October

James Hillyer #1

by Richard B. Wright

A new novel that Richard B. Wright’s Clara Callan fans will adore, October effortlessly weaves a haunting coming-of-age story set in World War II Quebec with a contemporary portrait of a man still searching for answers in the autumn of his life. In England to see his daughter, Susan, who is gravely ill, James Hillyer, a retired professor of Victorian literature, encounters by chance a man he once knew as a boy. Gabriel Fontaine, a rich and attractive American he met one summer during the war, when he was sent on a holiday to the Gaspé, is a mercurial figure, badly crippled by polio. A s an adolescent, James was both attracted to and repelled by Gabriel’s cocksure attitude and charm. He also fell hopelessly in love with Odette, a French- Canadian girl from the village, only to find himself in competition with the careless Gabriel. Now, at this random meeting over six decades later—as he struggles with the terrible possibility that he could outlive his own daughter—James is asked by Gabriel to accompany him on a final, unthinkable journey. A t last, James begins to see that all beginnings and endings are inexorably linked. A classic Richard B. Wright novel, defined by superb storytelling, subtle, spare writing and characters who travel psychological territory as familiar—and uncharted—as our own, October is an extraordinary meditation on mortality, childhood and memory.

Genres: Fiction, Canada, Historical Fiction, Book Club, Novels, Literary Fiction, Canadian Literature

256 pages, Hardcover

First published September 20, 2007

About the author

Richard B. Wright was a Canadian novelist.

Born in Midland, Ontario, Wright attended Trent University, from which he graduated in 1970. He was the author of 13 published novels and two children's books. Many of his older novels were republished after his novel Clara Callan won three of Canada's major literary awards in 2001: the Giller Prize; the Trillium Book Award; and the Governor General's Award.

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

A tiresome little tale about a tiresome old fool, who happened to be a tiresome child. I can't seem to get away from that word: nothing else comes to mind, so numbed am I by the experience. I felt like I was being dragged through some endless hell behind annoying and disagreeable people.

Wright has an easy writing style which is seductive, initially, but which soon lulls you into a terrible stupor. I felt like the proverbial fly caught in a spider's web: here I was prone and prisoner to something which was harming me and would eventually kill me, and I couldn't get away.

Hillyer, the protagonist, re-encounters his one-time nemesis, Gabriel Fontaine, and together they re-enact their miserable little pas de deux which they choreographed for themselves from their first encounter, sixty years previous. Neither cares for the other very much, but still each is pulled into the other's orbit, in a push-pull of loathing and contempt, balanced only by their own self-repugnance.

I couldn't find a good word for these two old donkeys, to save my soul. Despite each having lived privileged and seemingly-full lives, each remains prisoner to his own pettiness, and shows that it really is possible for people to live 7 or 8 decades without learning one blessed thing.

A pointless work which left me with only one desire: to cleanse myself of their presence in my head.

It makes me wonder why such books are written.

New Title: October: A Tiresome Tale of Two Donkeys

Two stars only because Wright is such a good writer, stylistically.

[Her Royal Orangeness · Rating 2 out of 5]

James Hillyer travels from Canada to England to visit his daughter, Susan, who has been diagnosed with cancer. While there he encounters Gabriel Fontaine, a man he knew for one summer when the two men were teenagers. Gabriel is dying of cancer and asks James to accompany him to Switzerland where he has arranged to be euthanized. These events cause James to recollect that summer sixty years in the past, and to ruminate on life and relationships and death.

My reaction to this book was, quite simply, “Meh.” It was interesting enough that I read through to the end, but the story lacked depth and emotionally poignancy. The plot rambled in many directions and nothing was ever resolved. There were some threads that were just left hanging, like what happened to the girl that both James and Gabriel fell in love with that summer. And Susan’s part of the plot is glossed over and tacked on to the end in an epilogue (which made me feel a bit cheated because it seemed so important at the beginning).

Essentially, the book had an intriguing premise that fell flat due to poor execution.

[Kara Hansen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I have only read Clara Callan by Richard Wright, and I would put it as one of my favourite books of all time. So it was with some anticipation that I picked up October as my next read.
I was impressed, and overall enjoyed the story very much. We follow, in first person, James Hillyer, widower and retired English professor.
James has just learned that his daughter has been diagnosed with breast cancer. The same cancer that took his wife some twenty years before. He flies to England to visit her, and while there a chance encounter with a boyhood friend, Gabriel Fontaine, takes place. This encounter propels the rest of the story forward, and brings James to question his life and the life of his daughter.
The story goes back and forth from present day to the summer of 1944 when James first met Gabriel.
Wright is such an eloquent writer and brings such vivid detail and traits to his characters.
Wright has made his mark as an exceptional Canadian author~ I look forward to reading some of his other works.

