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The Butterfly Plague
The Butterfly Plague is Timothy Findley's second novel, first published in 1969.
It is Hollywood 1938. A great star is planning a stunning comeback, while another is bent on self-destruction. And, as dark clouds hang ominously over Europe, hordes of Monarch butterflies swarm beautifully but menacingly over Hollywood.
Against a colourful background of butterflies and beaches, Timothy Findley skillfully phases reality into nightmare, exploring mothers' relationships to their sons, women's relationships to men, beauty's relationship to evil. Blending biting humour with a compassionate perception of despair, The Butterfly Plague presents the movie world in all its splendour and decay.
It is Hollywood 1938. A great star is planning a stunning comeback, while another is bent on self-destruction. And, as dark clouds hang ominously over Europe, hordes of Monarch butterflies swarm beautifully but menacingly over Hollywood.
Against a colourful background of butterflies and beaches, Timothy Findley skillfully phases reality into nightmare, exploring mothers' relationships to their sons, women's relationships to men, beauty's relationship to evil. Blending biting humour with a compassionate perception of despair, The Butterfly Plague presents the movie world in all its splendour and decay.
374 pages, Paperback
First published April 25, 1969
11 people are currently reading
278 people want to read
About the author
Timothy Findley
57 books356 followersTimothy Irving Frederick Findley was a Canadian novelist and playwright. He was also informally known by the nickname Tiff or Tiffy, an acronym of his initials.
One of three sons, Findley was born in Toronto, Ontario, to Allan Gilmour Findley, a stockbroker, and his wife, the former Margaret Maude Bull. His paternal grandfather was president of Massey-Harris, the farm-machinery company. He was raised in the upper class Rosedale district of the city, attending boarding school at St. Andrew's College (although leaving during grade 10 for health reasons). He pursued a career in the arts, studying dance and acting, and had significant success as an actor before turning to writing. He was part of the original Stratford Festival company in the 1950s, acting alongside Alec Guinness, and appeared in the first production of Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker at the Edinburgh Festival. He also played Peter Pupkin in Sunshine Sketches, the CBC Television adaptation of Stephen Leacock's Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town.
Though Findley had declared his homosexuality as a teenager, he married actress/photographer Janet Reid in 1959, but the union lasted only three months and was dissolved by divorce or annulment two years later. Eventually he became the domestic partner of writer Bill Whitehead, whom he met in 1962. Findley and Whitehead also collaborated on several documentary projects in the 1970s, including the television miniseries The National Dream and Dieppe 1942.
Through Wilder, Findley became a close friend of actress Ruth Gordon, whose work as a screenwriter and playwright inspired Findley to consider writing as well. After Findley published his first short story in the Tamarack Review, Gordon encouraged him to pursue writing more actively, and he eventually left acting in the 1960s.
Findley's first two novels, The Last of the Crazy People (1967) and The Butterfly Plague (1969), were originally published in Britain and the United States after having been rejected by Canadian publishers. Findley's third novel, The Wars, was published to great acclaim in 1977 and went on to win the Governor General's Award for English-language fiction. It was adapted for film in 1981.
Timothy Findley received a Governor General's Award, the Canadian Authors Association Award, an ACTRA Award, the Order of Ontario, the Ontario Trillium Award, and in 1985 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada. He was a founding member and chair of the Writers' Union of Canada, and a president of the Canadian chapter of PEN International.
His writing was typical of the Southern Ontario Gothic style — Findley, in fact, first invented its name — and was heavily influenced by Jungian psychology. Mental illness, gender and sexuality were frequent recurring themes in his work. His characters often carried dark personal secrets, and were often conflicted — sometimes to the point of psychosis — by these burdens.
He publicly mentioned his homosexuality, passingly and perhaps for the first time, on a broadcast of the programme The Shulman File in the 1970s, taking flabbergasted host Morton Shulman completely by surprise.
Findley and Whitehead resided at Stone Orchard, a farm near Cannington, Ontario, and in the south of France. In 1996, Findley was honoured by the French government, who declared him a Chevalier de l'Ordre des arts et des lettres.
