Robertson Davies is one of my favourite Canadian authors. I was delighted to find this book at the Winnipeg Humane Society's book sale.

This is the third book of the Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davies. I am sure I read them all at some point but so far back in time that I remembered very little. A few years ago I read Fifth Business, the first book. When I found a copy of this third installment at a used book sale I thought I would get it and try to read The Manticore, the second book, before I read this one. However, fate did not put a copy of The Manticore in my path and I've now read enough of Davies work to realize that is probably significant. Hence I picked this book up to read in tandem with The Merry Heart, a collection of Davies' speeches and writings published after his death. There was a speech in that collection that Davies delivered in 1992 in Stratford, Ontario where a play based on this book was presented. It provided significant insights into the book which I might not have gleaned on my own.

This book is all about the life of Magnus Eisengrim who was born Paul Dempster in the small Ontario town of Deptford. His birth was 80 days premature as a result of a snowball with a rock in it that Boy Staunton threw at Dunstan Ramsay. That scene was the opening of Fifth Business and it was to reverberate through the lives of all three men. Paul disappeared from Deptford when he was very young and through this book we learn of his life from the time he joined a travelling circus, through his time in the English theatre and his life as a repairer of watches, clocks and other clockwork mechanisms in Switzerland during World War II. Following the war he emerged as a magician and illusionist who was celebrated around the world.

In his essay on the book Davies mentions the following biblical quotes as being integral to the life Eisengrim led:
Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.
A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.
A fool's mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul.

Robertson also mentioned that there are three ways of reading a book:
...a good novel is a tale to the simple, a parable to the wise, and a direct revelation of reality to a man who has made it a part of his being.
This book is certainly a good tale and I think many readers will understand it as a parable. Is it a revelation of reality if you make it part of your being? I'm working on that.

I left this book along with its companions in the Deptford trilogy tied to a tree in the prairie grass meadow . This release is for the 2018 Canada Days release challenge. Every year BookCrossers release books written by Canadians around Canada Day to celebrate the wonderful world of Canadian writing.

When you find a BookCrossing book it is yours to do with what you like. You can read it and keep it or pass it on or if you don't think it is your kind of book pass it on to someone who might like it or release it in a spot for someone else to find like you just did. Whatever you choose it would be great if you could write a short note letting us know what new adventures the book is on.