The Words of My Roaring

by Robert Kroetsch

Book Overview

"I was electioneering. By God, people were listening. People were looking my way. And some joker with his arse begining to ache from sitting too long on a nail had to clear his throat and chip in, "Backstrom, what have you got to offer?" I looked at the speaker and saw he was a farmer and I said, "Mister, how would you like some rain?" A new edition of another classic from one of Canada's most enduring novelists. Introduction by Thomas Wharton.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0888643497
• ISBN13: 9780888643490
• Release Date: January 2022
• Publisher: University of Alberta Press
• Length: 184 Pages
• Weight: 1.95 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A great read

Robert Kroetsch's book is a classic novel of the depression and the rise to power of 'Bible Bill' Aberhart's Social Credit in the Alberta Legislature. But it's more than that -- it is truly Canadian literature, evoking in poetic terms both the prairies and the lushness of southern Ontario, and the multicultural nature of the Canadian people.

One of RK's most underrated novels

I got to proofread this book for the U of A Press and met the author on several occasions. The experience convinced me to stay in publishing. Kroetsch is a warm, interesting man with a fantastic ability to tell a story. His character, Johnnie Backstrom, makes meaningful but unfortunate mistakes. The miracle of this novel is that you identify with him from page one. The couleur locale, moreover, is priceless.Incidentally, the cover painting is a by a relatively famous Canadian painter, as are most U of A books. This is a beautiful, readable edition of a novel that the Torontonians, in their infinite wisdom, let slide out of print. What muckie-mucks.

Uproarious

At its best, Kroetsch's fiction is impossible to resist. The present volume is no exception. The author beautifully evokes every detail of dusbowl Alberta, from rusty old Chevs to rodeos to farmer's daughters. As Johnny backstrom's campaign picks up speed, we watch a man transformed by hucksterism and inflammatory rhetoric. needless to say, parallels to our own politicians are everywhere apparent. But this novel is primarily a yarn, like all of Kroetsch's novels. It bounds along like a prairie school bus--solid, loud, colorful and true.