Findley was also the author of several dramas for television and stage. Elizabeth Rex, his most successful play, premiered at the Stratford Festival of Canada to rave reviews and won a Governor General's award. His 1993 play The Stillborn Lover was adapted by Shaftesbury Films into the television film External Affairs, which aired on CBC Television in 1999. Shadows, first performed in 2001, was his last completed work. Findley was also an active mentor to a number of young Canadian writers, including Marnie Woodrow and Elizabeth Ruth.
One of three sons, Findley was born in Toronto, Ontario, to Allan Gilmour Findley, a stockbroker, and his wife, the former Margaret Maude Bull. His paternal grandfather was president of Massey-Harris, the farm-machinery company. He was raised in the upper class Rosedale district of the city, attending boarding school at St. Andrew's College (although leaving during grade 10 for health reasons). He pursued a career in the arts, studying dance and acting, and had significant success as an actor before turning to writing. He was part of the original Stratford Festival company in the 1950s, acting alongside Alec Guinness, and appeared in the first production of Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker at the Edinburgh Festival. He also played Peter Pupkin in Sunshine Sketches, the CBC Television adaptation of Stephen Leacock's Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town.
Though Findley had declared his homosexuality as a teenager, he married actress/photographer Janet Reid in 1959, but the union lasted only three months and was dissolved by divorce or annulment two years later. Eventually he became the domestic partner of writer Bill Whitehead, whom he met in 1962. Findley and Whitehead also collaborated on several documentary projects in the 1970s, including the television miniseries The National Dream and Dieppe 1942.
Through Wilder, Findley became a close friend of actress Ruth Gordon, whose work as a screenwriter and playwright inspired Findley to consider writing as well. After Findley published his first short story in the Tamarack Review, Gordon encouraged him to pursue writing more actively, and he eventually left acting in the 1960s.
Findley's first two novels, The Last of the Crazy People (1967) and The Butterfly Plague (1969), were originally published in Britain and the United States after having been rejected by Canadian publishers. Findley's third novel, The Wars, was published to great acclaim in 1977 and went on to win the Governor General's Award for English-language fiction. It was adapted for film in 1981.
Timothy Findley received a Governor General's Award, the Canadian Authors Association Award, an ACTRA Award, the Order of Ontario, the Ontario Trillium Award, and in 1985 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada. He was a founding member and chair of the Writers' Union of Canada, and a president of the Canadian chapter of PEN International.
His writing was typical of the Southern Ontario Gothic style — Findley, in fact, first invented its name — and was heavily influenced by Jungian psychology. Mental illness, gender and sexuality were frequent recurring themes in his work. His characters often carried dark personal secrets, and were often conflicted — sometimes to the point of psychosis — by these burdens.
He publicly mentioned his homosexuality, passingly and perhaps for the first time, on a broadcast of the programme The Shulman File in the 1970s, taking flabbergasted host Morton Shulman completely by surprise.
Findley and Whitehead resided at Stone Orchard, a farm near Cannington, Ontario, and in the south of France. In 1996, Findley was honoured by the French government, who declared him a Chevalier de l'Ordre des arts et des lettres.
Findley was also the author of several dramas for television and stage. Elizabeth Rex, his most successful play, premiered at the Stratford Festival of Canada to rave reviews and won a Governor General's award. His 1993 play The Stillborn Lover was adapted by Shaftesbury Films into the television film External Affairs, which aired on CBC Television in 1999. Shadows, first performed in 2001, was his last completed work. Findley was also an active mentor to a number of young Canadian writers, including Marnie Woodrow and Elizabeth Ruth.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
September 30, 2013
This book was good, but not my favourite Findley novel, although perhaps this is the point.
