Stones [Paperback]

Timothy Findley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1989

Findley exposes the sharp changes in the traditional institutions of love andmarriage and family through a vivid terrain of images and insightful stories.10,000 print.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Edgar Award winner Findley's ( The Telling of Lies ) short stories leap from one crucial and vivid glimpse to another, building tension almost to the level of a Hitchcock movie, yet the author is also adept at a slower and more linear narrative style. The center of emotional gravity in the Toronto that Findley, a native, depicts is the Mental Health Centre on Queen Street. Its wards and its patients fascinate these protagonists, and the meaning of their lives grows out of their relationship to sanity and insanity. A number of characters experience what one narrator calls "psychotic withdrawal," and several are psychiatrists or social workers. But Findley refuses to give psychology and its reasonable explanations the last word: instead, madness shares an unmarked border with passion and creativity; although failures to distinguish dream from reality can prove dangerous, Findley implies, forever separating the two can be deadening. The nine tales here explore similar situations from varied points of view, ultimately yielding a richly satisfying range of perspectives.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From Library Journal

In these nine stories, set mostly in Toronto, Findley does for his native city something of what Joyce did for Dublin. Probing the dark corners of the psyche, he exposes the fears and repressions of the city's inhabitants. The stories often involve characters who suddenly be come aware of the irrationality lurking beneath their well-ordered lives. In "Dreams," a workaholic psychiatrist recognizes his identification with a schizophrenic patient through a series of bloody nightmares. In "The Sky," a successful executive is driven nearly to madness by fear of his wife's infidelity. In contrast is the significantly named Minna Joyce, a writer who appears in two of the stories. Escaping a repressive family, she goes to live among the city's insane and unwanted, dedicating her life and art to "the overthrow of silence." These are powerful, well-honed stories. Highly recommended.
- Lawrence Rungren, Bedford Free P.L., Mass.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books (1989)
• ISBN-10: 0140112049
• ISBN-13: 978-0140112047
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,700,781 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Leaves you wanting more..., January 1, 2010

By 

Laura Duhan Kaplan (Vancouver BC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Stones (Paperback)

This collection of short stories explores the inner lives of people driven by various dark, shameful secrets: compulsion, alcoholism, incest. The writing is excellent. Findley uses both dialogue and narration to let us see the story from the perspective of the protagonist. What we see is that each character is confused about her or his own motivations and choices. Memories, perceptions, beliefs weave together into tapestries with gaping holes. Thus we, the readers, come to understand that we, too, wouldn't have a clue what to do in the character's situation.

The book certainly displays the author's virtuosity as a writer. It includes two pairs of stories that show events from two perspectives: a character in the moment of crisis, and the same character reflecting on a longer chain of events. It explores several different writing techniques. It weaves autobiographical moments from the life of the author into the lives of different characters.

My criticism applies to most of the stories, except for the two where the character reflects on events over time. Each story opens us onto a moment of confusion, madness or sudden clarity. And at the end of the story, we are perched at that moment, wanting to know what happens next. It seems somehow to be a failure of the author (or perhaps the genre of the horror short story) to bring the story to a climax and then abruptly end it, because the author doesn't know where to take the character from there.

Overall, this is a very good read, and one that can teach a reader a lot about writing. I read it in one sitting!

4.0 out of 5 stars Don't Throw Stones, March 5, 2000

By 

Tanya Lacey - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stones (Paperback)

I believe that "Stones" is one of the lesser known books by Findley, and is somewhat weaker than most of his popular works. "Stones" is made up of multiple stories happening to various Canadian characters. The stories generally take up only one chapter and then you don't hear from those characters again. I enjoyed reading this, but am not always a fan of this type of work. I often find myself attached to a specific story and am then disappointed when it is dropped for another; I find myself wanting to know what else happened. However, it is an interesting collection of characters and an interesting portrait of Canadian life.