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Stanley Park

by Timothy Taylor

3.55 of 5 stars 3.55 · rating details · 840 ratings · 83 reviews

A love story wrapped in a murder mystery.

Paperback, 432 pages

Published September 25th 2003 by Counterpoint (first published December 11th 2001)

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Mar 19, 2013 Kyle rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My book club mission was to read this Vancouver-set story in time to discuss with others on campus, and it was down to the wire - literally reading the final pages in my car (while chowing down on a locally-produced hamburger) moments before rejoining the alumni book club. Part of me was fascinated with the setting, particularly with the indigenous and immigrant cultures populating Stanley Park. The other part of me was put off by the turn-of-the-millennium references to foodies, so 2001! Being...more

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Oct 14, 2012 Erin rated it 2 of 5 stars

So Timothy Taylor’s *Stanley Park* was on the list of books recommended to me when I moved to Vancouver. Not surprising, perhaps, as the book spends a lot of time describing the city: the disparity between rich and poor, the exceptional natural beauty, the pretension of the foodie-hipsters who live here and then, in great detail, the landscape of the largest park (and biggest tourist attraction), Stanley Park.
The protagonist, Jeremy, is an idealistic young chef who owns a hip restaurant and coo...more So Timothy Taylor’s *Stanley Park* was on the list of books recommended to me when I moved to Vancouver. Not surprising, perhaps, as the book spends a lot of time describing the city: the disparity between rich and poor, the exceptional natural beauty, the pretension of the foodie-hipsters who live here and then, in great detail, the landscape of the largest park (and biggest tourist attraction), Stanley Park.
The protagonist, Jeremy, is an idealistic young chef who owns a hip restaurant and cooks (magnificent) locally sourced meals. The plot thickens as his restaurant struggles to maintain financial solvency, and thickens further as the plot detours to follow Jeremy’s father, “The Professor” who lives IN Stanley Park as part of an ethnographic study of homeless folks who live in the park AND investigating a cold case murder of two children.
I suppose there are some ways in which these two plot lines intersect: Jeremy visits his father in the woods, thematic parallels around local food and local/post-national belonging. But for this reader it felt very much like two plot lines jammed together without the necessary exposition making it clear why a murder mystery and foodie romance belong together. Indeed, even with careful reading I’m still unsure about who/how the murder was committed, why it was significant for Jeremy and what implications it had for The Professor.
So here’s how I take it:
The restaurant plot and Jeremy is great. The writing is decent, the descriptions of food and cooking are great and the questions around independent/small business v conglomerate are interesting and worth exploring.
The Stanley Park plot is terrible. The descriptions try so hard to be literary and poetic that it’s entirely unclear to this reader what is happening, to whom and why. More importantly, I still don’t know why I should care about this plot line. What does it have to do with the local food? with food security?
Hmm. I’ve been telling folks this is a great read (and it did help me past my “Let The Great World Spin” hangover) but in writing this I’m not sure its great so much as the one strand of the novel is great. Can part of a novel be great and the other part terrible and the sum be something like average? I don’t think so. I think it’s still worth reading for the gorgeous food bits, just don’t be surprised if you’re reading and wondering what the hell this Czech guy is doing living on Lion’s Gate Bridge. And maybe also don’t be surprised if you’re a little annoyed with the editor of this book who failed Taylor in not telling him that you can’t just jam two plot flavours together and hope for a satisfying read. (less)

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Sep 13, 2012 Robin Riopelle rated it 4 of 5 stars

Rewinding the clock a little, I dove into Timothy Taylor’s Stanley Park after having read his brilliant and compelling (and later) Blue Light Project. Written in 2001, but set a few years earlier, Stanley Park is much more grounded in reality – until it isn’t.

Set in post-Expo, pre-Olympics Vancouver – a time when I also lived in the city and was deeply involved in civic history projects – the novel circles around notions of rootedness. Following the string of connectedness back to whatever it’s...more Rewinding the clock a little, I dove into Timothy Taylor’s Stanley Park after having read his brilliant and compelling (and later) Blue Light Project. Written in 2001, but set a few years earlier, Stanley Park is much more grounded in reality – until it isn’t.