It is well redeemed by its imagery and thoughtful passages that stuck with me long after finishing the novel itself, and reasonated with the complexities and ironies of life and death, love and beauty, power and humility, memory and truth. Findley uses Germany in 1938 as an example of unrecognized power, and then holds it up against Ruth's husband, and even with his own power as author within the book, all sources of power which were (or are) largely unrecognized or ignored, changing history, people, courses of events, without much opposition at the time. Ruth becomes a symbol of resistance through her eventual opposition to her husband's abuse and domination, and her role as "the dreamer" who sees or remembers things that others don't think happened.
Perhaps Findley's desire to show the power in his role as author justifies the loose ends at the end of the book, the strange change of voice and verb tense, and a feeling that the story lacks a conclusion. I had a thought after reading it too that the story ended as life might end - with not everyone's stories figured out or tied up nicely in a bow, but rather a mess of unanswered questions that we wish we could hear more of.
It is well redeemed by its imagery and thoughtful passages that stuck with me long after finishing the novel itself, and reasonated with the complexities and ironies of life and death, love and beauty, power and humility, memory and truth. Findley uses Germany in 1938 as an example of unrecognized power, and then holds it up against Ruth's husband, and even with his own power as author within the book, all sources of power which were (or are) largely unrecognized or ignored, changing history, people, courses of events, without much opposition at the time. Ruth becomes a symbol of resistance through her eventual opposition to her husband's abuse and domination, and her role as "the dreamer" who sees or remembers things that others don't think happened.
Perhaps Findley's desire to show the power in his role as author justifies the loose ends at the end of the book, the strange change of voice and verb tense, and a feeling that the story lacks a conclusion. I had a thought after reading it too that the story ended as life might end - with not everyone's stories figured out or tied up nicely in a bow, but rather a mess of unanswered questions that we wish we could hear more of.
July 10, 2018
Love this surreal, apocalyptic view of 1930s Hollywood. If you are a big fan of the golden age of the movies this book will resonate with you. It is dark, sad, philosophical, and somewhat violent--definitely an experience. Gives me a Day of the Locust/ Radiance feel. Lots of dialogue and very vivid characters.
April 30, 2016
This is one of the most unique novels I've ever read. I really don't see the point in describing it, other than to comment that the writing is brilliant, the characters are utterly compelling, and the setting is dreamlike and as threatening as the time in which it is set -- 1938, as the world careens toward an awful abyss. But the Hollywood setting turns it into a surreal juxtaposition. I don't know how else to describe it. Anyone who loves great literature should give it a try. I cannot guarantee you will love it as much as I, but that's the fun of discovery, isn't it?
May 25, 2021
I thoroughly enjoyed it, not as much as the other Findley books I read years ago (Pilgrim, The Piano Man's Daughter, Headhunter, Not Wanted on the Voyage), but I feel I have to start docking a star for casual racism. I almost want to make a shelf for it as a content warning.
There was nothing I recall outright judging Black people and I recognize drivers back in 1938-9 were often Black, and this was published in 1969. Sure, calling a Black person the N word with an O at the end was more socially acceptable then. Fifty-two years later it really doesn't hit right and feels dehumanizing and so arbitrary to the story.
As someone who feels guilty being instructed to read the N word out loud with a hard R in Huck Finn in the 90s and thinking that seemed self-flagellating and woke (before we said "woke"), I think I take an extra critical look now. I no longer accept wholesale the "well that was how people talked back then, it was a different time" rhetoric.
Not slamming on the author here. Or my teachers from decades ago. (And definitely not writing a stellar critical review of the plot, characters, etc.) I just want to try to be an advocate and post a warning that it's an enjoyable story, but it could use an edit with a 2020s eye.
There was nothing I recall outright judging Black people and I recognize drivers back in 1938-9 were often Black, and this was published in 1969. Sure, calling a Black person the N word with an O at the end was more socially acceptable then. Fifty-two years later it really doesn't hit right and feels dehumanizing and so arbitrary to the story.
As someone who feels guilty being instructed to read the N word out loud with a hard R in Huck Finn in the 90s and thinking that seemed self-flagellating and woke (before we said "woke"), I think I take an extra critical look now. I no longer accept wholesale the "well that was how people talked back then, it was a different time" rhetoric.
