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Description
First published in 1980 to high acclaim, Burning Water won a Governor General's Award for fiction that year. A rollicking chronicle of Captain Vancouver's search for the Northwest Passage, the book has over its career been mentioned in recommended lists of postmodern fiction, BC historical fiction, gay fiction and humour. This gives you some idea of the scope of what has been called Bowering's best novel. I have sometimes said, kidding but not really kidding, writes its author, that I show more attended to the spirit of the west coast, and told the story about the rivals for our land as an instance in which the commanders decided to make love, not war. As an accurate account of Vancouver's exploration of our coastline, Burning Water conveys the exact length-99 feet-of the explorer's ship, and contains citations from his journals. As a work of fanciful fiction, things usually thought to be impossible transpire, without compromising the realism of the text. Bowering recalls that his free hand with history particularly incensed the founder of the National Archives, who had written a biography of George Vancouver and complained in print that Burning Water differed too much from other, similar books in its field. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
This is a very impressionist tale, mostly a stringing together of poetic selections relating to the history of George Vancouver's expedition to the Pacific Northwest. The two Indians, rather like Bill Mauldin's Willie and Joe, pass wry comments on the episode. It's not Bowering's best work.
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Lists
Governor General of Canada's English Fiction Awards
89 works; 3 members
Author Information
94+ Works 613 Members
George Bowering is the author of around a hundred books of poetry, fiction, and essays. A Member of the Order of Canada, and a two-time Governor General's Award laureate, he lives in Vancouver.
Awards and Honors
Awards
Series
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 2007-11-20
- People/Characters
- George Vancouver
- Important places
- Puget Sound, Washington, USA
Classifications
- Genres
- General Fiction, Fiction and Literature, Historical Fiction
- DDC/MDS
- 813.54 — Literature & rhetoric American literature in English American fiction in English 1900-1999 1945-1999
- LCC
- PR9199.3 .B63 .B8 — Language and Literature English English Literature English literature: Provincial, local, etc.
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 61
- Popularity
- 508,188
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (2.64)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 5
- ASINs
- 1
