Product Description
When W.O. Mitchell died in 1998 he was described as “Canada's best-loved writer.” Every commentator agreed that his best – and his best-loved – book was Who Has Seen the Wind. Since it was first published in 1947, this book has sold almost a million copies in Canada.

As we enter the world of four-year-old Brian O’Connal, his father the druggist, his Uncle Sean, his mother, and his formidable Scotch grandmother (“she belshes…a lot”), it soon becomes clear that this is no ordinary book. As we watch Brian grow up, the prairie and its surprising inhabitants like the Ben and Saint Sammy – and the rich variety of small-town characters – become unforgettable. This book will be a delightful surprise for all those who are aware of it, but have never quite got around to reading it, till now.
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Customer Reviews (21)

Who Has...Paid Money For This Book?
Was forced to read this in highschool.It was the most god-awful boring book I've ever read before.

A young stupid kid playing around in the dirt on a farm while his relatives and pets die off around him.It's like following a young Forrest Gump around asking his mama a whole lot of stupid questions.

Someone in another review mentioned they like to read this to senior citizens.Another reviewer said teens and pre-teens won't like it.So why are teens forced to read this?It's just horrendous.

I'd rather memorize the "begats" in the Old Testament than read even a paragraph of this again.It will always and forever be the worst book I've ever read.

"Maybe God was in the bathroom and couldn't come to the door."
Brian Sean MacMurray O'Connal comes to his own conclusons when, at age four, he goes to the local church alone and no one answers his knock.After meeting the minister later, however, he thinks he hears the voice of God--"My name is R. W. God, BVD."Brian's search for answers to life's biggest questions takes him through ages four, six, eight, and ten in this 1947 novel set during the Depression on the plains of Saskatchewan.Focusing on the O'Connal family, and especially Brian--their friends, acquaintances, life crises, and search for harmony in nature--the novel glorifies small town life and the local residents' closeness to the soil.

Here Brian expresses the normal curiosity of young children his age as he tries to understand the life cycle of nature--why the baby pigeon died after he plucked it from its nest, how two-headed calves can develop, why his puppy died and what to do afterward, and how to deal with the sudden death of his father and the more predictable death of his grandmother.Each of these major events in his life brings him closer to understanding the ebb and flow of life, further emphasized by the author's choice of repeating imagery and symbols from nature--goshawks, meadowlarks, grass and flowers, an owl, the movement of poplar trees, and, of course, the wind.Biblical imagery permeates the novel, and the poetic language and style--filled with alliteration, internal rhymes, and onomatopoeia--create a lyrical celebration of life on the prairie.

Contrasting characters further illustrate the themes.The two Bens--Old and Young--and St. Sammy, a not-so-crazy man who lives in a piano box and has his own theology, prefer their free, unfettered life on the prairie.These contrast with characters like Miss MacDonald, Brian's cruelly insensitive first grade teacher who is dedicated to crushing the free spirits of her young charges.Other characters see their lives as falling somewhere between unrestricted freedom and social responsibility.

A book full of sweetness and nostalgia for childhood and its discoveries, Who Has Seen the Wind is beautifully constructed, resonant with life's themes conveyed in heady poetic language.It is so saccharine in its depiction of the sweetness of childhood and so removed from present day life, however, that it is difficult to imagine this book appealing to today's young pre-teens and teens.Their issues regarding life and death and their big questions about the value of life are far more complicated than life as seen in this period piece.nMary Whipple

It's not a fast read
There are books you can blast through, action packed where the story is all on the surface.Tom Clancy, for example. I love a read like that.

On the other hand, if you are looking for a book that will reward you on a quick read, this isn't it.Nor for that matter, are any other of W.O. Mitchell's works (with the possible exception of Jake and the Kid).This is a book that is better on the second reading than the first, and on the tenth than the eighth.Slow down and wallow in it.Soak up the images and let the alliteration create the sounds for you, and when you do, you will be transported into the world about which Mitchell writes.I grew up a couple of dozen miles from the town which he identifies as Crocus, and know real people with the surnames he uses in this book.When I slow down and spend time with Mitchell, it resonates - and evokes with remarkable accuracy the world I grew up in thirty years later.There is no excitement here, but if you have patience, the insight you gain can generate its own profound excitement.

A wonderful story about life
I was required to read this book as a rambunctious 15 year old. I hated the fact I was forced to read it, but loved the story as I had grown up on the prairies. Mitchell captures life on the prairieand the mind of an inquisitive boy like no other.

boring boring boring
This is one of the most boring books i have ever read.There is no story.Nothing happens.Each sentence in this book is a long, drawn out, boring attempt to be profoundly creative.Do yourself a favour and just poke youself in the eye with a stick instead of reading this.... ... Read more

Product Description
If you ever saw one of W.O. Mitchell's public readings you will know why they were described as unforgettable. Unruly white hair flying, fist raised, voice husky or thundering, eyes wide in innocent astonishment at a double entendre raising a laugh, W.O. Mitchell did not give readings from his work; he performed them. In contrast to the lonely life of the writer, he loved "the immediate thrust of a live audience as it responds to story magic," and the audiences loved him, laughing until they were sore.

This wonderful selection of 31 pieces shows his writing at its best, while the in-performance photographs catch some of the charm of the man whose own character was perhaps his finest creation.

Some pieces come from his novels, such as Who Has Seen the Wind and The Vanishing Point. We also hear the distinctive voices of both Jake and the Kid. "Melvin Arbuckle's First Course in Shock Therapy" is here, as are "The Day I Sold Lingerie in a Prairie Whore House" and the sad tale of "Santa Comes to Shelby." Old favourites are mixed with many new pieces, some never before published in book form, such as "Stopping Smoking" and "The Day I Caught Syphilis" (at the age of twelve). There are also serious pieces on censorship, and, finally, his inspiring 1996 speech in Winnipeg to the Writers' Union of Canada that moved his audience to tears. This book is a worthy tribute to a wonderful man.
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Customer Reviews (2)

A little slow but interesting.
At first I wanted to beat myself with a wooden mallet, then I started to find the stories almost amazing but not, you know! Mitchell writes about things that don't matter and yet he gives it so much passion. He isdefinitely a hurting writer, but a trying one.

A Canadian Treasure
W.O. Mitchell has been a huge figure in Canadian writing for a number of years.His books are routinely assigned in schools from grade school to university.He evokes the Canadian Praries so as to make that the cultural homeland of all Canadians.So it is with great pleasure that I recommend this collection of stories.Written to mimic a night of his storytelling, they weave a magical web.I would also recommend the forthcoming audio book based on A Night With W.O. Mitchell.It will feature him reading his own compostions and promises to be excellent. Buy this book and understand Canada a little better ... Read more

Product Description
When W.O. Mitchell died in February 1998, Canadians all across the countrymourned the death of a much-loved writer. But it was in the West that his loss was felt most keenly. For he was one of them, a Westerner, a man who had grown up in Weyburn, gone to University in Winnipeg and then spent most of his life in High River and in Calgary. His writing – in Who Has Seen The Wind, Jake and the Kid, The Vanishing Point, How I Spent My Summer Holidays, and many other books – brought their part of the world alive on the page, so that millions of readers seemed to breathe fresh Western air as they turned the pages of his works.

His family – represented by his son Orm and daughter-in-law Barbara – were pleased by the idea of an illustrated book that would show W.O. Mitchell country, provided that it included prairie and foothills and mountains. This book carefully gives full weight to both parts of what we affectionately call W.O. Mitchell country. And from the outset the Mitchells knew that the excerpts of W.O.’s landscape writing that they would select deserved to be matched by superb photographs produced by an artist of equal skill and sensitivity.

Enter Courtney Milne, the justly famed photographer of landscapes around the world but especially of his beloved prairies. Prairie boy and long-time admirer of W.O.’s work, he jumped at the chance to produce this book. With the help of the Mitchell family he tracked down sites that W.O. had known and written about. In addition he combed through his vast treasure store of photographs, to try to find the single image that perfectly matched a chosen piece of W.O.’s prose.

In the end, from over 18,000 photographs – over 18,000! – he and the group assembling this book chose the best 200, none of them published before. The result is a magical blend of text and pictures that is greater than the sum of its parts. This classic volume sets a new standard for illuminating a writer’s words and bringing alive “the poetry of earth and sky.” Open the book. Read it. You will see. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A puzzling book...
W.O. Mitchell is considered one of Canada's best 20th century authors, especially when it came to creating a sense of place with his prairie and mountain-centred novels, but my prime interest in this coffee table volume was Courtney Milne's photographs. He's a bit of an unsung hero in Canada, with an innovative vision and willingness to experiment.

All that said, every time I look at W.O. Mitchell Country, I come away puzzled and disappointed. There are pages of bland, unattractive compositions of sloughs (check out the ho-hum double spread on pages 98-99), foothills, plants and rivers. Far too many were shot in the ugly, harsh light of mid-day, the colours seems strangely washed out and a graduated density filter was desperately needed to darken washed-out skies. But this is Milne; was he doing this on purpose?

Also, his experiments with camera movement during exposures rarely worked. For every fascinating attempt -- such as his double exposure on poplars near Saskatoon, Sask. (page 204), there's a washed out mess like shimmery sunlight reflected on river near Saskatoon (page 15).

Was Milne trying to push the boundaries of what coffee table book buyers are willing to consider? Or did he just throw a lot of stuff together and call it a W.O. Mitchell tribute book?

Whatever the impetus, the result is a book I have a lot of trouble appreciating, because I have to leaf through so much stuff I don't enjoy before finding commendable pictures.

If you want to buy this book, try ordering it through the Amazon.ca website. ... Read more

Product Description
W.O. Mitchell worked for many years on this book, polishing what was to be his big, serious, and very controversial novel about white-native relations. The book is set in the Paradise Reserve in the Alberta foothills – but the Reserve is far from perfect. Carlyle Sinclair, a widower who comes to teach in the one-room schoolhouse, is full of optimism, but he is frustrated in and out of the classroom by the passivity of the people he is determined to help. When Victoria, his prize pupil, goes missing in the backstreets of the city, he goes in search of her, and of the truth about his own life. ... Read more

Product Description
Canadian Fiction Studies are an answer to every librarian's, student's, and teacher's wishes. Each book, about 80 pages in length, contains clear, readable information on a major Canadian novel. These studies are carefully designed readings of the novels; they are not substitutes for reading them. Each book is attractively produced and follows the same format, so students will know exactly what to expect:

A chronology of the author's lifeThe importance of the bookCritical receptionReading of the textSelected list of works cited ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Sorry excuse for book
The other person from ottawa took the words right out of my mouth!

Sorry excuse for book
The other person from ottawa took the words right out of my mouth!

sorry excuse for a book
This is THE worst book that has ever been put into print.I do not know who's sick, SICK idea it was to force grade elvens to read this but I personally would pay-- I would pay not to have this book put into print and for the board of education to find an actual book like Catcher in the Ryeor the stranger DO NOT come close to this book, if you can help it.IfAmazon allowed it I would give this book negative ten hundred stars. ... Read more

Product Description
When How I Spent My Summer Holidays was first published in 1981 aWestern reviewer wrote: “If Who Has Seen the Wind told the story of a young boy’s coming to terms with death, How I Spent My Summer Holidays tells of a young man’s attempt to come to terms with his own sexuality and that of the world around him.”

The twelve-year-old young man is Hugh, and in small-town Saskatchewan it is the hot summer of 1924. When Hugh and his friends dig a secret cave out on the Prairie, they soon find it occupied by an escaped patient from the mental hospital. Defying the adult world, the boys become involved with a former war hero and current rum-runner, King Motherwell, in sheltering and feeding the runaway. When passions aroused by sex explode into murder, Hugh leaves his boyhood behind him for ever.
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Customer Reviews (2)

An engaging prairie novel
Read aloud by Canadian author and CBC Radio personality W.O. Mitchell, How I Spent My Summer Holidays is an abridged coming-of-age audiobook with grim and serious overtones. When twelve-year-old Hugh spends his summer in a small prairie town, he and his friends discover a secret cave housing an escaped "mental hospital" patient. They form a connection with the hidden rum-runner and former war hero; yet when events take a murderous turn, Hugh must leave his childhood behind forever. An engaging prairie novel, perfectly captured just as it was originally broadcast on CBC Radio, and highly recommended. 3 hours, 3 CDs.

