Customer Reviews

Spadework: A Novel

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Not one of Timothy's strongest books. There's a lot of material in Spadework with several little stories being carried through. But I got the sense that some of the more interesting ones were left underdeveloped. As the book finished, plot lines were wound up too quickly is if to make way for the six o'clock news. A slight disappointment but an engrossing backstage peak at the theatre scene.

From a writer whose publicity bills him as "Canada's greatest living writer," this book is both a surprise and a disappointment. Telling the story of a group of participants in Ontario's Stratford Festival, the book includes many subplots, all dealing with some issue of love--love from the past, young love, new love, love of children, homosexual love, thwarted love, love of self, love of career--and the extent to which the characters are willing to sacrifice for it.

While some of the dialogue, such as that in an early birthday party scene, pops and crackles, as one would expect in the writing of a playwright, other aspects of the book creak and groan, weighed down by irrelevant details and a shocking number of cliches. Ten pages into the book, Jane comments that she is the luckiest girl in the world. "I've got everything I wanted," she says. One is not surprised, then, when fate decides to teach her a lesson in the ensuing 400 pages.

The personal conflicts which evolve are too shallow to allow for the illumination of great themes, and the characters are one-dimensional, prone to observations one has read many times in many other novels. Upon seeing the Bell telephone man, Jane decides, "He was the most beautiful man she had ever seen. But his beauty was more than physical. There was something...indefinable." Her psychiatrist has a print of Paul Klee's "Scholar 1933" on the wall, "his inner eye, his daily reminder...that life was full of endless mystery and that nothing was known." An outdoor love scene takes place against a background with "not a single cloud. And yet...There was thunder." And it is difficult to take seriously a reference to "the voice of a man she barely knew, but a man she also knew she loved."

For those who enjoy sentimental stories and can do not mind cliches, this novel provides a look at life in a theater company and a great many love stories, which end, literally, with "the sound of water flowing over the dam." Mary Whipple

Timothy Findley's earlier novel, "Famous Last Words" is a very strange and disturbing book. The question is whether "Spadework" is a shift into a more traditional kind of storytelling for this Canadian author, or whether it is in fact stranger than anything else he's done. That's what's hard to decide.

As opposed to being set in Europe, where Findley always seems finds the smell of rot just below the surface, "Spadework" is set in Canada, in the fresh, bonnie territory of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. Jane designs props, and her husband Griffin is a promising actor. Findley knows theater well, and the setting is one of the novel's strengths. The art of theater is lovingly explored--the building of props, the use of lighting to create an environment- all the individual elements that make the artistic whole.

Ambitious Griffin suddenly leaves Jane and their son for an affair with the theatre's artistic director. Distraught, Jane is drawn to a Bell Canada lineman who disconnects her telephone, interrupting a phone call vital to the plot. Griffin gets the roles he wants for the next theatrical season and returns to Jane. She accepts him back. Does she really think anything will be the same again, or that his return can mend the destruction of their son's world? Why would she want this man back anyway when he has proven that his family is far, far down the list of his priorities? Is this an unbelievable ending, or is "Spadework" Findley's creepiest book of all?

It is my appreciation of Findley's earlier work that makes me want to give him the benefit of the doubt. The truth is that unless you put some work into coming up with alternative scenarios, this is a pretty haphazard book. It lacks the kind of quirk Findley excels at, and as a conventional novel of a family in crisis "Spadework" is a flop. It is a readable but mediocre outing by a writer from whom we are accustomed to getting only the best.

