- Hardcover: 480 pages
- Publisher: William Heinemann Ltd (5 April 2007)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0434011797
- ISBN-13: 978-0434011797
- Product Dimensions: 18.2 x 13.8 x 5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 520,439 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
As he slips beneath the waves of Toronto's harbour, Professor David Hollis follows in death the man he pursued in the last months of his life, English apothecary J. G. Hallam. One hundred and fifty years earlier, Hallam had been sent by his father to open a shop in the New World, but when that business failed, he became a reluctant partner in a photography firm. In 1856, the company was offered the opportunity to work for the municipal government, and the bleak and ungainly young city took shape before Hallam's lens. But after presenting the photographs in England, Hallam's ship sank in a violent storm on Lake Ontario and the strongbox holding the photographs was lost. The shoreline of the harbour has shifted dramatically over a century and a half, and David Hollis, driven in his pursuit of this important historical record, speculates that the sunken ship containing the photographs is in the landfill where the city's new Union Arena is to be built. With almost no one on his side but his daughter's fiance, John Lewis, Hallam presents his findings, which are met with howls of derision from his colleagues. Three months later, he's dead, and Lewis joins the grieving widow, Marianne, in a furtive, unsettling quest to vindicate her husband. Installed in a hotel overlooking the excavation site where the arena is to stand, they await the moment when a piece of the past reappears that might alleviate the anguish of these civic and private vanishings. Exquisitely crafted and masterfully told, Michael Redhill's haunting new book moves seamlessly between Toronto's past and present, depicting the way time alters the contours of even the things we hold most certain. "Consolation" evokes the mysteries of love and memory, and what suffering the absence of a beloved truly means.
From the Publisher
A remarkable exploration of the power of place, home and memory, by the acclaimed author of Martin Sloane.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Consolation is a rather lovely book in many ways.
The novel intersperses two narratives - the death of David Hollis, a modern day historian in Toronto and the efforts made by his family to pick up the pieces; and the fortunes of Jem Hallam, an apothecary settling in Toronto in the 1850s and his soon to be companions, Sam Ennis, a photographer, and Claudia, a woman driven to hardship by the disappearance of her husband..
Of the two stories, the historical take is the most engrossing. It brings echoes of Kate Grenville's Secret River, showing life on the edge as a new nation starts to build infrastructure and establish itself. But unlike Grenville, Redhill concentrates on those settlers who did not have quite such a successful time. There are no future millionaires here. Redhill's pioneers have to make compromise after compromise as they balance the merits of having dignity or food. But with time, Hallam strts to just about keep his head above water with a photographic business and he and his companions seek to photograph Toronto for historical purposes
The present day narrative hinges on David's belief that a ship carrying glass photographic plates of the early Toronto sank in a lake which was landfilled, and is currently being excavated to build a new stadium. It seems that David's belief made him the subject of some ridicule in his final years of ill health. Marianne, his widow, is keeping vigil on the site, waiting to see whether David will be vindicated. Meanwhile, Marianne's daughter Brigit and Brigit's fiancé John play out various dramas that arise from their own relationships with David and Marianne.
The detailing in both narratives is superb, the characterization deep and complex, and the language flows with beauty and clarity. The interaction between the two narratives works well in the main, with the links being obvious from the outset and, therefore, not in need of the final moment of denouement. This is positive, because it gives the space for each story to develop as it will - there is nothing that feels forced about it.
But this makes it all the more frustrating to have, near the end, the veracity of the historical narrative called into question. Without giving too much away, the handling of this whole aspect of the novel is clumsy and unnecessary. If we needed a cloak of mystery then this could have been achieved without risking the tarnishing of the better part of the novel. This, for me, is enough to drop the novel into the "very good" category when, until the final section, it could have been up in the all-time greats. Nevertheless, there is enough in the novel to justify a Booker shortlisting if the judges felt so inclined.
The novel intersperses two narratives - the death of David Hollis, a modern day historian in Toronto and the efforts made by his family to pick up the pieces; and the fortunes of Jem Hallam, an apothecary settling in Toronto in the 1850s and his soon to be companions, Sam Ennis, a photographer, and Claudia, a woman driven to hardship by the disappearance of her husband..
Of the two stories, the historical take is the most engrossing. It brings echoes of Kate Grenville's Secret River, showing life on the edge as a new nation starts to build infrastructure and establish itself. But unlike Grenville, Redhill concentrates on those settlers who did not have quite such a successful time. There are no future millionaires here. Redhill's pioneers have to make compromise after compromise as they balance the merits of having dignity or food. But with time, Hallam strts to just about keep his head above water with a photographic business and he and his companions seek to photograph Toronto for historical purposes
The present day narrative hinges on David's belief that a ship carrying glass photographic plates of the early Toronto sank in a lake which was landfilled, and is currently being excavated to build a new stadium. It seems that David's belief made him the subject of some ridicule in his final years of ill health. Marianne, his widow, is keeping vigil on the site, waiting to see whether David will be vindicated. Meanwhile, Marianne's daughter Brigit and Brigit's fiancé John play out various dramas that arise from their own relationships with David and Marianne.
The detailing in both narratives is superb, the characterization deep and complex, and the language flows with beauty and clarity. The interaction between the two narratives works well in the main, with the links being obvious from the outset and, therefore, not in need of the final moment of denouement. This is positive, because it gives the space for each story to develop as it will - there is nothing that feels forced about it.
But this makes it all the more frustrating to have, near the end, the veracity of the historical narrative called into question. Without giving too much away, the handling of this whole aspect of the novel is clumsy and unnecessary. If we needed a cloak of mystery then this could have been achieved without risking the tarnishing of the better part of the novel. This, for me, is enough to drop the novel into the "very good" category when, until the final section, it could have been up in the all-time greats. Nevertheless, there is enough in the novel to justify a Booker shortlisting if the judges felt so inclined.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
While not necessarily agreeing with all that Mister Hobgoblin says, in my view he is much nearer the mark than David Cairns, who must have been going through a very grumpy patch when he read this book.
Format:Paperback
I can understand why this book was longlisted for the booker prize but also why it wasn't short listed. The book is split into two narratives - the present(ish) day and the 1800s and tells two stories which become increasingly parallel. I found some of the narrative difficult to engage in and conversations are written, I found at times almost like a script. This made it difficult for the reader to be sure that you were getting the meaning that the writer intended. Whilst I am glad to have read this I am not sure I would recommend it to a friend.
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