The Summer Between

By (author): Andrew Binks

Like his attempts to swim over the dark water of the river that lies between him and the object of his affections, twelve-year-old Dougaldo Montmigny struggles against oppression, homophobia and racism to realise his love for Tomahawk Clark, a thirteen-year-old Metis boy, during a summer destined to become a painful lesson on love and desire.Like sailors becalmed on idyllic ships, this story is a subtle revelation of the emotional turmoil that lies beneath a bewitchingly deceptive picture of perfection. The Summer Between is a metaphor for the struggles and rewards of living where origins, tempests and landscape inform our collective soul.In the spirit of Roddy Doyle’s Paddy Clark Ha Ha Ha and Edmund White’s A Boy’s Own Story, readers will be moved by the touching circumstances of this innocent narrative.

AUTHOR

Andrew Binks

Andrew Binks is a graduate of UBC’s Master of Fine Arts program in Creative Writing. His first novel, The Summer Between, was published in May 2009 by Nightwood Editions. His work has�been featured in Joyland.ca and the second chapter from his as yet unpublished novel, The Catalytic Seduction of Brian White, was published in the Harvard Square Editions anthology, Voice From the Planet. His work has been featured in anthologies and literary publications such as Galleon, Fugue, Prism International, Harrington Gay Men’s Literary Quarterly, Bent-magazine, Globe and Mail, Xtra and Xtra West among others. His poetry has appeared in Quill’s “Lust” issue and Velvet Avalanche Anthology. Two of his plays received public workshops in Vancouver and Toronto in 2010 and he was one of the contributing writers to the Festival Players of Prince Edward County “Sounding Ground” audio plays.
www.andrewbinks


Reviews

There are no lapses worth mentioning in this deftly structured and perfectly inflected story… We watch him revel in love’s beginning and absorb the knowledge of its inevitable change. What a wonderful fictional debut.-Jim Bartley, Xtra
Lost in the torrent of fat, glitzy-covered commercial books that flood your favourite bookstore are quiet, charming novels like this one from Ontario’s Andrew Binks. It’s so tautly written and so direct in its narration, it makes the average bestseller seem flabby. … The Summer Between succeeds as a low-key account of a boy testing his instincts and his upbringing in a natural but ever-more-complicated world.-Dave Williamson, Prairie Fire
The Summer Between is a poignant and introspective novel that is at times both funny and heartbreaking and that seamlessly fuses universal themes of a boy’s experiences as he embarks upon adolescence with the growing realisation that he is different against the backdrop of the local colour of rural eastern Ontario in the late 1960s. In this respect, Mr. Binks offers the reader an incredibly thoughtful, thought-provoking and bittersweet story of a boy coming of age and at the same time a distinct slice of period Canadiana. By all accounts The Summer Between is an exceptionally written novel that should not to be missed.-Indigene, Three Dollar Bill Reviews

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Excerpts & Samples ×
Like his attempts to swim over the dark water of the river that lies between him and the object of his affections, twelve-year-old Dougaldo Montmigny struggles against oppression, homophobia and racism to realise his love for Tomahawk Clark, a thirteen-year-old Metis boy, during a summer destined to become a painful lesson on love and desire.Like sailors becalmed on idyllic ships, this story is a subtle revelation of the emotional turmoil that lies beneath a bewitchingly deceptive picture of perfection. The Summer Between is a metaphor for the struggles and rewards of living where origins, tempests and landscape inform our collective soul.In the spirit of Roddy Doyle’s Paddy Clark Ha Ha Ha and Edmund White’s A Boy’s Own Story, readers will be moved by the touching circumstances of this innocent narrative.

Reader Reviews

Details

Dimensions:

200 Pages
7in * 5in * 0.25in
0.51lb

Published:

May 20, 2009

Publisher:

Nightwood Editions

ISBN:

9780889712324

Book Subjects:

FICTION / Coming of Age

Featured In:

All Books

Language:

eng

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