Review
“Gentleman Death is a modern danse macabre. A wise and powerful chronicle of fathers and sons and brothers on a new voyage of discovery to the end of the night.”
–Alberto Manguel
“In this engaging novel, Graeme Gibson uses the foibles of an aging novelist to address the unaccountable fears that obsess us all sometimes in the small hours of the morning.…His story steams along, effortlessly propelled by fine prose, wit, and insight.…Delightful.…”
–Quill & Quire (starred review)
“An intense, passionate, deeply felt meditation on human mortality and mutability which speaks directly to the heart as well as to the mind.…[A] tour de force.…”
–Kitchener-Waterloo Record
“Utterly involving.… An elegant, poignant novel and a repeatedly funny one.”
–Financial Post
“An engaging exploration of memory and death. Complex yet accessible, it is an illuminating guide through the rich territory that W.B. Yeats called the “rag-and-bone shop of the heart.”
–Maclean’s
“A richly mature book, which made me cackle with laughter and stare into the distance with recognition.…For me, Gibson’s free-wheeling and noble-spirited novel was a gift: one of those rare books which provide grown-up sustenance.”
–Dennis Lee
“Gibson writes clean, hard prose and his literary sensibility seems tough and unflinching. His insights into the mellowing capacity of middle aged are particularly fine.”
–Winnipeg Free Press
“Without a doubt, Gentleman Death is a courageously eccentric book.…Delicate and admirable.…”
–Kingston Whig-Standard
“Right from the first page you know you’re in good hands.…The language and sensibility of this novel is both gritty and beautiful.…Gibson writes for a highly literate audience while remaining accessible to anyone interested in the power of language and storytelling.”
–Calgary Herald
“With his hardy, no-frills style, Gibson adroitly shows how real life and fiction blend, how dreams and memories merge and how each of us makes what we can out of life–and death.”
–Vancouver Sun
“Not every novelist dares as much and delivers as much as Graeme Gibson does in Gentleman Death.…This is serious stuff, but it is carried off in such exuberant language and with such memorable characters and incidents that reading the novel is like taking a ride on a roller coaster through comic and tragic neighbourhoods of life.”
–Canadian Forum
Review
?Gentleman Death is a modern danse macabre. A wise and powerful chronicle of fathers and sons and brothers on a new voyage of discovery to the end of the night.?
?Alberto Manguel
?In this engaging novel, Graeme Gibson uses the foibles of an aging novelist to address the unaccountable fears that obsess us all sometimes in the small hours of the morning.?His story steams along, effortlessly propelled by fine prose, wit, and insight.?Delightful.??
?Quill & Quire (starred review)
?An intense, passionate, deeply felt meditation on human mortality and mutability which speaks directly to the heart as well as to the mind.?[A] tour de force.??
?Kitchener-Waterloo Record
?Utterly involving.? An elegant, poignant novel and a repeatedly funny one.?
?Financial Post
?An engaging exploration of memory and death. Complex yet accessible, it is an illuminating guide through the rich territory that W.B. Yeats called the ?rag-and-bone shop of the heart.?
?Maclean?s
?A richly mature book, which made me cackle with laughter and stare into the distance with recognition.?For me, Gibson?s free-wheeling and noble-spirited novel was a gift: one of those rare books which provide grown-up sustenance.?
?Dennis Lee
?Gibson writes clean, hard prose and his literary sensibility seems tough and unflinching. His insights into the mellowing capacity of middle aged are particularly fine.?
?Winnipeg Free Press
?Without a doubt, Gentleman Death is a courageously eccentric book.?Delicate and admirable.??
?Kingston Whig-Standard
?Right from the first page you know you?re in good hands.?The language and sensibility of this novel is both gritty and beautiful.?Gibson writes for a highly literate audience while remaining accessible to anyone interested in the power of language and storytelling.?
?Calgary Herald
?With his hardy, no-frills style, Gibson adroitly shows how real life and fiction blend, how dreams and memories merge and how each of us makes what we can out of life?and death.?
?Vancouver Sun
?Not every novelist dares as much and delivers as much as Graeme Gibson does in Gentleman Death.?This is serious stuff, but it is carried off in such exuberant language and with such memorable characters and incidents that reading the novel is like taking a ride on a roller coaster through comic and tragic neighbourhoods of life.?
?Canadian Forum
Book Description
Meet novelist Robert Fraser as he comes face to face with creativity, his mortality, and the deaths of his father and brother. Set mainly in Toronto, the novel also takes us to London, Scotland, Germany, and New York as we follow the escapades of two of Fraser’s fictional characters. There is Simpson, called into service as an anonymous sperm donor, and Dunbar, an enigmatic tourist in Berlin just before the Chernobyl disaster, where he meets the captivating Lena, with whom he begins to sense an almost forgotten freedom and elation. But at the centre of Gentleman Death is Robert Fraser’s own compelling story. Gibson juxtaposes reality and fiction in this compassionate, sometimes outrageous, often very funny exploration of the absurdities and alarms of aging, the nature of fiction itself, and the maturity that grows from reconciliation.