Set in post-Expo, pre-Olympics Vancouver – a time when I also lived in the city and was deeply involved in civic history projects – the novel circles around notions of rootedness. Following the string of connectedness back to whatever it’s tied to is financially-challenged Jeremy Papier, a red-hot up and coming chef with a string of maxed out credit cards and an unacknowledged crush on his culinary partner. Also following what turns out to be a not-so-different string is Jeremy’s grieving and estranged father, The Professor, a self-declared immersive-anthropologist ostensibly studying the homeless in Stanley Park, but perhaps closer to both home and homelessness than his son thinks.

For those unfamiliar with Vancouver, Stanley Park is the green heart of the city, less accessible and wilder than NYC’s Central Park, but alike in its stubbornness to be commoditized at the break-neck speed of the rest of one of North America’s most expensive cities. Established in 1888, it’s completely surrounded by water, except for a slender isthmus; it is connected to the city’s north shore by the spectacular (if crumbling) Lion’s Gate Bridge (if you were ever wondering where Lion’s Gate Films got its name from). The park is a piece of land worth a gazillion dollars and it’s actually pretty easy to get lost if you stray from the paths. The park, with its legends and its history, is profoundly “local”, a theme that comes up again and again in Tayor’s story of passion, regret, and – food.

Oh, yes, there’s food. Fellow foodies, keep in mind that this story is set well before the farm-to-table movement was in full swing. Jeremy’s devotion to what is seasonal and local – and not disguising it with painful fusion-for-fusion’s-sake acrobatics – was crisp at the time this novel is set, and possibly at the time it was written.

I savoured the ecstatic descriptions of walk-in freezers. Indulgent discussion of knife work, bordering on fetishism? Oh, yes, please. And rather like The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (remember that movie?), the chef ends up with the last laugh, in ways that are better described than imbibed.

The “Babes in the Woods” story of Stanley Park is (mostly) true. What many people don’t know is that the skeletal remains of two children found in the park in the 1950s are only two of the many bodies that turn up in the park every so often. It’s that kind of park, and Taylor deftly weaves their story with the Professor’s deep reconnaissance mission to understand a cast of intriguing (and mostly male) homeless people.

In the end, food and home – and the mystery of the murdered children – all come together in one unforgettable evening.

Is Taylor’s vision of homelessness and the top chef restaurant world an exercise in gritty realism? Hell, no. But it doesn’t really matter. Although this is definitely a page-turner, some of Taylor’s phrases stopped me in their tracks with their beauty and their sharp observation. Jeremy’s emotional state as he fast forwards into ruinous debt is described as a “chain of open links, waiting for some critical slackening of tension to disassociate themselves one from another…” With writing like this, the occasional lapses are more noticeable, perhaps. Dante Beale, the grain-fed epitome of corporate greed, is too on-the-nose. He owns a coffee chain called Inferno. He plays chess. And he’s called Dante, for pete’s sake. Likewise, some lesser characters veer into caricature, but Taylor’s right on the money for the important bits.

It’s not really a ‘slice of life in Vancouver circa 1996’; it’s a fabulist’s tale of youthful folly, understanding fathers and father figures, and what back to the land really means.
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Jun 30, 2012 Anita rated it 3 of 5 stars

