I read this book and every fishing trip I have ever been on came rushing back. As I read I could feel the weight of the fly vest on my shoulders and smell the campfire. No one other than a down home salmon fisherman could have written this book. While he fished the Mirimichi I fished the Restigouche and once had the privilidge of meeting his Uncle, Richard Adams, on the Matepedia.
I know the beauty of the land and the feeling of a line tighten under a heavy fish, Everything is so real, from the sound of the water and the singing of a reel being stripped of its line down to the irritating buzzing of the bugs. He speaks of the friendships on the river so accurately one knows it is not fiction.
A wonderful read that I tore through and will sit down again to read it again to savour anything I may have missed.
My only regret is there were only 5 stars to give it.

My neighbor lent this book to me when I was having trouble getting my 2 year old to go to bed and go to sleep with it being light out at bedtime during the summer. She loved the book and would ask for me to read it again every night. It is one of her favorite books. The action words really invite her to get involved in the story. Words like "vrrruuum-chugga-chug", roaring tigers, parading soldiers,resting not racing trains, musicians playing a lullaby, a sighing drowsy moon, and a yawning baby who doesn't want to stay up all night after his adventures. This could be a classic book.

This is a beautifully illustrated book about a baby who does want to go to bed and so with a "vrruum-chugga-chug" zooms off in his little car awy from "the Mother" - he meets a sleepy tiger, dreaming soldiers, a resting train, and drowsy musicians until his little car itself falls asleep, not even the Moon will play - then he's rescued by the Mother and goes to bed - my little ones love it (and are usually asleep before the end!!)

If you've not read any of David Adams Richards' books, you're missing a wonderful experience. Richards is master of the sublime, even when covering gritty topics and plotlines. Such as it is in this title; the characters are imperfect, flawed, some of them disturbed, outcast. This story is a tangled web woven, entrapping the souls it skirts, unravelling their lives as the situation(s) gain momentum. There are truly haunting moments experienced as one absorbs the tale. Although the reader will have affinity with the characters' very human flaws, Richards never allows us to get too close and I believe he does that deliberately; this fiction takes an in-depth look at the shallowness of living on the edge and the waste that it is.

The story will pull you in gently and carry you along with ease - the writing is so good you don't notice it... you simply absorb the story and its characters.

I've been keeping my eyes open for more of this writer's works (I started with his latest "Mercy Among the Children") as he has quickly become one of my fave writers. This is an excellent starter into the rich and dense world of David Adams Richards. Enjoy.

Richards reveals all those things which we thought nobody else had ever reflected upon. Could an American possibly enjoy this book? I'm not sure. But every Canadian who once was young, and who perhaps scooped mounds of snow, in a transe of fantasy, off a bumpy ice surface into the dark hours of once endless days, will appreciate this book like the game itself; the merciless joy of unhindered potential for our imagined years to come, and our mission to reach our potential until reality sinks in, will occupy your every shift, deek, and goal (or assist, for that matter). And this, from a 19 year old reader--just a reminder to Richards: though times have changed, they have ever remained the same (kids still play hockey, but then, maybe it isn't the same after all).

Gives McSweeney's a run for thier money. I am now eagerly awaiting works from several of these contributers.

Road to the Stilt House is an excellent novel written within the naturalist tradition. The gritty novel is written in a terse, pithy poetic style that suits Richards' relentless investigation of the social and moral consequences of poverty. Richards' sense of indignation at the arm of the state is at its most palpable and effective. Though often neglected, this novel is one of the best to come out of the Maritime Provinces and must be dealt with in any comprehensive theory of Canadian Literature.

It is one of the greatest books of all times. While the human race is being pushed even more into emotional savagery by the pseudo-intellectuals and false gurus, this book courageously discusses the divine enlightenment possible through rational thought.

After reading the author's most recent work, followed by one somewhere in the middle, it was intriguing to read Richards' first novel. Written, amazingly, when he was only 23, The Coming of Winter foreshadows the splendid writer Richards has come to be.

