only about an hour from Cottage Country where this book is set.
What I did read had some resonant themes around father-son relations (like the protagonist I have a 17-year-old son) and mid-life angst but if it wasn't for that I may have struggled to finish this book for other reasons.
It has some charm but it also has the feel of 'I love Canada cottage country so I'm going to write a book that is set there' which gives it a slightly contrived debut novel feel that lacks plot.
Average overall
What I did read had some resonant themes around father-son relations (like the protagonist I have a 17-year-old son) and mid-life angst but if it wasn't for that I may have struggled to finish this book for other reasons.
It has some charm but it also has the feel of 'I love Canada cottage country so I'm going to write a book that is set there' which gives it a slightly contrived debut novel feel that lacks plot.
Average overall
May 16, 2021
My Original Thoughts (2000):
Not the easiest book to follow. Flashbacks overlap, leaving me confused as to which of the characters the author is referring to. I wasn't sure if I even liked what I was reading until I got a handle on the transitions (or lack there of) and then I began to see the beauty in MacFarlane's passages. His writing is very lyrical and it stirred a longing in me for a cottage on a lake with a canoe on the shore.
My Current Thoughts:
In spite of my high rating, I don't remember this book and doubt I'll read it again, given the struggle I had with the flashbacks and transitions. I don't have the patience to wade through something like this anymore.
Not the easiest book to follow. Flashbacks overlap, leaving me confused as to which of the characters the author is referring to. I wasn't sure if I even liked what I was reading until I got a handle on the transitions (or lack there of) and then I began to see the beauty in MacFarlane's passages. His writing is very lyrical and it stirred a longing in me for a cottage on a lake with a canoe on the shore.
My Current Thoughts:
In spite of my high rating, I don't remember this book and doubt I'll read it again, given the struggle I had with the flashbacks and transitions. I don't have the patience to wade through something like this anymore.
December 27, 2021
Fiction - written in stunning prose and descriptions of Ontario cottage country back in the 1960's. There are frequent and confusing flashbacks from one time period to another; some times within the same chapter. Bay reflects on his one and only trip to a summer camp while trying to connect with his son, Caz. a lot of the plot lines are implied but never resolved or revealed (Bay's divorce, what happens to Rigby, did his parents really blow up?) MacFarlane dedicates large portions of the book to the smoking habits of his characters.
Canadian references - set inOntario so too many to mention.
Pharmacy reference - the rough kids hand outside of the local drugstore.
Canadian references - set inOntario so too many to mention.
Pharmacy reference - the rough kids hand outside of the local drugstore.
March 11, 2024
This is a beautifully written book filled with lovely, evocative prose. The story involves three strands of narrative based on three different generations of a family. I found it difficult to follow this structure as the author goes back and forth in time and plot in ways that sometimes seem deliberately obscure. The point of view also varies.
I very much enjoyed the descriptions of cottage and camp country in northern Ontario.
I very much enjoyed the descriptions of cottage and camp country in northern Ontario.
October 23, 2025
Less about plot than about the moods and textures of remembered summers — how moments of joy, longing, and sorrow become interwoven into the stories we tell about ourselves and those we love.(chatgpt extract)
August 2, 2018
perfect Canadian cottage summer book.
December 6, 2018
Beautifully written, but scattered narrative. 3.25 stars!
October 6, 2021
3.5 stars
June 28, 2024
Another stinker!
July 21, 2024
A 3.5 rounded up because while I found the story drawn out, the writing was beautiful.
August 18, 2025
3.75 stars
February 1, 2013
Just a couple of comments I want to make. I really enjoyed the writing style at first. I'd compare it to a french braid--the reader follows some main storylines but little threads of other narratives are drawn into the main plot lines. It creates a really engaging and interesting twist on the story. However, it did tend to drag on quite a bit and often led to the repetition of several elements, so much so it felt a bit like deja vu at points. It was quite an interesting technique and, though I enjoyed it for a while, it was very trying towards the end. I felt like this novel was 1/4 longer than it needed to be to keep my mind engaged.
Another thing is that the theme of memory was striking to me, since the whole novel is set up as an extended memory. And the style really suited the meandering linkage of memories we often use when remember our own "summer gone." The reflections on Bay's past, then on the past of his parents and in-laws, were interesting. Though, this is the point where I admit I disliked Bay and his father, quite a bit! I found them pretty boring and stereotypical middle class men.
