From Publishers Weekly
Though this story is set in modern-day Canada, it seems to embrace the concerns and attitudes of an earlier timethe 1940s, perhapswhen Hemingway and the Lone Ranger instructed us in manly matters. Its protagonist, English professor Colin Dobbs, has entered middle age without such knowledge, until some atavistic urge causes him to take on the challenge of a bear hunt. Guided by a Stony Indian (whose way of saying "hey-up" in lieu of "yes" or "no" may make the reader growl), Dobbs grapples with a full-grown female grizzly who mauls him half to death. She is not the first of her sex to wound. Dobbs has been deserted by his wife, his daughter and his literary muse. When his daughter returns to nurse him, he begins the painful process of self-discovery that will eventually heal both body and spirit. Dobbs's awakening may have the opposite effect on readers. Marred by a prose style which hovers uneasily between the folksy and the pontifical, this novel by the author of Who Has Seen the Wind? makes its protagonist's life seem more like an exercise in self-help than an adventure in spiritual growth. December 16Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Mauled by a bear while hunting along Daisy Creek, English professor Colin Dobbs faces a difficult recovery both at home and at the university. His long-absent daughter, Annie, returns to play nurse and to ask what Dobbs has done with his life since her mother divorced him. At the university Dobbs discovers that he's afraid of what his colleagues and students might think about his disfigured face. On the lighter side in this symbol-laden tale, Dobbs finds himself in a legal battle with a dishonest taxidermist concerning ownership of the dead grizzly. A mixture of somewhat heavy-handed seriousness, honest emotion, and black humor, this ultimately entertaining Canadian novel deserves a readership. By the author of Who Has Seen the Wind? James B. Hemesath, Adams State Coll. Lib., Alamosa, Col. Murdoch, Iris. The Good Apprentice. Viking. Jan. 1986. c.522p. $18.95. f Murdoch's 22nd novel is organized thematically around sets of opposing characters and structurally around a dramatic string of reversals. Harry Cuno is a monster of will, ``a disappointed spoilt child.'' His son Stuart is a monster of will-lessness. Stuart avoids life's complications, while his stepbrother Edward, having precipitated a friend's suicide, is agonizingly caught up in them. Edward seeks absolution from his ``real'' father Jesse, a legendary painter and Lear-like figure imprisoned in a decaying ``enchanter's palace'' by the sea. Yet disaster at Seegard sends Edward back to the hell of London. The Good Apprentice is brilliantly orchestrated but somber. As Edward realizes, ``there are awful penalties for crimes against the gods.'' For larger collections. Grove Koger, Boise P.L., Id.Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
?Since Daisy Creek is everything we have come to expect of W.O. Mitchell; it is an irreverent, touching, life-affirming novel.?
?W.P. Kinsella, Books in Canada

?W.O. Mitchell?s satirical gifts are as sharp as ever in Since Daisy Creek, his homespun characters fully felt ? and life-affirming in their attempts to ?keep on trying to say yes to humans? because ?they?re the only game in town.??
?Victoria Times Colonist


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Book 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.

From the Back Cover
“Since Daisy Creek is everything we have come to expect of W.O. Mitchell; it is an irreverent, touching, life-affirming novel.”
–W.P. Kinsella, Books in Canada

“W.O. Mitchell’s satirical gifts are as sharp as ever in Since Daisy Creek, his homespun characters fully felt – and life-affirming in their attempts to ‘keep on trying to say yes to humans’ because ‘they’re the only game in town.’”
–Victoria Times Colonist

About the Author
W.O. Mitchell, the only Canadian author recognizable by initials alone, was born in Weyburn, Saskatchewan in 1914. Educated at the University of Manitoba, he lived most of his life in Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Alberta, where for many years he was the most renowned resident in High River. He and his wife, Merna, subsequently moved to Calgary.

During a very varied career Bill Mitchell travelled widely and was everything from a Depression hobo to the fiction editor of Maclean’s. A gifted teacher, he was visiting professor at the University of Windsor for several years, and a creative writing instructor at the Banff Centre for many summers.

His best-loved book is Who Has Seen the Wind. Since its publication in 1947 it has sold over half a million copies in Canada alone, and is hailed as the greatest Canadian book on boyhood. The classic edition, illustrated by William Kurelek, became a bestseller in 1991. Complementing that book is his 1981 best-seller How I Spent My Summer Holidays, hailed by some critics as his finest novel, although Since Daisy Creek (1984) and Ladybug, Ladybug…(1988), Roses Are Difficult Here (1990), For Art's Sake (1992) and The Black Bonspiel of Willie MacCrimmon (1993), illustrated by Wesley W. Bates, were also well-received best-sellers. Besides The Kite (1962) and The Vanishing Point (1973), he was also noted for his two collections of short stories, Jake and the Kid (1962) and According to Jake and the Kid (1989). Based on the legendary CBC radio Series, both classic story collections won the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour.

His last book, An Evening with W.O. Mitchell, contains his most popular performance pieces, and concludes with “The Poetry of Life”, the lecture that he delivered from a wheelchair to The Writers’ Union Conference in Winnipeg in 1996.

A noted performer of his own work, W.O. Mitchell recorded cassette versions of both Who Has Seen the Wind and According to Jake and the Kid, while a selection of pieces from An Evening with W.O. Mitchell, performed by W.O., is also available on cassette.

Our novelist and script-writer was also a successful playwright whose five plays are included in the collection entitled Dramatic W.O. Mitchell. He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1973, and was an honorary member of the Privy Council. He was the subject of a National Film Board documentary, and in 1994 he was awarded the Writers Guild of Alberta Golden Pen Award for Lifetime Achievement. In 1996 the City of Calgary named its book prize in his honour. He was, in Pierre Berton’s words, “an original.”

W.O. Mitchell died in February 1998 at his home in Calgary.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

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.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Though this story is set in modern-day Canada, it seems to embrace the concerns and attitudes of an earlier timethe 1940s, perhapswhen Hemingway and the Lone Ranger instructed us in manly matters. Its protagonist, English professor Colin Dobbs, has entered middle age without such knowledge, until some atavistic urge causes him to take on the challenge of a bear hunt. Guided by a Stony Indian (whose way of saying ``hey-up'' in lieu of ``yes'' or ``no'' may make the reader growl), Dobbs grapples with a full-grown female grizzly who mauls him half to death. She is not the first of her sex to wound. Dobbs has been deserted by his wife, his daughter and his literary muse. When his daughter returns to nurse him, he begins the painful process of self-discovery that will eventually heal both body and spirit. Dobbs's awakening may have the opposite effect on readers. Marred by a prose style which hovers uneasily between the folksy and the pontifical, this novel by the author of Who Has Seen the Wind? makes its protagonist's life seem more like an exercise in self-help than an adventure in spiritual growth. December 16

Library Journal