nicknicknicknick reviewed Stones by Timothy Findley
Review of 'Stones' on Goodreads
3 stars
1) '''Stella,' the doctor informed him, 'will not recover. Of course she will not recover. No one with half a brain can recover, Mister Bragg. Your daughter, I'm afraid, is doomed. I'm sorry.'
Before he left, the doctor turned at the door and said: 'You can come and see me any time you want -- but not today. I've just spent thirty-six hours on my feet and I'm going home, now, to die.'
He was gone.
Col said: 'what can I do for you?'
Bragg said: 'you can take me home and let me screw you to the wall.'
Later on, Bragg went into the ravine along Rosedale Valley Road and he walked in the mud. Coming to an open space, he found a fallen tree and he sat in the rain and he let the weather have its way.''
2) ''Three nights running, the corpse remained in its place …
1) '''Stella,' the doctor informed him, 'will not recover. Of course she will not recover. No one with half a brain can recover, Mister Bragg. Your daughter, I'm afraid, is doomed. I'm sorry.'
Before he left, the doctor turned at the door and said: 'You can come and see me any time you want -- but not today. I've just spent thirty-six hours on my feet and I'm going home, now, to die.'
He was gone.
Col said: 'what can I do for you?'
Bragg said: 'you can take me home and let me screw you to the wall.'
Later on, Bragg went into the ravine along Rosedale Valley Road and he walked in the mud. Coming to an open space, he found a fallen tree and he sat in the rain and he let the weather have its way.''
2) ''Three nights running, the corpse remained in its place and every time that Everett entered the dining-room in the nightmare he was certain he would find out who it was. On the fourth night, fully expecting to discover he himself was the victim, he beheld the face and saw it was a stranger.
But there are no strangers in dreams; he knew that now after twenty years of practice. There are no strangers; there are only people in disguise.''
3) ''Looking down, she saw the words BRIAN BASSET written on the page before her and it occurred to her that without this person, the words were nothing more than extrapolations from the alphabet -- something fanciful we call a ''name'' in the hope that, one day, it will take on meaning.
She thought of Brian Bassett with his building blocks -- pushing the letters around on the floor and coming up with more acceptable arrangements: TINA STERABBS...IAN BRETT BASS...BEST STAB the RAIN: a sentence. He had known all along, of course, that BRIAN BASSETT wasn't what he wanted because it wasn't what he was. He had come here against his will, was held here against his better judgment, fought against his captors and finally escaped.
But where was here to Ian Brett Bass? Where was here to Tina Sterabbs? Like Brian Bassett, they had all been here in someone else's dreams, and had to wait for someone else to wake before they could make their getaway.
Slowly, Mimi uncapped her fountain pen and drew a firm, black line through Brian Bassett's name. We dreamed him, she wrote, that's all. And then we let him go.''