The Underground Book Club Review – Cigar Box Banjo
September 27, 2011
Paul Quarrington, David Gilmour, André Alexis
Cigar Box Banjo: Notes on Music and Life
by Paul Quarrington
Greystone, 2010
The Perfect Order of Things
by David Gilmour
Thomas Allen, 2011
Beauty & Sadness
by André Alexis
Anansi, 2010
Three gentlemen of Canadian literature. Three memoirs. One of them framed as a novel. One of them a celebration of life and critique of music. One of them a hybrid short story /essay collection.
One of them published posthumously.
Paul Quarrington wrote Cigar Box Banjo in the 12 months his doctors gave him after his lung cancer diagnosis. He’d already started it, but what had started as a reflection of his life-long interest (and career in) music became a reflection on the significant moments of his life and the strange space of his final year.
If you knew you had a year to live, what would you do? Quarrington makes it clear that he took his diagnosis as a gift. Of course he would have liked to live longer. Of course he was angry. But it could have been worse. He could have left with no chance to say goodbye, with no chance to do some of the things on his bucket list (such as record a song in Nashville with his childhood friend, Dan Hill).
And without that final year, we wouldn’t have this book, which is imperfect but also more than charming. It resonates with life-force, and it serves as a reminder that the well-lived life is possible even in the most trying of circumstances.
This blog began in 2008 with a report of The Writers’ Union of Canada’s AGM. Specifically, it recounted a session on the writing life led by Quarrington, Nino Ricci and Wayston Choy. Quarrington repeated some learned wisdom: “Bitterness is the writer’s black lung disease.” Quarrington said: At the end of the day, there’s the body of work. Be proud of it. Avoid careerism.
It was the only time I “met” Quarrington, and it was enough to understand that he is widely missed by friends, family and colleagues.
More at … http://thenewcanlit.blogspot.com/2011/09/paul-quarrington-david-gilmour-andre.html
