Description
“Ray Robertson is an irrepressible voice, with brass balls and a heart of gold.”—Jonathan Evison
Peter Bayle—heavy drinker, philosopher, scholar, anemic lover—is in Kansas, writing a feature on middle America’s newfound love for hockey. There he meets a morphine-injecting reverend, a reviled reporter, and a drug salesman; obsessed by his self-destructive new friends, Bayle abandons the project and returns home to confront a future and a girlfriend he may no longer want.
Praise for Ray Robertson
“Although Robertson (Home Movies; Heroes; Moody Food; Gently Down the Stream) has
won many Canadian literary awards, his work is unfamiliar to American readers. This beautifully written novel with its discontinuous narrative, complex characters, and references to poets, philosophers, and other great thinkers is a challenging read that is well worth the effort.”—Library Journal
“Both playful and profound, laced with insight from thinkers across a range of disciplines, from music to history, politics to literature, high to low culture.”—National Post
“Strong—heartfelt, funny, rigorous, practical without ever being preachy.”—Montreal Gazette
“An engrossing novel, beautifully written.” —Jim Harrison
“Robertson shares a literary wildness with Thomas Wolfe.” —Cleveland Free Times
“A funny, generous, touching novel by a writer of genuine gifts.” —Richard Curry, author, Fatal Light and Lost Highway
“The real star … is the writing, with its displays of sharp humor and deep love of music.” —Litkicks.com
“Clever, word-drunk, and falling-down funny… Robertson is a moral writer and a bitingly intelligent one, a man who writes with penetrating insight of what needs to be written about: beauty, truth and goodness.” —Globe and Mail
