Driving Minnie's Piano: Memoirs of a Surfing Life in Nova Scotia

by Lesley Choyce

Novelist Lesley Choyce weaves together his real-life adventures living by the sea at Lawrencetown Beach on Nova Scotia's Eastern Shore. He writes of his love for the rugged coast and tells tales of the ordinary and the extraordinary. His story includes accounts of what it's like surfing in the Canadian North Atlantic through all four seasons including the frigid depths of winter.

Also threading its way through this narrative is the story of Minnie's piano. There is music here in word and spirit along with the lessons learned from the old and the young. Driving Minnie's Piano is an eloquent personal memoir about the precious and fateful moments that change our lives. It is an exploration of what makes us tick and prompts us to be both heroes and fools in the daily enterprise of living.

224 pages, Paperback

First published September 15, 2006

About the author

Lesley Choyce is a novelist and poet living at Lawrencetown Beach, Nova Scotia. He is the author of more than 80 books for adults, teens and children. He teaches in the English Department and Transition Year Program at Dalhousie University. He is a year-round surfer and founding member of the 1990s spoken word rock band, The SurfPoets. Choyce also runs Pottersfield Press, a small literary publishing house and hosted the national TV show, Off The Page, for many years. His books have been translated into Spanish, French, German and Danish and he has been awarded the Dartmouth Book Award and the Ann Connor Brimer Award.

Lesley Choyce was born in New Jersey in 1951 and moved to Canada in 1978 and became a citizen.

His YA novels concern things like skateboarding, surfing, racism, environmental issues, organ transplants, and rock bands.

Reviews

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Author, surfer, poet, father, professor, dreamer. Lesley Choyce is many things, and he would be a great neighbour to spend time with by the ocean. In this book he reminisces and muses about various times in his life. Bringing his grandmother’s piano from New Jersey to Nova Scotia. Finding rocks along the shore. Dealing with skunks under his house. And lots of surfing near Lawrencetown. A fine book to make you feel good about life.

[Angelica zagorski · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most wholesome and beautiful books I've ever read. I stayed in this house and fell in love with Nova Scotia and surfing in Lawrencetown.

[Teena in Toronto · Rating 3 out of 5]

What attracted me to this book was the title - because Sister Sarah and I had seen surfers in Nova Scotia in May 2005. At the time, I thought it was an odd sight.

I grew up in Nova Scotia and remember how cold the Atlantic Ocean is even in the summer ... I can't imagine surfing in it in the middle of winter! But Choyce does and loves it!

I enjoyed Choyce's writing style ... laidback and down-to-earth. It's obvious he loves his home (he's originally from New Jersey), Nova Scotia, his life and nature. He loves fog and will do all he can to save another breathing being.

Blog review: http://www.teenaintoronto.com/2007/07...

[Kathy Stinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I loved about this book is how Lesley Choyce managed to put me right on a surfboard in a winter sea and totally convince me that this is an experience it's a pity to have missed out on. (I've never been on a surfboard in the sea in any season but I feel now, almost, as if I have been.) How Lesley Choyce writes about the natural world and about writing, I found quite moving, too, and at times funny, and of course as a writer and nature lover myself, I could relate well to some of it. In Driving Minnie's Piano is a mention of Lesley's novel, Cold Clear Morning, which I've already begun reading. How is it I've taken so long to get around to reading this prolific and fine writer?