Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} The Telling Of Lies by Timothy Findley. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Timothy Findley , in full Timothy Irving Frederick Findley , (born October 30, 1930, , Ontario, Canada—died June 20, 2002, France), Canadian author known for his intelligent writing and storytelling. His subject matter is often the lives of troubled individuals. Poor health caused Findley to abandon formal education after the ninth grade. At age 17 he began a 15-year acting career that led to roles in several television dramas and Shakespeare productions; a protégé of British actor Alec Guinness, he appeared on the English and American stage. He also began writing short stories during the 1950s. His first two novels are set in southern California, where he lived for a time. The Last of the Crazy People (1967) is about a despairing, obsessive boy whose attempts to cope with his dysfunctional family lead to murder and madness, while The Butterfly Plague (1969) presents a late-1930s Hollywood family whose members embody the world’s ills. In the early 1970s Findley wrote radio and television scripts and a play, Can You See Me Yet? (produced 1976), then followed with his two most acclaimed novels. (1977) features the dilemmas of soldier Robert Ross as he attempts to cope with an officer and 130 doomed horses in the midst of World War I. Famous Last Words (1981) is narrated by Ezra Pound’s character Hugh Selwyn Mauberley and features noted real (as well as fictional) characters trying to manipulate the catastrophes of World War II for their personal ends. (1984) is the story of Noah’s ark, told from the viewpoints of its animal passengers. The Telling of Lies (1986) is a mystery story. Dinner Along the Amazon (1984), Stones (1988), and Any Time at All and Other Stories (1993) are collections of Findley’s short stories. He also wrote Inside Memory: Pages from a Writer’s Notebook (1990) and the novels (1993) and The Piano Man’s Daughter (1995). His autobiography, From Stone Orchard , was published in 1998. The Telling Of Lies. Timothy Findley (1930-2002) was one of Canada's most compelling and best-loved writers. He is the author of The Wars , which won the Governor General's Award and established him as one of Canada's leading writers, as well as and The Piano Man's Daughter , both finalists for The Giller Prize. His other novels, Headhunter , The Telling of Lies , The Last of the Crazy People , The Butterfly Plague , Famous Last Words , Not Wanted on the Voyage , and Spadework ; his novella, You Went Away ; and his short fiction, Dinner Along the Amazon , Stones , and Dust to Dust , have won numerous awards and are well loved both in Canada and internationally. won the Governor General's Award for Drama and won a Chalmers Award. His works of non-fiction include Inside Memory and From Stone Orchard . Timothy Findley was made an Officer of the Order of Canada and a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres . if (SYM == "BIO") "About this title" may belong to another edition of this title. If interested in a book, feel free to call, email or fax the above address. Please make checks (payable to Donald C Longmuir) or money orders. I will send out the book(s) as soon as I receive payment. After that, the buyer will have 30 days in which to return the book if not satisfied. I ship once a week from the US. So shipping is faster and cheaper. Scene of the Crime Books (Don & Jen Longmuir) 20 Hawthorne Avenue St. Catharines Ontario L2M 6A9 (905) 646 0214 Email [email protected]. I make it a rule not to contact you with extra shipping. When I buy books I buy with the thought of "How much is this book going to cost to ship." If it's too much I won't buy it. The shipping charges that ABE quotes is the final shipping charges. I will not contact you for more money. I will bite the bullet myself rather then harass you for more money. Thank you. Don. THE TELLING OF LIES. A substandard murder-tale (cozy English variety) with literary pretensions, set among the patrician residents of a resort hotel on the coast of Maine. For 60-ish Vanessa Van Home and most other residents, summering at the Aurora Sands Hotel is a longstanding tradition, a privilege of birth. When Calder Maddox, pharmaceutical magnate, is murdered on the beach and a cover-up ensues--including the abduction of his mistress, Vanessa's childhood friend--Vanessa investigates and unravels the crime in her dignified upper-class way. Relating events in her journal, she also recalls her internment on Java by the Japanese during WW II, where her father was killed. Vanessa is an interesting narrator, an intelligent isolato with a wry humor, but Findley (Not Wanted on the Voyage, 1985; Famous Last Words, 1982; The Wars, 1978) strains at her voice, going over the top again and again. He does a better job in drawing the genteel milieu--these could be the grandchildren of Wharton's characters. The flashbacks set in Java have power, but they feel grafted on, out of place in a light mystery--and a disappointing mystery, at that. The method of murder is immediately obvious, and a revelation tying in CIA