Stanley Park by Timothy Taylor centres on a Vancouver born, French trained chef Jeremy Papier as he strives to stick to his culinary principals whilst his restaurant plummets into economic crisis. He has been running his restaurant with some success, serving sophisticated, hearty meals made with locally sourced sustainable ingredients and he is happy doing so., however his financial problems however are amassing thick and fast due to the immense price discrepancy between fresh, local, seasonal f...more Stanley Park by Timothy Taylor centres on a Vancouver born, French trained chef Jeremy Papier as he strives to stick to his culinary principals whilst his restaurant plummets into economic crisis. He has been running his restaurant with some success, serving sophisticated, hearty meals made with locally sourced sustainable ingredients and he is happy doing so., however his financial problems however are amassing thick and fast due to the immense price discrepancy between fresh, local, seasonal fare and that which he can get - cut price, year round, sold in bulk but farmed in Korea. Farmed in fact anywhere in the world, and this notion of ‘culinary homelessness’ is one that is raised forcefully throughout the novel.
Jeremy’s financial kite is soaring strong and high but – despite his frenetic juggling of an impressive array of credit cards, its all about to come crashing down, unbeknownst to his culinary partner and best friend Jules.
Add to these worries a neighbour and some times friend Dante who could solve Jeremy’s money problems without blinking but who rarely discloses the full price of an arrangement until its too late. Also Jeremy’s estranged father who has taken off to live amongst the homeless of Vancouver’s Stanley Park in order to write his new book researched through this ‘immersive psychology’.
As Jeremy deals with debts and menus and Dante’s increasing strangle hold on his business, his father becomes more and more prominent in his life. A man Jeremy has intentionally turned his back on and neglected over the years is now appearing in thought and person at many strange and inopportune moments. After fighting it for as long as he can, without really knowing why, Jeremy finally allows his father in and follows him into Stanley park, a place of lost and wandering souls, a place of myth and legend, a place where thousands of people homeless for one reason or many, unseen by the throngs of people who pass through during the day, are making their homes and their lives, struggling to stay warm and fed day after day.
Jeremy becomes more and more involved in their lives and their struggles, hearing their tales, learning their pasts, understanding his father’s involvement and fixation with these people, he begins feeding them. After he closes his restaurant he goes to the park and feeds the homeless, cooking up the things that they bring, turning their scavenged and poached offerings into wholesome, sociable cuisine. His ideals and perspectives change as he does this and he begins formulating a plan for his new restaurants ‘opening night’, a plan to give the critics a menu that they’ll never forget.
A intelligent, powerful and thought provoking novel, Stanley park is also exceptionally easy to read with engaging prose and a page turning plot.
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Apr 13, 2011 Bookguide rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Poppy61

I first picked this up from the shelf because my father's name was Stanley. Then I realised that it is set in Canada, and I have visited Stanley Park in Vancouver, where they have a great display of native American totem poles. And where we sat and watched a cricket match, which bizarrely I've never done in England (I'm English, by the way). What's more, our hire car broke down in Stanley Park on the first day of our holiday, and we had to wait there until a replacement was brought to us. Ah, me...more I first picked this up from the shelf because my father's name was Stanley. Then I realised that it is set in Canada, and I have visited Stanley Park in Vancouver, where they have a great display of native American totem poles. And where we sat and watched a cricket match, which bizarrely I've never done in England (I'm English, by the way). What's more, our hire car broke down in Stanley Park on the first day of our holiday, and we had to wait there until a replacement was brought to us. Ah, memories! The book also reminded me that there are raccoons in the park. It was the first time I'd ever seen them, and I must have photos somewhere. The fact that I've been to Stanley Park added to the story, as I could visualise the setting, although I hadn't realised the forest was so huge. I was also perplexed by the statement that grey squirrels had been imported from Britain and were somehow threatening the native red squirrel, as in Britain the native red squirrel has been almost eliminated by the introduction of the more aggressive American grey squirrels!

This book wasn't at all what I'd expected. Based on the cover photo of a full knife rack with one knife coloured red, and the author's note at the beginning which mentions the discovery of the remains of two children in Stanley Park in 1953, the "Babes in the Wood", I assumed that the book was a thriller. In fact, it was something much better.
The descriptions of the food were mouthwatering, and Jeremy's dedication to locally-sourced food admirable. Unfortunately he was forced to abandon his principles and bow to the fanciful flights of fantasy of his rich financier, who recognised his talent but wanted to impose a concept based on image alone: the colour of the food (gold and purple) and a menu designed to impress by name-dropping, rather than by providing food which would make people want to return because of the quality. I enjoyed the descriptions of the cooking process, and noted that Jeremy's cooperative style was more reminiscent of Jamie Oliver than the aggressive alpha-male style of Gordon Ramsey or Lenny Henny's fictional 'Chef'. A style not at all suited to Dante Beale's aggressive market-response-led restaurant ideas, yuppies seeking "wired, post-national, with vibrant flavours"; "over sixty we're not much worried about - they don't like France or Italy or dishes that are too crunchy."

Another theme in the book is the research which Jeremy's father is doing amongst the people living rough in Stanley Park. Ironically, contrary to ingrained expectations, it is not the park-dwellers who are alcoholics and drug-takers, eating unhealthily and neglecting their children, but the high-earning professionals. Here it is worth mentioning Jeremy's godson Trout, a slightly other-worldly, perhaps autistic child, who perceptively cuts through the sophisticated surface image to reach the truths hidden within. Likewise, in the park, Jeremy's father's friends are true to themselves, more so than those in the false world of business.

