"Tales of the Modern Nomad: Monks,
Mushrooms & Other Misadventures"
by John Early
Published by Early Byrd Productions
Review by Shelley A. Leedahl
$26.99
ISBN 978-0-9952666-0-5
Rarely do I read a book that takes the
top of my head off (in the best way), but Tales
of the Modern Nomad-a candid travelogue and first book by Saskatoon
backpacker John Early-did just that. Well-written, entertaining, illuminating,
original, cheeky, and real-in that it
features both positive and negative experiences-I read chapters of this book
aloud to two visiting backpackers in their twenties and thirties, and they were
relating and laughing right along. To quote the author's father: "You
couldn't make this shit up if you tried."
Early's young, and many of the
experiences described in this hefty, full-colour hardcover-with maps, photographs,
anecdotes, trivia, poems, art, doodles, and quotes ranging from Eckhart Tolle
to Charles Bukowski-may have special appeal for those who possess the desire to
surf in Sayulita; zip-line between Laos' tropical rain forest treehouses; or,
as Early recounts in the section titled "Down The Rabbit Hole," eat
"Mystery Mushrooms from an Indonesian Road Stand," but as one who's backpacked
and been to many of the locales he writes about (ie: Bali, Zürich,
Bangkok, Čzesky
Krumlov)-and I've blown out decades more candles than Early-I can vouch for the
veracity and sentiment of the author's accounts (ie: nefarious taxi drivers in
foreign countries; being astounded in Paris by those who approach Notre Dame
just long enough to get a selfie, then carry on to the next Facebook-able
landmark; or defaulting to Spanish whenever someone speaks to me in another
language), and appreciated both reliving some of my own travels and vicariously
experiencing ones I may never dare to take. Boating down the Amazon to
participate in an ayahuasca ceremony deep in the jungle? Hitchhiking with a
gypsy caravan in Central America? "The caravan crew consists of Goat, from
Northern Oregon; his girlfriend Dancing Water, from Montreal, Blas, a dreadlocked
backpacker from Argentina; Max, a Californian non-conformist Goat met at a
Rainbow Gathering in Panama; and Chico, Goat's loyal dog he picked up in
Mexico." (Oh, all right. Sure!)
As with all great travel writing,
Early's tales-gleaned directly from his travel journals-feature the people he randomly
meets along the way in hostels, jungles, on beaches, and, uncharacteristically
for a backpacker, on a cruise ship (Early worked on one for six months).
The book's format, with its delightful
mix of information-including both the extremely personal (receiving a
questionable massage from a Thai monk) and hilarious trivia ("10 Ways to
Say Poop in Japanese")-is one of
its major charms. And this title contains far more than just backpacking smarts;
it's saturated with life wisdom, ie:
"traveling is in your head/as much as it's under your feet/Never stop
being a traveler./And always life a life worth journaling."
I agree with Early that travelling is a
great educator. We learn so much about others when we immerse ourselves in
another culture-and perhaps put that camera or margarita down for a bit, and
really get to know the locals-but moreover, we also learn invaluable lessons
about ourselves. What a read, John Early. What a life!
THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL
BOOKSTORE OR FROM WWW.SKBOOKS.COM
__________
"Muskrat Ramble"
by William Wardill
Published by DriverWorks Ink
Review by Shelley A. Leedahl
$14.99
ISBN 978-1-927570-34-0
Eatonia, SK's William Wardill has been
writing stories and poems for decades, and now the veteran historian, writer, diviner,
and small-town Saskatchewan aficionado has penned his "swan song"
collection of poetry, Muskrat Ramble,
which includes previously published work, photographs, and, interestingly,
brief, conversational-style introductions to many of the poems. The "almost
autobiographical" and fictional poems (with "roots in reality") are
straightforward narrative tributes to people, places, and pre-Facebook ways of
life long behind us now. Readers will appreciate the poems' preambles: reading
them is akin to hearing a writer present his or her work at a public reading. Many
readers (including yours truly) will also appreciate the larger-than-usual
print.
Wardill has lived a rich life across
his nine decades. He stretches back to his boyhood re: acknowledgement of an
Alsask teacher for helping him to realize "that a little boy who liked to
arrange words in patterns, paint pictures, and sing songs could he as useful in
the world as the little boy who excelled in athletic competitions." At the
other end of his life, in a poem titled "Homo Emeritus," he reflects
that "Now there is time for peaceful nights/and waking dreams and building
airy mansions/out of moonbeams."
The collection includes Wardill's first
published poem: it appeared in Western
People, a now long-gone supplement to The
Western Producer, and is a tribute to a father and his trunk full of
"Perfumed pipes and shaving soap/and polish for his patent leather shoes."
