One Book, One Vancouver - There is a Season

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Filed in Arts
June 15, 2006

Vancouver has a city-wide book club, in case you didn't know. It's called "One Book, One Vancouver", which gives a nice sense of unity and cohesion, but I have to admit, I've had my doubts about it. I'm a book SNOB and chances are that if a huge group of people like a book, then I will hate it. Do not even get me started on the Da Vinci Code!!! Last year, the book for "one Book, One Vancouver" was Joy Kogawa's Obasan, which I have read before and OK, I didn't hate it, but I did also feel like I was really missing the something in it that everyone else thought was so amazing. So I decided to give it another try. This year the book is "There is a Season" by poet Patrick Lane and it cemented my decision to never again take part in a city-wide bookclub, unless, it's like, the Jorge Luis Borges bookclub, or something. Which it probably would be if it were "One Book, One Buenos Aires", but anyways.

"There is a Season" is Lane's memoir of a life of drinking and writing poetry. Now, for fun he likes to sit in the garden and watch birds instead. I jest , and cruelly, but 7 pages for a description of a garden is TOO LONG! Go for a walk or something! And if you thought that a life-long poet turned memoir writer would fill his prose with finely sharpened and painstakingly crafted metaphors, then you're right! Actually, they're not that sharp. The garden represents life. He was numbing himself with drugs and alcohol before and now he has come to life... blah, blah, blah. I'm sorry Patrick Lane, I really am. I know what it is like to put so much of yourself into your work and work so hard on it, but I didn't like it. I know that a lot of people did though, because McLelland & Stewart have a whole page of praise, including "Patrick Lane's There Is A Season is the best book I have read in a decade." So maybe it's me. I'm ok with that.

If you're still interested in going to the discussions, the details are after the jump.

Book Discussion Groups of this year's One Book, One Vancouver choice There is a Season by Patrick Lane.

Saturday, June 10; 2-3 p.m.
Joe Fortes Branch
870 Denman St.
Registration recommended. Please call 604-665-3972.

Wednesday, August 16; 7:30-8:45 p.m.
Firehall Branch
1455 West 10th Ave.
Registration recommended. Please call 604-665-3970.

Thursday, August 24; 3-4 p.m.
Central Library in the Language & Literature Division(Level 3)
350 West Georgia St.
Registration info coming soon.

Wednesday, September 13; 7-8 p.m.
Central Library in the Language & Literature Division (Level 3)
350 West Georgia St.
Registration info coming soon.

Thursday, September 14; 7-8 p.m.
Mount Pleasant Branch
370 East Broadway
Registration recommended. Please call 604-665-3962.

Wednesday, September 20; 7-8:30 p.m.
Britannia Branch
1661 Napier St.
Registration recommended. Please call 604-665-2222.

An admirable project, and I will heartily support more people reading, but I don't think it's for me.

Reader Reviews and Comments

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Oh, thank God, I thought it was just me too! I agree that this is an admirable project, but if the city wants it to have any real impact they will have to choose books with a bit more ooomph. And much, much less florid prose.

Posted by: Cat at June 18, 2006 8:40 AM | Quote Comment

I also read Patrick's Lane's new book which seems to be trying to decide if it is a garden book or a memoir or a book on recovery. I found the book neither one or the other. Unfortunately in the writer's absorbtion of his own life the book fails to be a recovery book and appears to come mainly from his need to recover and be able to write; too many personal details for me; better kept in an AA meeting

Posted by: Peggy Tisdale at July 14, 2006 1:07 AM | Quote Comment

I also read Patrick's Lane's new book which seems to be trying to decide if it is a garden book or a memoir or a book on recovery. I found the book neither one or the other. Unfortunately in the writer's absorbtion of his own life,the book fails to be a recovery book for any-one else or a garden book to use as a gardener....and appears to come mainly from his need to recover and be able to write; too many personal details for me; better kept in an AA meeting

Posted by: Peggy Tisdale at July 14, 2006 1:09 AM | Quote Comment

I also read Patrick's Lane's new book which seems to be trying to decide if it is a garden book or a memoir or a book on recovery. I found the book neither one or the other. Unfortunately in the writer's absorbtion of his own life, the book fails to be a recovery book for any-one else or a garden book to use as a gardener....and appears to come mainly from his need to recover and be able to write; too many personal details for me; better kept in an AA meeting

Posted by: Peggy Tisdale at July 14, 2006 1:10 AM | Quote Comment

I also read Patrick's Lane's new book which seems to be trying to decide if it is a garden book or a memoir or a book on recovery. I found the book neither one or the other. Unfortunately in the writer's absorbtion of his own life, the book fails to be a recovery book for any-one else or a garden book to use as a gardener....and appears to come mainly from his need to recover and be able to write; too many personal details for me; better kept in an AA meeting

Posted by: Peggy Tisdale at July 14, 2006 1:10 AM | Quote Comment