Phantom Lake: North of 54
by Birk Sproxton | Literature & Fiction | This book has not been rated.
ISBN: 0888644426 Global Overview for this book
ISBN: 0888644426 Global Overview for this book
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
1 journaler for this copy...
I found this gem at the Millennium Library's used book sale. I plan to read this one before releasing it unlike what I did with the Red-headed Woman with the Black Black Heart.
This Canadian author was born in Flin Flon Manitoba (the setting of this novel) and was living in Red Deer Alberta when, sadly, he passed away last year.
This Canadian author was born in Flin Flon Manitoba (the setting of this novel) and was living in Red Deer Alberta when, sadly, he passed away last year.
When I picked up this book I'd thought it was a novel - a work of fiction. In reading it though, I soon discovered it wasn't. Or at least it wasn't only that. I'm sure that there are fictional parts to it, I'm just not so sure what is fictional and what isn't. That hardly matters.
It reads somewhat like a memoir, not only of the author but also of a place, Flin Flon and the surrounding shield country.
Sproxton relates in a very congenial way, sharing his journey with you, like a teacher, perhaps, with an interested group of students on a field trip. He shares stories of growing up in Flin Flon, his families' history, the people who lived in the area and its history (both real and fictional), as he himself crisscrosses the countryside in his vehicle (car, boat, train, plane) and in his imagination. He travels down many roads and highways, old and new. He describes muskeg and spruce and lake shores and river banks, rocks and cliffs, and the inevitable swarms of mosquitoes, headframes and tailing ponds and smelter smoke.
His descriptions are not as sensuous as others I have read (that is, appealing to all senses and touching one's very soul), but they are very visual. Anyone who has ever lived on the shield can see what he sees from all angles (from the air, from a distance, up close and on the road map) and be instantly at home. Anyone not familiar with the area will become so as if they have seen travelogue.
Peppered throughout his story are dollops of history taken, not only from from history books, museum pieces and old newspaper reports, but also from two early fictional "founding stories" - two novels, *The Sunless City* by J.E. Preston-Muddock and *The Lobstick Trail: A Romance of Northern Canada* by Douglas Leader Durkin. He quotes other writers of fiction, including Margaret Lawrence, Tomson Highway and Robert Kroetsch and gives them credit for "extending our literary map".
Quoting Robert Kroetsch, "The fiction makes us real," he says, "In a sense we don't exist until someone tells our story." With *Phantom Lake: North of 54* Sproxton makes real that part of the country and its inhabitants, including himself and his family.
This is my eight book by a Canadian male author read for the 2nd Canadian Book Challenge, Eh?
It reads somewhat like a memoir, not only of the author but also of a place, Flin Flon and the surrounding shield country.
Sproxton relates in a very congenial way, sharing his journey with you, like a teacher, perhaps, with an interested group of students on a field trip. He shares stories of growing up in Flin Flon, his families' history, the people who lived in the area and its history (both real and fictional), as he himself crisscrosses the countryside in his vehicle (car, boat, train, plane) and in his imagination. He travels down many roads and highways, old and new. He describes muskeg and spruce and lake shores and river banks, rocks and cliffs, and the inevitable swarms of mosquitoes, headframes and tailing ponds and smelter smoke.
His descriptions are not as sensuous as others I have read (that is, appealing to all senses and touching one's very soul), but they are very visual. Anyone who has ever lived on the shield can see what he sees from all angles (from the air, from a distance, up close and on the road map) and be instantly at home. Anyone not familiar with the area will become so as if they have seen travelogue.
Peppered throughout his story are dollops of history taken, not only from from history books, museum pieces and old newspaper reports, but also from two early fictional "founding stories" - two novels, *The Sunless City* by J.E. Preston-Muddock and *The Lobstick Trail: A Romance of Northern Canada* by Douglas Leader Durkin. He quotes other writers of fiction, including Margaret Lawrence, Tomson Highway and Robert Kroetsch and gives them credit for "extending our literary map".
Quoting Robert Kroetsch, "The fiction makes us real," he says, "In a sense we don't exist until someone tells our story." With *Phantom Lake: North of 54* Sproxton makes real that part of the country and its inhabitants, including himself and his family.
This is my eight book by a Canadian male author read for the 2nd Canadian Book Challenge, Eh?
Journal Entry 3 by Pooker3 at Delta Hotel - 350 St. Mary in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada on Friday, October 31, 2008
Released 15 yrs ago (10/31/2008 UTC) at Delta Hotel - 350 St. Mary in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
2nd floor ladies' room.
Released for week 43 of the Never Judge a Book by its Cover release challenge; this week's theme is the four elements: earth, air, fire and water. The cover has both the word "lake" in the title and a lake in the art work.
Apt release for today too, if I do say so myself, with the word "phantom" in the title.
I hope the finder enjoys this book by a Canadian author!
2nd floor ladies' room.
Released for week 43 of the Never Judge a Book by its Cover release challenge; this week's theme is the four elements: earth, air, fire and water. The cover has both the word "lake" in the title and a lake in the art work.
Apt release for today too, if I do say so myself, with the word "phantom" in the title.
I hope the finder enjoys this book by a Canadian author!