The sense of longing is almost palpable. The poet writes of a wish to stand
with the man "to watch the stout, black steamships eating blacker
coal,/and lesser craft with sea-rimed sails, and, all around, the white gulls
wheeling." A beautiful tribute to a man whose "span was over long ago."
Other tribute poems include "Consolidation No. 2165, 1913-1961,"
about a steam locomotive, which stands out both for its details and for its
touching personification of the train: "And they say as she passes a
fallen-down village/where the station is missing and the people are gone,/her
chime whistle wails in a loud, sobbing torment,/like the voice of a soul that
can never go home."
Many of the poems contain rhyming and
repeated phrases, like song lyrics, and a few poems, ie: "By the River in
the Winter, 1881" and "By the River in the Winter, 1885"), are dialogue
poems. I felt the strongest piece was "In the Dugout, 1917," which is
presented as a letter from a Canadian soldier to "My dearest Clara."
In this visceral poem we read "Over the top is the sickly sweet smell of
unburied/bodies. Over the top are the screams."
A fine example of the poet's range
appears in "Nice Feed o' Nice Cockles," in which the poet emulates
the working class vernacular of folks in County Durham: "You're yammerin'
o' war. Will. Now the war's/done./Our folks are all safe now at 'ome, everyone
one."
This diverse, reflective "swan
song" would be lovely to read beneath a summer sky, back "against a
sun-warmed boulder."
THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL
BOOKSTORE OR FROM WWW.SKBOOKS.COM
__________
"Frostbite"
by Wes Funk
Published by YNWP
Review by Shelley A. Leedahl
$19.95
ISBN 9-781927-756980
When Saskatoon's Wes Funk died in 2015 at
age forty-six, he was well-known and admired in the local writing community.
He'd self-published novels and a chapbook of poetry and short stories, hosted a
weekly series, "Lit Happens," on Shaw TV, and mentored beginning
writers. YNWP's posthumously released Funk's final book, Frostbite, which contains the novel of the same name, plus a
novella-"Rocket of the Starship"-in one handsome package.
Funk's set both stories in Saskatoon
and there are no shortages of landmarks to help locate the worlds in which his
protagonists-both with cool names: "Deck" from the novel; the novella
features "Dare"-roam. Deck Hall, a recently fired accountant and
recently separated forty-year-old, lives in City Park, and his estranged wife
is a nurse at Saskatoon City Hospital. The Bessborough Hotel, Midtown Plaza, Broadway
Bridge, the Senator, Amigo's Cantina and Diefenbaker Hill are locations that
help set the stage for the aptly-named "Frostbite."
As the book opens, Deck has just
finished his fourth bartending shift in a week, and he returns, wearily, to the
Star Wars memorabilia and the
companionship of his bulldog, Muffin, at his high-rise. Both the literal and
metaphorical forecasts are grim: "Cold, cold and more cold!" Funk
wrote of the prairie cold as one who knew it well. "Outside, the snowfall
was turning into an all-out blizzard. In another hour, plows and snow-blowers
would start to rumble down on the streets below. The machinery would probably
wake him up."
Deck meets the character Blue in
Kinsmen Park, a known night-time pick-up spot, and the pair form an unlikely
friendship. Deck tells Blue: "I think this is what they call a midlife
crisis, Blue. My wife booted me out, I'm unemployed again, and the other day I
nailed some chick have my age. All I need is a red convertible and I'm set."
Deck's other friend is neighbor Halo, a romance writer who lives across the hall
in their shared apartment building … and appears ready for some romance of her
own.
Clearly there was some overlapping
between fact and fiction here. Funk's author photo shows him in a Star Wars jersey, so the "Luke
Skywalker action figure," on Deck's nightstand, "Stormtroopers
standing guard on the toilet tank," and the "life-sized Yoda"
may indeed have belonged to the author, and these details help characterize the
slightly eccentric protagonist. Both Deck and Dare share a love of
well-organized comic shops.
What I valued most in these two slice-of-life
stories is the "realness" they portray: from bartending details to
the "wooden cut-outs of frolicking children" in Kinsmen park; from
Deck's rural Saskatchewan parents' never-changing home (with its dusty-rose
couch) and distinctive culture-"supper" at 5:30, news at 6:00, a
"Kaiser club"-everything bears the distinct ring of truth. Deck and
Dare, in their separate stories, face hardships and recover, as most of us do.
I got wrapped up in both of Funk's bittersweet
tales, and wish they hadn't ended, like their popular author's time here, so
quickly.
THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL
BOOKSTORE OR FROM WWW.SKBOOKS.COM