There are a couple of strange and unexplained occurrences in the book, so that I am left wondering if I missed something or misunderstood. On the whole, it was well worth reading, with well-rounded characters and a brilliant payback, and I'm hoping to pass it on to somebody whose unusual first name is mentioned in the book, and who I believe will appreciate the foodie aspect, too.

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Sep 26, 2009 Kate rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: foodwriting, shunned-by-library-patrons, books-about-work

I'm not going to finish this. I don't care about the protagonist, the oh-so-passionate chef who wants to serve "high end rubber-boot food." (Seems like that describes about about half the chef population, but this is painted as some sort of laudable, novel goal.) I don't care about the secondary characters, especially his father, who lives in a public park as part of an anthropology project on the homeless and is enigmatically remote and weird. Pages and pages of description about how the author...more

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Aug 28, 2011 Brian rated it 4 of 5 stars

I was in a used book store in Vancouver and asked the clerk for a great novel about the city. He suggested Stanley Park, a bestseller and finalist for the Giller Prize, which I’m guessing is something like the Pulitzer. There are really two stories intertwined here. The first is about Jeremy Papier, the locavore chef who can’t seem to protect his culinary art without selling out to a coffee-shop magnate (named Dante no less). Everything chef-related in this book is a real thrill – from Jeremy’s...more

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Apr 10, 2011 Amanda Leduc rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-i-ve-read-in-2011, favourites

On the surface, Stanley Park is a simple, albeit fiendishly entertaining, story. Chef Jeremy Papier runs an up-and-coming restaurant in Vancouver -- a restaurant that's devoted to local food, and local atmosphere. The 100 Mile Diet shoved into a little place in Crosstown. He's head chef, and his good friend (and potential romantic interest) Jules Capelli is his sous chef, pastry chef, and restaurant partner in crime. Life is hectic (what life isn't, when restaurants are involved), and there's a...more On the surface, Stanley Park is a simple, albeit fiendishly entertaining, story. Chef Jeremy Papier runs an up-and-coming restaurant in Vancouver -- a restaurant that's devoted to local food, and local atmosphere. The 100 Mile Diet shoved into a little place in Crosstown. He's head chef, and his good friend (and potential romantic interest) Jules Capelli is his sous chef, pastry chef, and restaurant partner in crime. Life is hectic (what life isn't, when restaurants are involved), and there's a niggling disquiet introduced in the first interactions that Jeremy has with his father -- an anthropologist in the midst of a submersive study on the homeless in Vancouver's Stanley Park -- but when the reader is first introduced to all involved, life seems on the whole to be good.

Naturally, of course, things are not so. Jeremy has money issues. His restaurant, though popular and decidedly hip, is losing money. Jeremy is, in fact, in deep shit -- shit that becomes all the more apparent when his scrambling debt finally comes to the attention of his original restaurant investor, Dante Beale.

Dante is a business man and neighbour of Jeremy's father, and he runs a hugely successful chain of coffee houses in Vancouver called Inferno. (Some articles on the novel have highlighted the obviousness of these monikers, but as a gal who has done some obvious character naming in her time, I found them hilariously fun.) Dante has also been wanting to get his hands on Jeremy's restaurant for some time, much to the chagrin of the lovely sous-chef, and this all comes to a head about halfway through the book, when Jeremy must finally go to Dante and admit his money failures.

Running parallel to the restaurant woe is another storyline involving Jeremy and his father, the Professor. As mentioned, the Professor is doing a study on the homeless people who live in Stanley Park. While initially somewhat estranged, Jeremy's own fascination with local food and what it means inevitably draws him closer to his father's world. The closeness that develops between the two men over the course of the novel was, I felt, a beautiful thing to watch. Guarded at first, but unfolding slowly, like the trees themselves ...

Anyway. Big Bad Dante steps in, finally, and takes the restaurant over. Guts the place. Hires Jeremy's new paramour (a beguiling -- and yet oddly repulsive, in a you're-too-charming-to-be-true kind of way -- girl named Benny) as the new decorator, and proceeds to turn the restaurant into precisely the kind of uber-hip, urban fusion cuisine juggernaut that Jeremy's spent his whole career fighting quietly against.

What a bastard! (Can you say bastard in a book review? Oh well.) Oooh, the transformation of the restaurant got me so mad. But the descriptions of the food were delicious, and my faith in Jeremy Papier strong, and so I continued ...

