The Friends of Meager Fortune [Unknown Binding]

David Adams Richards (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 9, 2007

In his major new novel, The Friends of Meager Fortune, Richards explores the dying days of the lumber industry in the mid-twentieth century. This is a transfixing love story of betrayal, envy, and sexual jealousy, which builds to a tragically inevitable climax. It is also a devastating portrait of a pre-mechanized time, and a brilliant commemoration of the passing of a world. Rich with all the passion, ambition and almost mythic vision that defines David Adams Richards' work, The Friends of Meager Fortune is a profound and important book about the hands and the heart; about true greatness and true weakness; about the relentlessness of fate and the evil that men and women do. Wise, stark, and without a false word in it, it cements David Adams Richards' claim to be the finest novelist at work in Canada today.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The latest from acclaimed Canadian writer Richards (Nights Below Station Street; Mercy Among the Children) offers an uneven but beautifully mournful portrait of life in the unforgiving landscape of postwar New Brunswick. Mary Jameson, the widow of a lumber magnate, hopes to stymie the prophecy she receives from a fortune-teller—that her oldest son will be powerful and her younger son will bring glory upon the family, but they will be the end of the family. When Will Jameson, the brash older brother, suffers a fatal logging accident, and Owen, the intellectual younger son, returns a wounded hero from WWII, it seems the prophecy may come true. Owen assumes leadership of the family business, but faced with stiff competition, he sends men to fell timber deep in hazardous terrain. Logging troubles, combined with Owen's military service with Reggie Glidden, Will's best friend, and a romantic entanglement with Reggie's wife, touches off a devastating sequence of events. The book's most resonant moments spring from Richards's account of Jameson's loggers. Though undercut in places by a thick colloquialism, Richards's work at its best approaches the poetic nuances of Greek tragedy. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

A multifaceted novel by an award-winning Canadian writer, this work begins at a slow pace, both illustrating and reflecting on the petty cruelties of human beings toward each other. Like a Shakespearean tragedy, it builds momentum as the deceptions and lies weave a tangled web that finally captures most of the major players in a crushingly tragic outcome. A prophecy at the beginning of the novel takes on a life of its own, leading the reader to ask what might have happened if the "prophetess" had said nothing. Richards clearly demonstrates the vicissitudes of life, how heroes are created, how quickly they can topple from their pedestals, how the scorned can be reviled and then revered. At the same time, situated during and after World War II, in Richards' usual New Brunswick setting in the Miramichi region, he gives us a firsthand view of the brutal life of courageous men in the final years of the lumber industry before mechanization changed an entire way of life. A must-have for Canadian collections in U.S. libraries. Maureen O'Connor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Unknown Binding: 377 pages
• Publisher: MacAdam/Cage (February 9, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596921897
• ISBN-13: 978-1596921894
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,215,287 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "A man like many here would not live in the world to come.", February 17, 2007

By 

Luan Gaines "luansos" (Dana Point, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Friends of Meager Fortune

Mid-twentieth century Canada is a time of vast change in the lumber industry, although few can see the decline of the old ways that looms on the horizon, massive amounts of timber moved by the grueling labor of men who have defined their lives in the felling and harvesting of trees. Will Jameson, who takes over his family's business upon the death of his father, is only sixteen when he achieves the status of legend. But Will's untimely death, though prophesied by a palm-reader, throws younger brother Owen into the breech, Owen forever fighting the long shadow of his more accomplished and manly sibling. Even though he has returned from the war a hero, Owen cannot measure up in the eyes of the town. It is never Owen's intent to save his family's fortune, but he feels obligated to aid his widowed mother, the stoic and gullible Mary.

Owen's problems emerge through the power of gossip and innuendo. His war hero status deteriorates as the town whispers of his obsession with Camellia, wife of Reggie Glidden, Will's best friend. Undeniably attracted to Camellia, Owen's affection remains innocent, Camellia the unwary manipulator of the situation as she encourages Owen to take over the company and help her locate the now-missing Reggie. Soon the rumors reach a deafening roar; with Reggie's mysterious disappearance, it is assumed that the couple has done away with the man who stands in their way. That this is mere supposition carries no weight in the world of public opinion, especially when a story is circulated by Lula Brower, a vain young woman set to appropriate Owen for her fiancé until felled by a stroke that alters her fortune as a marriageable woman.

Meanwhile, Own throws himself into the lumber business, desperately harvesting the timber in one of the most dangerous areas of growth, his men held barely in check with their internal feuding and petty grievances. While some, like Meager Fortune, remain loyal to Owen, others allow themselves to be seduced by Owen's rivals, further complicating an already dangerous endeavor to save the Jameson's interests. When an unidentified body is found floating in the river, despite the fact that it is too decayed to be recognizable, the town assumes the worst, pointing the finger of guilt at the suspected miscreants, Owen and Camellia.

As the industry is doomed in its present incarnation, so too are the innocent lovers, tried by public opinion, rumors flying from mouth to mouth in lieu of facts with amazing speed. The locals gather gossip, embellishing it at will, passing it along to strangers until no semblance of the truth remains, the town seething with rancor at an assumed crime. In a rapidly changing century, where mechanization is on the rise, this sad drama plays out against the majesty of the great wooded forests providing sustenance for families who spend their time spilling lies to alleviate their uncertainty. Seen through the telescope of time, the history of an era is rendered insignificant compared to the gratuitous evil of careless and vicious words. Luan Gaines/2007.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A worthwhile novel. History portion is great., April 25, 2011

By 

George D. Sutcliffe Jr. (New Hampshire) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Friends of Meager Fortune (Paperback)

A very good read about a time of tough living in the lumbering industry. The story is complex and the historical descriptions of lumbering are woven into the story seamlessly. A book for all types of tastes in reading.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Friends of Meager Fortune, June 1, 2007

By 

Patricia A. Mack "pattymack" (Carlsbad, New Mexico United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Friends of Meager Fortune

David Adams Richards has done a terrific job of describing the mid-twentieth century Canadian lumber industry. He has provided the reader with a wonderful cast of characters who are all affected by a vicious rumor. I wanted to reach inside the book and shake the characters, who not only believed the rumor, but did nothing to find the truth. Two soldiers become involved with a woman married to one, but attracted to the hero. When her husband disappears, the rumor spreads through the small town.

In the meantime, the logging goes on, the loggers endure the treacherous terrain to get the logs to the river, the valiant horses perform their duties, and the Canadian winter provides unbearably harsh conditions for the loggers. The story includes a faux murder that gets tied into the original rumor, the hero of the story is accused of the murder on the basis of the discovery of a mutilated and unidentified body. All the while, Meager Fortune, who does not appear until well into the story, is taking care of the loggers on the mountain. He is the one who discovers the betrayal of one of the loggers who is tagging the logs with a competitor's stamp. But he does not report this betrayal. In the end, the hero dies an heroic death, and the long-lost husband reappears, putting an end to the long-running rumor that had virtually destroyed reputations and resulted in the conviction of an innocent man for the death of another man, who never died.

This book was so well written. The characters were well described, and I (and I hope other readers) was able to empathize with the rumor victims. I cried real tears when Owen died, breathed a sigh of relief when Reggie reappeared, and wanted to give Meager Fortune a hug for his undying dedication to his logging buddies.

Kudos, Mr. Richards. I loved your book.