This first of his New Brunswick (Canada, not New Jersey) novels is a potently quiet tale of a clutch of near-silent, deeply brooding people. At the apex is young Kevin Dulse, whose twenty-first birthday and marriage are approaching within two weeks' time. As are all the characters, Kevin's inner life is deftly depicted in all of its inchoate anger, integrity and confusion. The men in this book all have active lives of the mind but seem congenitally unable to articulate their thoughts and feelings. The women are only slightly more adept at expressing themselves.

What makes the novel so readable is the exquisitely observed minutiae of everyday life in a small town whose major employer is the mill. Kevin's observations while working a number of jobs at the mill, his determination to do even the lowliest job thoroughly and well, make him entirely human and sympathetic. His inability not to go out drinking with his friends is annoying--to him and to the reader--and yet he cannot stop himself.

In the course of the two weeks covered by the novel, Kevin takes any number of steps forward into maturity, into adulthood. The details of his mother's efforts to prepare for her son's wedding with only a week's notice are beautifully realized and touchingly real.

A quiet book with considerable subtext, my only complaint (and this is primarily an editorial flaw) is the shifting from one character to another without indication of which character is in focus. It makes for confusion as one shifts about, trying to glean from the text just who is holding center stage at a given moment. This is, otherwise, a remarkable achievement for the very young author. And his subsequent books demonstrate how wonderfully well Richards has developed as a writer. I've yet to find any one of his many novels less than fascinating.
Highly recommended.

Richard Adams set the bar pretty high when he published his first novel, Watership Down, over 25 years ago. His novels since then (Shardik, Plague Dogs, Girl in the Swing, Maia, and Traveler) have not lived up to the promise of that first book, which ranks among the most beloved novels of the 20th century and will surely be among the handful of books to survive the century.

It is with great pleasure, therefore, to note that with The Outlandish Knight Adams has crafted a lyrical novel rich in historical detail. It follows the fortunes of 3 generations of "common" folk in England and their relationships with the Tudor aristocrats.

The novel opens in the year 1485, the action concentrating on the Battle of Bosworth Field, where Henry VII, the first of the Tudor dynasty, brought an end to the Wars of the Roses. The central narrative focuses on Henry VIII's divorce from Katherine of Aragon, while the third portion is concerned with the fate of those implicated in a plot in support of Mary, Queen of Scots, during Elizabeth's reign.

The overriding theme is one of unwavering loyalty and devotion in the face of intense pressure. While Adams is faithful to the historical detail the reader cannot help but get caught up in the events as if they were happening today. Most impressively, Adams' characters speak the English of their day, not 20th century vernacular, a device which other writers of historical fiction would do well to employ. The historical figures that appear as characters are believable, as well.

Adams' first foray into historical fiction came with his last novel, Traveler, but here he is on surer ground, writing about his native England. As a special bonus, the text is sprinkled liberally with excerpts of English folk song, including the actual musical notation.

Although lacking an animal protagonist, this is Adams' best novel since Watership Down. Readers should also check out his two collections of tales, The Unbroken Web and Tales from Watership Down. Also in a similar vein is a historical novel by Alan Garner, Strandloper, and various works of history of this period, such as Antonia Fraser's Faith and Treason.

The words "based on a true story" have become all too automatic in this visually-oriented age, but it is comforting to know that there are still instances when the phrase actually has meaning.

Richards, and this book, had been praised to the skies both by professional critics and personal friends, so I overcame my prejudices against long, depressing family sagas and read it.
I will say that Richards is a very talented writer, and there are turns of phrase I will never forget. I also loved a few of the characters, in particular Autumn, the narrator's albino sister. However, I felt afflicted most of the way through the book. It seemed that there was far too much misfortune to believe for this one poor family. It's not that I had trouble believing that someone as good as Sidney Henderson would be exploited (nor did I find his character unbelievable, since his goodness was practically a disease in itself) but so many of the misfortunes seemed to relu on coincidence, and they came at the Hendersons unrelentinly.
Moreover, the conclusion was almost Dickensian in its mania to tie up every loose thread, and connect all sorts of characters in unlikely ways. And yes, I was touched by it, but I was infuriated afterwards.
Nonetheless, now that book is finished with, I do have a desire to read some of Richards other books. I just hope they will be a little less overwrought.

