Timothy Findley: Stories from a Life

W.J. Keith is a retired professor of English at the University of Toronto and author A Sense of Style: Studies in the Art of Fiction in English-Speaking Canada.

This is an admirable brief biography. The subtitle, “Stories from a
Life,” describes the biographer’s method of dividing her material
into brief segments of narrative that, combined, build up an
impressionistic but convincing picture of Findley's life. Compatible
with the general format of the series, it is especially appropriate
here, since most of Findley’s novels are constructed on a similar
principle. In addition, the text is punctuated with photographs that add
immeasurably to the effect of the book, since they include not merely
personal snapshots from the whole range of the writer’s life but also
illustrations of his years as an actor, both on and off stage.

Most readers of Findley’s work will have picked up a vague impression
of his life from blurbs, press releases, and interviews, while his own
memoir, Inside Memory, has offered a number of biographical hints. But
here, for the first time, we find an ordered, well-balanced account that
brings together the many facets of his life. It is also a scrupulous and
tactful account, avoiding the voyeuristic sensationalism that has become
so tiresome in many recent literary biographies.

Despite the imaginative range of his work, from the trenches in The
Wars to the brilliant mythic revisionism of Not Wanted on the Voyage,
Findley is an intensely personal writer, drawing upon (and, of course,
transforming) his own interests and obsessions. This study quietly and
efficiently provides a much-needed context for serious readers. Wisely,
Roberts avoids literary criticism and theory, limiting herself to brief
descriptive accounts of his books, their writing, and their reception.
Above all, unlike many literary biographies, it is eloquently written,
and the publishers have risen to the occasion and produced an attractive
book. An excellent production all round.