The Wars
The quote on the inside cover of “Early 21st Century Blues”
comes from the Timothy Findley novel “The Wars”. The book
is as relevant now as it was when it was written twenty-five years ago.
We highly recommend it if you are interested in a soul stirring journey.
You can but it on-line at: http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/item.asp?Item=978014024116&Catalog=Books&N=35&Lang=en&Section=books&zxac=
About The Wars
When young Canadian Robert Ross enlists as an officer and is sent into
the hell and terror of 1915 Ypres, he is unprepared for the horrors of
war. But in the midst of the death and violence, his own compassion finds
voice and he makes a decision that will leave its mark on him for the
rest of his life. The Wars is one of the great masterpieces of Canadian
literature, and since it garnered the Governor General's Award in 1977,
it has established Timothy Findley as one of our most enduring literary
talents.
About the Author
Timothy Findley was born in 1930. A native of Toronto, Canada, novelist
and playwright Timothy Findley initially embarked upon an acting career.
Findley worked for the Canadian Stratford Festival and later, after study
at London's Central School of Speech and Drama, he toured Britain, Europe,
and the United States as a contract player. While performing in The Matchmaker
by Thornton Wilder, Findley was encouraged by the playwright to write
fiction.
Influenced by film techniques, Findley's first novel, The Last of the
Crazy People (1967) is a penetrating look at a family of "emotional
cripples" from a child's perspective. With his character Hooker,
Findley captures the irrational logic of a child's mind without treating
childhood sentimentally.The Butterfly Plague followed in 1969. The Wars
(1978), Findley's most successful novel, has been translated into numerous
languages and was made into a film. The Wars uses the device of a story-within-a-story
to illustrate how a personality transcends elemental forces even while
being destroyed by them. In 1981 Famous Last Words was published. This
fictionalization of Hugh Selwyn Mauberley by Ezra Pound, a work that was
already a "fictional fact," examines fascism. In Not Wanted
on the Voyage (1984), Findley rewrites the story of Noah's Ark by giving
voices to women, children, workers, animals, and folklore creatures, all
of whom question Noah's authority. The novel turns into a parable that
seems to challenge imperialism, eugenics, fascism, and any other force
that endangers human survival. Again repeating an earlier text, Findley
turns to Thomas Mann's Death in Venice to write The Telling of Lies (1986).
This novel draws parallels between World War II atrocities and contemporary
North America, which Findley sees as a metaphoric concentration camp.
Findley died on June 20, 2002 in Provence, France
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