[Debbie Robson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I now have a new favourite author – Richard B. Wright. I am drawn to different writers for different reasons. Some for the settings of their novels which I really like to read about – such as Anita Shreve for New England. Some for their character driven work and subject matter and some even for their tone of voice, Wright included. I love his “sensibility and world view” which is in tune with mine and was one of the main reasons I so enjoyed October. His depiction of the past was masterful and his characterisation strong. I also found that his command of time was excellent moving between the near past and the 1940s with a very assured touch. My only complaint is that I was disappointed by the ending although there is an explanation within the text for the way he handled it. Despite this a very enjoyable read.

[Bettie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Withdrawn from Winnipeg Library

Dedication:

For Phyllis
anf for
Chrisopher, Vicki, Sydney, Abigail
Andrew, Wendy, Gage, and Millie

with love

Opening: I went to England to see my daughter. This was in October 2004. Susan had phoned the previous week with her dire news. A Friday noon hour and I was preparing lunch in my apartment in Toronto.

[Leo Robillard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am always surprised by how much I enjoy Richard B. Wright’s work. It all seems so simple and straight-forward in the telling. October is no exception. The plot is uncomplicated; the language, unadorned. And yet the story resonates long after you put it down.

While travelling in England to visit his cancer-stricken daughter, retired professor James Hillyer chances upon an acquaintance whom he has not encountered in more than sixty years. Gabriel Fontaine, once a sixteen-year-old boy befriended by James during a summer vacation, is now aged and infirm – just as close to death’s door as his own daughter. Friendless, but for a hired nurse, Gabriel requests of James something so intimate and bizarre that it would tax even the thickest of friendships. However, as it stands, the two men were never more than acquaintances of proximity who could little more than tolerate each other’s company at times. And James finds that even now, sixty years after the fact, he is still jealous and bitter over the young woman Gabriel won from him that fateful summer.

Nonetheless, compassion carries the day, and less than forty-eight hours later, James finds himself on a flight to Switzerland in the company Gabriel and his young nurse.
Part love story, and part meditation on mortality, October shifts back and forth between the present and the past, from England and Switzerland to the summer of 1944 in the coastal village of Perce, Quebec.

The secret to Wright’s success in this novel is his economy of language, and the concision with which he is able to sketch the most believable and psychologically complex characters at that exact moment in their lives when they are grappling with humanity’s most important mysteries. In October, Wright demonstrates a keen grasp of the complicated emotions within any relationship, and he uses this understanding to weave a story that is not only believable, but, in fact, inevitable.

October is a case of all the right words in all the right places.

[Martha☀ · Rating 4 out of 5]

While coming to grips with the devastating news of his daughter's terminal cancer, James has a chance meeting with an old friend with whom he spent his fourteenth summer, some 50 years earlier. Caught off guard, James agrees to have dinner with Gabriel and then accompany Gabriel to Switzerland where he has arranged an assisted suicide.
The juxtaposition of these two deaths is gently shocking - James' daughter wanting another month, another year of her life against Gabriel who has wished for death for ages. The whole situation makes me a cheerleader for James as he remains a pillar of strength for all, no matter what slights took place in the past.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is something so easy and relaxing about reading anything by Richard B. Wright, and October fit the bill again.

[Pollyanna Darling · Rating 2 out of 5]

I gave up on Mr Shakespeare's Bastard, but tried again with October. In it's favour, Wright has created a strong narrative voice that rings true. The interactions between the characters are well-observed and the plot is interesting enough (although I found the execution of the narrator running into an old acquaintance unbelievably stilted).

I guess Wright is not for me. The writing is emotionally bereft, dry and clinical. I don't care what happens to the old fellow or any of the other characters. There is some essential element missing. It feels as if the rich world of imagination has been cast out of Wright's words, leaving them flat and empty.

[Paula Dembeck · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a coming of age story set in Quebec during World War ll and present day London. James Hillyer is a seventy-four year old retired professor of Victorian Literature who is in the midst of navigating a critical period is his life when a chance encounter outside a London hotel takes his memory back to his young teenage years and a forced vacation in a small fishing village in the Gaspé. There at the St Lawrence Hotel in Percé he met Gabriel Fontaine, an older, wealthy and handsome teenager who had polio and was confined to a wheelchair. It was also the time when James fell hopelessly in love with fifteen year old Odette Huard, a French Canadian chambermaid who worked at the hotel where Gabriel was staying with his mother.

When we meet James he is in England having flown from his home in Toronto to visit his daughter Susan. She was recently diagnosed with an aggressive from of breast cancer, the disease her mother died from more than twenty years ago. Susan, still in shock at the diagnosis is dreading the upcoming surgery, the debilitating chemo and the radiation treatments. She is not sure she wants to go down the road of taking treatments that will not cure the disease, just prolong her life for a short time. Although James and his daughter share similar temperaments, he is not sure what to say to her given the circumstances. He is a man who has difficulty expressing his emotions and is still shocked by the notion that he will probably outlive his daughter.