Not slamming on the author here. Or my teachers from decades ago. (And definitely not writing a stellar critical review of the plot, characters, etc.) I just want to try to be an advocate and post a warning that it's an enjoyable story, but it could use an edit with a 2020s eye.
June 9, 2017
The ending was so abrupt and anti-climactic, that days after finishing the novel I still couldn't make sense of it. Findley over-flexes his literary muscle here, creating numerous metaphors, foreshadows, and parallel plot lines that, though beautiful in their own own right, serve little to advance the plot and remain undeveloped with the unsatisfying ending. Plague of the Butterflies would be a great piece of discussion for a literary analysis class. Findley is a masterful writer and the novel is replete with examples of his craft. As a simple reading for personal enjoyment, however, it falls short.
August 24, 2025
I acquired this novel after reading Timothy Findley's superb novel 'The Wars' and because how could I possibly resist a novel described thus:
'It is Hollywood 1938. A great star is planning a stunning comeback, while another is bent on self-destruction. And, as dark clouds hang ominously over Europe, hordes of Monarch butterflies swarm beautifully but menacingly over Hollywood. Against a colourful backdrop of butterflies and beaches, Timothy Findley skillfully phases reality into nightmare, exploring mothers' relationships to sons, women's relationships to men, beauty's relationship to evil. Blending biting humour with brilliant perceptions of the levels of despair, The Butterfly Plague presents the movie world in all its splendour and decay.'
Surely this novel would be another 'Day of the Locusts' (Nathaniel West)?
Well 'The Butterfly Plague' is full of metaphors, in fact at times I thought there wasn't going to be a single page without a redolent metaphorical intent. The summary above of the novel exploring 'mothers' relationships to sons, women's relationships to men, beauty's relationship to evil' barely scratches the surface because also dealt with are Nazis, antisemitism, eugenics, haemophilia, homosexuality (both in reality and as metaphors) and the threat of WWII. With all this the parallels to the 'Day of the Locusts' pile up until we reach the final denouement of 'The Butterfly Plague' which takes place in a confused film premier which descends into violence - sound familiar?
Unfortunately Mr. Findley has written a novel chock full of characters, storylines and situations which are so improbable that it makes it impossible to take seriously. Haemophiliacs do not burst like water filled balloons if they get cut. How does a child, abandoned without support, reach the age of 17 as a functioning, if lonely, person? What is the point of the butterflies? they are supposed to be important but are they, except as symbols, and is there symbolism only relevant to 1938? and can we really accept that all of these disparate characters should live in beach houses adjacent to each other?
The absurdities and problems of this novel are manifold. Clearly Mr. Findley wanted to say something important, failing to say it is not a crime, this was only his second novel (see my footnote *1 below). But I read the revised 1986 edition (it was originally published in 1969) so the author had the opportunity to improve this early work. That he was willing to let this rambling ill constructed monstrosity of over blown pretentiousness appear under his name after producing the wondrous 'The Wars' is almost inexplicable. Everything that made that novel great is absent here.
As a final point of interest I would suggest that the lavish praise for the novel from the American film critic Rex Reed be viewed in the context of his notoriously erratic judgement of 'films'.particularly his habit of reviewing films he hasn't watched. Why should we trust his opinion of novels when you can't trust his opinions on films?
*1 It might surprise younger readers but there was a time publishers, like record companies, looked upon their artists as long term investments which required cultivation and support.
'It is Hollywood 1938. A great star is planning a stunning comeback, while another is bent on self-destruction. And, as dark clouds hang ominously over Europe, hordes of Monarch butterflies swarm beautifully but menacingly over Hollywood. Against a colourful backdrop of butterflies and beaches, Timothy Findley skillfully phases reality into nightmare, exploring mothers' relationships to sons, women's relationships to men, beauty's relationship to evil. Blending biting humour with brilliant perceptions of the levels of despair, The Butterfly Plague presents the movie world in all its splendour and decay.'
Surely this novel would be another 'Day of the Locusts' (Nathaniel West)?
