Cars

It’s not where you’re going but how you get there …

Everyone’s got a good story to tell about cars: a funny fender-bender, a bad cab ride, awkward amorous acrobatics. But the stories we tell about cars tell even more about ourselves. You’ll see what we mean in Cars.

George Bowering, one of Canada’s Grand Prix writers, and Ryan Knighton, a young writer just entering the race, realized that they could tellthe stories of their lives and friendship through the automobiles that have driven them.

Now, these aren’t your ordinary boys-and-cars stories. There’s no drag racing or cruising for chicks. In fact, George likes to drive pretty slowly, and Ryan, who is now blind, doesn’t drive at all. But they take turns in the literary driver’s seat, bantering and fender-nudging so their stories curve and tangle like a BC highway, until what emerges is a poignant, hilarious conversation.

Boiling fish in the radiator, jousting with a forklift, cabbing with Doris Lessing: in one hundred panels (that’s fifty each), George and Ryan tell the tales of their friendship, families, friends and loves – all illuminated by the dashboard light. Cars is an auto biography that’ll chauffeur you through the intersection of the lives of two of Canada’s most exciting writers.

AUTHOR

George Bowering

George Bowering was born and brought up in the Okanagan Valley of Pinboy. He published his first book of poems when he was 28. Since then, he has published 100 or so books and chapbooks, won Governor General’s Awards for his poetry and fiction, was the first Parliamentary Poet Laureate of Canada, and has received both the Order of British Columbia and the Order of Canada. He now lives a few steps from where he lived as an undergraduate in Vancouver, British Columbia.

AUTHOR

Ryan Knighton

Ryan Knighton’s most recent book is ‘Cockeyed: A Memoir’ (Penguin Books, 2006). He is also the co-author of ‘Cars’ with George Bowering (Coach House, 2002). His journalism and satirical essays have appeared in such magazines as ‘Utne’ and ‘Saturday Night’, and in such newspapers as ‘The Globe and Mail’, ‘The Vancouver Sun’, and ‘The Montreal Gazette’. He is presently undertaking a documentary film with director Scott Smith ( ‘Falling Angels’) called ‘As Slow As Possible’. It involves a pipe organ and over six hundred years of hope.

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Details

Dimensions:

112 Pages
8.75in * 5.25in * .4in
170gr

Published:

October 16, 2002

Publisher:

Coach House Books

ISBN:

9781552451151

Book Subjects:

FICTION / Literary

Featured In:

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Language:

eng

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