Author | Pamela Porter |
---|---|
Cover artist | Karine Daisay (design) |
Language | English |
Genre | Children's Literature |
Publisher | Groundwoods Books/House of Anansi Press (first edition) |
Publication date | 2005 |
Publication place | Canada |
Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
Pages | 214 pp (first edition) |
The Crazy Man is a 2005 Canadian children's novel written by Pamela Porter. This realistic family novel told in free verse has received many awards and was selected for the Governor General's Literary Award. [1] The story is about a girl named Emaline who lives on a farm. Emaline's family falls apart after a terrible tractor accident. After chasing her beloved dog, Emaline's father accidentally runs over her leg with a tractor leaving her permanently disabled. Because of guilt, Emaline's father shoots her dog, Prince, and ends up leaving Emaline and her mother on their own. The narrative follows Emaline as she deals with prejudice, fear, her disability, and the absence of her father.
The Crazy Man is set in 1965 in Saskatchewan, Canada. Pamela Porter reinforces the harsh times by incorporating day-to-day life during the Vietnam War, Communism, and The Cold War. Financial times were tough.
The novel begins by introducing the protagonist Emaline, a twelve-year-old girl who, like other little girls, loves playing with friends and going to school. Emaline lives on a farm, when she is involved in a terrible tractor accident. While trying to save her dog, Prince, from being run over by the tractor her father is driving, Emaline succeeds in saving her dog but unfortunately her leg is caught in the machine, and she is disabled. Grief-stricken, Emaline's father, Cal, shoots Prince, then leaves everything behind, the family farm, his family, his crippled child, and all his responsibilities. He blames himself for Emaline's injuries, but he also blames the dog for precipitating this tragic accident.
Emaline cannot understand why her father would do this to her and her mother. Throughout the novel, she continuously wonders why her father left and when her father would come back: "I think about dad. How in the world could someone just disappear?" [2] As a result Emaline blames herself. The guilt Emaline feels about her father leaving consumes her thoughts.
Since Cal is no longer on the farm, there is no one left to seed the farm fields. During the spring time, Clarice, Emaline's mother has to find someone to seed the fields for them as farming is the only source of income for the family. Clarice cannot find anyone to seed their fields so she ends up hiring a big man called Angus, who is a former mental patient from the mental hospital. This infuriates the town, as they assume that this man will harm and terrorize them.
Emaline's mom explains to her, "That man is from the mental, stay away from him." [2]
The townspeople purposely drive by Emaline's house to tease and laugh at "The Crazy Man" working in the farm fields. Frank, the town mechanic drives by daily and yells out, "I hear you have a sub-human out there", and others would call Angus "The Gorilla." [2]
What the townspeople do not realize is that Angus is an extremely gentle and caring individual who would not hurt anyone or harm anything. [3]
In fact Angus is a very good farmer and great gardener. He treats everything he touches with respect. However, the townspeople can not see past his mental illness, and on many occasions they accuse him of stealing from the local grocery store, later to find out that all accusations are false.
After Harry Record (Joey Record's father) drives Angus to the other end of town in attempt to make him suffer in a snowstorm, Angus comes across Joey freezing in the snow on his way back to the town. Despite the mistreatment Angus has experienced, he takes Joey to the hospital to save his life. After the town has heard what Angus has done, the townspeople realize that Angus is not only like everyone else, he is actually a brave and compassionate individual.
The novel wraps up with the farm fields growing beautifully, the best they have ever grown, and Emaline, Clarice, and Angus happily dancing under the Northern Lights without Cal, enjoying life as they once had before the tractor accident. Like Miss Tollofsen always said, "Everyday is a fresh start. No matter what hijinks someone had done the day before." [2]
The main message of the novel is to treat every individual with respect regardless of their background or appearance.
Pamela Porter of Sidney, British Columbia is an influential Canadian writer and poet. Porter received her undergraduate degree in English from Southern Methodist University in Dallas and later gained her MFA in creative writing from the University of Montana. [4] Pamela Porter was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico on July 14, 1956. As Pamela grew up she lived in several other places within the United States such as Texas, Louisiana, Washington, and Montana. Although Porter lived in many places, she eventually settled down after meeting her husband. Currently Porter and her husband live in North Saanich British Columbia, Canada and every summer Porter and her family visit her husband’s farm in Saskatchewan to help work the fields and enjoy relaxing summer vacations. This is interesting because Porters novel The Crazy Man is set on the farmlands of Saskatchewan. [4]
Pamela Porter has won a phenomenal amount of prestigious awards for her novel The Crazy Man. She has received the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Canadian Library Association Book of the Year Award, the Bilson Award for Historical Fiction, and lastly the TD Canadian Children's Literature Award. [4]
Of Mice and Men is a 1937 novella written by American author John Steinbeck. It describes the experiences of George Milton and Lennie Small, two displaced migrant ranch workers, as they move from place to place in California, searching for jobs during the Great Depression.
Clarice Lispector was a Ukrainian-born Brazilian novelist and short story writer. Her distinctive and innovative works delve into diverse narrative forms, weaving themes of intimacy and introspection, earning her subsequent international acclaim. Born to a Jewish family in Podolia in Western Ukraine, as an infant she moved to Brazil with her family, amidst the pogroms committed by Soviet authorities after the First World War.
Peyton Place is an American prime-time soap opera that aired on ABC in half-hour episodes from September 15, 1964, to June 2, 1969.