Well 'The Butterfly Plague' is full of metaphors, in fact at times I thought there wasn't going to be a single page without a redolent metaphorical intent. The summary above of the novel exploring 'mothers' relationships to sons, women's relationships to men, beauty's relationship to evil' barely scratches the surface because also dealt with are Nazis, antisemitism, eugenics, haemophilia, homosexuality (both in reality and as metaphors) and the threat of WWII. With all this the parallels to the 'Day of the Locusts' pile up until we reach the final denouement of 'The Butterfly Plague' which takes place in a confused film premier which descends into violence - sound familiar?
Unfortunately Mr. Findley has written a novel chock full of characters, storylines and situations which are so improbable that it makes it impossible to take seriously. Haemophiliacs do not burst like water filled balloons if they get cut. How does a child, abandoned without support, reach the age of 17 as a functioning, if lonely, person? What is the point of the butterflies? they are supposed to be important but are they, except as symbols, and is there symbolism only relevant to 1938? and can we really accept that all of these disparate characters should live in beach houses adjacent to each other?
The absurdities and problems of this novel are manifold. Clearly Mr. Findley wanted to say something important, failing to say it is not a crime, this was only his second novel (see my footnote *1 below). But I read the revised 1986 edition (it was originally published in 1969) so the author had the opportunity to improve this early work. That he was willing to let this rambling ill constructed monstrosity of over blown pretentiousness appear under his name after producing the wondrous 'The Wars' is almost inexplicable. Everything that made that novel great is absent here.
As a final point of interest I would suggest that the lavish praise for the novel from the American film critic Rex Reed be viewed in the context of his notoriously erratic judgement of 'films'.particularly his habit of reviewing films he hasn't watched. Why should we trust his opinion of novels when you can't trust his opinions on films?
*1 It might surprise younger readers but there was a time publishers, like record companies, looked upon their artists as long term investments which required cultivation and support.
August 9, 2011
Definitely my least favourite Findlay book. Just didn't get it, if there was something to get.
October 21, 2011
Didn't finish.
July 21, 2021
Truly dated. Couldn't be bothered trying to engage with this meh creation. Others may succeed, my hat's off to them.
August 9, 2025
This is an unusual book, a revised edition of a novel first published in 1969. I enjoy much of this Canadian writer’s work, but this one was not among my favorites.
The story is set in the late 1930s, just before the outbreak of World War II. It focuses on Ruth Damarosch, a swimmer who won an Olympic gold medal and is now returning to Los Angeles after several years living in Germany with her now ex-husband and swimming coach Bruno, who became a Nazi. The Damarosch family includes Ruth’s father George, a former movie mogul planning a comeback, her mother Naomi, a fading star of the silent screen, now divorced and dying of cancer, and Ruth's brother Adolphus (Dolly), a gay film director. Ruth and Dolly have both inherited the gene for hemophilia, Ruth is a carrier and Dolly has the disease. Supporting characters in the story are two actresses, Myra Jacobs and Letitia Virden, and a drag queen called Octavius.
These characters struggle to make sense of their lives as a plague of monarch butterflies descends on California. In the small corner of the world known as Hollywood, the Golden Age is coming to an end and in the wider world, tensions are building in Europe as the Nazis carry out their atrocities and the outbreak of a world war simmers on the horizon. Findley creates a setting in which he juxtaposes two different worlds: the systemic destruction of the holocaust with its ugliness, racism, bigotry and horror, and the absurdities of Hollywood with its false film industry which hides terrible secrets.
Central to the theme of the novel is Naomi’s warning to her daughter: that, “the greatest fear of all, the very worst, the most destructive and the seat of all our woes and pain, is this dream, this damnable quest for perfection”. Finley draws clear parallels between Ruth’s search for spiritual perfection and the Nazi ideal of racial purity. Ruth’s quest for an ideal that does not exist is destructive to both herself and those around her. She has been severely affected by her years in Germany, her thoughts jumbled and confused. Between her delusions and hallucinations, it is difficult for the reader to determine which events actually occurred.
