Galveston: A Novel
From AwardAnnals
| Book: | Galveston: A Novel |
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| Author: | Paul Quarrington |
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| Publisher: | Vintage Canada |
A lottery windfall and a few hours of selfishness have robbed Caldwell of all that was precious to him, while Beverly, haunted by tragedy and screwed by fate since birth, has given up on life. Also on the flight is Jimmy Newton, a professional storm chaser and videographer who will do anything for the perfect shot. Waiting for them at Dampier is the manager of the Water’s Edge Hotel, “Bonefish” Maywell Hope, who arrived at Dampier by the purest accident of all—the accident of birth. A descendent of the pirates who sailed the Caribbean hundreds of years ago, Hope believes if he works hard enough, he can prevent the inevitable. Until, that is, the seas begin to rise…
Cinematic and harrowing, spiced with Quarrington’s trademark humour, Galveston shows just how far people will go to feel alive.
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Reviews
Amazon.com
Paul Quarrington has done it again. One of Canada’s great comic writers, Quarrington has throughout his career proven himself expert at mixing the absurdities and ironies of life with flawed but likeable characters, and his ninth novel is no exception. Galveston takes place on the tiny Caribbean outpost of Dampier Cay, where a trio of self-professed “weather weenies” convene in search of the eye of an approaching hurricane. Caldwell, Beverley, and Jimmy Newton, a.k.a. “Mr. Weather,” all have different reasons for searching out weather at its most extreme. Meanwhile, Gail and Sorvig, two employees of the cable channel Planet Man simply looking for a party, have also happened upon the island—and boy, have they ever chosen the wrong island at the wrong time. As Hurricane Claire—categorized, to Newton’s delight, as a “force five” storm on a scale that goes no higher—approaches, the visitors gather at the Water’s Edge resort to await, and hopefully survive, the storm.
This being a Quarrington novel, passages of stark beauty, such as descriptions of storms (“he had watched the clouds form…flattening out to form huge anvils”), alternate with darkly comic insight (“in the land of the damned, there is no nap time”) and spot-on descriptions (“They were…dancing with grim purpose”). Fans of the author will recognize familiar tropes, such as fly-fishing and the conflict between the secular and spiritual. First-time readers will simply have a hard time putting down, or letting go of, a suspense-filled story populated by people heartbreakingly human no matter how bizarre their idiosyncrasies and quirks. And anyone who reads Galveston will batten down the hatches a little tighter the next time a storm approaches. —Shawn Conner