brainwashing plots and walk-ons by the President and Cabinet members is not so much unlikely as it is rote and flimsy, off-the-rack. There's a moving novel implied in the wartime flashbacks, and with tighter plotting this might have been a pleasant entertainment, but, as written, it falls short on both counts. The Telling Of Lies by Timothy Findley. The Telling of Lies – Timothy Findley, copyright 1986. Publisher: Penguin Canada. Source: Personal Collection – Purchased New. I have to be upfront with you. I am a huge fan of Timothy Findley; he is, by far, my all-time favourite author. Consider yourself warned. If this book review seems in any way biased…it is shamelessly so! Vanessa Van Horne, modern day middle-aged photographer and former prisoner of war, has returned to Maine to spend one final summer at her much loved, life-long summer retreat, the Aurora Sands Hotel (ASH) The hotel is scheduled to be torn down at the end of the season and everyone wants to make their final summer here one for the books. When an enormous iceberg appears one morning off shore from the ASH (yes, you read correctly, summer time, Maine, iceberg) all chances of this summer’s memories fading anytime soon are whisked away. Unfortunately, the arrival of the iceberg isn’t the most chilling event in store for the season. A damper is put on the iceberg excitement when Calder Maddox, another life-long guest and prominent business man is found dead on the beach from an apparent stroke. Right from the get go something seems amiss. The police arrive late and behave irrationally in the face of what appears, to everyone else, to be the very natural death of a very old man. Vanessa and her cousin-in-law Lawrence begin poking around and asking questions about some obvious irregularities in the way the death is handled. It isn’t long before it becomes apparent that there is a murderer in their midst and they take it upon themselves to get to the bottom of things. It is only when CIA agents start springing up that it occurs to the pair they may have bitten off more than they can chew. One of the most compelling aspects of the story for me was the various asides telling the tale of Vanessa’s time in the internment camp at Bandung on the island of Java during WWII. The entire story is written as entries in her journal and here she speaks so openly (to us, the reader, not to her friends) about her experiences inside, some of which were heartbreaking. What really got me about this was the contrast Findley plays on between the atrocious nature of camp life and the infrequent touching moments in which some kindness takes place or some truth is mutually understood between prisoner and captor. “No one is totally monstrous: not even monsters.” This is what Vanessa was told in prison and it is clear that it has become a proverb by which she lives her life. In the end, it becomes very much a theme of the story itself. “I will dedicate this book to Colonel Norimitsu – who, with one hand, killed my father and with the other made of my father’s grave a garden. Death before life. So very Japanese.” – The Telling of Lies , page 9. Like every other novel by Findley, The Telling of Lies is a page turner. To my knowledge, it was Findley’s only foray into the mystery genre, but it is certainly no less a masterpiece than any of his other works. The idea of Findley writing a mystery novel took me a little while to get my head around and I was slightly disappointed that he did not hold true to his trademark use of historical characters and blending of historical fact and fiction. I have always found those characteristics inject his stories with a sort of intrigue that constantly sends me back and forth between the story and Google. Though this aspect was lacking, Findley’s beautiful prose were once again at their utmost best accompanied by a wonderfully compelling plot. I have just one serious bone to pick, but it is not with Findley, rather with the book’s publisher, Penguin Canada. Penguin includes a six page introduction in this Modern Classics edition which outlines Findley’s inspiration for writing the novel and his basis for some of the characters. It also comments on a male writer creating such a wonderful story with so many pertinent female characters. I found the introduction to be very informative, but near the end, they took it upon themselves to suggest to the reader things he/she might want to think about and watch out for while reading and I didn’t much like that. I kept pondering those things throughout the story and found myself getting very distracted by them. If the publisher wishes to include the equivalent of reading questions or Coles Notes, they would best be advised to stick it in the afterword rather than the introduction. Dear Penguin, Please don’t spoil my read! Timothy Findley. Timothy Findley, OC, O Ont, writer, actor, playwright (born 30 October 1930 in Toronto; died 20 June 2002 in Brignoles, France). An Officer of the Order of Canada and two-time winner of the Governor General’s Award, Timothy Findley was accomplished as an actor, novelist, and playwright, and was one of the most singular and influential talents of his