The narrative examines the Hollywood lifestyle in a series of separate chapters, as time is spent with each character. They parallel political developments in Europe in the years preceding the war, producing a nightmarish scene of despair as it looks ahead to the future of the human race.
The butterflies present an image and a complex metaphor of death on both a small and larger scale, portraying the threat of death we all live with.
This is not by any means an easy novel. I enjoyed reading the personal philosophies of the various characters but was not captivated by the storyline. I always wonder when I struggle with a book, if I am the one that does not have the mental chops to appreciate it, since others praise the work and judge it to be “compelling”, to have “maturity and insight” and “to be a haunting and thought-provoking exploration of the human condition”. A more comforting thought is that not every book is meant for every reader and this one was just not meant for me.
The story is set in the late 1930s, just before the outbreak of World War II. It focuses on Ruth Damarosch, a swimmer who won an Olympic gold medal and is now returning to Los Angeles after several years living in Germany with her now ex-husband and swimming coach Bruno, who became a Nazi. The Damarosch family includes Ruth’s father George, a former movie mogul planning a comeback, her mother Naomi, a fading star of the silent screen, now divorced and dying of cancer, and Ruth's brother Adolphus (Dolly), a gay film director. Ruth and Dolly have both inherited the gene for hemophilia, Ruth is a carrier and Dolly has the disease. Supporting characters in the story are two actresses, Myra Jacobs and Letitia Virden, and a drag queen called Octavius.
These characters struggle to make sense of their lives as a plague of monarch butterflies descends on California. In the small corner of the world known as Hollywood, the Golden Age is coming to an end and in the wider world, tensions are building in Europe as the Nazis carry out their atrocities and the outbreak of a world war simmers on the horizon. Findley creates a setting in which he juxtaposes two different worlds: the systemic destruction of the holocaust with its ugliness, racism, bigotry and horror, and the absurdities of Hollywood with its false film industry which hides terrible secrets.
Central to the theme of the novel is Naomi’s warning to her daughter: that, “the greatest fear of all, the very worst, the most destructive and the seat of all our woes and pain, is this dream, this damnable quest for perfection”. Finley draws clear parallels between Ruth’s search for spiritual perfection and the Nazi ideal of racial purity. Ruth’s quest for an ideal that does not exist is destructive to both herself and those around her. She has been severely affected by her years in Germany, her thoughts jumbled and confused. Between her delusions and hallucinations, it is difficult for the reader to determine which events actually occurred.
The narrative examines the Hollywood lifestyle in a series of separate chapters, as time is spent with each character. They parallel political developments in Europe in the years preceding the war, producing a nightmarish scene of despair as it looks ahead to the future of the human race.
The butterflies present an image and a complex metaphor of death on both a small and larger scale, portraying the threat of death we all live with.
This is not by any means an easy novel. I enjoyed reading the personal philosophies of the various characters but was not captivated by the storyline. I always wonder when I struggle with a book, if I am the one that does not have the mental chops to appreciate it, since others praise the work and judge it to be “compelling”, to have “maturity and insight” and “to be a haunting and thought-provoking exploration of the human condition”. A more comforting thought is that not every book is meant for every reader and this one was just not meant for me.
January 2, 2018
Timothy Findley's second novel is his first to employ the mosaic structuring that would work so well in books like "Famous Last Words" and "Headhunter." The action follows various characters in 1930s Hollywood, primarily the broken family of a once-great filmmaker who has left his silent star wife, championship swimmer daughter and gay hemophiliac son. The action moves among them and those involved with their lives while also tracing a mythical plague of butterflies afflicting Southern California, all to create a metaphor for the fruitlessness of human endeavor. Some of the passages are extremely well written, though at times the focus tends to drift (a problem with this kind of structure).
July 17, 2020
Timothy Findley books always have interesting characters as this one did. However, I thought "the plot" was thin and in fact, I'm not really sure what it was about other than it was a story about a bunch of actors and directors in the silent film era and their families and how their lives intersect and during the main portion of the novel -- 1938 and 1939, Southern California had a plague of butterflies.
