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Loading... Mister Nightingaleby Paul Bowdring
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. This is a story of a man -- James Nightingale -- a Newfoundland writer who lived most of his life in Toronto. Now, on the verge of divorce, he returns to Newfoundland to accept an honorary degree from his alma mater, reconnect with family and old friends, and visit his daughter who is attending university there. Reading this book is like getting to know Mister Nightingale, and I found he became like a friend to me. I listened to him -- and was sometimes amused, sometimes fascinated and sometimes a little (just a little) bored or exasperated. Like with real friends. An excellent portrayal of a man dealing with the big, and smaller, challenges of life, set against the landscape and culture of Newfoundland and Labrador. ( ) no reviews | add a review
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After a thirty-year exile in Toronto, self-described "mid-listing" Newfoundland author James Nightingale leaves behind a failed marriage to a successful classical musician, who has taken up with an avant-garde composer, and a middling, if critically successful, career to return temporarily to St. John's to receive an honourary degree from his alma mater. Braving the obstacles of artistic and domestic uncertainty and neglected family obligations'not to mention a book-signing and a launch that go visibly wrong'he meets old friends whose own artistic lives have borne little fruit, and contends with a talented daughter who, in defiance of her mother, has abandoned her classica-music roots in favour of performing "deconstructed" traditional Newfoundland songs, a father suffering from dementia but with a sharp memory of disappointment, and an untrustworthy former publisher who is re-releasing his seminal first novel. Imbued with the language of literature, the imagery of a Newfoundland in flux, and the grace of an author at the height of his powers, Mister Nightingale is at once a diatribe on the vicissitudes of the writing life, and a keen and poignant exploration of one man's coming to terms with the "prevailing anxieties" of la vie quotidienne. No library descriptions found. |
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