The Bay of Love and Sorrows

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The Bay of Love and Sorrows Pub. Date: 10/10/2000 Publisher: Random House of Canada, Limited
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The Bay of Love and Sorrows (1ST US) Pub. Date: 4/7/2003 Publisher: Arcade Publishing

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The Bay of Love and Sorrows Pub. Date: 9/30/1998 Publisher: McClelland & Stewart Ltd.

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Overview

"It's the summer of 1974. Events are set in motion when the once-strong friendship between privileged Michael Skid, the young son of a judge in town and farmhand Tommie Donnerel ends in bitter misunderstanding. As Michael sets out to prove something to himself and others, he is drawn into the company of the beautiful, strong-willed Madonna Brassaurd and her troubled brother, Silver. The trio bonds and soon they fall prey to the glamour of Everette Hutch, a charismatic and violent man, whose latest scheme pulls them in over their heads, leading to tragedy." Bridging the decent world of Tommie Donnerel and the darker realm of the Brassaurd siblings and Everette Hutch is Karrie Smith. Home for the summer from college, she longs for a different life, which makes her vulnerable to a world she doesn't understand. In their small coastal community, as the summer progresses, the characters' lives quickly become fraught with desperation and abrupt changes of fortune, but it is only in the aftermath of murder that the real truth flowers for those responsible.

Editorial Reviews

The Washington Post

If The Bay of Love and Sorrows is not David Adams Richards at his finest, it is still a wonderful work of depth and power. Richards fires characters in a kiln so hot that their motives, even when obscure to themselves, are clear to readers, who will squirm with self-recognition, flinch at his uncompromising insight and gasp at their creator's comprehension of the human condition. — Daniel McMahon

Publishers Weekly

Richards's latest (after Mercy Among the Children) is the powerful tale of a botched drug deal in a small Nova Scotia town in the 1970s. Karrie Smith and Tom Donnerel are high school sweethearts who, by the summer after her first year of college, are mired in a long-term grudge match. Karrie gives in to her attraction to Tom's charismatic friend, Michael Skid, the son of a local judge who lures Karrie into a manipulative and loveless relationship. Michael, in turn, is manipulated by a drug dealer, Everette Hutch, who coerces Michael into using his father's sailboat to ship a stash of tainted drugs. Michael tosses the stash overboard when the Coast Guard suddenly turns up, but Everette is unimpressed by his resourcefulness, and Michael's effort to recoup the drug money sets off a chain of murders that leaves several main characters dead, Tom in prison, and Michael exonerated, though heartbroken. Michael gets his revenge, with the help of the ravaged beauty Madonna Brassaurd, a friend whose brother, Silver, played a pivotal role in the earlier murders. Richards's tight plotting keeps the labyrinthine narrative riveting. The cycles of violence and retribution sometimes verge on melodrama, an effect intensified by the occasionally portentous prose (" `It will snow tomorrow,' thought Michael. `It will snow all the days of my youth' ") and the thin characterizations of some of the teenagers (Karrie especially seems simpleminded and younger than her years). Yet in spite of their shortcomings, the characters' rage and bloodlust and remorse are always believable. Those who loved Richards's debut will appreciate once again the grit and moral intensity with which he infuses his provincial portraits. (Apr.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