August 23, 2021
While this started as a bit of a fun read it quickly became confusing with soo many different characters. The plot line was okay but I'm not 100% sure I knew what it even was???? I didn't even finish the whole thing, about 30 or so pages from the end I gave up and started a different book
December 10, 2024
I’ve never been more confused yet intrigued by a book. Such heavy, dark themes are written in an almost childish, matter of fact tone. Very interesting imagery regarding the tone of the US and Europe in the 1930s.
August 9, 2019
What a strange and amazing book.
March 27, 2020
Sprawling and wild
June 18, 2020
I struggled with this book to hold on to a through line. But in the end I felt rewarded that I had pushed through to tne conclusion.
December 16, 2022
Probably my favourite book I’ve read this year. It’s really special. Great characters, well rounded plot (no loose ends) but also high stakes mystery and suspense. Just very very very good.
August 23, 2023
Incredibly mixed bag, did not age well but had some great passages. Loses a tonne of my favour for the racism and fatphobia. Not my favourite Findley work at all.
February 9, 2024
Very weird book. A product of its time. Trippy but touching in its way. It is strange, though, how what then seemed avant-garde and transgressive seems quaint now.
Read
October 26, 2014The Butterfly Plague chronicles the year of 1938 in the lives of the members of the Damarosch family as well as their friends, enemies and neighbors.
I left this book unrated, because I don't know what to make of it. It's one of Findley's first books, and you can tell there's enormous brilliance lurking. However, it's rather uneven. Certain things don't make sense, like what seventeen year old Octavio does to support himself. And why bother writing about the Trelfords, when they really don't play much of a role in the book? I feel like ultimately, the book raises more questions about the plot than it answers.
I left this book unrated, because I don't know what to make of it. It's one of Findley's first books, and you can tell there's enormous brilliance lurking. However, it's rather uneven. Certain things don't make sense, like what seventeen year old Octavio does to support himself. And why bother writing about the Trelfords, when they really don't play much of a role in the book? I feel like ultimately, the book raises more questions about the plot than it answers.
Read
November 27, 2016Timothy Findley finished this, his second novel, in 1969, but then had the courage to go back and revise it! I say courage, because it was risky; it might not have worked in the second take. Nor surprisingly, it does work. Beautifully.
A lyrical look at Hollywood in 1938, warts and all: obsessions with looks, lying and conniving, abandoned relationships -- all against the backdrop of the impending war. The stories are skillfully interwoven and often, surprisingly, very funny. An excellent read.
A lyrical look at Hollywood in 1938, warts and all: obsessions with looks, lying and conniving, abandoned relationships -- all against the backdrop of the impending war. The stories are skillfully interwoven and often, surprisingly, very funny. An excellent read.
September 8, 2013
One of Findley's earliest novels, although this edition was re-edited/written by him years after its original publish date. A good novel, as all of Findley's are, but I found it a little slow in the early pages. This made me lose track of a few of the characters we were talking about, but eventually the story starts to motor and all the threads come together. Perhaps a little over the top in the end, but overall a good read.
February 19, 2009
This book started off very well and then quickly became boring after the shift in plot. Diappointed with the end. Wraps nothing up. Lots of amazing imagery and potential connections which are dropped and left unexplained in the conclusion.
February 28, 2011
it had some great sparks, but then it left a lot of paths hanging. There is great darkness described very well with the world of 1938; I liked the way LA met Germany of that time and how life and death and beauty were explored as themes.
April 29, 2011
To be honest, I expected more from Findley. I read the second, re-written edition and it still didn't grab me. There were some hauntingly beautiful passages, and I suppose the stories were interesting enough but I felt like a lot more could have been done with the characters.
October 18, 2009
Complex, dark, and beautifully written, but not the kind of story that grabs me by the heart, if you know what I mean.
July 5, 2011
Not my favorite Timothy Findley...
October 29, 2012
Dark and hauntingly beautiful. My first Findley book and it didn't disappoint.
January 7, 2017
Continuing my reading of Timothy Findley's books.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews