Sointula [Paperback]

Bill Gaston (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 7, 2006

Summoned to the deathbed of a long-ago lover, Evelyn is overcome by emotion. Off her medications, she impulsively steals a kayak and embarks on a quest that takes her deep into the Canadian wilderness in order to find her lost son, Tom. On the way to Sointula, a remote fishing village off Vancouver Island, she gains a traveling companion, Peter Gore, a writer working on the quintessential book on the region. Stymied by illness, writer's block, and whiskey, Peter makes an unlikely and unreliable shipmate and paramour. Tom, the survivor of a gunshot wound that slowed his speech and his drug-dealing, finds solace in his isolated life, collecting data for a whale researcher. As Evelyn and Peter approach, Tom waits for the whales' irregular visits to the water's edge. Like the novels of David Malouf and Jonathan Raban, Sointula is a celebration of place, a novel where the landscape comes as fully alive as its memorable characters.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A search for the remote island village of Sointula, a "place of harmony" on the northeast coast of Vancouver Island, drives Canadian novelist Gaston's latest. Spurred by the death of her first, long-ago lover, Claude, Evelyn Poole, the unhappy wife of the mayor of Oakville, Ontario, flees her husband and their small city to look for her grown son, Tom. She crosses the continent and, fighting hunger and prescription drug withdrawal, undertakes a dangerous, improbable kayak journey to Malcolm's Island, teaming up with drifting retired high school teacher Peter Gore, who is trying unsuccessfully to become a travel writer. Weakened and starved for civilization, Evelyn and Peter begin to lose themselves in the towering wilderness, as Gaston tracks their unreliable impressions. Avoiding cliché or easy nature-worship, Gaston (The Cameraman) is that rare writer who can peel back the deepest fears of Nature (abandonment, pain, futility) and find a vision of vehement, imperfect beauty. (Mar.)
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Review

Gaston clearly enjoys his characters. Their misadventures and misconstrued relations lend a note of zaniness to the novel. -- The Seattle Times

STARRED REVIEW ...a renegade lyricist with a soaring, ineffably generous narrative imagination. -- Kirkus Reviews --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 453 pages
• Publisher: Raincoast Books (March 7, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1551928434
• ISBN-13: 978-1551928432
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,455,964 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unusually moving, August 4, 2006

By 

Mary Anne (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sointula (Paperback)

The utter bizarre-ness of the characters and their choices makes this book both human and engulfing. The relationships are multi-dimensional and real. The descriptions of nature are satisfying. And the story line keeps you fully involved until the final page. I highly recommend this book!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Journey in Adult Life, March 20, 2005

By 

Allison L. Smith "Fiction Diva" (Niagara Falls) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sointula (Hardcover)

The coastal images are beautiful. Development between mother and son is touching. I would suggest this book Kevin Chong's "Broque-a-Nova" for a truly canadian west coast experience. Thank you for writing such a rich book. I read about 30-40 novels a year and this one is memorable.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars In all fairness I did not finish the book, October 30, 2006

By 

L. Browne "diziner" (Florida, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sointula (Paperback)

I was very excited to read this book based on other reviews and the short excerpt. I ready about 25% of it and that I had to push through. It was really difficult to develop a true interest in the characters and the plot. The attempted sexual tension became annoying and superfluous. I would definitely be interested in learning more about that area but not by reading this book.