The Life of Hope
 First edition | |
| Author | Paul Quarrington |
|---|---|
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Novel |
| Publisher | Doubleday Canada |
Publication date | 1985 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 288 pp |
| Preceded by | Home Game |
| Followed by | King Leary |
The Life of Hope is a novel by Paul Quarrington, published in 1985 by Doubleday Canada.[1] It is part of an unofficial trilogy with Quarrington's later novels King Leary and Logan in Overtime;[2] although none of the novels centre on the same protagonists, they all feature some background interrelationships of character and setting.[2]
The novel's central character, essentially an authorial self-insertion, is a novelist named Paul who is suffering from writer's block after the publication of his baseball-themed novel Home Game.[1] Attending a writer's retreat in the small Southern Ontario town of Hope, he learns about the town's history as a free love and nudist commune established by an expatriate American cult leader named Joseph Benton Hope,[3] which reignites his creativity as he begins to write a fictionalized account of the town's establishment.[1]
The novel was a shortlisted finalist for the Stephen Leacock Award in 1986.[4]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c "Free love and hope". The Globe and Mail, September 21, 1985.
- ^ a b "Tale of a goalie on the skids isn't Quarrington's top scorer". Edmonton Journal, March 10, 1990.
- ^ "Novel about free-love commune mixes comedy and message". Ottawa Citizen, September 21, 1985.
- ^ "Star's Slinger up for humor prize". Toronto Star, April 11, 1986.