Short-listed for the 2002 Saskatchewan Book Awards for Best Non-Fiction and Best Book
The stories in Coming Home are as surprising as the landscape of Saskatchewan itself and as varied as its weather. Through the author’s reminiscences, we experience prairie life as it was more than sixty years ago, and as it is today.
A rich cast of characters appears — neighbours, drunks, misfits — all with a place in the story. These are the tales of a father who lived hard, failed often, and was loved much, of a mother who was an artist at heart but became a teacher and farmer’s wife through circumstance.
We visit a prairie dance hall with a floor that rests on horsehair, encounter death, baptize a child, participate in a nude massage. We view sex from a farm boy’s perspective, learn of home brew and cabbage rolls, eat breakfast with friends, and meet the author’s favourite waitress. A sense of awe and wonder emerges through encounters with the land and the unfolding of the changing seasons.
Authors
- Control Number Identifier
- CaOOCEL
- Dewey Decimal Classification Number
- 971.24/03/092
- Dewey Decimal Edition Number
- 21
- General Note
- Issued as part of the desLibris books collection
- Geographic Area Code
- n-cn-sn
- ISBN
- 1550023799 9781554881345
- LCCN
- F1071.6
- LCCN Item number
- E83 2002eb
- Modifying agency
- CaBNVSL
- Original cataloging agency
- CaOONL
- Physical Description | Extent
- 1 electronic text (212 p.)
- Published in
- Canada
- Publisher or Distributor Number
- CaOOCEL
- Rights
- Access restricted to authorized users and institutions
- System Control Number
- (CaBNVSL)thg00603365 (OCoLC)244770765 (CaOOCEL)410668
- System Details Note
- Mode of access: World Wide Web
- Transcribing agency
- CaOONL
Table of Contents
- Table of Contents 8
- Introduction 10
- At my father's table 12
- "Years ago down east ..." 16
- Significant weather 22
- Howling at the moon 26
- "15" 32
- In the beginning was the dream 38
- Landscaping 46
- The night God played at Danceland 50
- At the jazz concert 58
- They come in threes 60
- Peace be with you 66
- Why is it the good ones go first? 70
- Trick or treat 76
- A kind of hope 80
- November 84
- Relax and purr 86
- Better a happy house 92
- Of saints and other things 100
- Remembering the queen's toilet 104
- The only subject 106
- A love story 112
- Every so often I need reminding 116
- Of poppy seed and cabbage rolls 120
- A letter received 126
- August 130
- Coming home 132
- Qu'Appelle 136
- Dirt 142
- A sewer went out to sow 148
- Glory, glory how peculiar 156
- In the space between 160
- What name shall we give this child? 166
- I took some comfort there 172
- At prayer 178
- Breakfast at Peter D's 184
- From a distance 188
- Let your light so shine 190
- In gratitude 194
- A time beyond fixing 198
- A good funeral 202
- Dust to dust 208
- At the gas station 212
- Acknowledgements 214
