The Englishman's Boy [Hardcover]

Guy Vanderhaeghe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1997

The life of Harry Vincent, a young title-writer in 1920s Hollywood, collides with the story of a young drifter known as the Englishman's boy, who in 1873 joins a group of wolf hunters in the search for a ring of horse thieves, as Harry prepares to work on a movie being made about him some fifty years later. 25,000 first printing."

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In alternating chapters, two narratives?one set in the American West, the other in Twenties Hollywood?gradually unfold and intersect. The Western saga centers around a boy who, after his English employer succumbs to a fever, attaches himself to a band of wolvers making their perilous way through hostile Indian territory into Canada. Fifty years later, in Hollywood, Saskatchewan native Harry Vincent is taken in hand by Rachel Gold, a so-called "new woman," as a scenarist for a studio headed by the mysterious and elusive Damon Ira Chance. Chance dreams of producing an epic Western in the tradition of his hero, D.W. Griffith, that will stand as a landmark of cinematic history. To this end, he hires Vincent to track down an old-timer whose story he is sure will lend itself to his purpose. This winner of the Governor General's award for fiction, Canada's top literary prize, has a sweeping scope and an evocative sense of time and place. We have Ludlum's spy stories, Grisham's legal thrillers, and Patrick O'Brian's sea tales, but on the quality literary front so dominated by fiction written by and appealing to women, it is a rare pleasure to be able to recommend one for the boys.?Barbara Love, Kingston P.L., Ontario
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

An ambitious novel, set along the US-Canadian border and in Hollywood, that won for its author (Homesick, 1990, etc.) Canada's prestigious Governor General's Award. The story consists of parallel narratives, the first taking place in 1873 when a band of ``wolfers'' (wolf-hunters) camped in the northern Montana Territory lose their horses to a furtive Indian raiding party. A determined posse pursues the thieves northward into Saskatchewan, where a terrible vengeance is exacted. Among those avengers are the mysterious title character, a stoical drifter who will become both the victim and nemesis of the men with whom he has cast his lot, and Shorty McAdoo, a Scotsman who will forever after be burdened by his failure to act as the ``civilized man'' he believed he was. The second narrative, set in 1923, recounts in his own words the ordeal undergone by Harry Vincent, a crippled journalist employed by playboy moviemaker Damon Ira Chance, a self-described ``visionary'' who longs to film an ``epic western'' incarnating his conviction that ``the spirit of the age would express itself in an endless train of images.'' Harry seeks out Shorty McAdoo's story, not realizing that Chance will betray his ostensible vision, and that he will also unknowingly betray the aged, guilt-ridden McAdoo. The two stories intersect in a melodramatic climax that, unfortunately, drains the novel of much of the integrity given it by Vanderhaeghe's sharply imagined confrontation scenes and salty dialogue. The novel has a lot on its mind, and few readers will leave it unfinished, but there's a paradoxical problem at its core: As gripping as the manhunt story is, its characters remain frustratingly opaque (even the haunting figure of the Englishman's boy only awkwardly inhabits the narrative); and, despite Vanderhaeghe's persuasive characterization of the appealing Harry, the story he's part of feels inchoate and derivative. Two good half-novels here, but they don't come together as a whole. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 333 pages
• Publisher: Picador USA (September 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312168233
• ISBN-13: 978-0312168230
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #691,547 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Understanding the Power-Dream...and History., June 27, 2000

By 

Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
(COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Englishman's Boy (Hardcover)

Had this beautifully wrought novel not received some publicity for winning the Governor General's Award in Canada in l996, I'd never have known of its existence, and what a sad oversight that would have been in this age of pop culture and instant bestsellerdom for many books whose primary value seems to be their bankability as future films. Yet author Vanderhaeghe probably would not have been surprised by this. In fact, one of the main themes of this absorbing and satisfying book is the power of film, "the glory of American lightning," and the different goals to which it can be adapted by "artists" and "visionaries."

Structurally, the book tells two stories in alternate chapters set in the Canadian Wild West of the l870's and in Hollywood in the l920's. The author makes no real attempt to create suspense about the identity of the Englishman's boy of the 1870's and who he has become by the 1920's. The author has a bigger vision than that. Instead, he chooses to reveal small parts of the continuum of history between these dates until at the end the full story of the Englishman's boy is revealed. At the same time, the thematically subtle juxtaposition of specific events from these dramatically different times and places shows how little human nature has changed and how much it is important to be true to ideals and values, whatever they may be and however they may have to accommodate the changes of history.

In this astutely crafted story of wolfer/hunters, Indians, Hollywood moguls, young strivers toward success, Socialists, preservers of the status quo, barely surviving traders, immigrants, hard men, and "visionaries" who would impose their dreams on the masses via film, the reader is caught up in the swirl of history and asked to think about the extent to which history is simply a succession of random events, whether the events have been imposed upon us, and how much, if at all, we can control our own dreams and our futures

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great American Novel - As told by a Canadian, March 22, 2000

By 

Pete Gutierrez (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Englishman's Boy (Hardcover)

One of the most brilliant novels I have ever read. I actually finished this novel in one sitting and believe me that's an incredible accomplishment for me. It's an excellent inter-twining of 1920s hollywood with the 1870s wild west (which by the way is based on historical fact). A very interesting plot tied in with some very intelligent social commentary.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deserving of much more publicity and promotion!, July 11, 2000

By 

Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
(COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Englishman's Boy (Hardcover)

In this age of pop culture and instant bestsellerdom for many books whose primary value seems to be their bankability as future films, it's disappointing that a book this good remains relatively unknown. Yet author Vanderhaeghe probably would not have been surprised by this. In fact, one of the main themes of this absorbing and satisfying book is the power of film, "the glory of American lightning," and the different goals to which it can be adapted by "artists" and "visionaries."

Structurally, the book tells two stories in alternate chapters set in the Canadian Wild West of the l870's and in Hollywood in the l920's. The author makes no real attempt to create suspense about the identity of the Englishman's boy of the 1870's and who he has become by the 1920's. Instead, he chooses to reveal small parts of the continuum of history between these dates until at the end the full story of the Englishman's boy is revealed. At the same time, the thematically subtle juxtaposition of specific events from these dramatically different times and places shows how little human nature has changed and how much it is important to be true to ideals and values, whatever they may be and however they may have to accommodate the changes of history.