THE BOOK OF STANLEY
A riotous new novel from the #1 bestselling author of the hit sensation The Garneau Block. Available August 21st, 2007.
By
all accounts, Stanley Moss is an average man. A retired florist, he
lives quietly with his wife, Frieda, in a modest bungalow in Edmonton.
Stricken with cancer, Stanley has few wishes for the time he has left,
except perhaps for his son to call him back. But on the day of an
appointment with the palliative care specialist, Stanley experiences a
boom and a flash, and then, a remarkable transformation. He discovers he
can read minds. He can fulfill people’s dreams. He has the strength of
ten men. And, his illness has vanished. What could this mean? Could it
be, as his New Age friend Alok believes, that Stanley's powers are
divine? Is Stanley, a confirmed agnostic, the new Messiah?
With
Alok and a reluctant Frieda in tow, Stanley heads to Banff (the most
sacred place on earth) to look for answers and find a way to use his new
powers for good. He encounters there his disciples — a Vancouver TV
executive, a pro hockey player from the Prairies and a teenage girl from
suburban Montreal — and together they start The Stan, a new religion,
and invite the world to join. When the world shows up, along with the
international media and an angry long-dead spiritualist, things take an
unexpected turn.
Satirical, fantastical, filled with humour and pointed observation about organized religion in the modern world, The Book of Stanley is a provocative comedy about life, love, and devotion in all its guises.
REVIEWS FOR THE BOOK OF STANLEY
"In The Book of Stanley, Todd Babiak has written what few contemporary
authors manage: a funny, smart social satire that, at its very centre, has a
heart."
-Steven Galloway, The Globe and Mail
"There are no sacred cows here. Babiak skewers all and sundry--established
religion, New Age faiths, cultish devotion, small-town politicians, the mass
media, rampant consumerism and self-absorption--with relentless good humour
and keen wit. At the same time, with a surprising earnestness, he examines many
of the issues of contemporary faith, including the role of the media and the
very nature of belief. . . Is it possible to change the world, let alone save
it, in the era of the iPod and the cult of the self? The strong cast of characters
and sense of unpredictability will keep most readers plunging through the brief,
almost capsule-like chapters."
-National Post
"In the time-honoured tradition of Swift, Babiak mercilessly targets our
shameful greed, ambition and contemporary despair. . . The playful subject matter
is a heady hybrid of Steve Martin as a cynical evangelist in the film Leap
of Faith and the absurd antics of Brian's cultish followers in Monty Python's
epic Life of Brian. . . The best kind of fiction prompts a reader to
think, to ponder--our own mortality, our duty to the world and the imprint we
leave when we shuffle off this mortal coil. If you believe in more than stockpiling
money and career advancement, Babiak's message will resonate."
-Toronto Star
"[A] mix of tenderness, kookiness and high-spirited blasphemy. . . The
Book of Stanley gives us a divinity for our noisy, coarse times. . .
God is in the details, after all - in simple, unassuming things like the beauty
of a flower, the durability of a marriage. The big deal, The Book of Stanley
reminds us, is not that miracles occur, it's in recognizing them when they do."
-The Gazette (Montreal)
"The ranks of talented fiction writers to emerge from the reporting trenches
of Canadian newspapers are very thin indeed. You got your Hemingway and your
Callaghan, from right here at the Daily Bugle. You got your L.R. (Bunny) Wright
and Dave Margoshes from the Calgary Herald. And now, the rest of us
ink-stained, envy-wracked wretches pretty much have to concede, you got your
Todd Babiak from the Edmonton Journal--which irks us because we've
also sweated in each of those newsrooms, and others besides, and nobody treats
us as though we're special, particularly funny or a rising force in satirical
fiction..."
-Toronto Star
The Book of Stanley is a deft and often very, very funny send-up of aging,
of parenthood, of marriage, of our religious fantasies, of mass culture, and
ultimately of our preposterous (and apparently human) need to outlive even ourselves.
Babiak has a large and acute and unblinking vision wide enough to include all
this and more.
-Richard Ford, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, author of Independence Day,
The Sportswriter and The Lay of the Land.
The Book of Stanley is a sharply written satirical epic, told in 82
mini-chapters. Babiak hilariously lambastes organized religion and pop spiritualism,
but his biggest target is consumerism and its near-sacred role in Western culture.
Stanley is whimsical and droll, offering up such oddities as mythical surly
Sasquatches in purgatory and hauntings by a trendy tween-girl … the outlandish
events keep mounting. The story of Stanley’s struggle with his new powers
is irresistible.
-Quill and Quire (starred review)