In the novel for which he won the prestigious Giller Prize in 2000, David Adams Richards confronts his readers with the truth about the different dimensions of human nature, both good and bad.

The narrator, Lyle Henderson, tells the story of his family in small-town New Brunswick. As a child, his father Sydney vowed to God that he would never harm a soul and Sydney holds true to that promise. Others see this as weakness and pity him or use it as an opportunity to take advantage of him. Witnissing this as a child, Lyle takes a different, more aggressive attitude towards the world, and through the course of this novel, we witness how it all works out for both of them with their different outlooks.

An intriguing writing style and fascinating characters. Story and characters are drawn differently than I'm used to, but it was refreshing to be challenged with something new, and it was still incredibly realistic and interesting. The narration by Lyle is also different. Can a book be depressing and uplifting at one time? Read "Mercy Among the Children" and find out!

Here is a book about poverty, both of the spirit and of the pocket. Written in spare, tidy prose with exceptional characterizations, it is a dark tale periodically shot through with veins of pure gold; moments of such exquisite sweetness (in the character of little Percy, or the aging but quietly heroic Jay Beard) that they are painful. There is nothing stock about the narrative or about the characters who are among the most fully realized I've ever read. The good people (the Hendersons) are all forgivably flawed in some small way. And the bad people are understandable in their angry manipulations, in their negative strengths and human weaknesses. This is not light reading but it is potent and powerful, an evocation of the lengths to which the very poor can be driven. Lyle Henderson, son of the Job-like Sydney, narrator of the family history is a most believably tortured and loving soul. One hopes, throughout this book, for affirming moments that never materialize. Yet there is such truth here that I found it impossible not to keep reading.

I am dismayed that I didn't know of the award-winning David Adams Richards before reading this book, but I will certainly be reading his other books at the first possible opportunity. The author's talent is rare and wonderful; his eye is clear and he wastes no time on frilly adjectives. This is prose (and truth) at its purest--a truly remarkable achievement.

My highest recommendation.

You will get to know some members of a small mining town in New Brunswick, all struggling to figure themselves out, find love, and place themselves in a difficult world.

I had some trouble getting used to his unique style of writing - David Adams Richards writes as if observing his characters and describing their actions and thoughts as if he's from another land altogether. This was very distracting for me, and tended to take away my flow of reading. On the other hand, it was also challenging, in that it made me think about the characters and what their words and actions meant.

The last 20-30 pages are by far the best of the entire novel and well worth the read.

Slow going at times, but it wraps up nicely and the reader is feeling as though everything is as it should and always has been.

What I recognize in my second adventure into this author's work is a particular truth--which is that (at least in my Canadian experience) poor communities have a singular commonality. There is a language, both spoken and experiential, about being poor that transcends its environment. In Richards' books, poor in Toronto sounds and feels a lot like poor in New Brunswick. While the physical aspects are very different, the population isn't. And there was something so familiar about some of the characters that I felt as if I'd known them in my childhood.

Poor angry, alienated to the point of sickness Adele; her mother, lovely, determined Rita, making the best of her marriage to alcoholic Joe--who just may be one of the most perfectly rendered characters I've ever encountered. One cannot help but love and feel for Joe, battling his demons and temptations that all reside within bottles; stammering, powerful Joe with his big body and battered, but still functioning heart; Joe the unlikeliest of heroes.

There is such a cast of characters in this book; they have their hopes and miseries and they all intersect at one point or another as time eases away unnoticed and fate makes itself felt in every way in the hushed, shattering beauty of a blizzard.

David Adams Richards is the consummate observer, translating his visions into quiet, apparently effortless prose; placing people before us in all their flawed splendor so that we might view the human condition and reflect upon our similarities and differences.

My highest recommendation.