Gentleman Death / Perpetual Motion:

Praise for Perpetual Motion“Perpetual Motion is an authentic slice of the Canadian past, and it recalls the historian’s grim saw that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” —Vancouver Sun“Like Joyce’s Dublin and Hardy’s Wessex, Mad River can now be found on the map of the human imagination.” —Maclean’s“The book is at once a comedy—a tragedy: in short, a parable evoking both truths and fallacies about human curiosity and its consequences. It contains, between its covers, a whole and unique world . . . the one from which we have sprung, to our surprise, chagrin, delight—and horror.” —Timothy Findley“A splendid slice of Canadian history turned into powerful fiction.” —Quill & Quire“Beautiful. . . . Long after you’ve finished you’ll continue to wonder about its characters and stories. And that’s the mark of success.” —Windsor Star“Gibson has undeniable poetic gifts, and remarkable feel for the place and period. The inhospitable, claustrophobic bush, and the rough, rollicking crowd scenes are well-described.” —Montreal Gazette“An authentic novel of nature and man, of the manifold tragi-heroics, ephemeral triumphs, crazy absurdities and ubiquitous ironies of the human quest. Gibson’s acuity and gusto provide a marvellous experience of the wacky and terrible—and you’re not always quite certain which is which.” —John A. Livingston Praise for Gentleman Death“Gentleman Death is a modern danse macabre. A wise and powerful chronicle of fathers and sons and brothers on a new voyage of discovery to the end of the night.” —Alberto Manguel “Graeme Gibson uses the foibles of an aging novelist to address the unaccountable fears that obsess us all sometimes in the small hours of the morning. . . . His story steams along, effortlessly propelled by fine prose, wit, and insight. . . . Delightful.” —Quill & Quire, starred review“Utterly involving. . . . An elegant, poignant novel and a repeatedly funny one.” —Financial Post“An engaging exploration of memory and death. Complex yet accessible, it is an illuminating guide through the rich territory that W.B. Yeats called ‘the rag-and-bone shop of the heart.’” —Maclean’s“A richly mature book, which made me cackle with laughter and stare into the distance with recognition.” —Dennis Lee“Gibson writes clean, hard prose and his literary sensibility seems tough and unflinching. His insights into the mellowing capacity of middle age are particularly fine.” —Winnipeg Free Press“A courageously eccentric book. . . . Delicate and admirable.” —Kingston Whig-Standard“Right from the first page you know you’re in good hands. . . . The language and sensibility of this novel are both gritty and beautiful.” —Calgary Herald“With his hardy, no-frills style, Gibson adroitly shows how real life and fiction blend, how dreams and memories merge and how each of us makes what we can out of life—and death.” —Vancouver Sun“Not every novelist dares as much and delivers as much as Graeme Gibson does in Gentleman Death. . . . Reading the novel is like taking a ride on a roller coaster through comic and tragic neighbourhoods of life.” —Canadian Forum