More Reviews (2) Fewer Reviews

Library Journal

The title says it all: there is no joy in Richards's landscape. In the early Seventies, Michael Skid, the privileged son of a judge, returns to his hometown on the Oyster River in rural New Brunswick from his postgraduate wanders through India. He takes up with a dangerous crowd, including Everette Hutch, an ex-convict who makes a practice of surreptitiously taping his friends in order to blackmail them later, and his coterie of drug-using associates. Michael's casual good looks and good fortune serve as a magnet for a number of local women, including the beautiful but promiscuous Madonna Brassaurd, accustomed to using her body for favors; Laura McNair, the attorney responsible for sending Everette to prison; and Karrie Smith, the fianc e of Tommie Donnerel, Michael's estranged childhood friend. Flirting with danger, Michael becomes unwittingly embroiled in a mescaline deal gone sour. As the violence escalates, Tommie becomes the scapegoat for Michael's recklessness. For all of the novel's despair, its multilayered plot, complex characters, and clean, spare prose will spellbind readers. Though the book was originally published in Canada in 1998, the American debut is timed to coincide with its release as a motion picture. Recommended for all public libraries.-Barbara Love, Kingston Frontenac P.L., Ont. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Toronto-based Richards (Mercy Among the Children, 2001, etc.), winner of multiple Canadian literary awards, strains both credibility and the reader’s ability to keep a straight face with this pullulating melodrama, published in Canada in 1998. In an unnamed New Brunswick bayside town, pretty young Karrie Smith’s betrothal to farmer Tommie Donnerel is put on hold when Karrie becomes attracted to glowering Michael Skid, the ne’er-do-well son of a prominent judge. Michael, meanwhile, is smitten with gorgeous slut Madonna Braussard, who, with her Cro-Magnon brother Silver, earns an unpretty penny dealing "bad drugs"—which trade attracts the interest of satanic ex-convict Everette Hutch ("the swirling center, the black hole . . . [which] Madonna and Silver and Michael . . . were being sucked into"). A violent murder rattles the community, and the wrong man is convicted and imprisoned. A sneaky plot twist endangers the gas-station scam practiced by Karrie’s troglodyte parents. Everette crashes his motorcycle, and gives the reader a brief rest by lapsing into a coma. The plot thickens like month-old oatmeal, chickens come home to roost, the guilty are punished, justice delayed is not denied, and the innocent get married and talk it all over 20 years later. These beguiling absurdities are recounted in a burly, barely serviceable prose in which subjects and predicates often remain as far apart as feuding relatives estranged for decades (e.g., this side-winding sentence: "Is that how your new friends who we never see, and who never come to the house, and who all look like refugees, just like you, taught you how to be?"). A stultifying amalgam of Peyton Place, The Beans of Egypt, Maine, TheReturn of the Native, and Tobacco Road. O Canada! O Mores! Agent: Anne McDermid/Anne McDermid Associates

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781559706506
Publisher: Arcade Publishing
Publication date: 4/7/2003
Edition description: 1ST US
Pages: 320
Product dimensions: 6.50 (w) x 9.50 (h) x 1.12 (d)

Meet the Author

David Adams Richards was born in Newcastle, New Brunswick, in 1950. He has published ten acclaimed novels, including the award-winning Miramichi trilogy — Nights Below Station Street, winner of the 1988 Governor General’s Award; Evening Snow Will Bring Such Peace (1990), winner of the Canadian Authors Association Award; and For Those Who Hunt the Wounded Down (1993), winner of the Thomas Raddall Award — Hope in the Desperate Hour (1996), The Bay of Love and Sorrows (1998), and, most recently, Mercy Among the Children (2000), co-winner of the prestigious Giller Prize. In 1993, Richards received the Canada-Australia Prize.

Richards has also published three non-fiction books, most recently the Governor General’s Award-winning fishing memoir Lines on the Water (1998), and has written Gemini Award-winning screenplays for the CBC-TV adaptations of his novels For Those Who Hunt the Wounded Down and Nights Below Station Street. “Small Gifts,” his original screenplay for CBC-TV, won a Gemini Award and the New York International Film Festival Award for Best Script.

Richards now lives in Toronto with his wife, Peggy, and their two sons.

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The Bay of Love and Sorrows

Overview

All Available Formats + Editions

More About This Book

Overview

Editorial Reviews

The Washington Post

Publishers Weekly

Library Journal

Kirkus Reviews

Product Details

Meet the Author

Customer Reviews

Rating Distribution

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3 Star

2 Star

1 Star

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