Adventures In Solitude
What Not to Wear to a Nudist Potluck and Other Stories from Desolation Sound
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
From Captain George Vancouver to Muriel "Curve of Time" Blanchet to Jim "Spilsbury's Coast" Spilsbury, visitors to Desolation Sound have left behind a trail of books endowing the area with a romantic aura that helps to make it British Columbia's most popular marine park. In this hilarious and captivating book, CBC personality Grant Lawrence adds a whole new chapter to the saga of this storied piece of BC coastline. Young Grant's father bought a piece of land next to the park in the 1970s, just in time to encounter the gun-toting cougar lady, left-over hippies, outlaw bikers and an assortment of other characters. In those years Desolation Sound was a place where going to the neighbours' potluck meant being met with hugs from portly naked hippies and where Russell the Hermit's school of life (boating, fishing, and rock 'n' roll) was Grant's personal Enlightenment--an influence that would take him away from the coast to a life of music and journalism and eventually back again. With rock band buddies and a few cases of beer in tow, an older, cooler Grant returns to regale us with tales of "going bush," the tempting dilemma of finding an unguarded grow-op, and his awkward struggle to convince a couple of visiting kayakers that he's a legit CBC radio host while sporting a wild beard and body wounds and gesticulating with a machete. With plenty of laugh-out-loud humour and inspired reverence, Adventures in Solitude delights us with the unique history of a place and the growth of a young man amidst the magic of Desolation Sound.
Customer Reviews
Funny yet informative
I started reading my father's copy of this book while home for Christmas break. I hadn't finished it before I left, and the bookstore was all sold out at the airport. I had to fly for 9 hours without the witty company of Grant Lawrence's self deprecating humour, and it was devastating. I picked it up the minute I landed, and didn't put it down until this awesome read was completely digested. I then suggested it to all of my friends and family, who also ate it up. Grant had me at "nerd pendulum".
Awesome tribute to the Coastal BC culture
Amazing book, and proof that there are still unique and charmingly quirky characters in the inlets and coastal villages of the Pacific Northwest. Beautifully written.