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Spit Delaney's Island: Selected Stories
Spit Delaney’s Island is Vancouver Island, and its settings – the lush green forests, the pulp mills, the all-encompassing sea, and the ferries crossing to the mainland – permeate this stunning collection of short fiction. Opening and closing with stories about Spit Delaney himself, the operator of Old Number One steam locomotive in the local mill, the volume travels between the harsh world of its people’s reality and the comforts of their fantasies.
Humane and compassionate, Spit Delaney’s Island, the first collection of fiction from Jack Hodgins, established him as a writer of extraordinary imagination and dazzling humour.
Humane and compassionate, Spit Delaney’s Island, the first collection of fiction from Jack Hodgins, established him as a writer of extraordinary imagination and dazzling humour.
248 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
8 people are currently reading
77 people want to read
About the author
Jack Hodgins
35 books21 followersNovelist and short story writer Jack Hodgins lives on Vancouver Island where until recently he taught fiction writing at the University of Victoria. Raised in the small rural community of Merville in the Comox Valley, he graduated with a B.Ed from the University of British Columbia, and taught high school in Nanaimo between 1961 and 1981. He was a Visiting Professor at the University of Ottawa between 1981 and 1983. Between 1983 and 2002 he taught in the Department of Writing at the University of Victoria, and was a full professor at the time of his retiring. He occasionally conducts fiction-writing workshops, including an annual workshop in Mallorca, Spain. He and his wife Dianne, a former teacher, live in Cadboro Bay within easy visiting distance of their three adult children and their grandchildren.
Jack Hodgins's fiction has won the Governor General's Award, the President's Medal from the University of Western Ontario, the Gibson's First Novel Award, the Eaton's B.C. Book Award, the Commonwealth Literature Prize (regional), the CNIB Torgi award, the Canada-Australia Prize, the Drummer General's Award, and the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, and has twice been long-listed for the IMPAC/Dublin award. He is the 2006 recipient of the Terasen Lifetime Achievement Award "for an outstanding literary career in British Columbia" and the "Lieutenant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence."
His books include: Spit Delaney's Island (stories), The Invention of the World (novel), The Resurrection of Joseph Bourne (novel), The Barclay Family Theatre (stories), Left Behind in Squabble Bay (children's novel), The Honorary Patron (novel), Innocent Cities (novel), Over Forty in Broken Hill (travel), A Passion for Narrative (a guide to writing fiction), The Macken Charm, (novel), Broken Ground (novel), Distance (novel), and Damage Done by the Storm (stories). Short stories and articles have been published in several magazines in Canada, France, Australia, and the US.
Jack Hodgins has given readings or talks at international literary festivals and other events in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, and the US. Some of the short stories have been televised or adapted for radio and the stage. A few of the stories and novels have been translated into other languages, including Dutch, Hungarian, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Russian, Italian, Polish, and Norwegian. In 1985 a film of the story "The Concert Stages of Europe," directed by Giles Walker, was produced by Atlantis Films and the National Film Board of Canada. In 2001 the Victoria Conversatory of Music produced a commissioned opera Eyes on the Mountain by composer Christopher Donason, based upon three of Hodgins's short stories intertwined. A screenplay based upon the title character in Spit Delaney's Island has been optioned by a Vancouver film maker.
A number of scholars in Canada and Europe have published critical studies on his work. He has been the subject of a National Film Board film, Jack Hodgins' Island, and a book, Jack Hodgins and His Work, by David Jeffrey. In 1996, Oolichan Press published a collection of essays on his work, titled On Coasts of Eternity, edited by J. R. (Tim) Struthers. A book of essays on Hodgins's work, edited by Annika Hannan, has been published by Guernica Press, Toronto. His manuscripts, papers, letters and other materials are held in the literary manuscripts archives at the National Library of Canada
In 1990, as part of its 75th anniversary celebration, the University of British Columbia's Alumni Society included him amongst the "75 most distinguished graduates" to be honoured with a plaque. In June of 1995, the University of B.C. awarded him an honorary D.Litt for - according to the UBC Chronicle - bringing "renown to the university and the province as one of Canada's finest fiction writers and as an innovative stylist and distinguished academic." In the spring of 1998 he recei
Jack Hodgins's fiction has won the Governor General's Award, the President's Medal from the University of Western Ontario, the Gibson's First Novel Award, the Eaton's B.C. Book Award, the Commonwealth Literature Prize (regional), the CNIB Torgi award, the Canada-Australia Prize, the Drummer General's Award, and the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, and has twice been long-listed for the IMPAC/Dublin award. He is the 2006 recipient of the Terasen Lifetime Achievement Award "for an outstanding literary career in British Columbia" and the "Lieutenant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence."