From the Inside Flap
Meet novelist Robert Fraser as he comes face to face with creativity, his mortality, and the deaths of his father and brother. Set mainly in Toronto, the novel also takes us to London, Scotland, Germany, and New York as we follow the escapades of two of Fraser’s fictional characters. There is Simpson, called into service as an anonymous sperm donor, and Dunbar, an enigmatic tourist in Berlin just before the Chernobyl disaster, where he meets the captivating Lena, with whom he begins to sense an almost forgotten freedom and elation. But at the centre of Gentleman Death is Robert Fraser’s own compelling story. Gibson juxtaposes reality and fiction in this compassionate, sometimes outrageous, often very funny exploration of the absurdities and alarms of aging, the nature of fiction itself, and the maturity that grows from reconciliation.
From the Back Cover
“Gentleman Death is a modern danse macabre. A wise and powerful chronicle of fathers and sons and brothers on a new voyage of discovery to the end of the night.”
–Alberto Manguel
“In this engaging novel, Graeme Gibson uses the foibles of an aging novelist to address the unaccountable fears that obsess us all sometimes in the small hours of the morning.…His story steams along, effortlessly propelled by fine prose, wit, and insight.…Delightful.…”
–Quill & Quire (starred review)
“An intense, passionate, deeply felt meditation on human mortality and mutability which speaks directly to the heart as well as to the mind.…[A] tour de force.…”
–Kitchener-Waterloo Record
“Utterly involving.… An elegant, poignant novel and a repeatedly funny one.”
–Financial Post
“An engaging exploration of memory and death. Complex yet accessible, it is an illuminating guide through the rich territory that W.B. Yeats called the “rag-and-bone shop of the heart.”
–Maclean’s
“A richly mature book, which made me cackle with laughter and stare into the distance with recognition.…For me, Gibson’s free-wheeling and noble-spirited novel was a gift: one of those rare books which provide grown-up sustenance.”
–Dennis Lee
“Gibson writes clean, hard prose and his literary sensibility seems tough and unflinching. His insights into the mellowing capacity of middle aged are particularly fine.”
–Winnipeg Free Press
“Without a doubt, Gentleman Death is a courageously eccentric book.…Delicate and admirable.…”
–Kingston Whig-Standard
“Right from the first page you know you’re in good hands.…The language and sensibility of this novel is both gritty and beautiful.…Gibson writes for a highly literate audience while remaining accessible to anyone interested in the power of language and storytelling.”
–Calgary Herald
“With his hardy, no-frills style, Gibson adroitly shows how real life and fiction blend, how dreams and memories merge and how each of us makes what we can out of life–and death.”
–Vancouver Sun
“Not every novelist dares as much and delivers as much as Graeme Gibson does in Gentleman Death.…This is serious stuff, but it is carried off in such exuberant language and with such memorable characters and incidents that reading the novel is like taking a ride on a roller coaster through comic and tragic neighbourhoods of life.”
–Canadian Forum
About the Author
Graeme Gibson was born in London, Ontario, in 1934.
An important spokesman for Canadian cultural identity, Gibson was the initial organizer and a founding member of the Writers’ Union of Canada, and was its chairman in 1976. He was also an organizer and founding member of the Writers’ Trust, a non-profit organization, and was subsequently its chairman. From 1987 to 1989 he was president of the Canadian Centre of International PEN.
In 1990, he won a Toronto Arts Award for writing and publishing, and, in 1992 he received the Order of Canada. He is the author of four novels, Five Legs (1969), Communion (1971), Perpetual Motion (1982), and Gentleman Death (1993).
Graeme Gibson lives in Toronto, Ontario.
Gentleman Death FROM THE PUBLISHER
A decade after the publication of Graeme Gibson's highly acclaimed third novel, Perpetual Motion, comes Gentleman Death, his intriguing, humane, and sometimes outrageous portrayal of fifty-six-year-old novelist Robert Fraser as he comes face to face with creativity, his mortality, and the death of his father and brother. Set mainly in Toronto, Gentleman Death also takes us to London and Scotland to follow the escapades of Simpson, called back into service by the sinister, manipulative Powys. Service, in this case, is donating sperm anonymously to a young woman bent on single motherhood. To Berlin just before the Chernobyl disaster, where Dunbar, an enigmatic tourist, meets and becomes captivated by Lena, with whom he begins to sense an almost forgotten freedom and elation. And, not coincidentally, to New York City, where, at a glitzy fundrai sing event, Fraser has an unexpected, intensely personal encounter. Gibson juxtaposes reality and fiction to reveal not only the legacies one generation bequeaths to the next, but also the responsibilities that we, the living, have to our own dead. Hard-edged but compassionate, and often very funny, Gentleman Death is an exploration of individual and collective losses, the absurdities and alarms of aging, and, finally, the maturity that grows from reconciliation. Gentleman Death confirms Graeme Gibson's reputation as one of the most accomplished novelists writing in Canada today.
Art & Photography
Book Info
