Mercy Among the Children (First Edition)
Langue : anglais
Edité par Doubleday Canada, Toronto, 2000
- Éd. originale
- Livre relié
- Occasion
Vendeur : Purpora Books, Comox, BC, CanadaPurpora Books
Vendeur AbeBooks depuis 30 août 1997
Etat: Occasion
EUR 9,18
Quantité disponible : 1 disponible
Ajouter au panierA propos de cet article
Owner name top of front free endpaper. Canadian author's novel, set in northeastern New Brunswick and spanning five decades. Co-winner (along with Ondaatje's "Anil's Ghost") of the Giller Prize; and also short-listed for the Governor General's Award for Fiction. 371 pages.
N° de réf. du vendeur 21796
- Titre
- Mercy Among the Children (First Edition)
- Auteur
- Richards, David Adams
- Éditeur
- Doubleday Canada, Toronto
- Année de publication
- 2000
- État de l'article
- Near Fine Plus
- Jaquette
- Near Fine Plus
- Reliure
- Hard Cover in Dust Jacket
- Langue
- anglais
- ISBN à 10 chiffres
- 0385259174
- ISBN à 13 chiffres
- 9780385259170
- Édition
- First Edition, First Printing.
- Catalogues du vendeur
- Canadian Literature
« Synopsis » peut appartenir à une autre édition de cet ouvrage.
Extrait
In November the lights shone after seven o'clock on the stained-glass windows. The windows show the crucifixion or one of the saints praying. The hills where those saints lived and dropped their blood look soft, distant and blue; the roads wind like purple ribbons toward the Mount of Olives. It is all so different from real nature with its roaring waters over valleys of harsh timber where I tore an inch and a half of skin from my calves. Or Miramichi bogs of cedar and tamarack and the pungent smell of wet moosehide as the wounded moose still bellows in dark wood. I often wanted to enter the world of the stained glass — to find myself walking along the purple road, with the Mount of Olives behind me. I suppose because I wanted to be good, and my mother wanted goodness for me. I wanted too to escape the obligation I had toward my own destiny, my family, my sister and brother who were more real to me than a herd of saints.
My father's name was Sydney Henderson. He was born in a shack off Highway 11, a highway only Maritimers could know — a strip of asphalt through stunted trees and wild dead fields against the edge of a cold sky.
He did poorly in school but at church became the ward of Father Porier. He was given the job of washing Porier's car and cleaning his house. He was an altar boy who served mass every winter morning at seven. He did this for three years, from the age of eight to eleven.
Then one day there was a falling-out, an "incident," and Father Porier's Pontiac never again came down the lane to deliver him home, nor did Father ever again trudge off to the rectory to clean the priest's boots. Nor did he know that his own father would take the priest's side and beat him one Sunday in front of most of the parishioners on the church steps. This became Father's first disobedience, not against anything but the structure of things. I have come to learn, however, that this is not at all a common disobedience.
Back then, harsh physical labour seemed the only thing generations of Canadians like my grandfather considered work. So by thirteen my father wore boots and checked jackets, and quit school to work in the woods, in obligation to his father. He would spend days with little to comfort him. He was to need this strength, a strength of character, later on. He had big hands like a pulpcutter, wore thick glasses, and his hair was short, shaved up the side of his head like a zek in some Russian prison camp.
He worked crossing back and forth over that bleak highway every day; when the June sky was black with no-see-ums, or all winter when the horse dung froze as it hit the ground. He was allergic to horses, yet at five in the morning had to bring the old yellow mare to the front of the barn — a mare denied oats and better off dead.
My grandfather bought a television in 1962, and during the last few years of his life would stare at it all evening, asking Sydney questions about the world far away. The light of the television brought into that dark little house programs like The Honeymooners, The Big Valley, Have Gun Will Travel, and The Untouchables; and glowed beyond the silent window into the yard, a yard filled with desolate chips of wood.
My grandfather Roy Henderson would ask Dad why people would act in a movie if they knew they were going to be shot. He would not be completely convinced by my father's explanation about movie scripts and actors, and became more disheartened and dangerous the clearer the explanation was.
"But they die — I seen them."
"No they don't, Dad."
"Ha — lot you know, Syd — lot you know — I seen blood, and blood don't lie, boy — blood don't lie. And if ya think blood lies I'll smash yer mouth, what I'll do."
As a teen my father sat in this TV-lightened world; a shack in the heat of July watching flies orbit in the half dark. He hid there because his father tormented him in front of kids his own age.
I have learned that because of this torment, Father became a drunk by the age of fifteen.
People did not know (and what would it matter if they had known?) that by the time he was fifteen, my father had read and could quote Stendhal and Proust. But he was trapped in a world of his own father's fortune, and our own fortune became indelibly linked to it as well.
« A propos de ce titre » peut appartenir à une autre édition de cet ouvrage.
