Adventures in Solitude: What Not to Wear to a Nude Potluck and Other Stories from Desolation Sound [Paperback]

Grant Lawrence (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2010

From Captain George Vancouver to Muriel "Curve of Time" Blanchet to Jim "Spilsbury's Coast" Spilsbury, visitors to Desolation Sound have left behind a trail of books endowing the area with a romantic aura that helps to make it British Columbia's most popular marine park. In this hilarious and captivating book, CBC personality Grant Lawrence adds a whole new chapter to the saga of this storied piece of BC coastline.

Young Grant's father bought a piece of land next to the park in the 1970s, just in time to encounter the gun-toting cougar lady, left-over hippies, outlaw bikers and an assortment of other characters. In those years Desolation Sound was a place where going to the neighbours' potluck meant being met with hugs from portly naked hippies and where Russell the Hermit's school of life (boating, fishing, and rock 'n' roll) was Grant's personal Enlightenment--an influence that would take him away from the coast to a life of music and journalism and eventually back again.

With rock band buddies and a few cases of beer in tow, an older, cooler Grant returns to regale us with tales of "going bush," the tempting dilemma of finding an unguarded grow-op, and his awkward struggle to convince a couple of visiting kayakers that he's a legit CBC radio host while sporting a wild beard and body wounds and gesticulating with a machete. With plenty of laugh-out-loud humour and inspired reverence, Adventures in Solitude delights us with the unique history of a place and the growth of a young man amidst the magic of Desolation Sound.

Editorial Reviews

Review

By turns hilarious, terrifying, profound and strange, Adventures in Solitude is the great lost Canadian adventure story; Swiss Family Robinson as if rendered by Ken Kesey in his youth, a kind of Lord of the Flies through a fog of BC chronic. --Dave Bidini, author of On A Cold Road, and Tropic of Hockey.

Wow! The details are different but the story is very similar to my own: Being dragged kicking and screaming to a remote location with the family as a child, later rejecting it and refusing to go for 15 years or so and then going back and trying to figure out what my problem was. Of course, I was on the east coast of Canada, I never allowed my parents house to be destroyed by teenage hooligans and my band was actually pretty good, but the themes are universal. --Chris Murphy, bassist, Sloan

Smart, wry, self-deprecating, irreverent: it turns out that Grant Lawrence on the page is just like Grant Lawrence on CBC Radio. Adventures in Solitude is his wonderfully told story about his deepening connection to a remote, coastal place, to its rich history and its ample stock of outlandish characters, of which he is now one. It s also a story about family and selfhood and love and music and occasional rowdiness. --Bill Richardson, CBC Radio host, author

Wow! The details are different but the story is very similar to my own: Being dragged kicking and screaming to a remote location with the family as a child, later rejecting it and refusing to go for 15 years or so and then going back and trying to figure out what my problem was. Of course, I was on the east coast of Canada, I never allowed my parents house to be destroyed by teenage hooligans and my band was actually pretty good, but the themes are universal. --Chris Murphy, bassist, Sloan

Smart, wry, self-deprecating, irreverent: it turns out that Grant Lawrence on the page is just like Grant Lawrence on CBC Radio. Adventures in Solitude is his wonderfully told story about his deepening connection to a remote, coastal place, to its rich history and its ample stock of outlandish characters, of which he is now one. It s also a story about family and selfhood and love and music and occasional rowdiness. --Bill Richardson, CBC Radio host, author

About the Author

Grant Lawrence hosts the popular CBC Radio 3 Podcast with Grant Lawrence, and Grant Lawrence Live on CBC Radio 3 and Sirius 86, and can also be heard on various CBC Radio One programs such as DNTO, Spark, All Points West and On The Coast. He still spends much of each summer at his cabin in the Sound.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Harbour Pub Co; 1 edition (September 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1550175149
• ISBN-13: 978-1550175141
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 0.8 x 6.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,133,336 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An Hillarious account about my Summer Boating destination. August 11, 2011

By Elisa Rolston

I started reading this book at Pender Harbour which is where my family went every summer. When the author was talking about "racing" to catch the ferry and getting seasick on the Sunshine Coast highway it seemed like he was talking about my own childhood.

I went boating with my family to Desolation Sound many summers during my childhood, but I didn't know half of the information about the history of the place. I never knew about the "Cougar Lady" or any of those people.

When we went boating this summer, we where chatting about many of the locations that the author talks about. It was fascinating to find remnants of an old homestead that we didn't even know about. We even found one of the huge walnut trees next to an old outhouse. It was fascinating.

Thankfully, I was too young to know much about the Lund Pub, but we really enjoy Nancy's Bakery these days. Lund has definitely gone through some upgrades since I was a kid.

The in-depth accounts of the psychological effects that happened to people who tried to live "off the grid" are really good too. People often have very "romantic" notions about living "off the grid" or "exiting civilization" and I think the chapters about people who did that and then slowly went "nuts" as a result is a good reality check. Adventures in Solitude

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars If you like Bill Bryson or Garrison Keillor... October 20, 2012

By stuartm VINE™ VOICE

...you'll enjoy Grant Lawrence's first book.

In many ways this feels like a travel book - Grant conveys a real sense of place as he takes you to Desolation Sound (found on the west coast of British Columbia, at the top Georgia Strait and east of Vancouver Island). But this is as much an autobiography and reminiscence as it is about this obscure corner of the world.

The book is the better for this personal perspective. We learn about Desolation Sound and its quirky residents through the eyes of Grant Lawrence, from his reluctant childhood introduction to this Canadian Outback through to his fully embrace of its charms as an adult.

The stories Grant relates are often funny and more than occasionally touching. Grant's wry, self-deprecating wit and matter of fact prose will remind readers of Bill Bryson or Garrison Keillor. Make no misatke though, Grant's voice is his own.

Reading Adventures in Solitude, we see Desolation Sound through eyes that are keen in their insight and affectionate in their gaze. The best compliment I can give is that I spent much of the book looking at Google Maps and dreaming of a summer vacation past the end of the road.

5.0 out of 5 stars Desolation Sound October 13, 2012

By Wayne J. Lutz

When I wrote 'Up the Lake: Coastal British Columbia Stories' I attempted to do what Grant Lawrence did so successfully with this book. His adventures are in the same area as mine, but I've limited most of my explorations to Powell Lake and its floating cabins. What a tremendous region, as captured by one of CBC's best-know commentators. This book shows how easily a person can be changed by the surrounding environment -- from a youth that turns his head away from the beauties of living in remote areas to a more mature (but fun-loving) attitude toward this wonderful section of British Columbia. Coastal BC is one of the few areas in the world where the population has deceased in the past century, and that's part of it's charm. For an off-the-grid adventure, tune in to the charm Desolation Sound with Grant Lawrence.