In fact, the plot itself was not very engaging to me. The revelation at the ending was so sudden in comparison to the pacing of the rest of the book it very much fell flat. I guess I expected something more interesting from it. And the focus on what I dub "daddy issues" was off-putting, but that's moreso just my own personal preference.
Overall the novel was not bad and at times a highly enjoyable read, but be prepared to take it slow and enjoy the style more. (Confession: I had to read this for a class so only had around a week and a half to finish it and rushed a bit.)
Another thing is that the theme of memory was striking to me, since the whole novel is set up as an extended memory. And the style really suited the meandering linkage of memories we often use when remember our own "summer gone." The reflections on Bay's past, then on the past of his parents and in-laws, were interesting. Though, this is the point where I admit I disliked Bay and his father, quite a bit! I found them pretty boring and stereotypical middle class men.
In fact, the plot itself was not very engaging to me. The revelation at the ending was so sudden in comparison to the pacing of the rest of the book it very much fell flat. I guess I expected something more interesting from it. And the focus on what I dub "daddy issues" was off-putting, but that's moreso just my own personal preference.
Overall the novel was not bad and at times a highly enjoyable read, but be prepared to take it slow and enjoy the style more. (Confession: I had to read this for a class so only had around a week and a half to finish it and rushed a bit.)
March 1, 2015
A brilliantly written and conceived jewel of a novel. Highly recommend it. From Amazon: David Macfarlane’s Summer Gone introduces a writer of incandescent literary skill and beautifully evokes the sometimes painful relationship between father and son.
When Bay Newby is twelve he is sent north for the first time, and he falls in love with the life of ritual, beauty, and stark privilege of summer camp. Then the death of his baby sister calls him home, and it will be twenty-three years before his next “perfect summer.” The summer he spends with his young son will contain loss also, but also discovery and redemption. Summer Gone is a novel of layered experience, of life, death and love as seen through the eyes of a young boy as he grows into a wiser–and more haunted–man.
When Bay Newby is twelve he is sent north for the first time, and he falls in love with the life of ritual, beauty, and stark privilege of summer camp. Then the death of his baby sister calls him home, and it will be twenty-three years before his next “perfect summer.” The summer he spends with his young son will contain loss also, but also discovery and redemption. Summer Gone is a novel of layered experience, of life, death and love as seen through the eyes of a young boy as he grows into a wiser–and more haunted–man.
February 27, 2010
lyrical prose, telling the story of three generations of men, but mostly of Bay, at the center. There's a few key events the story goes back to as the narrative hops around in time: Bay as a young boy at camp, Bay summering with his wife and young son Caz, Bay on a canoe trip with teenage Caz telling his life stories. Each time we go back to the events, we learn a little more. No surprises in this novel, since by the time events are actually revealed, there have been enough hints along the way. Loss, understanding your father, and the magic of summers seem to be the themes in this book.
October 9, 2013
I struggled a little at the start to get the grip of the different narrative sections, but once I had them in place it all rolled out beautifully. I loved the back and forth in time - the sense of circles, revisitng places in conversation and thought - trying to make sense on multiple visits. The intentions and randomness that make up life. The things said and unsaid. All deliciously atmospheric. A great sense of time as well as place throughout.
September 1, 2009
A lyrical exploration of memory, desire, and dreams lost, set (mostly) in the north woods of Canada. The epigraph is from Nabokov's autobiography "Speak Memory," but I think that MacFarlane does a better job of evoking the past than does Nabokov, who is supposed to be the master.
February 27, 2011
It seemed to have all the ingredients for a novel I'd enjoy...but I all but gave up half-way through. As bland as my childhood home's original wallpaper...and one of my most turgid reading experiences of the last few years.
August 14, 2013
I enjoyed this book very much. Set in the landscape of Ontario's cottage country, this novel tells centres around the story of a divorced father and his son and an ill-fated canoe trip. Beautifully written. Finalist for the 1999 Giller Prize.
August 26, 2013
I enjoyed this book when it was over. While I was reading it, the rambling drove me a bit crazy. The last 60 pages made up for the whole book. There were some amazing paragraphs. I even back over the book the next day. Doesn't happen very often.
October 10, 2014
The more I got into this book the more I liked it. At first I found the mix of descriptions and story line annoying. It is beautifully written and I enjoyed it once I slowed down allowed myself the time to appreciate it.
March 23, 2007
Ok...but nothing special. Is it jsut me or is CanLit starting to blend into itself...kind of bland....
April 25, 2008
I was enticed by the tiny sketches at the end of each chapter demonstrating how to do different strokes in a canoe. I liked the book, easy read.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews