Barry Grills

Barry Grills has much to teach about recovery and resilience, and has found the perfect medium in his memoir Every Wolf's Howl. The story covers the period 1992-1996, when Grills' life was altered by a series of traumatic events--a business failure, a health crisis, the dissolution of a relationship--that left him in a state resembling shell-shock, reeling from multiple blows and searching for a way to rebuild his life from the ground up. In his mid-forties and with no idea what life, post-crisis, will look like, he sets out from his Ontario home for the west coast with Lupus, a wolf-German Shepherd mix that he and his partner adopted from an animal shelter shortly before the collapse of their business. As his supply of cash dwindles and the prospects he had envisioned prove illusory, and he can no longer pretend that his dream of starting anew in the mountains of British Columbia was anything more than an absurd folly, Grills draws strength from his relationship with Lupus, who every day shows him what it means to adapt and compromise but retain one's individual dignity under circumstances that make it impossible to ever truly be yourself. The story of Barry and Lupus is not, finally, one of triumph, but one of simple endurance, of accepting one's limitations and taking responsibility for poor choices. Surprisingly, the narrative is all the more effective for being told in reverse chronological order--in several episodes from April 1996 to December 1992. When later events are subsequently illuminated by what came before, the drama is enhanced and the emotional resonance deepened by what we learn. Best of all, the book does not end with a sense of poignant loss but with the two--Barry and Lupus--getting to know one another. We finish the book with the image of them together, and nothing could be more fitting. Every Wolf's Howl is a rich and rewarding reading experience. Highly recommended.… (més)