Galveston

By Paul Quarrington

From one of Canada’s beloved fiction writers comes a tale of love and loss, guilt and forgiveness -- and finding redemption in the eye of a hurricane.

Few people seek out the tiny Caribbean island of Dampier Cay. Visitors usually wash up there by accident, rather than by design. But this weekend, three people will fly to the island deliberately. They are not coming for a tan or fun in the sun. They are coming because Dampier Cay is where it is, and they have reason to believe that they might encounter something there that most people take great measures to avoid -- a hurricane.

A lottery windfall and a few hours of selfishness have robbed Caldwell of all that was precious to him, while Beverly, haunted by tragedy and screwed by fate since birth, has given up on life. Also on the flight is Jimmy Newton, a professional storm chaser and videographer who will do anything for the perfect shot. Waiting for them at Dampier is the manager of the Water’s Edge Hotel, “Bonefish” Maywell Hope, who arrived at Dampier by the purest accident of all -- the accident of birth. A descendent of the pirates who sailed the Caribbean hundreds of years ago, Hope believes if he works hard enough, he can prevent the inevitable. Until, that is, the seas begin to rise . . .

Cinematic and harrowing, spiced with Quarrington’s trademark humour, Galveston shows just how far people will go to feel alive.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Jan 11, 2010
• ISBN: 9780307375537

Paul Quarrington

Paul Quarrington is the author of eight novels. He is also a musician, an award-winning screen-writer, a filmmaker, a playwright and an acclaimed non-fiction writer. He won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction for Whale Music and the Stephen Leacock Medal for King Leary. Storm Chasers was named one of the Top 100 Books of the Year by The Globe and Mail, one of the Best Five Canadian Fiction Titles of 2004 by Quill & Quire, and was shortlisted for the 2004 Giller Prize.

Reviews for Galveston

[shelfmonkey · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Canadian authors have always shown affinity for the eccentric outsider in society, the curious personality who turns left when all others turn right. Mordecai Richler gave us Barney, Duddy, and Joshua. Margaret Atwood breathed life into Grace and Offred. Robertson Davies conjured up Deptford, Ontario, an entire town of atypical characters. But throughout all of Canadian literature, there remains one constant truth; there’s odd, and then there’s Paul Quarrington odd.Quarrington arose to national prominence in 1988, earning the Stephen Leacock Medal for his humourous novel King Leary. The next year, he won the Governor General’s Award for his acclaimed novel Whale Music, chronicling the bizarre life of a rock-and-roll icon determined to create his Magnum Opus solely for the enjoyment of giant aquatic mammals.Quarrington’s output has since continually focused on humanity’s nonconformists, ranging from the terrific W.P. Kinsella-like baseball story Home Game to the Siegfried and Roy-styled magicians of his wonderful last effort The Spirit Cabinet. He has even developed himself as a character of sorts, in an entertaining series of true-life fishing adventures.Galveston, Quarrington’s ninth novel, may be his finest work since Whale Music. A deceptively simple tale of disparate characters tracking down a hurricane, Galveston is a dryly funny, melancholy look at what life is like once its meaning has been removed.The tiny Caribbean island of Dampier Cay is bracing for the onslaught of Hurricane Claire, a storm of possibly mythic proportions. Rather than flee from its destructive path, three people intentionally station themselves in Claire’s way, hoping that the awesome force will provide something their lives are missing.Caldwell is a former phys ed teacher who has become “a stranger in timeâ€?, after winning the lottery, and losing everything that mattered to him. Beverly has been beset by misfortune since birth. Jimmy Newton is a celebrity storm chaser, positive that Claire will be the apex of his career.All three gather at the Water’s Edge Hotel, a tiny inn managed by a direct descendant of the pirates who settled Dampier Cay centuries before. There, on the precipice of disaster, these three storm lovers look to settle their personal scores with existence.Unlike, say, the car-crash enthusiasts of English author J.G. Ballard’s controversial novel Crash, Quarrington is not out to clinically dissect an unusual fetish. Rather, his is a warmer, more compassionate view of people who find themselves “removedâ€? from life, wandering the Earth without purpose, convinced that “life and existence aren’t the same thing.â€?Quarrington has wisely toned down his raucous sense of humour, a trademark that marred lesser works such as The Life of Hope. There was always the sense he was trying too hard to entertain, rather than serving the demands of the story. Now, he has allowed the story to come to the forefront, with remarkable results.Galveston finds Quarrington at his most mature, fulfilling the early potential Whale Music hinted at. An easy mingling of caustic wit and endearing tenderness, Galveston offers a poignant fable of emotions reborn, and passion rediscovered.

[niecierpek · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I was genuinely disappointed when I started this novel. I was expecting a story of the big Galveston hurricane of 1900, and was very unhappy when it turned out not to have anything to do with it. But, the story redeemed itself very quickly. First of all it turned out to be about weather freaks, and there was quite a bit of real factual info there as well. Then, the characters, the style and the whole plot just worked together for me, and combined itself into a fast and thoroughly enjoyable read. Caldwell, Beverly and Newton, the characters in the novel seek out extreme weather to fill the void in their lives, and they all separately set out and meet on Dampier Cay, a tiny and obscure island in the Caribbean where the biggest hurricane ever is supposed to arrive. And then the hurricane does arrive.