Stanley Park (edition 2001)

Jeremy is a chef in Vancouver and owns his own small restaurant, with the focus being on local food; however, he has run up a lot of bills to make a go of this place, and it's catching up to him. His dad is an anthropology professor, conducting a study of homeless people in Stanley Park. The Professor is also interested in a murder of two children, a cold case from the late 40s/early 50s.

Some parts were more interesting than others. It was the unsolved murder that drew me to the book to begin with, but there was so little about it in the book, and past the initial description of it (apparently, this really is a cold case in Vancouver), what was there just didn't hold my interest very much. The food aspect of the book didn't do anything for me (in fact, I wouldn't have eaten a single thing mentioned in the book, but then, I'm not at all adventurous with food), although the restaurant part got more interesting as the story went on. The Professor and his homeless friends were pretty boring, I thought. Overall, despite my mostly negative comments, I'd consider the book "o.k.", but nothing more. ( )

This book was fairly unique to what I usually read. It was alright in the end, but how the book came together with the two story lines was the main reason for it being a just okay read rather than a great read. The book doesn't have a lot going on in it, but it does take a good hard look at the characters focusing on who they are and what drives them. Many characters are rather eccentric but I found I couldn't connect to them. They had some interesting thoughts and some of their actions were rather, surprising, but I couldn't connect them to really appreciate their motives. I have to say, the slight twist near the end of the book was interesting. It did help save the book for me. I'm not sure if I'm more shocked or amused by Jeremy's actions, but it did help the book take an interesting turn.

The two separate story lines needed either a better connection to keep the plot moving and mesh everything together, or it needed to be split into two separate stories, with connected characters. I think with the later, it would have made for a much better read for me. Because I felt both of the different story lines had a lot that could happen with them and I felt they were both sacrificed, especially the ending, for the other. There was still some interesting moments, and the turn it took was amusing near the end, but the book did turn out to be an okay read.

Also found on my book review blog Jules' Book Reviews - Stanley Park ( )

Could not even get past chapter 2...guess it is just not for me.... ( )

Loved the foodie, living-from-the-land theme of this novel and its overall message of the importance of working out what it is that is really important in a person's life. At one point in the first half of the book I got slightly frustrated with Jeremy's financial woes and thought it wasn't entirely convincing that he wouldn't have talked to Jules and to Olli about them sooner than he did. But once that part was past, I really enjoyed the second half of the book. ( )

I'm abandoning this book after 123 pages. Sorry Jim [Cuddy, the defender of this book on Canada Reads]. I do like the concept and appreciate the themes underlying the narrative, but I feel somewhat detached from the protagonist and am not really in the right mindset to be invested in his situation. So this one goes back to my mum's shelf unfinished (although apparently she didn't finish it either). I think this is the only Canada Reads book that I've left unfinished so far (I don't read all of them, just the ones I think are interesting). ( )