A casual read
A book about a young boys transition to adolecence.Deals with all of the normal questions that arise as one goes through pubity.Wonderfully written with great description of the characters and there setting whichrevloves around the the summer holidays.An easy read for anyone apre-teen and older. ... Read more

Product Description
When Ma, the Kid, her twelve year old son, and Jake, the hired man, first appeared on the pages of Maclean's and shortly after on CBC Radio, the lively boy and his cranky hero found their way into the hearts of thousands of readers. Now, in this new edition of Jake and the Kid, Crocus, a prairie town in the forties and fifties, comes alive once again. In these lovingly rendered stories, we encounter the glorious minutia of small town life on the Canadian prairie. Jake and the Kid are surrounded by an entire community of richly eccentric characters: old Sam Gatenby, a rival to Jake and just as cantankerous; Miss Henchbaw, the stern and proper Rabbit Hill schoolteacher; and Mayor MacTaggart, the owner of the town's General Store. In all, W. O. Mitchell created about eighty characters to populate the town, including Daddy Johnson, the oldest man in Canada; Repeat Golightly, the philosophizing barber; and Professor Noble Winesinger, a conman with a heart. Touching and laugh-out-loud funny in equal measure, this classic Canadian story collection epitomizes the magic of W.O. Mitchell's storytelling. Pitting tall tale against reality, Mitchell delivers a realm resplendent with a vibrant setting, a compelling cast of characters, and everyday events that speak directly to what it means to be human. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great Stories About Prairie Life
This is the original collection of Jake and The Kid from 1961-62.

W.O. Mitchell is a highly regarded Canadian prairie author who wrote about life in Canada. We wrote with a great deal of passion, humor, and emotion. His stories are often simple, but very entertaining. They leave the reader laughing or crying or both. Few have his talents for writing. In his day when Canada had a population of fifteen to twenty million or so, he sold a bit less than one million books and if he had been an American writer he probably could have been an equal to John Steinbeck or similar.

This is a great collection of 13 short stories, under 200 pages long. They are narrated by Jake and alternately by "the kid." They are stories about their life on a Saskatchewan farm near Crocus, Saskatchewan, which we can assume is realistic but fictional. The kid's ma is alive, but the father is dead and Jake is a surrogate father of sorts, and of course he is the "hired hand" on the farm. He does most of the work and manages the planting and harvesting, etc. The stories are set in a time spanning the WWII era up to the early 1950s.

The stories touch a lot of current and universal issues and themes including the people who fought in WWII, school teachers, medical care, the courts, getting old, etc. most of these issues are still at the front of the social agenda. I liked all the stories; but, I especially liked the one where the kid got a new horse at the auction. Also, Mitchell is able to create a lot of charm and attraction in his descriptions of the life on the sometimes bleak prairies.

As a comment, Mitchell has a new 1989 collection also named after the famous 1950s CBC radio series and the earlier book titled "According to Jake and The Kid." The newer book is about 50% bigger than the original collection of short stories from 1962. This new collection has mostly all new stories, but not 100%, and a few of the stories are based on the original stories and have altered and improved plots.

This is a wonderful collection. It is highly entertaining and most will love the book. Suggested follow up reading are his other two famous books: Jake and the Kid (1989) and Who Has Seen The Wind (1947), both of course by Mitchell.

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Product Description
Set in the forties and fifties, these stories take us back to a simpler, gentler world, the one we all like to think we grew up in. The Kid at the centre of the stories is a boy on a Saskatchewan farm “down Government Road from Crocus, which is on the CNR line between Tiger Lily and Conception.” Jake is the hired hand who helps the Kid’s mother run the farm (and who played a huge role in Canadian history, what with capturing “Looie Riel” and all), and who now keeps the Kid abreast of events in the greater world and in Crocus.

This is no easy matter, for the stories reveal that Crocus is a town in constant ferment. The Kid’s teacher, Miss Henchbaw, is unfairly dismissed by the school board until her friends fight back in “Will of the People”; Chet Lambert of the Crocus Breeze is hauled into court for comparing George Solway with Malleable Brown’s goat in “The Face Is Familiar,” resulting in a courtroom confrontation unrivalled in the history of Canadian jurisprudence; and “Political Dynamite” shows the men terrified by women curlers threatening to vote en bloc in the upcoming town election to gain equal curling time.

The town, of course, is rich not only in disputes but characters, from Repeat Golightly in the barbershop (“One ahead of you, Jake.I say there's one ahead of you”) to Old Man Sherry, the town’s Oldest Inhabitant, who wavers between tributes to Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria. Then there’s Old Man Gatenby, brought from death’s door by prolonged exposure to romantic purple prose in “Love’s Wild Magic.”

Adding to this rich mixture are the entertainers who come through town: Belva Taskey, the sweet songstress (“Lo! The Noble Redskin!”) and her memorable poetry reading; The Great Doctor Suhzee, the hypnotist; and Professor Noble Winesinger, whose snake-oil remedies have been known to turn his customers black.

There are also stories of prejudice against Indians, or against “foreigners” named Kiziw, that in the end remind us of the core of decency at the heart of this collection. Whether the stories are told by Jake or by the Kid, they always speak to our hearts, and provide us with W.O. Mitchell's usual magical mixture of tears and laughter.
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Customer Reviews (2)

Simply Terrific
This is a 1989 collection named after the famous 1950s CBC radio series and the earlier book, Jake and The Kid, from 1962.

W.O. Mitchell is a highly regarded Canadian prairie author who wrote about life in Canada. We wrote with a great deal of passion, humor, and emotion. His stories are often simple, but very entertaining. They leave the reader laughing or crying or both. Few have his talents for writing. In his day when Canada had a population of fifteen to twenty million or so, he sold a bit less than one million books and if he had been an American writer he probably could have been an equal to John Steinbeck or similar.

This is a great collection of 16 short stories, almost 300 pages long. They are narrated by Jake and alternately by "the kid." They are stories about their life on a Saskatchewan farm near Crocus, Saskatchewan, which we can assume is realistic but fictional. The kid's ma is alive, but the father is dead and Jake is a surrogate father of sorts, and of course he is the "hired hand" on the farm. He does most of the work and manages the planting and harvesting, etc. The stories are set in a time spanning the WWII era up to the early 1950s.

The stories touch a lot of current and universal issues and themes including the people who fought in WWII, immigrants, women's rights, hunting, school teachers, medical care, the courts, getting old, birth, native citizens, etc. most of these issues are still at the front of the social agenda. I liked all the stories; but, I especially liked the one where a goat is brought into the court house in a defamation action (the goat and the man look similar?). Also, Mitchell is able to create a lot of charm and attraction in his descriptions of the life on the sometimes bleak prairies.

As a comment, the present book or collection is about 50% bigger than the original collection of short stories from 1962. This new collection has mostly all new stories, but not 100%, and a few of the stories are based on the original stories and have altered and improved plots.

This is a wonderful collection. It is highly entertaining and most will love the book. Suggested follow up reading are his other two famous books: Jake and the Kid (1962) and Who Has Seen The Wind (1947), both of course by Mitchell.

This was the best W.O. Mitchell book I have read!
This book stuneed me with it's great start, wonderful wording and the greatest ending to a novel I have seen in a long time.W.O. Has out done himself and this book leaves me to wonder if he good do better? ... Read more