His books include: Spit Delaney's Island (stories), The Invention of the World (novel), The Resurrection of Joseph Bourne (novel), The Barclay Family Theatre (stories), Left Behind in Squabble Bay (children's novel), The Honorary Patron (novel), Innocent Cities (novel), Over Forty in Broken Hill (travel), A Passion for Narrative (a guide to writing fiction), The Macken Charm, (novel), Broken Ground (novel), Distance (novel), and Damage Done by the Storm (stories). Short stories and articles have been published in several magazines in Canada, France, Australia, and the US.
Jack Hodgins has given readings or talks at international literary festivals and other events in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, and the US. Some of the short stories have been televised or adapted for radio and the stage. A few of the stories and novels have been translated into other languages, including Dutch, Hungarian, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Russian, Italian, Polish, and Norwegian. In 1985 a film of the story "The Concert Stages of Europe," directed by Giles Walker, was produced by Atlantis Films and the National Film Board of Canada. In 2001 the Victoria Conversatory of Music produced a commissioned opera Eyes on the Mountain by composer Christopher Donason, based upon three of Hodgins's short stories intertwined. A screenplay based upon the title character in Spit Delaney's Island has been optioned by a Vancouver film maker.
A number of scholars in Canada and Europe have published critical studies on his work. He has been the subject of a National Film Board film, Jack Hodgins' Island, and a book, Jack Hodgins and His Work, by David Jeffrey. In 1996, Oolichan Press published a collection of essays on his work, titled On Coasts of Eternity, edited by J. R. (Tim) Struthers. A book of essays on Hodgins's work, edited by Annika Hannan, has been published by Guernica Press, Toronto. His manuscripts, papers, letters and other materials are held in the literary manuscripts archives at the National Library of Canada
In 1990, as part of its 75th anniversary celebration, the University of British Columbia's Alumni Society included him amongst the "75 most distinguished graduates" to be honoured with a plaque. In June of 1995, the University of B.C. awarded him an honorary D.Litt for - according to the UBC Chronicle - bringing "renown to the university and the province as one of Canada's finest fiction writers and as an innovative stylist and distinguished academic." In the spring of 1998 he recei
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
May 19, 2012
Finally I've read a Jack Hodgins book. An acclaimed Canadian author but often overlooked and regarded as just a regional author. Reading Douglas Gibson's Stories About Storytellers reminded me that this is a gem of a Canadian author whose books I want to explore.
These stories are set on Vancouver Island, off the coast of British Columbia. The book was written over thirty years ago and it captures the island of those days. Lots has changed since then of course but it is still recognizable. You drop into the stories and the characters and settings are already fully fleshed and real. It will be interesting to read one of his latest books and see how he is writing about the island now, and how it differs from his first book.
These stories are set on Vancouver Island, off the coast of British Columbia. The book was written over thirty years ago and it captures the island of those days. Lots has changed since then of course but it is still recognizable. You drop into the stories and the characters and settings are already fully fleshed and real. It will be interesting to read one of his latest books and see how he is writing about the island now, and how it differs from his first book.
February 8, 2015
First written in 1976 by the Canadian Author Jack Hodgins, each short story takes place on Vancouver Island, BC. This was an excellent read with run-of-the-mill every day characters that come and go as if in passing. Each individual is flawed in their own way causing chaos throughout their life as well as others. These stories were richly engrossing with the use of fiction that is so timeless and yet seldom seen in newer novels. It's so refreshing to read something so outdated !
February 11, 2023
This collection of short stories is firmly rooted in life on Vancouver Island in the 1970-80s. The country is beautiful and wild, the ocean majestic, and the island is often isolating. Hodgins' characters suffer from isolation brought on themselves and imposed upon them by others. Spit Delaney, main character of the first and last stories, suffers alone because of his inordinate love for his work and the steam locomotive he runs there and his judgmental, distrustful attitude towards others. Three Women of the Country depicts women living with secrets that restrict their lives and lead to the ruin of one. By the River reveals the misery of a young wife taken by her husband to live far from others. The Trench Dwellers is story of a member of a close-knit Vancouver Island family who feels compelled to leave them for the mainland and discovers its challenges.
