Quarrington, Paul

Fishing for Brookies, Browns, and Bows: The Old Guy's Complete Guide to Catching Trout

Average customer rating:

great practical and enjoyable book

Fishing for Brookies, Browns, and Bows: The Old Guy's Complete Guide to Catching Trout
Gord Deval
Manufacturer: Greystone Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Instructional | Hiking & Camping | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1550549448

Book Description

Veteran fisherman Gord "The Old Guy" Deval and his star pupil, Paul Quarrington, do what they do best in this book: talk and write about trout. Each section is devoted to one of three species of trout: brook, brown, and rainbow. Descriptions are given on where to find each fish, everything you need to know about live bait, what lures work best, and how to use them. This is the definitive guide for catching trout, mixing anecdote with practical advice and having a very good time with it all.

Customer Reviews:

great practical and enjoyable book.......2003-11-18

Just happened to pick this book up out of the blue. Little did I know I was buying what is my favourite fishing book, but some very relevant information on some of my local fishing areas.

Although Canadians living in the Toronto area may most relate to the references to fishing in the area, this book should appeal to most fishermen and friends of fishermen with its very humourous and profound portrayal of (this is the best term I can think of) the "fishing lifestyle."

Now what is particularly endearing about the "lifestyle" is that it is not the bass boat rock and roll we associate with those sponsor-laden infomericials we call fishing shows. Nor is this is about elitist fly fishing club types. This is about the obsessive bush-whacker who can't help but stop by a local conservation area on the way back from work to explore some obscure trickle of a stream which might hold aquatic life.

Anyone into stream fishing for trout will be entertained by this book, and learn some valuable techniques. Gord Deval is generous in sharing his "secrets" that so many river anglers jealously guard. Highly recommended!

The Boy on the Back of the Turtle: Seeking God, Quince Marmalade, and the Fabled Albatross on Darwin's Islands
Average customer rating:

Islands for insight

The Boy on the Back of the Turtle: Seeking God, Quince Marmalade, and the Fabled Albatross on Darwin's Islands
Paul Quarrington
Manufacturer: Greystone Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
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Similar Items:

Galapagos: A Natural History

The Evolution Of Jane

Evolution's Workshop: God and Science on the Galápagos Islands

Wildlife of the Galapagos (Princeton Illustrated Checklists)

The Voyage of the Beagle: Charles Darwin's Journal of Researches (Penguin Classics)

ASIN: 1550547011

Book Description

In The Boy on the Back of the Turtle, Quarrington attempts to discover his own little niche in the cosmos. Cruising the volcanic Galapagos Islands on a 90-foot liner in the company of his daughter, age 7, and his father, age 73, he tries to find his place as a Son, as a Father, as a Mortal frolicking beneath the heavens. Given that the Galapagos is the historic site of God's greatest setback, he points out, it is a fitting place to play out the battle within him. Quarrington employs his trademark combination of wry wit and poignant observation as he takes readers on a wide-ranging investigation of everything from blue-footed boobies, careerism, taxonomy, and the nature of creation to pirates, frigate birds, Herman Melville, and the precarious ecology of the islands and the planet. The exploration of questions big and small make this an enlightening voyage for the reader as well.

Customer Reviews:

Islands for insight.......2003-10-17

What prompts sixty thousand people per year to visit an isolated group of barren, arid, volcanic islands? They tramp dusty trails, peer into bushes and caves, suffer equatorial sun and strange animals almost without a murmur of complaint. A few, like Paul Quarrington are seeking some answers. Sometimes it's The Answer that's sought. These pilgrims are trailing the man who conceived the best idea anyone, any time, ever had. They retrace the footsteps of Charles Robert Darwin, who visited the Galapagos Islands, then returned home to think about what he'd seen. What Darwin saw and thought led to the first understanding of how life, the universe and everything, actually works.

Quarrington visited the Islands with his daughter Carson, seven years old, and his father, "ten times that age". Quarrington, in an illustrious account, sought what Darwin found - a Great Insight. In keeping with that quest, his narrative is highly personalized and introspective. That is, after all, what "insight" is - looking inward. He recounts his boyhood adoption of divine Special Creation of the universe. Over the years, however, he came to understand how unsatisfying divine creation is in explaining life. As with those thousands of others, he came to see a pilgrimage to the islands as a likely source of enlightenment.

He admits the symbolism of visiting the Galapagos with three generations. The account explains his travails as both a son and a parent. Where does "natural selection" fit in his dealings with his father and his daughter? He examines his own life, what he knows of his father's and how confesses to how adroitly Carson manipulates him. Through it all, Quarrington gives snippets of Darwin's life and thinking, that of natural selection's critics and how many questions have been pondered and answered. In order to accomplish this, he relies on a bevy of writers listed in a five-page bibliography. That's an enterprising effort for a writer listed as a "humourist". Yet, the humour, rich with ironies, is in full flower in this lucid account. Between the science, the charming [and sometimes not so charming] wit, he has provided a singularly readable account of one man's wrestling with the attempt to find something divine, where divinity has no place. It's a book reflecting what many have experienced, although likely with less success.

Book Description

By turns outrageous, whimsical, comic, and melancholy, Paul Quarrington's The Spirit Cabinet is a story of love, chaos, and spiritual renewal set in the carnival world of Las Vegas entertainers. Yet "this is not a book about magicians and their pursuit of magic," writes Alan Beaton in the National Post, "it is a book about human beings, and their pursuit of faith." After a long, slow climb out of the strip clubs and fleshpots of Europe, Jurgen and Rudolfo have hit the big time in Las Vegas, headlining a magic act as slick and well-oiled as their own buffed and usually half-naked bodies. Rudolfo is content orchestrating the spectacle and attempting to twin his soul with Jurgen's. But Jurgen hungers for more -- and finds it in a musty, mysterious collection of magicians' paraphernalia once belonging to Harry Houdini. With the knowledge he finds there, and his own faith in the unknown, Jurgen becomes the miracle-working saint of the Las Vegas strip. In The Spirit Cabinet, Quarrington takes dead aim at the place in the human heart that yearns for wonder and miracles.

Customer Reviews:

Spirit Fusion.......2003-03-25

"The Spirit Cabinet" uses the world of magicians and magic as an allegory for an exploration of self-worth. Much of the story takes place through the eyes of Rudolfo, who is the showman partner of Jurgan. The two come from colorful pasts. They are lovers as well as partners in a magic act. The novel contains several romantic graphic gay sexual encounters, one in a hail storm & one on an exercise bike. Rudolfo has a flare for working with animals, most notably Samson whose thoughts & fears are most humanely told. Samson is like the cowardly lion, although at times he's alternately bored or suffering from indigestion. The plot revolves around an auction where Jurgan buys a collection of books & magical equipment that belonged to Harry Houdini. This apparently contains secret magical information. We're not absolutely clear about what happens within the spirit cabinet, but Jurgen appears to undergo a transformation where he becomes increasingly less material, his body translucent, and less responsive to physical gravity. The culmination event reminded me of the idea of spirit fusion presented in The Urantia Book. Other magicians swirl in subplots. Preston the Adequate steals Jurgen & Rudolfo's lovely assistant Miranda. Envious magician Kaz tries to steal the Houdini collection. There is also a chauffeur from the African Dogon tribe who appears to have magical qualities. Quarrington peoples the novel with a collection of oddballs who all seem to question their self-worth. The quasi-mystical becomes magical and possible. Jurgen's climax where he seems to explode skyward into luminous bits is wonderful. The barriers to enjoyment come from the construction which is a bit hard to follow. One chapter is in the present, the next in flashback, and another in a dream. Sometimes it's hard to tell what's what, which may be the point. Overall, this is an interesting and entertaining tome, if a bit off-center. Enjoy!

difficult.......2002-06-21

I was a big fan of Whale Music and a couple other Quarrington books, so I jumped at the chance to buy this, not knowing it existed. I have tried for weeks to get into it, but so far... after six chapters, I am just not there. There is no doubt that Paul Quarrington is an amazing writer, but this story has just not grabbed me yet.