This novel is to books what "Plan 9 From Outer Space" is to movies. So laughably bad, the only thing that kept me reading it was the wonder that the author could go on for so long and be so consistantly terrible in his writing. I'm not going to reprise the plot, but here's a little background and an example. The main character, Jane, flees from her controlling and straight-laced Southern lady of a mother. When she announces her intention to leave the mother replies (and so help-me-God this is a quote), "...You don' just stan' up an' walk away f'm Cloud Hill. F'm family. You just don' do that. All them years o' history..." It goes on like this, but I'll spare you reading the rest. Real believable dialogue from well-mannered Southern lady isn't it? That's just a small example. The dialogue in this book is all pretty horrible, and the descriptions of conversations only make it worse. People will be having an argument, then suddenly "beam" at each other. The act of opening bottles of wine should really be thought of as a main character it happens so often and with such over-blown description. None of the interaction of any of the characters is believable, in fact, they are so odd there is a kind of sick fascination to reading this as you have never, will never, know people who react or talk like Mr. Findlay's characters. This book is billed as a "National Bestseller". The only plausible explanation I can think of is; (a) Guam is suddenly declared a sovereign nation (b) a shipment of these books is mistakenly shipped to Guam (c) a bookseller on Guam unfortunately sells 3 of these books and is subsequently lynched. A far-fetched scenario you think? Good Lord, let's hope Timothy Findlay doesn't read this review as he would probably think it was a reasonable plot line and explore it for an excruciating number of pages.

Inconsistent. That is the best way to describe this novel. As a person who loves the town of Stratford Ontario, and its Shakespeare Festival, I was intrigued and amused by the set up for the novel. Many of the text's characters are in some way affiliated with the Festival, and the little details about daily life in Stratford are fun reading for anyone who has an affinity for the town.
However, the book's plot and most of its dialogue feels cinematic, and not at all in a good way. There are moments (alas only moments) of brilliance in this novel, but they are quickly replaced by soap opera scenarios, and scenes out of left field. Too many times while reading this text, I found myself at a complete loss as to what the purpose was. If Findley's goal was to create a domestic drama, it was simply too unrealistic. The ending reeks of being contrived, and only the most ludicrously optimistic people will find it even the tiniest bit plausible.
I really wanted to love this text. It did not happen. Not my fault, I was predisposed to like it. Findley simply did not provide any reason for me to do so.

Though renowned as one of Canada's best, with a wealth of great work behind, Findley's latest is not even a shadow of what we have come to expect. While the establishment of setting gives a stunning portrayal of life in Stratford, Ontario, one must wonder why such attention wasn't also given to the book's characters. Jane is a melodramatic Southern Belle turned Canadian, ruined by an overbearing mother and full of woe. Her ambitious husband Griff is unconvincingly pulled into an affair that challenges his sexuality and their 7 year old son offer's 70 year old wisdom in the midst of this household drama.

Vaguely interesting and occasionally humorous, Spadework is the book for those interested in loose plots and happy endings.

I have read good reviews of this book and the only thing to conclude is that there's so little good writing coming out of Canada that anyone who can actually spell is considered a genius.

This so-called novel is full of bizarre, unbelievable people who are supposed to be all connected but aren't. There are about three separate storylines running through the pages and the only thing they have in common is that the characters know each other.

The whole mess is really a screenplay with no character development, no plot, no suspense and no thought. What it has, though, is a lot of hand mannerisms for the director to use when filming starts. Cigarettes are lit--excuse me, "lighted"--and bottles of wine are uncorked, with grim and relentless monotony. The ending is a montage of saccharine resolutions that belies everything that the author himself put in place.

The main character, Jane Kincaid, has supposedly fled her repressive Southern upbringing to get as far north as possible, ie. Toronto (right). You don't believe a word of it. Her mother is a foolish caricature of the psychotic Southern matriarch. Her husband is either straight or gay, but not even the author knows. They have a few sketchy friends, a housekeeper, a kid and a dog. They all drink and smoke and wring their hands, then the book ends.

Oh yes, keep a look out for bizarre appearance of Troy, Jane's old boyfriend. This has got to be the most useless and inane thing ever written in the history of the world. I finished the book last week and I still haven't figured out what the hell purpose he served.

Jackie Collins writes trash that's so bad it's fun to read. Timothy Findley writes trash that's leaden, pretentious, and no fun at all. Why does he get all the respect? I wanted to give this thing no stars, but one is the minimun. Sorry about that.