As he wanders London trying to regain his emotional equilibrium before returning home to Toronto, James notices a man in a wheelchair across the street outside a hotel, yelling orders at a young man trying to help him. He recognizes the man as Gabriel Fontaine, the wealthy American teenager he met in Quebec during the summer of 1944 when they became reluctant friends. James never liked Gabriel. He was arrogant and full of himself, a young man who had been dealt a cruel hand in life and hit back at the world by being cruel to others. James can tell that Gabriel is still living comfortably by the cut of his clothes, the paid attendant looking after him and the fact he is traveling and staying at the expensive Dorchester Hotel.

During that vacation long ago, James sampled a different life with Gabriel. As a teenager James was a reserved, inward looking boy who enjoyed reading Dickens. But that summer he learned to smoke, drink and experience the pleasure of eager but awkward sexual fumbling. Both boys competed for the attention of Odette who was curious about the two rich “anglais” teenagers whose families could afford private schools and vacations at expensive hotels. But James found he could hardly compete with Gabriel for Odette’s attention. Gabriel knew how to charm the ladies by flashing his good looks and exploiting their sympathy for his disability.

James found Gabriel a braggart full of tales of his sexual conquests. He wore preppy clothes and hurled smart aleck off the cuff comments at everyone. James also came to realize that Odette could never see him as her boyfriend. She was attracted to Gabriel and he was just the younger kid who hung around him, a bystander to their relationship. As Gabriel regaled James with tales of his success in seducing Odette, James became increasingly jealous. He was furious at the way Gabriel carelessly treated Odette as his play thing, completely ignoring her feelings and her future. When the two boys parted at the end of that summer, they were not on good terms. Now as James watches the man in the wheelchair on the opposite side of the road, he sees Gabriel has not changed from that time long ago. He is still furious at being in the wheelchair and James remembers the envy and malice he felt for him.

The two men meet for a drink and reminiscence about that summer sixty year ago. As they talk about former times, James finds Gabriel as self-absorbed as a man as he was as a boy, indifferent to everything and everyone around him. Gabriel tells him he is dying of pancreatic cancer and has only a few months to live. Now in severe pain and with every day a torment, he is ready to end his life. But he will do so in a dignified way, not wasting away in some hospital bed cared for by strangers. He is on his way to Zurich Switzerland where he has made arrangements to participate in the state sanctioned assisted suicide program. He asks James to come along with him all expenses paid and act as his companion. James, without thinking too much, accepts.

What follows are alternating chapters between James’ present experience in London and Zurich and the long ago summer spent in Quebec.

Wright has chosen to draw his characters with different nationalities: James is English-Canadian, Odette is French Canadian and Gabriel is American. Through these characters, Wright provides insightful commentary on the social and political complexities of living in Quebec without spelling out these tensions.

The novel is appropriately titled Autumn, a time in the seasons before the cold death of winter, a time in human lives of self-reflection, reminiscence and physical decline.

This is a lovely quiet novel that about how luck marks some and not others, about youthful mistakes, mortality and acceptance. It is also the story of the loss of two loves that had marked an ordinary man who in later years is trying to understand and appreciate his life. It says much through simple, spare and subtle prose, conveying a powerful message through his childhood memory and a chance unexpected encounter.

[Erik · Rating 3 out of 5]

An old man, with a terminally ill daughter, meets by chance with an acquaintance from his teen years who is stricken with polio and wants to end his life in Switzerland. The wheelchair-bound friend wants his boyhood pal to accompany him to Zurich. Along the way, they reminisce about a young girl that they both were in love with sixty years ago.

An intriguing premise, but poorly handled. The writing is uninspired with many subplots that lead nowhere. The terminally ill daughter in particular seems like a tacked-on afterthought. Three stars, but only because I'm feeling generous.

[Kathleen Nightingale · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to read this book since reading Nightfall. Nighfall is the sequel to October and I thought that I would really enjoy this book. It was ok. I knew the afterstory and found that I didn't enjoy the beginning story as much. I think if I had read October prior to Nighfall I probably wouldn't have been so eager to read Nighfall. For me, it just missed my really enjoying the storyline.

[Cameron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favourite. Slow moving, hard time relating to the characters.

[Debbie Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the third Richard B. Wright novel that I've read and this one is my favourite!

Although the protagonist James Hillyer is a gloomy character, (both in his youth and in his retirement years), the news of his daughter's cancer prognosis and the chance meeting of Gabriel (a childhood acquaintance) who wants to end his life, held my attention.

As Odette, his first love interest said during their first encounter:

"Why are you such a sorehead, anyway? You don't like Gabriel. You think your uncle writes silly books. And all you do in this beautiful place is stay up in that room and peek at me when I'm hanging out the family bloomers." (p. 94)

It is Wright's close attention to detail, his fearless introduction of controversial issues, and his use of flashbacks that makes this particular story so strong and believable.

This particular edition also included an 18-page appendix of ideas, interviews, and features that shared valuable insight into the author and his work.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is told in two parts, in the present day and in Quebec during World War 2. James Hillyer is in England visiting his daughter Susan who has just been diagnosed with breast cancer. He bumps into Gabriel Fontaine, a rich and attractive American who is crippled with polio, who he had befriended as a adolescent whilst on a holiday in Quebec during World War 2. Gabriel now has pancreatic cancer and asks James to accompany on what will be his final journey. James is also grappling with the possibility of his daughters death, and reliving the summer of his adolescence when he met Gabriel. Quite well written, about life and death and what happens in between.

[Trudy Roy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wright is an excellent storyteller. A very subtle story, not too exciting, but very well done. It goes back and forth between the present and the past. One topic is assisted suicide - the book was written before it was legal in Canada and Switzerland was experiencing death tourists. The past was set in rural Quebec during the war and it was a concern there might be German u- boats in the St Lawrence. At the autumn of his life James is reminiscing and really questioning why he does the things he does. A realistic character with realistic questions.

[Rebecca Bomasuit · Rating 4 out of 5]

I intended to read this book back in October (as my start date suggests), but as life would have it, I didn’t really get started on it until a few days ago. I absolutely love Richard B. Wright’s Clara Callan. It’s probably one of my favourite books that I’ve ever read, so I was excited to read more of his work. This book was great! Wright is a wonderful story teller, to the point and paints a vivid picture in the readers mind. Nightfall (the follow up to October) is in my “To Read” pile.

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was confused about the setting. I kept thinking it was the UK. Yes It seemed like it was Ontario. Or was the author trying to make Ontario look like a micro UK In the 1940’s or whenever the story takes place.

I was disappointed in the book by the time I got to page 50. I had just finished a book by Kate Quinn that I really enjoyed so it’s hard to transition to a book that is so limp and Canadian.

[Melonie Hewitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the first richard Wright book I read, and although I had trouble holding interest, I attempted to keep an open mind to the story.

The writing style was well versed, and the subject matter was profound, sad, and heart-felt, but I found it did not flow easily.

You can tell that each character had such strong emotional elements and quirks that helped the reader put themselves in their shoes.

🎃🎃🎃🇨🇦

[Marie Gallagher · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was absolutely amazing. Throughout the entire book I felt like I was on a roller coaster ride, experiencing every conceivable emotion possible. Despite that sadness, despair, hatred and disgust I felt in parts, it was so beautifully written that I couldn't help but love it. And in the end, that's the emotion I was left with; love.

[Cathey Battaglia · Rating 4 out of 5]

James , a widower, lives in Toronto. Has just heard that his daughter has cancer. He flies to England to be with her.
While in England he meets an old chum from his days near Perce where he had to stay with an uncle for the summer.
Gabriel wants James to be with him in Zurich where he will end his life.

[Lillian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was quite surprised by this book. It was very engaging and beautifully written. I know the point of the book is to leave some of the threads unanswered, but dammit, I want to know what happens to some of those characters!

[Roslyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written book about a man's contemplation of illness, disability, and demise. His description of struggle, as a young boy encountering a brash American boy-monster in a wheelchair; his encounter with the same person as an aged curmudgeon planning his own death.

[Nada Loughead · Rating 4 out of 5]

I usually like novels with more pace and this one is heavy on the narrative...that being said, it did rope me in. Although the character, both as child and elder, was too melancholic, his supporting actors kept me engaged. https://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/...

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoy this author's writing but wanted more from this novel-it did make me think -but it felt unfinished -he details some sad circumstances and history without really exploring his feelings- rather "glossed over" I feel he can do better. 3.5 stars

[Janice Salmon · Rating 2 out of 5]

A slow read. No lovable characters. I really did not relate to anyone. Do self absorbed teens all grow up to be self absorbed or do they grow. I found myself caring about the maid and the nurse. Both abused. I wonder what cam of them

[Kate McDougall Sackler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book set during two time periods, a coming of age summer and a week sixty years later. This book deals with death, cancer, and assisted suicide, but without causing the reader to cry. Sad in a thoughtful way.
2022 months of the year challenge-October

[Natalie Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clara Callan is probably my favourite book of all time, so I had to give another Richard B. Wright book a go. Wasn't my favourite thing (hit some pretty hard topics & was a little dark) but i enjoy Wright's writing style & tone of voice!

[Maybaby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent read. You can easily tell where the plot is going but it is written with such style it was a very satisfying read.

[Joan Barton · Rating 3 out of 5]

so-so