Canadian-Literature : Stanley Park

Stanley Park

CDN$ 15.33


Aspiring food artiste Jeremy Papier, in Timothy Taylor s debut novel, Stanley Park, attempts to juggle the finances of his fledgling eatery, The Monkey s Paw, and his conflicted feelings about his attractive sous-chef. Meanwhile, on the other side of downtown Vancouver, his anthropologist father camps out in Stanley Park to study a group of homeless men. Impending financial ruin drives Jeremy into the clutches of an evil coffee magnate while his father delves deeper into the indigent lifestyle, probing the mystery of two dead children once found in the park as well as his failed marriage to Jeremy s mother. A tragicomic denouement takes the characters back to their human roots as hunter-gatherers in the 21st century. The big idea in Stanley Park is that global corporate culture threatens the local connections that sustain us. Only the outcasts in Stanley Park retain these connections, and one of them imparts to Jeremy the secret of trapping a swan: Stinky box does it, Caruzo informed, scratching himself. Stinky box is all. He retrieves a discarded hot dog shipping box and explains the technique: I distract him. Caruzo said. You kill him. Distract. Kill. Though our hero cannot bring himself to dispatch the bird, he understands the basic link with nature. Stanley Park isn t Crime and Punishment and doesn t pretend to be, even if the vocabulary is sometimes a little pretentious. Taylor, who won the 2000 Journey Prize for his short fiction, tells a good story, creating plausible characters for this coming-of-age narrative and making a good start to a novelistic career. --Robyn Gillam

Excellent - Taylor has a very easy, free-flowing style of writing and I found Stanley Park to be one of my most enjoyable reads in a long time. There are many different levels to this novel and I found each to be equally intriguing. Previous reviewers suggested it would appeal to Foodies (silly term) but I dont think I agree with that. I feel that those who have worked or still work in the restuarant business would relate to many sections of this novel but food is only one small aspect of this story.If you are one of those who can let yor mind meander through the pages of a novel, then this is a novel for you.

Not a foodie paradise, but worth picking up. - Take a hot young chef, a slightly potty professorial father living in Stanley Park and researching its inhabitants, a coffee baron a-la-Starbucks, a sous-chef, and a social climber, and you get Timothy Taylor s Stanley Park.He s thrown in an unsolved murder of two young children for good measure, and made only the slightest attempt to tie it all together.There are good scenes, it s about food (though the foodie stuff didn t ring very true to me, it did to a chef friend of mine, so there you have it), it s about bucking the establishment, it s about compassion.But it s also about nothing, and so it took me a long time to read it because I never really got into it, and didn t really enjoy it. So yes.

Fun reading - This was a good book to read. It blurs that line between fact and fiction just enough that you are, at times left scratching your head trying to determine what s real and what isn t. Plus, for those of you who live in the Vancouver area, there are enough references to local landmarks that you ll feel right at home. Throw in a dash of mystery and excitement, and you have the makings of a great book.

Foodie-Interesting: Mystery Reader- Worth reading - Anyone interested in cooking should read this book. The back-of-house descriptions are interesting in the same way as Kitchen Confidential . The bonus is that there is a murder mystery embedded in this book. The Bloods and Crips thing is very interesting, as is the startup of a big-time gourmet resturant.

Great new writer - Taylor is a truly gifted writer and Stanley Park does not disappoint. I picked this book up when I was vacationing in Vancouver and even after I returned home, I was able to relive my stay there through this book.. If you are a fan of Vancouver, cooking, or great literature, pick this one up. Taylor also has an impressive book of short stories called Silent Cruise but I believe that you can only purchase this one in Canada. I was able to order it from Chapters.com (a Canadian book store).




Stanley Park