Canada

By: Richard Ford

Narrated by: Holter Graham

Length: 13 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

"First, I'll tell about the robbery our parents committed. Then about the murders, which happened later."

When 15-year-old Dell Parsons' parents rob a bank, his sense of normal life is forever altered. In an instant, this private cataclysm drives his life into before and after, a threshold that can never be uncrossed.

His parents' arrest and imprisonment mean a threatening and uncertain future for Dell and his twin sister, Berner. Willful and burning with resentment, Berner flees their home in Montana, abandoning her brother and her life. But Dell is not completely alone. A family friend intervenes, spiriting him across the Canadian border, in hopes of delivering him to a better life. There, afloat on the prairie of Saskatchewan, Dell is taken in by Arthur Remlinger, an enigmatic and charismatic American whose cool reserve masks a dark and violent nature.

Undone by the calamity of his parents' robbery and arrest, Dell struggles under the vast prairie sky to remake himself and define the adults he thought he knew. But his search for grace and peace only moves him nearer to a harrowing and murderous collision with Remlinger, an elemental force of darkness.

A true masterwork of haunting and spectacular vision from one of our greatest writers, Canada is a profound novel of boundaries traversed, innocence lost and reconciled, and the mysterious and consoling bonds of family. Told in spare, elegant prose, both resonant and luminous, it is destined to become a classic.

©2012 Richard Ford (P)2012 HarperCollinsPublishers

True crime

Sentence by sentence Ford lays it all out. Bad things leading to much worse things, deadly things. He creates tremendous suspense leading up to events that he's already foretold the precise outcome of. He inverts sentences in a way that creates overwhelming propulsion for the actors. "That door, we walked through."

It's told as the memoir of a retired teacher, looking back 50 years on the chaos that unfolded from his parents' rash decision to rob a bank, and then be swallowed up abruptly and permanently by prison.

What happens next is frightening and strange and even more criminal. But the kindly, honest narration let's you know that that there is at least one path to safety among the myriad bad choices .

The performance is fine. Just enough inflection to create characters and to find the truth about crime in Dell Parson's aching soliloquy.

so so read

What did you like best about Canada? What did you like least?

I liked the reader, he made the book a little more interesting. I found the character's to be a little unbelievable..... I couldn't see the mother ever doing what she did.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

This question is not a good one; the author is the creator and that's the story!

Do you think Canada needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

NO, it was clear what the outcome was and little else could be elaborated upon.

Any additional comments?

worth a read if there's nothing else.

Too much waffling, not enough action

Any additional comments?

This book is not the narrative of a 15-year old boy. It's the narrative of a retirement-age man, looking back on a defining moment in his life. The praise for the voice in this novel is wildly overblown. This is not a wise-beyond-his-years teen explaining how he found himself in such dire circumstances. This is the story of a man who has had his whole life to figure the things out.

Good Storytelling and Narration. Good not Great.

i thoroughly enjoyed the writing of Richard Ford. i am a big fan of repetition in a novel to elicit emotion and create a mood. well, when it's done well...and i think that Ford does it well.

i struggled at first with the naivety of Dell as a teenager..i mean, he was supposed to be 15 years old and he seemed, at times, like he was 7 or 8. but as the story goes on, i understand that this was the way that Ford meant for his character to be written. he was supposed to be extremely immature...i also remember that this story takes place in the 60's...not now. and i think that children were more naive back then. but it still frustrated me and served to make me dislike Dell more than i think i was supposed to.

anyway, there were also parts of this book i did not understand....bits of Dell and his sister's relationship didn't make sense and disturbed me, sometimes the feelings Dell had for his father were a mystery. but once he made it to Canada...i think this story got really interesting. the characters in Canada were very well written.

so...while the great American novel this is not...i do think that Ford has a great manner of telling a story and i would read another book of his.

Fabulous writing

The plot of Canada isn't all that interesting as it would be described--"Two childrens' lives are changed forever when their parents rob a bank". However, the writing is wonderful and the plot lifts off into something out-of-this world. The narrator is so good that you don't think about him twice. Sometimes a narrator soars with accents and voices, but Holter Graham simply reads this so well, that you can't imagine anyone else doing it. I enjoyed Canada so very much that I might listen to it a second time. I recommend it without reservation.

I loved this book and the reader

This was a very good book; fascinating to listen to. The story moved along exploring the thoughts and feelings of the protagonist, as he was trying to figure out what he WAS thinking and feeling, and how that related to what was actually happening. The narrator was first rate. Not many novels manage to investigate those wiggles in life which could move a person this way or that. I'd like to see the sister's story. Bravo. Thanks, guys.

A Great "growing up" Book

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, The book is a great story. It all rings very true.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Canada?

The pivotal scene where the boy witnesses the murder he has alluded to from the beginning of the book.

What about Holter Graham’s performance did you like?

I felt like the story was being told by the person who lived it.

Who was the most memorable character of Canada and why?

Dell. Dell is anyone. He is an ordinary person in extraordinary circumstance. When he reacts, I think that I would react that way too.

For The Rest of US

If you had a stable, secure childhood; skip this book-- its for the rest of us.

A beautiful, sad, tragic and hopeful story.

I have learned that I enjoy sad, haunting tales of dysfunctional families. I find these types of books more realistic and true to life. Life isn't easy and happy, as light fiction assumes. So this book is one I love. It is deeply resonant and human. I liked the narrator/protagonist a great deal. He is quirky, intelligent and resilient. These are all characteristics I like in real life so it isn't surprising that I liked him.

Although there is no way to really spoil the story because Dell tells of the major events early in the volume, I am going to tag it as a spoiler anyway: Dell's life falls apart when his parents choose to rob a bank and are soon arrested. He and his sister find themselves alone in the home with nobody to care for them. In today's world that would never happen as the appropriate agency in the state would take the children into custody before the police even left the house. But it is believable that it could happen in 1960. This one event in Dell's life could have been enough to cause longterm mental health issues such as PTSD, but for him the tragedy continued. His sister ran away. His mother sent him to live in Canada with a complete stranger who drug Dell into another tragic event. And soon his mother committed suicide in prison. Through all of this Dell continued to love his family, to like school and to have a positive view of his future. He was his own little light of hope. I found it beautiful.

Haunting and Sad

What made the experience of listening to Canada the most enjoyable?

The narrator was understated and very likeable. His interpretation complimented the story and tone of the novel. Holter Graham was born to read a Richard Ford novel. This story is less a page turner than an intensely realized portrait of ordinary people who have their lives blown up and their fumbling attempts to pick up the pieces. A very sad yet strangely uplifting book.