Purpora Books
Comox, BC, Canada
Vendeur AbeBooks depuis 30 août 1997
Frais d'expédition de Canada vers Etats-Unis
| Article | 10 à 20 jours ouvrés | 5 à 10 jours ouvrés |
|---|---|---|
| Premier article | EUR 16,92 | EUR 31,18 |
Modes de paiement
Spécialité
US & UK Modern First Editions, Antiquarian, Art & Photography, Canadiana, Vancouver Island Local Histories, Canadian Literature First EditionsProfil professionnel du vendeur
Purpora Books
BC, Canada
Conditions de vente
Charles Purpora owns and operates Purpora Books at 1805 Butler Road, Comox,
British Columbia, Canada, and can be reached by e-mail at
charles@purporabooks.com or by phone at 250-890-1077.
Prices are in US dollars. Books are offered by mail; also our bookroom is open
by appointment - please call ahead. We also have a selection of over 4,000
additional books at Browns Books, a general used book store in north Burnaby
near the Vancouver border (3740 Hastings Street). Payment options include
cheque, money order, PayPal, or credit card options available through Abebooks.
For customers in Canada, the HST/GST is included in the price.
Books are returnable for full refund if done so within 10 days of receipt.
Please notify Purpora Books in advance of any returns.
Reciprocal discount offered to the trade.
Book condition is based on the following guidelines: Fine - a copy with only a
very minor flaw and may actually be new and unread; Near Fine - a copy with a
more significant flaw or several minor flaws and/or with an overall feel and
appearance of a lightly used book; Very Good - a more worn copy but still in
collectible condition. Book plates, remainder marks, previous owner names,
price-clipped dust jackets and store stamps are always mentioned.
A scan of a book cover is available upon request.
Droit de rétractation
Si vous êtes un consommateur, vous pouvez exercer votre droit de rétractation sur le contrat conformément à ce qui suit. Le mot « consommateur » désigne toute personne physique agissant à des fins qui n'entrent pas dans le cadre de son activité commerciale, artisanale ou professionnelle.
Informations concernant le droit de rétractation
Droit statutaire de rétractation
Vous avez le droit d'exercer votre droit de rétractation sur ce contrat dans les 14 jours sans donner de raison.
Le délai de rétractation expirera au bout de 14 jours à compter du jour où vous-même, ou un tiers autre que le transporteur et désigné par vous, prendrez physiquement possession de la dernière marchandise, du dernier lot ou de la dernière pièce.
Pour exercer votre droit de rétractation, remplissez électroniquement et envoyez une déclaration claire sur notre site Web, sous « Vos achats » dans « Votre compte ». Nous vous communiquerons sans délai un accusé de réception de cette rétractation sur un support durable (par exemple, par e-mail).
Pour respecter le délai de rétractation, il vous suffit d'envoyer votre message concernant l'exercice de votre droit de rétractation avant l'expiration du délai de rétractation.
Effets de la rétractation
Si vous exercez votre droit de rétractation sur ce contrat, nous vous rembourserons tous les paiements que vous avez effectués, y compris les frais de livraison (à l'exception des frais supplémentaires résultant du choix d'un mode de livraison autre que le type de livraison standard le moins cher que nous proposons).
Nous pouvons déduire du remboursement la perte de valeur de toute marchandise livrée, si la perte est le résultat d'une manipulation inutile de votre part.
Nous effectuerons le remboursement dans les meilleurs délais, et au plus tard 14 jours après le jour où nous aurons été informés de votre décision d'exercer votre droit de rétractation sur ce contrat.
Nous effectuerons le remboursement en utilisant le même moyen de paiement que celui que vous avez utilisé pour la transaction initiale, sauf si vous en avez expressément convenu autrement ; en tout état de cause, aucuns frais ne vous seront facturés à la suite d'un tel remboursement.
Nous pouvons suspendre le remboursement jusqu'à ce que nous ayons reçu les marchandises ou que vous ayez fourni la preuve que vous avez renvoyé les marchandises, en fonction de la première éventualité.
Vous devez renvoyer les marchandises ou les remettre à Purpora Books, Comox, British Columbia, Canada, +1 250-890-1077, sans retard injustifié et, en tout état de cause, au plus tard 14 jours à compter du jour où vous nous avez communiqué votre décision de rétractation du présent contrat. Le délai est respecté si vous renvoyez les marchandises avant l'expiration du délai de 14 jours. Vous devrez prendre en charge les frais directs du renvoi des marchandises. Vous n'êtes responsable que de toute diminution de valeur des marchandises résultant d'une manipulation autre que celle nécessaire pour établir la nature, les caractéristiques et le fonctionnement des marchandises.
Exceptions au droit de rétractation
Le droit de rétractation ne s'applique pas à ce qui suit :
- Distribution de journaux, de revues ou de magazines, à l'exception des contrats d'abonnement ; et
- Fourniture d'un contenu numérique qui n'est pas fourni sur un support matériel (par exemple, sur un CD ou un DVD) si vous avez accepté, lors de votre commande, que nous puissions commencer à le livrer et que vous ne puissiez pas exercer votre droit de rétractation une fois la livraison commencée.
Conditions d'expédition
Orders usually ship within 2 business days. All books are shipped well protected.
Shipping costs are based on books weighing 2.2 LB, or 1 KG. If your book order is
heavy or over-sized, we may contact you about extra shipping charges being
required; conversely, thin, light books will ship for less in Canada and U.S.A.
(an adjustment to the shipping charge will be made after we receive your order at
the default rate).