David Adams Richards
Autor/a de Mercy Among the Children
Sobre l'autor
David Adams Richards lives in Toronto with his wife and two sons. Author David Adams Richards was born in Newcastle, New Brunswick, Canada on October 17, 1950. He has received numerous awards for his works including the Canadian Authors Association Award for Evening Show Will Bring Such Peace in mostra'n més 1991, the Canada-Australia Literary Prize in 1992, and the Giller Prize for Mercy Among the Children in 2000. He also won the Governor General's Award in both the fiction and non-fiction categories with Nights below Station Street in 1988 and Lines on the Water in 1998 respectively. He currently lives with his family in Toronto, Canada. (Bowker Author Biography) mostra'n menys
Crèdit de la imatge: photo credit: Jerry Bauer
Sèrie
Obres de David Adams Richards
Arch of Triumph 1 exemplars
Obres associades
Etiquetat
Coneixement comú
- Nom normalitzat
- Richards, David Adams
- Data de naixement
- 1950-10-17
- Gènere
- male
- Nacionalitat
- Canada
- Lloc de naixement
- Newcastle, New Brunswick, Canada
- Llocs de residència
- Newcastle, New Brunswick, Canada (birth)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada
Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada
Bartibogue, New Brunswick, Canada - Educació
- St. Thomas University, New Brunswick (B.A.)
- Professions
- writer
author
screenwriter - Premis i honors
- CBA Libris Award (2001)
Canada-Australia Literary Prize, awarded for the excellence of an author's complete body of work (1992)
Alden Nowlan Award for Excellence in the Arts
Writers' Federation of New Brunswick, annual David Adams Richards Award for Fiction
Order of Canada (2010)
Timothy Findley Award (2004) (mostra-les totes 7)
Matt Cohen Prize (2011) - Agent
- Anne McDermid
- Biografia breu
- David Adams Richards (born October 17, 1950) is a Canadian novelist, essayist, screenwriter and poet.
Born in Newcastle, New Brunswick, Richards left St. Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick, one course shy of completing a B.A.* Richards has been a writer-in-residence at various universities and colleges across Canada, including the University of New Brunswick.
Richards has received numerous awards including 2 Gemini Awards for scriptwriting for "Small Gifts" and "For Those Who Hunt The Wounded Down", the Alden Nowlan Award for Excellence in the Arts, and the Canadian Authors Association Award for his novel "Evening Snow Will Bring Such Peace." Richards is one of only three writers to have won in both the fiction and non-fiction categories of the Governor General's Award. He won the 1988 fiction award for "Nights Below Station Street" and the 1998 non-fiction award for "Lines on the Water: A Fisherman's Life on the Miramichi." He was also a co-winner of the 2000 Giller Prize for "Mercy Among the Children."
In 1971, he married the former Peggy MacIntyre. They have two sons, John Thomas and Anton Richards, and currently reside in Fredericton.
John Thomas was born in 1989 in Saint John, New Brunswick.
The Writers' Federation of New Brunswick administers an annual David Adams Richards Award for
Fiction.
Richards' papers are currently housed at the University of New Brunswick.
* David Adams Richards was awarded his B.A. by Saint Thomas University in 2009. Source: David Adams Richards' sister Susan Marshall.
Membres
Ressenyes
Llistes
Books About Boys (1)
Premis
Potser també t'agrada
Estadístiques
- Obres
- 34
- També de
- 1
- Membres
- 2,097
- Popularitat
- #12,276
- Valoració
- 3.8
- Ressenyes
- 71
- ISBN
- 159
- Llengües
- 5
- Preferit
- 7
- Pedres de toc
- 143
Set in the Miramichi region of New Brunswick, the plot focuses on a community where the asbestos mine owned by the Raskin Brothers is the main employer. When reports emerge about the health effects on workers, the brothers want to stop mining asbestos, but the government does not allow them to shut down. Albert, a nephew, who lives on the proceeds of the mine, becomes involved in protests against his uncles. Choices Albert makes as a young man have a devastating impact on him and many others, especially after two criminal brothers, Mel and Shane Stroud, become involved and further complicate matters.
Shortly after I began reading, I decided to make notes on the various characters and their connections to each other. There are many characters and their stories are intertwined so it is important to keep track of their relationships; the backgrounds of these many characters are also significant. The title is appropriate in that Eva Mott is the person whose life is touched by virtually all the other characters.
Eva, however, is not the only person to suffer tragedy. There are many who suffer because they are deprived, oppressed, and exploited. The message seems to be that “suffering is the human condition” so the book is anything but a light read. For instance, there are eight deaths that are the result of murder or criminal negligence. Sexual assault, drug addiction, and blackmail all feature in the narrative. The book includes infidelity, theft, beatings, heartbreak, loneliness, family disintegration, suicide, government ineptitude, environmental degradation, and swindling. The book ends with the promise that the world is filled with love, there is “a fulsome chance at a new life, a new beginning, a new and holy destiny, here as well as in all the world,” and “honour follows virtue like a shadow,” but the number of characters who are loving and virtuous is far outnumbered by those who are motivated by self-interest and manipulate others. And the virtuous seldom receive their just rewards.
In many ways, the book reads like a critique of many groups. Academics are a target: “he had a trait that was widespread among professors: he was petty and jealous.” Politicians are portrayed as hypocrites; the government won’t let the Raskins close the asbestos mine even after reports emerge about the effects of asbestos. Scientists “wore white coats and told white lies.” First Nations people have suffered much for too long, but the author believes there should be less talk about “how much they were owed and how much was taken”; a Mi’kmaq argues his people must “decide their own lives by their own conscience” and says, “’I know you want to protect the land but remember some of us exploit it just as much as others.’” Protestors, whether environmentalists, women’s rights activists, or supporters of First Nations claims, are described as an “ignorant army . . . ready to clash by night.” The author even takes a swipe at his detractors who have dismissed him as “a journeyman writer from New Brunswick . . . [whose writing shows a] backward regionalism.” The author seems angry at everyone.
I wanted to like this book, but it is full of countless tragedies, despair, and darkness. A re-reading would perhaps result in an appreciation of its layers; unfortunately, I cannot see myself re-reading it very soon. It is too depressing, and I need to find something more uplifting after this heartbreaking tale.
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