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With The Good Body, Bill Gaston emerges as a singular new voice in fiction—an insightful chronicler of the confusions of contemporary manhood. At the novel's center in Bobby "Loose" Bonaduce, a hockey player who left his young family years ago for a professional career. With the prospect of retirement before him, Bobby is compelled to reach out to the son he abandoned, fast-talking his way into a graduate seminar at the school where Jason is an undergrad. But Bobby is also—unbeknownst to his family—struggling with an insidious disease that promises to rob him of the one thing that never let him down: his body. Bobby's attempts to navigate the no-man's-land of his failed marriage, to fashion a rough kind of bond with his son, and to learn to trust the truths of his heart in place of the waning force in his body—The Good Body weaves all these threads into a funny, never sentimental, but deeply moving story that may remind readers of the work of Richard Russo, Frederick Exley, or even the young John Updike.
About the Author:
Bill Gaston is a novelist, short-story writer, poet, and screenwriter; he was recently awarded the prestigious Canadian Literary Award for Short Fiction. Gaston lives in Victoria, British Columbia; The Good Body marks his first U.S. publication.
| Price | Condition | Delivery | Seller | Action |
| $99.99 | Digital |
| WonderClub |
Heidi Piette
reviewed The Good Body on December 29, 2012
The Good Body
Read in July, 2010
Oh my. This is such a wonderful story that I wonder where I was when the book first came out in 2000. As I said in my first entry here, I picked this book up at the library's discards sale. Now, examining the book, I see that there are no library markings and the copy I have was actually published in 2010 by House of Anansi Press. How did it get to the library sale? How lucky am I to be the one who found it there. Pure serendipity.
The Good Body reminds me very much of Paul Quarrington's *King Leary* that I read a couple of years ago and loved. Both heartbreakingly funny.
Bobby "Loose" Bonaduce is a reluctantly-retired professional (one game in the NHL) hockey player. He's been diagnosed with MS but has not allowed that diagnosis to sink into his thick skull. Bonaduce reminds me very much of Eddie Shack, entertaining and seemingly fearless both on and off the ice - lovable goofballs who will never make it to the Hockey Hall of Fame. With nothing planned for "after hockey", Bonaduce returns "home" to Fredericton, where his now remarried ex-wife and son still live. He decides he'll go back to college (in fact, cheating to get in) and get on with the college hockey team - the very team for which his son plays. He has never really played a role in his son's life, essentially abandoning him (and his wife) for hockey, yet he imagines that he will now forge a father-son relationship by virtue of being teammates with Jason. And, despite the fact that his wife has remarried (and interestingly to a great guy who will, in the end, turn out to be one of Bonaduce's best friends), he imagines he can get back the relationship he once had with her.
Tragic and heartbreaking, playful and funny, this book is one of the best I've read this year. Highly recommended.
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Add The Good Body, With The Good Body, Bill Gaston emerges as a singular new voice in fiction—an insightful chronicler of the confusions of contemporary manhood. At the novel's center in Bobby Loose Bonaduce, a hockey player who left his young family years ago for , The Good Body to the inventory that you are selling on WonderClubX
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Add The Good Body, With The Good Body, Bill Gaston emerges as a singular new voice in fiction—an insightful chronicler of the confusions of contemporary manhood. At the novel's center in Bobby Loose Bonaduce, a hockey player who left his young family years ago for , The Good Body to your collection on WonderClub |
