Rest in peace, Timothy Findley, kind, gentle, generous soul.

I never read any of his books - did look at them and was not drawn by his style - but I met him once, and heard him speak a couple of times, and his kind nature and solid integrity were inspiring. He gave a lecture entitled, "My Final Hour," when I was at Trent University in the late 1980s. The theme was the message he would give to the world, if he knew he had only an hour to live.

He spoke of reconciliation; and his personal mantra was, "Against despair."

Let us go in peace to love and serve the board.

I don't know Timothy Findley at all. Has anyone here read him? If so, any comments?

Thanks,
Wordwind

Hi WW -

I can't comment, as I haven't read any of his work, but I can give you an abbreviated list of some of his works, fwiw (not in chronological order):

The Piano Man's Daughter (novel)
Not Wanted On the Voyage (novel, then stage play)
Pilgrim (novel)
The Wars (novel, won a Governor General's Award)
The Stillborn Lover (stage play)

and more than that I cannot remember now, and my Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature is sadly out of date (I notice my edition is a 1983, so no wonder). One of his novels was also made into a movie, but not, I think, any of the above - I can't remember the title.

Let us go in peace to love and serve the board.

I heartily recommend "HeadHunter" for a somewhat disturbing journey -- it takes place in a mental institution (modelled after either the Clarke or Queen Street in Toronto).

The Piano Man's Daughter is a lovely saga, about love and growing up and life...

Not Wanted on the Voyage is a bizarre fable (the animals talk), set on Noah's Ark.

The Wars (short novel made into a small film starring Brent Carver) is set in WW1. About how, in the mad world of war, a sane act looks insane.

That's all I've read, but they were all good, and all so different. I REALLY wish I had seen last year's Stratford production of "Elizabeth Rex" (about a meeting between Queen Elizabeth and a playwright - possibly Shakespeare, but I'm not sure about that) -- any of my friends who saw it, proclaimed it the best Stratford production they'd ever seen. The ever capable Brent Carver (again! so many years later) played the syphalitic playwright/actor, and I believe Diane D'Aquila played Elizabeth. These names will only mean something to the Canadians reading, I imagine. But what talented actors they are.

Bottom line: definitely - rest in peace. I'm sorry there won't be any more coming from him.