generation. Early Career in the Theatre. During his career as an actor, Findley was a charter member of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival (1953). He appeared in the first production of Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker (1954) at the Edinburgh Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, and played Peter Pupkin in Sunshine Sketches , a 1952 CBC television adaptation of Stephen Leacock’s Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town (1912). Although he had been aware of his homosexuality from an early age, Findley married actress and photographer Janet Reid in 1959 — the marriage ended in divorce two years later. In 1963 he met writer William Whitehead and the two remained domestic partners until the end of Findley’s life. Findley and Whitehead worked on numerous projects together, including the 1974 CBC docudrama The National Dream , based on Pierre Berton’s books The National Dream: Building the Impossible Railway (1970) and The Last Spike (1971), as well as the documentary (1979). Whitehead also managed Findley’s career. Fiction. Findley’s close friend, the actress Ruth Gordon, who also worked as a screenwriter and playwright, inspired and encouraged him to try his hand at writing. He published his first story, “About Effie,” in the Tamarack Review in 1956, and by the end of the 1960s he had given up acting and was writing full time. “It has been the greatest advantage I had when I began writing seriously, to have been an actor,” Findley remarked in 2002. “The best apprenticeship for a writer. Because you learn language, structure, cadence, rhythm, how to build tension.” He published his first novel, The Last of the Crazy People , in 1967 and the second, The Butterfly Plague , in 1969. But Findley’s real breakthrough came with The Wars . Published in 1977 (it would appear as aNational Film Boardfeature, with a script by the author, in 1983), The Wars won the Governor General's Literary Award and an international reputation. The Wars depicts the experiences of a young Ontario man during the First World War. In his introduction to the 2005 Penguin Modern Classic edition of the book, Canadian novelist Guy Vanderhaeghe claimed that it is the best historical novel ever written by a Canadian. Running slightly over 200 pages depending on the edition, The Wars is remarkably compressed for a historical novel (compare it with Jane Urquart’s 400 page The Stone Carvers ), and Findley uses this to great effect. According to Vanderhaeghe, “Findley achieves this impressive economy by piecing together a collage of arresting images and brief, telling scenes that not only cohere in a compelling narrative but whose form mimics the fractured lives of soldiers and civilians by war.” Findley’s next novel, Famous Last Words (1981), deals with the life of a fictional man of letters during the rise of fascism and the Second World War. Not Wanted on the Voyage (1984) handles the myth of Noah with considerable wit and invention. The Telling of Lies (1989) is a mystery. Headhunter (1993) pictures a Toronto replete with upper-class violence and evil; and, The Piano Man's Daughter (1995) , set in 1939, focuses on a young piano tuner forced to face the questions of his father's identity and his mother's madness.. In Pilgrim (1999), a troubled immortal (the “Pilgrim” of the title) is brought to psychoanalyst Carl Jung’s clinic in Zurich following a failed suicide attempt in order to regain his lease on life. Findley's last novel, Spadework (2001) , returns to the theatre scene of his youth in Stratford, Ontario. Inside Memory: Pages from a Writer's Workbook (1991) is a collection of personal journal entries and autobiographical reflections. From Stone Orchard (2001) is a memoir of life on the farm he shared with William Whitehead, Stone Orchard, near Cannington, Ontario. Plays. Findley's plays performed onstage include Can You See Me Yet? (1976), The Stillborn Lover (1993), Shadows (2001) and his last drama, Elizabeth Rex (2002), which won him another Governor General's Award. He also wrote the TV scripts for The National Dream (1974, written with William Whitehead) and The Whiteoaks of Jalna (1971–72). The Trials of Ezra Pound premiered at the in 2001 and Shadows was staged in August 2002 at the Toronto Centre for the Arts’ Studio Theatre. Findley was working on a version of Euripides’ The Trojan Women for the Stratford Festival when he died in 2002. Honours. Findley received numerous awards for his work. In addition to being a two-time winner of the Governor General’s Award, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada (1986) and was also made a Chevalier dans L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in 1996. The City of Toronto Book Award, the (Ontario) Trillium Award, a Mystery Writers of America "Edgar", two Canadian Authors Association awards, the Toronto Arts Award in Writing and Publishing, and several honorary doctorates are among the honours bestowed upon him. In 1986– 87 he presided over the Canadian division of PEN International. He was active in anti-censorship and other causes, and in 1991 was named to the Order of Ontario.