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

Very slow going

I would have given up about a third of the way through if I was reading this book. The narration of the audio version made it possible to stick with it until the end. A fifteen year old boy is shipped off to the Canadian "outback" after his parents commit a crime in the USA.. Much of the first half of the novel deals with the lead up to the crime from the boy's point of view. Once in Canada in the second half, he tells us what happened to him there in the first six months or so in great detail. I found it all rather tedious going. Then the story skips ahead many years for a brief summing up. I have enjoyed other Richard Ford novels but this one, not so much.

Only About Halfway There

I think the initial premise works well, and the exploration was compelling:: confused and disoriented child flung about and dismantled emotionally by the incongruities and reversals of fortune which are visited upon his parents, themselves victims of incompetent parenting. Add to this the flippant handing off of the child to an estranged brother in another country and subsequent culture shock and immersion into what for the average person would be intolerable circumstances. But Dell soldiers on, even managing to up his position on the back-country food chain.

The second part of the book - although these sections are not officially partitioned - evolves more into a bush country "guns and robbers" period piece, with all the conventionally colorful characters one is used to meeting in a border community. I find such people to be interesting from a visual standpoint, as if regarded in some sort of retro catalogue, but ultimately they are children, inwardly self-loathing, pathologically attached and grasping. This would all compel me to read faster and with more urgency, but the angle did not hold my interest, as Dell's introspection on all this just about disappears.

I like Holter Graham as a narrator. His prose readings are smooth, character-driven and as good and vivid as any performance you'd see on the big screen. The loud, anxious whining of characters in trouble in earlier narrations has disappeared, and that's all to the good.

I'll only give this a 4 out of 5, simply because of the disconnect between the first and second sections.

Definitely readable; I'd just like to see more of the protagonist's perspective.

Solid story with some moving scenes.

Excellent writing and a solid story. The narrator almost put me to sleep sometimes--either his tone of voice or maybe the long sections of description in the story. Worth a listen, though. Several passages in the book that I wish I would have written down as things to remember about life--well said and so true!

Settles in your bones and slowly begins to haunt

Where does Canada rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I don't know why this story is so compelling! The story is simple, the narration even and steady, but the stream-of-consciousness rambling and reasoning of a 15 year old boy became addictive for me. I won't go into the story -- everyone else seems to do that in these reviews. Let me say that Holter Graham (the narrator) must be the alter ego of Richard Ford (the author) because he tells this as if it's his very own story -- honestly -- you're just listening to Dell Parsons (the person telling the story) relate the sometimes surreal events of his life in a calm and almost factual way. Holter Graham is Dell Parsons -- of this I am certain. Richard Ford must have met him and told his (Graham's) life story with the names changed.... at least, that's what it feels like to me. When it was over, I went right back to Chapter 1 and started listening again. Have no idea why. Can't stop.........

Different but interesting.

Good story with characters you care about whether or not you like them. It had some twists that I didn't expect which kept my interest. The main character holds his emotions in close check so it felt at times as if he was narrating someone else's story. It was his survival mechanism and was well used in this story.

personal account of growing up under odd events

the matter of fact telling of a young boy's experience, not with out humor and guile. good read

Worth the time and effort

This story took forever to get started, but it was well worth the time and effort. I don't know if it is a true story or not, but I am glad I listened to it.

If you like this type of story, it is well worth the time and effort to listen to it. I could hear and see the story through the narrative.

It does take a while to get started. The characters are believable, especially the mother.

One of my favorites

Would you consider the audio edition of Canada to be better than the print version?

I can't compare since I did not read, only listened. However, the reader did a great job; I really did not want this to end. What a great story, beautifully written and an excellent reader. I intend to read more of Ford's work.

and then you die...

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Pretty gloomy all the way through..good detail just hard to believe that if you have that much depression in your life you would still be optimistic.

Would you be willing to try another book from Richard Ford? Why or why not?

Perhaps, I grabbed this one from a recommendation from NPR book club suggestions and while it is not generally within my listening scope that I choose was a fast listen.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

I thought the narrator did a good job separating characters, but lacked emotion at time when portraying some of them

Did Canada inspire you to do anything?

Think about the notion of guiding your own path.

Any additional comments?

Not my kind of book but it was not bad.

Deeply Satisfying

Where does Canada rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

One of the better listens and would be a good read in hardcover, too.

What did you like best about this story?

Simply a good story with interesting characters.

What does Holter Graham bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

His voice reminds me of what Del might have sounded like.

Any additional comments?

Very satisfying story told at a slow, but definitely not boring, pace. Ford develops a true picture of each character as Del takes notice of their nuances. In addition, it's a totally plausible story for the 1960's, and I believe it could have happened. I grew up in the 1960's, and I remember families like the Parsons. They came and went in the rental houses in our neighborhood because nobody but families like the Parsons RENTED houses. Our parents bought one house and lived there all their lives, so a "rental family" was different. Ford nicely ties in the quiet chaos of the Parsons household with Del's observances of the seemingly day-to-day normalcy of the Lutheran church across the street without building any one-on-one interaction. It builds uncertainty and tension in the story. I was also fascinated that the basic personalities of Del and his sister pre-destined the road their lives would follow, which I think is generally true. Del sought education; his sister sought adventure, and true to form, their lives had completely different endings.