Product Description
Known as Canada's best-loved writer, W.O. Mitchell received instant recognition for his first novel Who has Seen the Wind, a coming-of-age tale touted by the Globe and Mailas "one of the finest Canadian novels ever written."Mitchell followed with the critically acclaimed comic novel titled The Kite, a humorous yet touching story of a journalist's worst nightmare. Set in the Prairie backwater of Shelby, Alberta, seasoned reporter and minor television celebrity David Lang arrives to write a magazine feature on the town's oldest living citizen, the 111-year-old curmudgeon Daddy Sherry. Still recovering from the disappointments of a fatherless childhood, the uptight David just wants to file his story as quickly as possible and hightail it back to Toronto. But he hasn't reckoned on the cantankerous cunning of Daddy Sherry. As David chases his recalcitrant subject all over town, he begins to understand the meaning of life and finds love and happiness for the first time.This new edition of The Kite coincides with the publication of a newly discovered and never-before-published edition of the novel in audio format, featuring Mitchell's own reading. It also introduces a whole new generation of readers to the rampaging Daddy Sherry, a holy terror whom Margaret Laurence considered to be Mitchell's "best and most complete character." ... Read more

Product Description
At last, a book about curling, the noble sport that every winter turns otherwise sane Canadian men and women into broom-waving fanatics. Given the chance, any one of them would actively consider selling their soul to the devil for a chance to win the national championship known as “the Brier.”

That’s the offer made to Willie MacCrimmon in this hilarious story by W.O. Mitchell. The time is the not-too-distant past, and the place is Shelby, Alberta, a small town in the foothills. Willie, a widower, is the town’s shoe-maker, but like a good Scot he lives to curl; curling in fact is “his only active religion.” He and his rink are so expert that he attracts the attention of the Devil himself, who comes to Shelby and makes him an offer hard to resist. The Devil (a keen curler–and how they keep good ice in hell is fully explained) promises Willie that he’ll win the Brier–if on his death Willie will undertake to come and curl in hell for him in the Celestial Brier.

Willie makes the Faustian deal – but with the proviso that he will save his soul if he and his Shelby rink can beat the Devil’s rink in a challenge match. And so Willie and his friends – with the help of the Reverend Pringle – take on the Devil’s crew of Judas, Macbeth and Guy Fawkes in the most crucial curling match of all time, a matter of after-life and death.

It's a fine, old-fashioned funny story, as you’d expect from W.O. Mitchell. You might even call it a sweeping saga.
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Customer Reviews (1)

Good people having clever fun on the Devil's expense account




Orillia's curling rink in the 1950s was more closed, aloof and elite than the golf club, truly a gathering place of the anonymous mysterious elite of town;in contrast, Mitchell's fellow curlers in Shelby, Alberta, are a most delightful democratic bunch.

An avid curler himself, Mitchell brings curling to life with wit and humour in his 'Great White North' version of the old Faust legend.Americans adapted Faust into the Broadway musical 'Damn Yankees' with the matchless Gwen Verdon and superb Ray Walston;Mitchell adapted Faust into a short story, then a radio play which grew into a popular stage play and finally this book.

It's as charming as 'Shoeless Joe' by fellow Canadian W. P. Kinsella, which Hollywood turned into the enormously popular 'Field of Dreams.'Canadians, it seems, are masters of printed words;Americans favour moving images held by chemicals on celluloid or electrical pulses trapped in chips.

Someday, if the government sponsored Canadian Film Industry ever decides to film Canadian fantasies, dreams, hopes and humour, this should be one of the firsts.Until then, the genius of Canadian creativity is limited to ink on ground-up trees rather than digital bytes in R-O-M chips.(For the benefit of Trawna folks, R-O-M is "Read Only Memory," not "Royal Ontario Museum.")

Like much Canadian humour, it's an easy evening read without a moral burden.Americans love stories with a moral;they can't appreciate beauty for its own sake--look at the reaction to Tiger Woods, who should be valued for his matchless golf skills instead of being judged on his morals.

Canadians have more of a tendency to appreciate life for what it is, rather than what it might be with proper moral guidance.It's what makes this book a slice of pure Canadiana;good people having clever fun without hurting others or frightening the all-important American tourists.Canadians find subtle humour in the midst of all seriousness;Americans want their humour to have a serious moral.

Mitchell is a master Canadian storyteller.He deserves to be read for that reason alone, and this book is a fine introduction to his skills.Read it and you'll feel morally uplifted.Oooops!Is that an Americanism slipping in?Perhaps it's what's needed to recommend this book to Americans who are looking for at least one delightful story.


