Innocent Cities

by Jack Hodgins

Set in Victoria, B.C., in 1881, Innocent Cities brilliantly weaves together the lives and lies of an entire community. Logan Sumner is a young widower and architect who dreams of transforming the tiny port city of Victoria into one of the great cities of the world. When he’s not chiseling a record of his life onto his tombstone, Sumner awkwardly courts the daughter of James Horncastle, an inveterate gambler and the swaggering proprietor of The Great Blue Heron Hotel. Their lives – and those of the bizarre group of guests who frequent the hotel – are changed forever when a mysterious widow from Australia arrives in Victoria with startling revelations from her past. Rich with intrigue, warm humour, and a memorable cast of characters, Innocent Cities is a compelling tale from one of Canada’s finest writers.

Genres: History, Historical

432 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1990

About the author

Novelist and short story writer Jack Hodgins lives on Vancouver Island where until recently he taught fiction writing at the University of Victoria. Raised in the small rural community of Merville in the Comox Valley, he graduated with a B.Ed from the University of British Columbia, and taught high school in Nanaimo between 1961 and 1981. He was a Visiting Professor at the University of Ottawa between 1981 and 1983. Between 1983 and 2002 he taught in the Department of Writing at the University of Victoria, and was a full professor at the time of his retiring. He occasionally conducts fiction-writing workshops, including an annual workshop in Mallorca, Spain. He and his wife Dianne, a former teacher, live in Cadboro Bay within easy visiting distance of their three adult children and their grandchildren.

Jack Hodgins's fiction has won the Governor General's Award, the President's Medal from the University of Western Ontario, the Gibson's First Novel Award, the Eaton's B.C. Book Award, the Commonwealth Literature Prize (regional), the CNIB Torgi award, the Canada-Australia Prize, the Drummer General's Award, and the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, and has twice been long-listed for the IMPAC/Dublin award. He is the 2006 recipient of the Terasen Lifetime Achievement Award "for an outstanding literary career in British Columbia" and the "Lieutenant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence."

His books include: Spit Delaney's Island (stories), The Invention of the World (novel), The Resurrection of Joseph Bourne (novel), The Barclay Family Theatre (stories), Left Behind in Squabble Bay (children's novel), The Honorary Patron (novel), Innocent Cities (novel), Over Forty in Broken Hill (travel), A Passion for Narrative (a guide to writing fiction), The Macken Charm, (novel), Broken Ground (novel), Distance (novel), and Damage Done by the Storm (stories). Short stories and articles have been published in several magazines in Canada, France, Australia, and the US.

Jack Hodgins has given readings or talks at international literary festivals and other events in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, and the US. Some of the short stories have been televised or adapted for radio and the stage. A few of the stories and novels have been translated into other languages, including Dutch, Hungarian, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Russian, Italian, Polish, and Norwegian. In 1985 a film of the story "The Concert Stages of Europe," directed by Giles Walker, was produced by Atlantis Films and the National Film Board of Canada. In 2001 the Victoria Conversatory of Music produced a commissioned opera Eyes on the Mountain by composer Christopher Donason, based upon three of Hodgins's short stories intertwined. A screenplay based upon the title character in Spit Delaney's Island has been optioned by a Vancouver film maker.

A number of scholars in Canada and Europe have published critical studies on his work. He has been the subject of a National Film Board film, Jack Hodgins' Island, and a book, Jack Hodgins and His Work, by David Jeffrey. In 1996, Oolichan Press published a collection of essays on his work, titled On Coasts of Eternity, edited by J. R. (Tim) Struthers. A book of essays on Hodgins's work, edited by Annika Hannan, has been published by Guernica Press, Toronto. His manuscripts, papers, letters and other materials are held in the literary manuscripts archives at the National Library of Canada

In 1990, as part of its 75th anniversary celebration, the University of British Columbia's Alumni Society included him amongst the "75 most distinguished graduates" to be honoured with a plaque. In June of 1995, the University of B.C. awarded him an honorary D.Litt for - according to the UBC Chronicle - bringing "renown to the university and the province as one of Canada's finest fiction writers and as an innovative stylist and distinguished academic." In the spring of 1998 he recei

Reviews

[Ruth Seeley · Rating 3 out of 5]

That it took me five months to finish this novel and yet it didn't seem to suffer from being put down for 20 or so other novels says something about it - I'm just not sure what. Of Jack Hodgins' fabulous Vancouver Island narratives that began with The Invention of the World, this one is the least compelling, and I'm not quite sure why - perhaps the split focus on the four sisters in love with the same man distracts the reader and keeps one from bonding with the marvellous Sumner, a grieving widower when we meet him, adding endlessly to his wife's memorial as he pursues the daughter of Victoria's leading hotel keeper at the time of the BC Gold Rush, compulsively measuring everything he sees when nervous (which is most of the time). There are many stories here, but I'm not sure any of them get the attention they deserve. After experiencing the agonies of Sumner's unsuccessful courtship of Horncastle's daughter, I was startled at how matter-of-factly his romance with the youngest of the four sisters from Manchester via Ballarat was described - or rather not described. Having lived through his stuttering first proposal, one is told merely that Annie will be doing a US lecture tour, then coming back to Victoria to marry Sumner. All righty then. Will have to read some other reviews to see whether I'm the only one who was disconcerted by the pacing of this novel and by what was included and what excluded.

[Valerie French · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an interesting read. I live in Victoria, BC. The story is set in 2 cities in the late 1800s, both named Victoria after the then Queen. The story involves a number of misfit characters who appear in both cities. I felt uneasy about how women were portrayed, grasping at men to secure their future, and how cold and calculating several of the women were in their dealings with each other and the men. It was well written, and the ribald characters of Victorian Victoria were humourous, though few were likeable enough for me to connect to them. That is what was missing for me: feeling engaged by and empathy for the main characters.

[Cassienerdgirl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Neat to read a story taking place in Victoria BC. Funny characters, all with a touch of the ridiculous. Perhaps my attention span is getting shorter, but I think it could have wrapped up a little earlier- still a good story!

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

That montage works in literature as well as film. Another way of reading.

[Talie]

funny and quirky with a bit of romance