I don't think I can say much more without giving away the plot, but the resolution of this novel basically staggered me with its brilliant execution. Reading the latter half of this novel was like watching one continuous panned shot of a sophisticated, culinary art film. (I doubt that "culinary art" is a film genre, but it should be. Fact.) Bright flashing colours and subterfuge and good-looking people all over the place. Again -- fiendishly entertaining. So, so good.

But what lifted this book above mere entertainment for me, and put it into that realm of the Seleckys and the Atwoods, was how Taylor managed to combine his restaurant narrative and his anthropological narrative in such a fantastic conclusion at the end. So good. This is a novel of ideas that somehow also manages to be a novel of concrete textures and people and colours. It's fun, but also hugely important, and while this might sound simple, too often these are hard things to achieve all at the same time. (This is where my you'll never be this good ever ever voice kicks in.)

Somehow, though, Taylor does it. And he does it all in such a fun, funny, entertaining way, with language that's straight and clean while still managing to be breathtaking and innovative all at the same time.

So this is a book that's floored me, basically. This is the kind of novel -- not least of all because it's about food -- that makes me want to be a writer, to be a person who can use her words well, and build a world that makes the reader see their own world differently, even after the book's conclusion. Of course it's not perfect (though I'm pretty darn close to thinking of it so) -- the build up to Jeremy's financial meltdown lasts maybe a little longer than it should, and Benny shifts out of Jeremy's life rather quickly in the last third of the book -- but overall these are tiny, tiny niggles. I loved every inch of this novel. I wish there was a sequel. I'm going to read and re-read this and savour the language every time.(less)

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Sep 25, 2011 Toni added it

It was about food and living on the land...in an urban park. What's not to love? I did find the writing a bit rough in places, and I would have preferred more about life in the park over life at the restaurant, but that's probably a personal taste. When I was a kid, I used to fantasize about how I would live in small pockets of green amid the bustle of the city. I'd map out what I'd eat, how I'd sleep, how I'd hide. OK, I was a weird and probably not very happy kid. But this book caters to that...more

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Mar 07, 2013 Melanie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Apart from making my mouth water, I found this book to be quite engaging from a geography point of view as well. It may help that I've spent a lot of time in Vancouver. I loved Jeremy's non-conformist-forced-to-conform-so-I-get-to-be-rebellious-in-my-own-unique-way spirit as a chef as well and his dedication to cooking as an art form.

My complaint with the book however, is in relation to how the Stanley Park side of the story plays out. Someone else mentioned that the two story lines seem quite...more

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Sep 02, 2012 Julie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was fairly unique to what I usually read. It was alright in the end, but how the book came together with the two story lines was the main reason for it being a just okay read rather than a great read. The book doesn't have a lot going on in it, but it does take a good hard look at the characters focusing on who they are and what drives them. Many characters are rather eccentric but I found I couldn't connect to them. They had some interesting thoughts and some of their actions were rat...more

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Feb 05, 2013 Chantal rated it 1 of 5 stars

I have not finished this book and I do not intend to either (page 265 is all I could struggle to). I did not care for the in-depth descriptions of ostentatious food and I found the whole narraitve very slow. The only parts I found interesting were to do with Jeremy's father and the 'Babes in the Wood' incident, which is discussed very little from what I've read. I found the characters, on the whole, unlikeable and somewhat underdeveloped.
I also could not sympathise with any of Jeremy's troubles...more

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Dec 26, 2012 Guy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Chef and struggling restaurant owner Jeremy Papier has a dream. He wants his restaurant to bring the hyper-industrialized, homogenized, world back to its roots: food, specifically, that which is grown locally.

And so he gets his dream when, through struggling to find his own family's roots, he begins to cook the wildlife of Vancouver's Stanley Park: the squirrels, starlings, ducks, geese, raccoons. His first park repast was with his father. They dined on the duck that his father had caught. Event...more Chef and struggling restaurant owner Jeremy Papier has a dream. He wants his restaurant to bring the hyper-industrialized, homogenized, world back to its roots: food, specifically, that which is grown locally.

