Source: University of New Brunswick - Fredericton http://www.unb.ca/news/view.cgi?id=1119 Author Lynn Coady to read at UNB Saint JohnOctober 12, 2006 October 12, 2006 UNB Saint John News Release: 06-181 Patty O'Brien, Information Officer (506) 648-5707 Author Lynn Coady will read from her novel Mean Boy on Monday, October 23 at 7 pm in the Hazen Hall Lecture Theatre as part of the Lorenzo Reading Series at the University of New Brunswick Saint John. Lynn Coady is the author of the novels, Strange Heaven (1998) and Saints of Big Harbour (2002), both of which are set in Cape Breton, and the short story collection Play the Monster Blind (2000). Strange Heaven, which was shortlisted for a Governor-General’s Award, won the City of Dartmouth Award and The Atlantic Provinces Booksellers’ Choice Award. The Observer (London) remarked the "assured characterization" of Saints of Big Harbour, a novel that appeared on The Globe and Mail Best Book list in 2002. Coady, who lives in Edmonton, is also a playwright and journalist. In Mean Boy, Lynn Coady introduces us to Lawrence Campbell, a 1970s young man who "‘is gonna save Canadian poetry.’" Told from the perspective of an undergraduate would-be poet attending the fictional Westcock University in New Brunswick, the story feels immediate and personal. Larry is the kind of guy who would never hang himself in the English Department's stairwell because "it's been done," and who considers making tea "a kind of sacrament." Rejecting the future available to him – working at his PEI parents' roadside motel – and enduring the admonitions of a family fearful he will turn into something they don't recognize, he embarks on a course of study with his poet-hero, Jim Arsenault. Young Lawrence is a decent boy whose idea of poetry comes close to idealization; his admiration of Arsenault approximates worship. Coady's narrative follows Larry as he discovers that poetic genius can sometimes have a dark side; that the world of Byron and Keats can have more in common with high school and all its attendant cliques and hijinks than the pursuit of truth and beauty. When he is denied a chance at tenure, Jim Arsenault, bane of the Westcock English Department, feels persecuted by the head of the department, Dr. Sparrow. As Jim takes out his frustrations on a green ottoman and a couch, Larry sees his chance to get close to him, the possibility of acquiring the great Jim Arsenault for a mentor, of being accepted by his hero: He will fight the establishment for Jim; he will fight dogma and the men who pronounce it "lit-ret-chaw." He and his classmates begin collecting names in support of Arsenault's tenure. The ensuing battle with Jim's enemies is devastatingly instructive. Larry must reconcile what Jim is with what Jim writes. In his crusade, Larry is accompanied by the fascinating characters who fill Arsenault's creative writing class. There's Todd, who writes rhyming poetry and is angry "about everything … the world for him is like a scratchy tag on a sweater"; the wide-eyed Sherrie, who doesn't look like she writes poetry at all and who is mostly influenced by the "bunch of Margarets" in Canadian poetry; the seemingly uptight, turtleneck-wearing Claude, and Charles Slaughter, a massive man, who dabbles in drugs, doesn't care a whit for poetry, and whose behaviour echoes the chaos around him. Larry's tale moves forward, meanders back, as he recounts their collective efforts to support and inspire the department, the student body, each other. The narrative, like crystals falling in a snow-globe, inevitably and superbly drifts to its climax through a fuzzy haze of drinking parties, snowstorms, betrayals, and family squabbles. The reading is hosted by The Lorenzo Society and the UNB Saint John Bookstore, and supported by The Canada Council for the Arts. Admission is free and all are welcome to attend. For more information contact The University Bookstore at (506) 648-5540 or e-mail sjbooks@unbsj.ca. - 30 -
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