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Product Description
This is a novel of small-town life. The town where roses are difficult is Shelby, in the Alberta foothills, and the time is the 1950s. Matt Stanley, the editor of the local paper, relishes the range of people he meets, from Willie MacCrimmon, the local shoemaker and demon curler, to the oldest resident, Daddy Sherry, all the way to the disreputable Rory Napoleon and his wife, Mame, who once conceived at the top of a ferris wheel “because there was nothing else to do.” But when a sociologist arrives to study the town, Matt takes her under his wing, which produces unexpected results. From scenes of high comedy (as when Santa comes to Shelby, or when Rory Napoleon’s goats invade the town) to gentle sadness, this 1990 novel shows W.O Mitchell at his traditional best.
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Customer Reviews (1)

Should have been a short story
This book is set in 1950s Alberta in a small town called Shelby.A sociologist arrives to research rural life and turns the little town upside down, starting with the weekly newspaper and its owner.It is basically a comedy so things end up better than when they started; but there isn't a lot of meat on this bone.Too much local color dialect is thrown in for show, and that takes away from the story.If I had been his editor I would have encouraged him to trim this 300 page book way, way, way down to a longish short story.It is full of quirky characters and is a fun read.The best of the characters (and the reason why this book gets 3 stars from me) is the town's garbage collector, Rory Napoleon.He falls off the wagon in a big way and it is incredibly funny.I took this book with me on vacation and I would recommend it to others who are going away and want a light read. ... Read more

Product Description
W.O. Mitchell jokingly called himself the great re-run king, but his retellings of age-old conflicts between humanity and the Devil strikingly display his versatile adaptive talents.
The Black Bonspiel of Wullie MacCrimmon is a whimsical take on the Faust legend with a distinctly Canadian flavor. Filled with wry humor and set against the backdrop of a timeless small-town dynamic, the story of Wullie MacCrimmon's curling duel with the Devil combines the edginess of Marlowe's classic tale with the down-to-earth wry Canadian humor of "Corner Gas.".
The Devil's Instrument depicts a Hutterite teenager struggling with conformity in a puritan society. Mitchell's devil in this play is a figure of sympathy, but lines such as "Happy? I am free!" invite the ambiguity of whether it is better to indulge in what seems natural, or strive for the divine. Introduced by Ormond Mitchell and Barbara Mitchell and including original production photography, this collection provides humor, sobriety, and wonderful storytelling with a dash of the infernal. An essential, whimsical part of Oxford's new Outlooks on Canadian Literature series. ... Read more

Product Description
For the millions who remember him with head-shaking affection, this is a fine biography of Canada’s wildest — and best-loved — literary figure.

After the publication of Who Has Seen the Wind in 1947, W.O. Mitchell was a national figure, living his life in the limelight and loving it. He knew everyone: He worked alongside Pierre Berton at Maclean’s; mentored Ernest Buckler, Farley Mowat, Hugh Garner, and Frances Itani; taught alongside Alistair MacLeod at the University of Windsor and at the Banff Centre; and Brian Mulroney made him an honorary member of the Privy Council.

His life as an inspiring teacher, playwright, writer for radio and TV (Jake and the Kid), and author of many bestsellers, including How I Spent My Summer Holidays, is fully detailed here — along with accounts of his unforgettable dramatic exploits, both on- and offstage. An inspiration to generations of Western writers, he was an unforgettable figure, whose life was perhaps his greatest achievement. This book reminds us of what we have lost, and why Peter Gzowski once wrote that when he grew up he wanted to be W.O. Mitchell. ... Read more

Product Description
Colin Dobbs, a salty-tongued professor, is recovering in a hospital bed. In a review of his past, we learn about the grizzly hunt that went wrong – and how his life has changed since the incident at Daisy Creek. But the really central issues of his life emerge as Dobbs is prodded back to health by his estranged daughter. Gradually, as he learns to face the world – and his students – again, we come to see the deep disappointments that led him on his strange quest up Daisy Creek, where Archie Nicotine saved his life. ... Read more

Product Description
Word count: 4042. ... Read more