And so he gets his dream when, through struggling to find his own family's roots, he begins to cook the wildlife of Vancouver's Stanley Park: the squirrels, starlings, ducks, geese, raccoons. His first park repast was with his father. They dined on the duck that his father had caught. Eventually Jeremy began to feed a collective of the homeless living in the park. His father, 'The Professor,' is a social anthropologist who, in doing this project, his last, has gone back to finish where he began his career. He is exploring his own and the city's roots by choosing to live amongst the homeless who reside beneath the forest's canopy, hidden from the city's eyes that are too busy to see them. He is exploring what it is that are the ties, the roots, that bind people to homelessness. During the course of the book, this sub-theme comments that, in some ways, these people are more closely connected to their environment, more alive if you will, than the grasping many who have big houses, but spend most of their time feeling alienated and disconnected from their lives.

But the protagonist is Jeremy, and his dream falls apart when his self-destructive impulse purchase of a $3000 knife cuts the final threads of his credit card kiting. With creditors hounding him, he turns to the international coffee czar to save him and his dream. But a czar doesn't live the dreams of others, and in an elegance only a wealthy thug can envisage, he steals Jeremy's dream and twists it into an ungrounded international smorgasbord.

What would any creative and daring Chef do to see his dream survive beneath the tyranny of the condescension of wealth?

And so Taylor writes a complex and elegant fugue that explores the roots of family and food. This is an engaging delightful and complex read. I highly recommend it.

I have blogged this, with an extended citation and a triptych of synchronicity-petites @ egajdbooks.
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Feb 04, 2013 Victoria rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: canadian-metropolis-reading, university-reading

I really thoroughly enjoyed Stanley Park. If like me, you're a foodie, you will love this book which chronicles a period of Chef Jeremy Papier's career. He has a rather eccentric father, a professor who chooses to live in Stanley Park (a huge park in Vancouver) to research his area better.
I found Jeremy to be a very likeable character - he's very human. I mean that in a way that he makes mistakes and he's not so great with money (something I can relate to), yet he's very passionate about cookin...more

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May 08, 2012 Glen rated it 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book a lot, but then I'm a foodie myself. We had some good dining experiences in Vancouver when we visited several years ago (time to go back!), though none quite as...er...local as the penultimate one depicted in this novel. Some good characters drawn, such as Dante Beale and the Professor, but I was left feeling that the motif of the two murdered children was forced and left dramatically unresolved, not that I was expecting the murder mystery to be explained further or anything...more

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Nov 01, 2009 Kate rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-own

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Aug 16, 2012 Danielle rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Any mindful eater that is interested in local and sustainable fare

Recommended to Danielle by: Kaeley Wiseman

I really, really liked this story; well-written, entertaining and artfully layered. In the right forum, this book would produce a fruitful discussion on themes and symbolism, I’d love to pick it apart over a bottle of vino.

In the meantime, I can only speak of my own superficial analysis and key take-aways. And for me, Stanley Park is a journey through the restaurant landscape, navigating the influences of two polarizing pillars. The dichotomy of Blood and Crips is the single most important them...more

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Mar 12, 2009 David rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

When about half of the way through this book I would have given it a 3-star rating but an interesting (if somewhat predictable) ending bumped my score up a bit. The novel, a Canada Reads selection in 2007, is about an innovative young Vancouver chef's financial struggles, his eccentric anthropologist father - currently living in the city's famous Stanley Park investigating the Vancouver homeless and a mysterious murder from the 50's - and a number of other interesting characters. Other reviewers...more

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Jun 07, 2011 Charlotte rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Charlotte by: Miriam Martin

It took me awhile to get into this one but then I really enjoyed it! Very different writing style. Lots of layers and character development. Surprising. Worth reading.

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Apr 11, 2012 Donovan Richards rated it 4 of 5 stars

Cascadia

Although I am an American, I consider myself, equally (if not more so), a Cascadian. Culturally speaking, I feel a closer affinity to British Columbians than Americans residing on the Eastern Seaboard. Even if my national allegiance lies with a New Yorker, my culinary tradition, weather, and regional tongue align with a Vancouverite.

Given the regional connections between Seattle and Vancouver, I thoroughly enjoyed Timothy Taylor’s novel, Stanley Park.