Hodgins' characters are humble rather than heroic. His plots surprise. He writes with vivid description at times (especially the landscapes) and sparing in detail when describing characters. In both cases, he creates a sense of mystery, of a land too majestic to really know and of people made strange by their weakness.
Hodgins' characters are humble rather than heroic. His plots surprise. He writes with vivid description at times (especially the landscapes) and sparing in detail when describing characters. In both cases, he creates a sense of mystery, of a land too majestic to really know and of people made strange by their weakness.
January 23, 2024
I am not prepared to declare Jack Hodgins Vancouver Island's answer to Steinbeck or Faulkner, but I will say that I have enjoyed each of his novels and, as someone who has done a good bit of exploring and camping on said island, I find something deeply authentic in his prose. This is his first published collection of stories that came out in 1976, and while some of the stories took a turn that seemed a bit contrived ("Three Women of the Country", "After The Season"), and at least one's weird reach greatly exceeded its grasp in my estimation ("At The Foot of the Hill, Birdie's School"), I found the remaining stories, especially the eponymous one that closes the collection and the opening story, "Separating", which is its prequel, to be both believable and revealing about what connection, isolation, sorrow, meaning (or the lack thereof) might mean against a backdrop of weather and scenery so sublimely indifferent to any human concerns that insignificance and rot are part of the daily bread.
April 10, 2020
I bought this book in 1977 when I was in college, mostly because the author was my grade 12 English teacher, during this pandemic and social isolating I decided to reread it. I love the stories because they are about the island, and they bring to life the places and people. I’m so glad I had the chance to reread this book. Now on to read some more by Jack Hodgins.
June 8, 2018
The short story Spit Delaney's Island is really great. If you like magic realism and introspection, this story is for you.
May 21, 2020
Some stories were good, others unreadable. While I do love reading about my native Vancouver Island, some of the stories were too bizarre for me to follow and quite frankly a bit of a downer.
July 17, 2024
I'm fairly certain most of these stories grew from a fever dream. Or possibly an acid trip.
October 15, 2025
Weird. Captivating. Dense. Imaginative. Old-fashioned. Surprising. Those are the adjectives that come to mind after turning the last page of this collection. I wanted to read something to bring me back home to Vancouver Island where I grew up. Set in a different decade than I grew up in, I nonetheless recognized the people and places and the stories reminded me of a game I used to play when taking the ferry over from the mainland, trying to guess at the lives of all the people around me. My young imagination never came up with anything as bizarre as Hodgins has here!
But the strangeness of every story -- a man's obsession with the sound of a train engine, a housewife's horrible secret in the attic, a solitary woman's attempts at wooing the artist who shows up on her doorstep -- they are all grounded in expertly crafted human beings whose behaviours seem both completely crazy and yet totally relatable and understandable. You want to slap them and hug them at the same time in an attempt to heal them of their loneliness, fatigue, world-weariness and inability to change. It's these insights into the paradoxical nature of humanity -- we know each other so well and don't know each other at all -- that I take away most from this book. Maybe something about the Vancouver Island landscape brings out the best and worst in people. Hodgins shows it all.
But the strangeness of every story -- a man's obsession with the sound of a train engine, a housewife's horrible secret in the attic, a solitary woman's attempts at wooing the artist who shows up on her doorstep -- they are all grounded in expertly crafted human beings whose behaviours seem both completely crazy and yet totally relatable and understandable. You want to slap them and hug them at the same time in an attempt to heal them of their loneliness, fatigue, world-weariness and inability to change. It's these insights into the paradoxical nature of humanity -- we know each other so well and don't know each other at all -- that I take away most from this book. Maybe something about the Vancouver Island landscape brings out the best and worst in people. Hodgins shows it all.
January 7, 2019
I am nearly finished reading this book or short stories. I purchased the book at Munro's Bookshop in Victoria, British Columbia on September 13, 2018. This purchase was based on my desire to read a book related to the general area where I was traveling. It feels like it fulfills the desire to learn more about culture and setting of Vancouver Island. This book explores the more remote and distant areas of Vancouver Island. Since I did not get to those area,s it leaves a goal to go in that direction on my next trip.
January 27, 2013
I liked the first few stories but found I struggled to finish the book. I would look for a novel.
Want to read
August 3, 2010NCL.2006-10-01
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews