The Life and Times of Captain N.

by Douglas Glover

Douglas Glover's acclaimed novel The Life and Times of Captain N. is now available in a GLE Library edition. Originally published by McClelland & Stewart, the novel was acclaimed by the most respected critics in Canada and the US, and compelled The Toronto Star 's Philip Marchand to call Glover "one of the most important Canadian writers of his generation." Set on the Niagara frontier in the final days of the American Revolution, The Life and Times of Captain N. sees the revolutionary new world order from the standpoint of the losers. Hendrick Nellis, a Tory guerrilla, has also been a redeemer of whites abducted by Indians. His son Oskar finds himself sometimes allied with the Indians, sometimes at war with them. Hendrick kidnaps Oskar for King George's army, and Oskar, haunted by dreams and by books, is the teller of the tale. The book he intends to write is sketched out in his letters to George Washington and in the signs tattooed on his skin as mementos of his personal Indian wars. The Life and Times of Captain N. trespasses into the no-man's-land where the delirium of combat drives races, genders, languages, and ideas into a primeval frenzy. Master of the psyche's primitive depths, Douglas Glover draws the reader into a violent and erotic emotional whirlpool. Some of the incidents in The Life and Times of Captain N. are based on the lives of the real Hendrick Nellis and his family, and, says Glover, "I have no doubt their descendents and relatives on both sides of the border will find much to complain of."

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction

185 pages, Paperback

First published March 16, 1993

About the author

Douglas Glover worked in the newsrooms of daily papers in Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec, before publishing Precious in 1984. His byline later appeared in the book pages of The New York Times, The Globe and Mail, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, and The Boston Globe.

He is the author of two works of literary criticism, including The Enamoured Knight, a recent book on Don Quixote, and nine books of fiction, including 16 Categories of Desire, A Guide to Animal Behaviour, The Life and Times of Captain N., and the best-selling historical novel Elle, winner of the 2003 Governor General's Award for Fiction.

Elle was also a finalist for the Commonwealth Writers Prize and was on the short list of finalists for the 2005 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. The book is now available in a new, reader's guide edition. Born and raised in southwestern Ontario, Douglas Glover now lives near Saratoga Springs, New York.

Reviews

[Sillyhuron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Possibly the Great Canadian Gothic Novel.
Violent, experimental and unforgettable, this epic story by Douglas Glover is a fictionalized history of Hendrick (aka Robert, aka "Dutch Henry") Nelles, the New York farmer who became a Loyalist guerilla soldier during the American Revolution and burned down large parts of New York fighting with the Shawnee and Mississauga Indians. His mental and physical anger as he loses the war is contrasted with a girl kidnapped by the Mississauga who learns to accept their ways. The book strongly reminds me of Michael Ondaatje - multiple points of view and time shifts thrown at you without warning, making it a difficult and challenging read. But the overall effect is stunning. This book isn't just about Whites and Indians, or the Revolution - it's about how people see the world in different ways, with some of the most vivid imagery I've ever seen in a book. Two warnings - 1. it's not the real story of Nelles (something Glover freely admits). 2. It's casual violence is mind-boggling. Torture and death are almost seen as a form of communcation to the man whose motto is "I am against the future"...

[kp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Violent, sometimes surreal, and throbbing with sorrow and shock, this echoes Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian in showing how the forefathers of America built a country on a foundation of blood. Binaries implode under the weight of the things men do: native and white, trust and suspicion, right and wrong, and even real and fantasy make no sense in the midst of destruction.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like I should not have liked this book, but (obviously) I did. It was difficult to keep track of whose POV we were in, what with the multiple first-person plus the fact that they all suffered from headaches and dreams meant I was usually three or four pages into a section before I properly knew who was speaking. But there's something about Douglas Glover's writing that I truly enjoy -- the only reason I picked this up is because I remember adoring Elle. This one was no exception. When I reached the end, I knew that despite all its ... flaws? difficulties? whatever it was, despite them, I enjoyed the book.

[Shishir · Rating 1 out of 5]

Great language but unable to follow the story or the characters - after 30 pages gave up