Good writing, a little hard to swallow.......2001-06-28

I have to say I enjoyed this book, but saw room for improvement. While Quarrington's descriptive and narrative style is quite tasty and the plot decidedly provocative and well-researched, I found the telling a little loose and frayed around the edges and the last portion of the book seemed rushed and clumsily tied together. It takes place in a believable world (if you can call Las Vegas believable) where magic (not mere illusions) exists and animals have emotional and intellectual maturity. These devices worked and their "unrealness" was "believable" and enjoyable. Yet, for example, when one's lover/partner starts to turn literally translucent, begins wasting away before your eyes and performing ACTUAL magic learned from ancient books & scrolls and paraphernalia, one would probably react with something other than sulking, annoyance and self-centered anger. This is the sort of unbeleivability that I disliked about this book, even for it's well drawn characters, good humor and surprising twists of plot. Also, some of the out-of-chronological-order storytelling left me confused and back-tracking rather than being able to watch the subplots eventually fall satisfyingly into place. In sum: Enjoyable but not wholly satisfying.

This strange life.......2000-08-28

Superstar magicians and entertainers Jurgen and Rudolfo buy Houdini's collection of magicians' artifacts and paraphernalia, including the Davenport Spirit Cabinet, at an auction. As Jurgen delves into the collection, he drifts from his partner and lover, as well as becoming more disconnected from their show. Jurgen disappears, leaving Rudolfo adrift and depressed, until he ultimately follows his love. Shifting between the present and the past, Quarrington explores the notions of faith in each character's life. Maybe not as potent as Katherine Dunn's "Geek Love" or anything by John Irving, Quarrington's book is quite a remarkable story of oddball characters that compels the reader onward.

The world of magic.......2000-04-20

On Terry Pratchett's Discworld, there are eight colours in the rainbow. The eighth is The Colour of Magic. Like the other colours, its intensity may be measured - using a thaumometer.

On our world, as Paul Quarrington depicts here, magic is measured with a bank account book. Its practitioners are showmen not wizards. They are sleight-of-hand artists, illusionists well versed in the motto 'the hand is quicker than the eye'. They are highly competitive for audiences and recognition. The issue of selecting routines for their performances looms large, both for the sake of the audience and thier competitors.

Performance magic relies heavily on deception and devices. Quarrington relates how little novelty there is in this trickery. Manuevers and mechanisms are frequently handed down over generations to apprentices or favored associates. In The Spirit Cabinet it is a collection of material derived, almost inevitably, from the greatest magical showman of them all, Henry Houdini.

Assembled from such diffuse origins as Germany, Switzerland and Saskatchewan, a melange of conjurers gathers in Las Vegas to acquire a collection of Houdini memoribilia. Quarrington takes great pains in demonstrating the trade draws unusual people. Jurgen and Rudolfo are an unusal couple, in more ways than one. A rarity in the craft, they are a team. Most magicians, such as Kaz and Preston the Adequate [his father was Preston the Magnificent] work alone, or with no more than a decorous assistant. All covet the Houdini material, although why, since so much of it has been duplicated, remains hidden. Jurgen and Rudolfo acquire the collection. From that point on, their relationship takes a new course. A hint of real magic emerges, confounding all their lives.

Quarrington has drawn these people well. In describing their origins, there are numerous unexpected twists. The memory of Preston's father overshadows his life. Jurgen and Rudolfo have what can only be described as bizarre childhoods. As partners in performance and life, they become lovers. Few books reach publication these days without some form of sexual dysfunction as at least a minor theme. Kaz is Jewish, causing him to view every slight or competition as anti-Semetically based. Only Miranda seems stable; the account of her show business career is one of the best episodes in the book.

Book Description

Des Howell is a former rock 'n' roll star who never leaves his secluded oceanfront mansion. Naked, rich and fabulously deranged, he subsists on a steady diet of whiskey, pharmaceuticals and jelly doughnuts and occasionally works on his masterpiece, "Whale Music." One day, upon awakening from his usual drunken stupor, Des discovers on his sofa a young alien from the faraway universe of Toronto. This girl has made the trek to Des' hideaway because she believes in the "Whale Music" and she's crazy enough to think that Des can make a comeback hit with his mad magnum opus--

Customer Reviews:

What would Brian Wilson think?.......2002-10-01

I remember reading some years ago that Brian Wilson is reported to have remarked - "Whale Music is the best book about the Beach Boys that I have read." Why not?

Fantasy is Reality.......2001-11-10

Anyone who has been semi conscious on Earth over the last 40 years knows that "Whale Music" draws it's inspiration from The Beach Boy's creative genius; Brian Wilson. As I recollect, Mr. Quarrington's book hit the shelves at about the same time as Mr. Wilson's autobiography. Having read both, I would choose to re-read 'Whale Music'. At it's worst, it's fictionalized take off on the man's life is extremely entertaining. At it's best, it's a great satire of the media's reporting of Mr. Wilson's every ingested cheeseburger. I love this book and, I especially love Brian Wilson's contribution to the world.

Smile ..........2001-06-28

It has been at least ten years since I read this book but I still remember it fondly. It is largely a thinly-fictionalized account of the turbulent life of Brian Wilson, not exactly, but he is obviously the prototype for the eccentric musical genius protagonist and former songwriter/producer/singer of a California-based brother act. I was insipred to try to track it down again after reading about an all-star Brian Wilson tribute concert. My dim memory of this book is that the narrator is the Wilson-based character, who also reminded me a bit of the hero of John Kennedy Toole's great rambling novel "A Confederacy of Dunces." There are some laugh-out-loud sequences in this book as well as the expected tortured-artist tales. I would gladly read it again.

Fantastic 1st Person Narrative!.......1999-06-27

Quarrington's Whale Music is as decadent and sincere as its main character. A touching story doused in an absurd fondue of drug abuse, money, rock and roll, and agoraphobia. Track this one down!

Quarrington knows us better than we know ourselves........1997-06-12

There are a rare few writers in our society that can capture the paradox between the fragility and strength of the human spirit like Paul Quarrington. The alcoholic, drug-addicted main character spends his time talking to ghosts of his past, dunking his naked, corpulent body in the pool, and working on a composition for the whales below his cliff-side house. An uninvited visitor from another universe turns his life upside-down and he is forced to face the ghosts of his past, present, and future. In the process he lays bare those things that we most hide about our own selves, that make up the very essence of those things which make us human. If you like books which forever change the way you look at life, "Whale Music" is for you

Average customer rating:

Turned me into a hockey fan
A low-quality offering from a high-quality author

Logan In Overtime
Paul Quarrington
Manufacturer: Doubleday Canada
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Customer Reviews:

Turned me into a hockey fan.......2001-12-15

I'd read Whale Music by Paul Quarrington and loved it, so when I spotted "Logan in Overtime" I gave it a go. I never laughed out loud for so long since losing a number of tickle contests as a kid.

I'd always known that Goalies were a little strange - my perspective being old enough that I'd known a couple of kids who would play without masks or padding. They were nuts. Logan is such a goalie - nuts.

The premise is that Logan is a fellow with an alcohol problem and some minor dementia. He believes that space aliens (are there any other kind?)are out to get him. He is also a semi-professional goalie in a hockey league with a minor problem. They have no overtime rule for their play-offs. Everyone plays until the game is over (kind of like European soccer, I guess).

The team he plays for is mentioned in a book by the same author, "King Leary" which is a lot easier to find, let me tell you. In fact, I'd be very interested in finding a copy of "Logan" if that were at all possible...

A low-quality offering from a high-quality author.......1999-12-15

LOGAN IN OVERTIME, written by Paul Quarrington, is not lacking in ambition. It aspires to the magical quality achieved by W.P. Kinsella in his baseball stories, and to the large, often bizarre cast of characters seen in the novels of Dickens and Irving. But LOGAN is a mess, a slight, sometimes amusing riff on the sport of hockey that achieves nothing more than the creation of a nostalgic feeling for Quarrington's far better, more fully realized novels. In WHALE MUSIC and CIVILIZATION, and the autobiographical THE BOY ON THE BACK OF THE TURTLE, Quarrington mixes the odd with the realistic, creating memorable characters that come to life not only because of their eccentricities, but because of Quarrington's very palpable fondness for them. In LOGAN, his characters feel half-finished, coasting by on their oddness, and not creating any real empathy with the reader. It's not the subject matter: Kinsella achieved a far greater story with his similar IOWA BASEBALL CONFEDERACY. There, as in LOGAN, unusual, somewhat magical events are mixed with a story surrounding a single game, but Kinsella balances his mystical-realism with a flair for fully-functioning characters that exist long after the tale is ended. Here, the effort is half-baked, as if Quarrington read Kinsella's novel, changed baseball to hockey, and hoped the rest would fall into place. Sadly, he fails.

Average customer rating:

One of the funniest books you will ever read
Canadian Humour about a Canadian sport
Hilarious, very human, and touching

King Leary
Paul Quarrington
Manufacturer: Doubleday Canada
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Percival Leary was once the King of the Ice, one of hockey's greatest heroes. In the South Grouse Nursing Home, where he shares a room with Edmund "Blue" Hermann, the antagonistic and alcoholic newspaper reporter who once chronicled his career, learly looks back on his tumultuous life and times: his days at the boys' reformatory when he burned down a house; the four mad monks who first taught him how to play hockey; and the time he executed the perfect "St. Louis Whirlygig" to score the winning goal in the 1919 Stanley Cup finals.

Now all but forgotten, Leary is only a legend in his own mind until a high-powered advertising agency decides to feature him in a series of ginger ale commercials. With his male nurse, his son, and the irrepressible Blue, Leary sets off for Toronto on one last madcap adventure as he revisits scenes of his glorious life as the King of the Ice.

From the Trade Paperback edition.

Customer Reviews:

One of the funniest books you will ever read.......2000-02-19

King Leary is an old man now, but in his heydey he was the king of the ice, leaving opponents clutching at air as he executed the famous St Louis Whirligig. He is tracked down by an androgyous advertising company hack to promote a brand of ginger ale, and together they commence a laughter-inducing trip to the big city to make ads.

This book will have you holding your stomach and wiping your eyes. It would be worth the read just to find out the real meaning of the King's Indian nickname, Loofweda, which he translates as "skates like the wind".

Canadian Humour about a Canadian sport.......1999-12-09

King Leary is a very funny novel. I really enjoyed this book because its setting is right around where I live. The characters in this novel seemed real and alive. Paul Quarrington is an author who really gets involved in his work. This novel is a great recommendation to anyone who really enjoy's a good Canadian laugh!

Happy Reading and enjoy!

Hilarious, very human, and touching.......1999-03-04

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. Based loosely on hockey as it was earlier in the 20th century. Written in the first person, a style of which Quarrington is a master (see also "Whale Music"). Also, like Whale Music, very touching at times.

Average customer rating:

Civilization
Paul Quarrington
Manufacturer: Random House of Canada
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Received with almost unanimous accolades from critics and readers alike, Civilization is the amazing tale of Thom Moss, a young man who sets out in the early twentieth century in search of a grand adventure. He soon finds himself in the thick of Hollywoodland, employed as an actor by the renowned Caspar Willison, master of the two-reel cowboy flicker. However, Thom's fortune quickly takes a ruinous turn and he lands in the Penitentiary, where he writes the story of his downfall. At once hilarious and courageous, Civilization is a daring work by one of Canada's finest novelists.

The Invention of Poetry (The Summerhill Season)

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The Invention of Poetry (The Summerhill Season)
Paul Quarrington
Manufacturer: Blizzard Pub Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Drama | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0929091310

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The Life of Hope
Paul Quarrington
Manufacturer: Vintage Canada
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Paul rolls into Hope—Population 1001—late at nigh on his thirtieth birthday, on the lam from his wife and a surprise party he has known about for weeks He is trying to escape the Big city and get some serious work done on his second novel, but finds the diversions of Hope no less seductive than those he has fled.

One of those diversions is the two-hundred-year-old legendary fish, Ol' Mossback. Paul could hardly pass up the chance to land such a fish. He puts aside his work-in-progress in an attempt to discover the mysteries of Hope, with all its quirky characters, and to finally be able to answer the question, "talked with Ol' Mossback lately?"

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Authors

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