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Description
Kaspar Pine begins his day with a simple task: replace a pet canary. By day’s end, as Kaspar is being loaded into an ambulance, he delivers one hell of a “theme essay,” covering such subjects as his ability to source and catalogue the cigarette butts he harvests; information on maintaining the social order of chickens, along with general and historic farming details that run from Saskatchewan to Ontario; insinuating himself between other kids and people who wish to do them harm; fire marshalling; and his inability to maintain an essayist’s cool detachment in the face of unrequited first love. The Union of Smokers details the heartfelt and heroic last day in the life of a reluctant, irreverent, and oddly wise hero.
Contributor Notes
Paddy Scott lives in Trenton, Ontario, the town that provides source material for the fictional town of Quinton. Educated at Nicholson Catholic College Belleville, the University of Western Ontario and Carleton University, Scott has been published in Broken Pencil, Grain, Feathertale Review, untethered, and other equally fine places. His near-misses include being longlisted three times for the CBC Literary Awards, being a runner-up for the John Newlove Award for poetry, and being a nominee/finalist for the Canadian Magazine Awards and the Alberta Magazine Awards.
Awards
- Long-listed, Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour
Editorial Review
“There is no better way to lure a reader into a story than by killing off a literal canary, the extractive industry’s preferred harbinger to human health, at the very beginning… One of the most challenging things about deploying this sort of twangy and precocious Holden-Caulfield-type voice is making sure Kasper isn’t struck by moments of poetic pubescence, whether facing the state of mankind or, worse, gazing into a woman’s eyes. But Kasper’s naiveté steers the course, and like all children’s journeys, brings unexpected moments with it.” — Maisonneuve
“An eccentric portrait of small town life; a narrative voice that gets in your head and proves unforgettable, a story that manages to be utterly devastating and uplifting at once thanks to a character so strangely and richly imagined, with the most indefatigable sense of himself and his story and his worth — no matter what anybody else thinks, and you’re going to take his side. Not to mention be sorry when it’s finally time to leave it. I really loved this book.” — Kerry Clare, Pickle Me This
“We need good narrative fiction, in part for wisdom conveyed under layers of pure entertainment… The Union of Smokers is funny, intelligent, and unexpectedly poignant… never feeling forced. The Union of Smokers is pure exhilaration, a personal favourite of Spring 2020.” — Atlantic Books Today
“I love this book so much. I wouldn’t be surprised if you see it on some awards list this fall… Even though the protagonist isn’t technically a man yet, being only twelve, I would argue that he embodies all the traits that our society tends to value in men. But he’s also been exposed to some terrible men and their worst traits. His father was abusive. So, it’s a really interesting experiment in how we raise our kids, what rubs off on them, and the kind of lessons that they learn from us.” — Anne Logan, CBC’s The Homestretch, Books Columnist
“Kaspar is not only the main source of entertainment in this book, he IS the book… one of the most memorable characters I’ve read in years.” — I’ve Read This
