Most of the time I enjoy Robertson Davies. His books seem a bit old-fashioned and stuffy sometimes, but this adds to the enjoyment. However, for The Cunning Man, it just seemed old-fashioned and stuffy to me, and I couldn't help but feel I would have enjoyed the book if I was reading it 30 years ago, but not so much now. The narrator goes a bit off-track here, and I didn't find him, or even most of the other characters, very interesting or amusing. ( )

Great Cast of Characters: Robertson Davies' "The Cunning Man" purports to be the Diary or Case Book of a doctor--Jonathan Hullah--who moves from the wilderness of Sioux Lookout to Toronto, Canada.

But it is much more than that. It turns into what the narrator, Hullah, says he wants to avoid, a Bildungsroman or Novel of Development: in this case the development of Hullah's character, but also the development of Toronto and Canada itself, from a wild-and-wooly backwoods place to an cosmopolitan, but very quirky, society.

The cast of characters is brilliant.

Hullah himself is interesting, if a little stuffy. But Pansy Todhunter, one of "The Ladies," whose letters he quotes in full, is a wonderful offset: slangy, funny, malicious, hearfelt.

Charlie his never-quite-holy priest friend is fabulous: tormented and visionary and fanatical and sad.

Mrs. Smoke, the cranky Indian shamaness who saves the 8-year-old Jonathan by magic spells and awakens him to The Other.

Darcy Dwyer, the aesthete banker who opens him to music and the visual arts, but also ruthless inquiry and even espionage.

Lt. Commander Daubigny, the high-school teacher with a multi-national and even cannibalistic past.

Even Esme, the relentless young reporter with whom Hullah becomes, shockingly, smitten.

All are wonderful in themselves, yet emblematic of larger elements of a changing society.

Instructive, thoughtful, funny. A wonderful read.

This was Davies' last novel. It is an intellectual,but not literal autobiography of the thinking man, a penetrating look at religion and the arts in Toronto, and a tender history of Toronto. His discursive style distracts. ( )

http://www.peskyapostrophe.com/index.... ( )

Davies has the fine touch a real storyteller. A mixture of philosophy, human emotions and religion, this novel combines the doings of a doctor, priest, professor and a couple of lesbian artists. I found the first two parts a little long but necessary to introduce the third part - a real masterpiece of original thought and compassion. The fourth part I found a little unpredictable - I'm not sure how well it fits in the spirit of the book - but it makes this rather long tale interesting to the last page. ( )