Perpetual Motion (New Canadian Library) [Mass Market Paperback]

Graeme Gibson (Author), Ramsay Cook (Afterword)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 27, 1997 | Series: New Canadian Library

Set in southern Ontario in the late nineteenth century, at a time when the machine age was coming into its own, Perpetual Motion chronicles the fortunes of settler Robert Fraser, a man obsessed with power and control. Driven by the idea of inventing a perpetual motion machine which will utilize natural energy, he neglects and destroys not only the nature around him but his own family too, as his overbearing rationality becomes a kind of tragic lunacy.

First published in 1982, Perpetual Motion is Graeme Gibson’s superb evocation of a time when faith in material progress is still challenged by superstition and a lingering belief in magic. It is an ironic yet compassionate examination of the painful consequences of human folly.


From the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

There is a wealth of detail in this well-researched, panoramic novel set in rural 19th century Ontario, where the doomed Robert Fraser is a reluctant farmer and inveterate dreamer. He spends his time trying to devise a perpetual-motion machine to relieve him of his labors in controlling nature. The novel begins as Fraser unearths a prehistoric skeleton with his horse-drawn plow. He soon determines to reap profits from the natural past (by exhibiting the specimen) to finance the construction of his toil-free future. His course of action over the ensuing 20 years yields only tragic consequences for him and his family and for nature itself. Gibson succeeds in implying an analogy between the folly of Fraser's project and contemporary environmental decimation through land speculation and development. Fictively, however, there is much lacking in character development and profluence of plot. Many physical descriptions are vivid, but Fraser and others remain as impenetrable as the forest that surrounds them.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Inside Flap

Set in southern Ontario in the late nineteenth century, at a time when the machine age was coming into its own, Perpetual Motion chronicles the fortunes of settler Robert Fraser, a man obsessed with power and control. Driven by the idea of inventing a perpetual motion machine which will utilize natural energy, he neglects and destroys not only the nature around him but his own family too, as his overbearing rationality becomes a kind of tragic lunacy.

First published in 1982, Perpetual Motion is Graeme Gibson?s superb evocation of a time when faith in material progress is still challenged by superstition and a lingering belief in magic. It is an ironic yet compassionate examination of the painful consequences of human folly.


From the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: New Canadian Library (September 27, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0771034628
• ISBN-13: 978-0771034626
• Product Dimensions: 4.3 x 0.6 x 7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,925,140 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars invitation to intimacy rejected!, December 3, 2004

By 

rhinoceros "rhino" (peterborough, canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Perpetual Motion (Hardcover)

a hard slog, but well worth the effort. robert fraser sets out to build a perpetual motion machine in 19th century rural ontario to end a life of agricultural toil trying to control nature, and as the editorials above suggest, goes a bit nutbar, eviscerating the natural world and alienating his own family in the process.

what i really liked about this novel were all the opportunities fraser had to reconsider his relationship with nature based on the strange occurences around his farm - the mysterious discovery of the dinosaur skeleton that sets the story off at a gallop, the chaotic fly-over of a giant flock of passenger pigeons, or the disappearance of his son angus, who is miraculously taken under the wing (paw?) of a bear while stranded in the wilderness.

the mysterious otherness of the land offers a hand to fraser a number of times, and each and every time he rejects the natural world's offer of a deeper relationship to its mysteries in favour of a quick 'get rich quick' liquidation of its natural capital instead. so: the dinosaur bones are taken on tour, the passenger pigeons slaughtered en masse, and mysterious son angus is driven out of the house and deeper into an already feral existence living out of a beaver lodge.

'perpetual motion' is a stunning allegory for the non-native inhabitation of north america, now careening ever closer to apocalyptic disaster in this our sixth full century of occupation. by and large, gibson suggests, we remain a culture that possesses the means to develop a more peaceful relationship to place, but our dangerous dreams of prosperity and wealth on our terms alone continue to derail any chances of a long term peaceful relationship to this long-suffering land.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A feast of a book..., April 9, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Perpetual Motion (New Canadian Library) (Mass Market Paperback)

I'm currently only half-way through this book because I like it so much I can't bear to finish it. I keep going back and re-reading, even out loud, as one would with poetry. I love the language, the descriptions and, especially, the humor. I started this book immediately after an action-mystery and at first found it slow going as well; descriptions of people, places, things aren't fill-ins--they're the book. So I started over and adjusted myself to the pace. It lit up.

5.0 out of 5 stars It was very informative!!!, October 10, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Perpetual Motion (New Canadian Library) (Mass Market Paperback)

This book does a very good job of informing the reader of a neat idea. I found it to be quite fascinating and would recommend it to anyone interested in engineering.