|  First edition | |
| Author | Paul Quarrington | 
|---|---|
| Country | Canada | 
| Language | English | 
| Genre | Novel | 
| Publisher | Doubleday Canada | 
| Publication date | 1985 | 
| Media type | Print (Hardback) | 
| Pages | 288 pp | 
| Preceded by | Home Game | 
| Followed by | King Leary | 
The Life of Hope is a novel by Paul Quarrington, published in 1985 by Doubleday Canada.[1] It is part of an unofficial trilogy with Quarrington's later novels King Leary and Logan in Overtime;[2] although none of the novels centre on the same protagonists, they all feature some background interrelationships of character and setting.[2]
The novel's central character, essentially an authorial self-insertion, is a novelist named Paul who is suffering from writer's block after the publication of his baseball-themed novel Home Game.[1] Attending a writer's retreat in the small Southern Ontario town of Hope, he learns about the town's history as a free love and nudist commune established by an expatriate American cult leader named Joseph Benton Hope,[3] which reignites his creativity as he begins to write a fictionalized account of the town's establishment.[1]
The novel was a shortlisted finalist for the Stephen Leacock Award in 1986.[4]
References
- 1 2 3 "Free love and hope". The Globe and Mail, September 21, 1985.
- 1 2 "Tale of a goalie on the skids isn't Quarrington's top scorer". Edmonton Journal, March 10, 1990.
- ↑ "Novel about free-love commune mixes comedy and message". Ottawa Citizen, September 21, 1985.
- ↑ "Star's Slinger up for humor prize". Toronto Star, April 11, 1986.