Culinary Crips versus Bloods

Set in...more

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Apr 06, 2010 Mila rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Mar 07, 2012 Greta Roussos rated it 3 of 5 stars

Due to our recent weekend in Canada, I came home with several new books by Canadian authors or stories set in Canada, including this one: Stanley Park. If we hadn't had such a great time visiting Vancouver and Stanley Park, then I might not have enjoyed this story as much as I did. There just wasn't enough excitement, mystery, romance or adventure for my taste, and the food descriptions sometimes made me feel ill. Oh well, check it out, if you love Vancouver, BC.

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May 12, 2013 Gail rated it 5 of 5 stars

A stunningly good read! Set in one of my favorite cities, Vancouver, we follow Jeremy, the main character, through intense experiences in his career as a chef: training in France, running his own little bistro, juggling finances [incredibly badly], then running with the big boys who provide high end financial backing. Surprising twists of plot and a fascinating look at both homelessness and the nouveau food industry - including guerilla eateries.

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Jun 24, 2010 Val rated it 2 of 5 stars

This novel seemed so promising with a link to the mystery of two young children murdered in Vancouver's Stanley Park in the 1950s. The story focusses around a chef, Jeremy, and his father, an Anthropologist doing his fieldwork by living among the habitants of Stanley Park. The Professor's main drive is to figure out the mystery of the murders, but this fascinating story gets pushed back when the author spends too much time detailing restaurant menus.

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May 09, 2010 Sally rated it 4 of 5 stars

It took me a while to like this book, but by the time I got to the "last/first meal" I could hardly put it down! The descriptions of food and menus were great, so were the descriptions of what it is like to work in a busy, important kitchen. The stuff about cooking wildlife was creepy, but really anyone who eats meat has to face up to the fact that we eat animals, wild or not. I recommend this book to anyone who thinks about what they eat and why.

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Oct 27, 2011 A.J. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Loved the foodie, living-from-the-land theme of this novel and its overall message of the importance of working out what it is that is really important in a person's life. At one point in the first half of the book I got slightly frustrated with Jeremy's financial woes and thought it wasn't entirely convincing that he wouldn't have talked to Jules and to Olli about them sooner than he did. But once that part was past, I really enjoyed the second half of the book.

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Dec 14, 2011 Craig rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, can-lit

The audio version is put together very well with ambient noise that enhances but never distracts. It was like listening to an old time radio play.
Stanley Park is a funny story that juxtaposes fine dining and homeless dinner. A chef that tried a bistro his way before having to toe the corporate line and his resulting frustrations. Helping him back to what is important are his sous chef (love interest), and his voluntarily homeless father.

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May 15, 2010 Miriam Martin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I can't believe I forgot to add this book when I first signed up for goodreads. I think this is probably my office favourite book ever. It's masterfully written, invovled amazing characters, and deals with some of my favourite subjects: cooking, Vancouver, psychology, homelessness & the downtowneastside, counter-culture, Starbucks-bashing ... and it's even a bit of a mystery. Love love love it!

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Aug 07, 2012 Peggy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: canadian, fiction

The story of a young Vancouver chef who tries to be true to his philosophy of cooking and serving food. Unfortunately, such things as commerce and personalities become obstacles. I found the culinary aspects of the novel fascinating, but was less involved with the other plots: his anthropologist father living in Stanley Park and the murder of two young children in the park many years before.

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Jan 28, 2012 Steve Goodyear rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Jeremy, our protagonist, takes us inside the world of a restaurant owner where, by letting us experience his struggles with him and see the daily grind of keeping a place like the Monkey's Paw open, we see how draining it is for a food artist to stay true to their art with constant pressures coming in against them every where they turn. As if that wasn't enough, Jeremy stresses about his strained relationship with his father, an anthropology professor who is taking his sabbatical to live among...more

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About Timothy Taylor

Timothy Taylor is a Canadian novelist and short story writer. Born in Venezuela, he was raised in West Vancouver, British Columbia and Edmonton, Alberta. Taylor attended the University of Alberta and Queen's University, and lived for some years in Toronto, Ontario. In 1987 he returned to British Columbia. Taylor currently resides in Vancouver.

Taylor's short story "Doves of Townsend" won the Journe...more

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Books by Timothy Taylor

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Quotes from Stanley Park

“Natural for you, perfectly natural," the Professor whispered. "Natural to refuse the key that is given. To be blind in the darkness of knowing. To be filled with a dark light that we must shine on the people around us. A light that makes us weep and pull down our own houses.” — 1 person liked it

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