Lives of Short Duration

by David Adams Richards

The Terris are engaging people, but they are a family in collapse. Alcoholism, drugs, and loveless sex have reduced them to a petty and wasted bunch. Worse, they typify aspects of the larger community besieged by financial woes and by creeping economic and cultural Americanization.

What David Adams Richards accomplishes is no mean his characters are at times vicious, sleazy, and even outright dim, yet he manages to entitle them to the interest and sympathy of the reader.

Even more now than at its first publication in 1981, Lives of Short Duration ’s sharp, essential insights have significance for readers seeking to understand the modern Canadian predicament.

Genres: Canadian Literature

400 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

David Adams Richards (born 17 October 1950) is a Canadian novelist, essayist, screenwriter and poet.

Born in Newcastle, New Brunswick, Richards left St. Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick, one course shy of completing a B.A. Richards has been a writer-in-residence at various universities and colleges across Canada, including the University of New Brunswick.

Richards has received numerous awards including 2 Gemini Awards for scriptwriting for Small Gifts and "For Those Who Hunt The Wounded Down", the Alden Nowlan Award for Excellence in the Arts, and the Canadian Authors Association Award for his novel Evening Snow Will Bring Such Peace. Richards is one of only three writers to have won in both the fiction and non-fiction categories of the Governor General's Award. He won the 1988 fiction award for Nights Below Station Street and the 1998 non-fiction award for Lines on the Water: A Fisherman's Life on the Miramichi. He was also a co-winner of the 2000 Giller Prize for Mercy Among the Children.

In 1971, he married the former Peggy MacIntyre. They have two sons, John Thomas and Anton Richards, and currently reside in Toronto.

John Thomas was born in 1989 in Saint John, New Brunswick.

The Writers' Federation of New Brunswick administers an annual David Adams Richards Award for Fiction.

Richards' papers are currently housed at the University of New Brunswick.

Reviews

[David]

This is probably the high-water mark for David Adams Richards’ career. It is more experimental in narrative technique. It achieves a deeper complexity of characters than anything before or since. And it features more of those moments which Richards so values: moments of spontaneous, disinterested, human generosity. It also allows more moments of dignity to its characters, most of whom (no matter how much money they might’ve amassed over the years) are not living ‘happy’ lives. After this, the novels become more straightforward, less nuanced, more conservative—just not as satisfying (to me, anyway).

[Norman Weatherly · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not enjoy this book. I tried reading it in different parts of the book. I tried at different times of day. I tried reading while I listened to music. I did not connect with any of the ensemble featured in the book. Authors and readers don't always connect, which happened in Lives of Short Duration. I loved the book's premise, which is why I bought it, but it didn't help me when it came to reading it. I'm sorry, Mr. Richards. I tried hard, but it's plain and straightforward; I did not connect with this book.

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I met the author at a book reading a month ago and he told me this was one of his favorites.
I struggled through this book. I really had to push myself to finish it. Although you come quite attached to the characters there were just so many characters and The author's flipping back-and-forth between time periods.
I thought it was well written however difficult to stick to or follow

[Patricia Boyle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Normally, I love D.A. Richards' books but I definitely did not like this one. I plowed through it with great difficulty. The story is fragmented and even though he is trying to depict a population along a river in New Brunswick, it is done in a disorganized style

[Darren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extreme poverty has turned everyone into a soulless ghost, a generational curse handed down from father to son, neutralized, only, by brief moments of humanity, all from characters shredded from the inside out.

[Aggie Hunt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would probably be better if I were smarter

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like most David Adams Richards' books, this is not an easy reason, both for writing style and content. The writing style is brilliant: He tells the story of the Terri family, past and present, while at the same time telling the story of the Miramichi, both past and present. The writing jumps from past to present back to the far past and back again to the present, sometimes also changing viewpoints. So not easy to ready but it exemplifies how much the lives of his characters are entwined with each other, their past and the river. As for the characters, I hate to admit it but I will. If I were to met most of these characters in person, i would be afraid of them. However, I think Richards loves his characters and treats them with honesty and respect in such a way that I come to understand them to a certain extent.

[Paula Dembeck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sad tale of a family living on the Miramichi. In this small community it seems everyone is related. Old Simon Terri has two sons, Tully and George. George has three children – Packet, Lois and Little Simon. George is divorced from his first wife Elizabeth Ripley Terri who had an affair with Lester Murphy, a man who saved George’s life during the war. Lester is also a stepbrother of Old Simon. Great descriptions of the Miramichi community in New Brunswick, besieged by financial woes, difficulties with the Indians and creeping economic and cultural Americanization. It seems that burdened by alcoholism, drugs and loveless sex nobody has a chance in life. Adams Richard's writing is depressing, but actually truly reflects aspects of life in some of these small rural towns.

[Michelle Hallett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Underrated.

One of my favourite of Richards' novels, this one works in currents and layers, very like a big river. He's not written in quite this manner since. It's a frightening and very intimate novel. I'll never be free of character Packet Terri.

[D.A. Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovely writing. Lovely.
Grim reality, written so you feel the pores of your body absorbing it.
I need a newer version, though - mine has tiny tine print and I can't read it!

[Ibis3]

NCL.2006-10-01