The amount of cigarettes and wine consumed in Spadework makes you wonder how all of the characters haven't keeled over dead within the first hundred pages.

So what good can be said of Spadework? Well, its portrayal of the world behind the stage curtain is vivid and intelligent, and there are a handful of moments between characters that really do reflect the raw beauty of human nature.

Everything else, though, rang pretty dim.

The main characters are all basically two-dimensional: when Jane, the protagonist, isn't busy imploding over how rapturously beautiful the Polish repairman is, she's drowning her woes in so much alcohol she's one glass shy of a self-induced coma; Griff, her maybe-but-possibly-not-bisexual husband is first introduced as a loving, caring family man when suddenly Findley flips a switch a third of the way into the novel causing Griff to abandon his family and become an emotionless, subservient sexbot; Will, their son, can't decide if he's a seven year old boy who likes Treasure Island and puzzles or a cynical ninety year old sage.

Interestingly enough, as a fellow reviewer put it, it's the cast of secondary characters who are by far the most engrossing if not sympathetic characters who make up this melodrama. And that's what Findley has failed to do with our main trio, I think--make them gripping, lovable, sympathetic people.

The plot... Well, I won't say it's impossible for things to unfold the way they do in Spadework, but if you're by any stretch a sensible person, you'll put your money on it being probably one of the more unrealistic dramas you've read in a while.

Timothy Findley's "Spadework" doesn't conform to any specific type or genre in literary fiction. To begin with, it's most certainly not a murder mystery or thriller the blurb suggests it is - Penguin Books, its UK publisher, should be rapped for being misleading. So, what kind of book is it ? A tale of marital breakdown, lust and ambition among members of a theatrical community in Ontario ? Hard to say.

But love - all sorts of love - takes centre stage in "Spadework". There's conjugal love between struggling stage actor Griffin Kincaid and his prop designer wife Jane, love between parent and child (as between the Kincaids and their son Will), love between family members (as between gardener Luke and his young troubled uncle Jesse), homosexual love or lust of stage director Jonathan for Griffin, mature love between housekeeper Mercy and Luke, and Jane's idealised love for the Bell repairman Milos. According to Findley, love caves in under pressure, its manifest qualities change albeit temporarily. Like an elastic band, it finds its original shape eventually.

Findley's characterisation doesn't always succeed. His supporting characters like Mercy, Luke, Milos and Claire fare much better than his protagonists. With each page, I found Jane increasingly shrill and irritating and I began to feel she deserves what's happening to her.....until Milos turns up and she wanders into a dream world of her own and becomes interesting as a human being once again. Griffin's character is the most problematic. He's supposed to be desperate and ambitious and his sudden abandonment of his family for Jonathan's casting couch is a move that suggests he has sold his soul to the devil - remember Rosemary's husband in "Rosemary's Baby" ? - but in truth, he's a wimp and his return to the family fold after Jonathan's confessional is a bizarre twist that strains credibility and ends the story on a hastily executed feel-good note.

Quite apart from revealing his roots as a playwright, Findley's liberal use of asides and self directed utterances to punctuate his narrative is also a devise that doesn't quite work. Indeed, I found it unhelpful and distracting and gives the novel an incongruous feel about it. There is nevertheless much to enjoy in "Spadework". The good parts are excellent and they'll make it all worthwhile for you.

Spadework may not be Findley's most creative book, but as far as capturing honest characters goes, this book is dead-on. The mannerisms, thoughts, and actions of the characters are so vividly portrayed, the book is almost like a play is being acted out in front of you. A fairly quick read, but by no means a light one: the husband must confront the depths that his ambition will drive him to; his wife ponders love with another, beautiful man; while their seven-year-old son is ignored and left largely to himself to deal with his pain and anger. This story is dark and frightening because the people are so average, and are left to battle their addictions, ambitions, loves and hates, all alone.

Definately read Findley's other books (Piano Man's Daughter, Pilgrim, Headhunter, The Wars), but don't count out Spadework by any means. Like most of the dark things in life, it will creep up on you when you're least expecting it.