Monica Edwards was an English children's writer of the mid-twentieth century best known for her Romney Marsh and Punchbowl Farm series of children's novels.
Sommersby is a 1993 period romantic drama directed by Jon Amiel from a screenplay written by Nicholas Meyer and Sarah Kernochan, adapted from the historical account of the 16th century French peasant Martin Guerre. Based on the 1982 French film The Return of Martin Guerre, the film stars Richard Gere and Jodie Foster, with Bill Pullman, James Earl Jones, Clarice Taylor, Frankie Faison, and R. Lee Ermey in supporting roles. Set in the Reconstruction era following the American Civil War, the film depicts a farmer returning home from the war, with his wife beginning to suspect that the man is an impostor while also falling in love with him.
Dianne Warren is a Canadian novelist, dramatist and short story writer.
The Passion According to G.H. is a mystical novel by Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector, published in 1964. The work takes the form of a monologue by a woman, identified only as G.H., telling of the crisis that ensued the previous day after she crushed a cockroach in the door of a wardrobe. Its canonical status was recognized in 1988 by its inclusion in the Arquivos Collection, the UNESCO series of critical editions of the greatest works of Latin American literature. It has been translated into English twice, the first time in 1988 by Ronald W. Sousa, and then by Idra Novey in 2012.
Tuck Everlasting is an American children's novel about immortality written by Natalie Babbitt and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 1975. It has sold over 5 million copies and has been called a classic of modern children's literature.
Lives of the Saints is a novel by Nino Ricci. The author's first book, it forms the first part of a trilogy. The other two novels are In a Glass House and Where She Has Gone. Lives of the Saints was first published in 1990 and was the winner of the 1990 Governor General's Awards for fiction.
Jessica is a historical novel based on a true story by Bryce Courtenay. It was published in 1998 and like other works from Courtenay covers several years in the life of the main character: Jessica Bergman. It was adapted into a mini-series starring Leeanna Walsman and Sam Neill which aired on Australian television in 2004. Jessica was voted Best Mini Series at the 2004 Chicago International Film Festival. It twice won the APA Who Weekly Reader's Choice Award, in 1999 and 2000.
Iron Will is a 1994 American adventure film. It is based on the true story of the 1917 dog-sled race from Winnipeg, Manitoba to Saint Paul, Minnesota, a 522-mile-long stretch and part of the "Red River-St. Paul Sports Carnival Derby." The protagonist of the film, Will Stoneman, depicts the story of the 26-year-old American racer, Fred Hartman, although a few elements of the character resemble the 22-year-old Albert Campbell, the Métis man who won the race and whose father had died shortly prior. The film is directed by Charles Haid, and stars Mackenzie Astin, Kevin Spacey, David Ogden Stiers, George Gerdes, Brian Cox, John Terry, Penelope Windust and August Schellenberg.
Wish You Well is a novel written by David Baldacci. First published in 2001, the story starts with the Cardinal family planning to move from New York to California due to money problems, then shifts to the mountains of Virginia after a car accident leaves the father dead and the mother in a catatonic state. The time period is in the 1940s.
RKO Radio Pictures's Laddie is a 1940 American drama film starring Tim Holt, Virginia Gilmore and Joan Carroll and directed by Jack Hively. It is the third film adaptation based on Gene Stratton-Porter's novel, Laddie, A True Blue Story (1913), and previously had been filmed in 1926 and by RKO in 1935.
Pamela Paige Porter is a Canadian novelist and poet. She was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico and has also lived in Texas, Louisiana, Washington, and Montana. She emigrated to Canada with her husband Rob Porter, from the fourth generation of a Saskatchewan farm family, and resides in North Saanich, British Columbia. She has received praise for her young adult novels, especially The Crazy Man. Her poetry has won the Prism International Poetry Prize and the Vallum Magazine Poetry Prize, and has appeared in literary magazines in Canada and the United States.
Laddie is a 1935 American comedy-drama film directed by George Stevens from a screenplay by Ray Harris and Dorothy Yost, based on the 1913 novel, Laddie: A True Blue Story, by Gene Stratton-Porter. The film stars John Beal, Gloria Stuart, and Virginia Weidler.
The Moon and More is Sarah Dessen's eleventh book, published in June 2013, and is a young adult novel. The protagonist, Emaline is a Colby native, a small beachside town, and so summer at the beach for her means hard work and a new population of beach goers. During this, her last summer before college, Emaline meets Theo while working for her family's rental business. He's a city boy who's come to Colby as the assistant to a high-strung documentary filmmaker who's in town to profile a reclusive local artist. Emaline knows he's not her type, but she can not help feeling drawn to him. And as their relationship develops, Emaline finds herself questioning her own goals, values, and choices.
China Rich Girlfriend is a 2015 satirical romantic comedy novel by Kevin Kwan. It is the sequel to Crazy Rich Asians, a novel about the wealthy Singapore elite. Kwan was urged to write the sequel by his publishers after the initial success of Crazy Rich Asians. The title refers to a line in the novel in which Nick's mother, Eleanor, exclaims over the wealth of the "China rich" who are billionaires, "These people aren't just everyday rich with a few hundred million. They are China rich!" The novel was followed by a sequel, Rich People Problems, in 2017.
Farm Boy is a children's novel by Michael Morpurgo, best known as being the sequel to the popular novel War Horse. The book was first published in the United Kingdom in 1997 by Pavilion Books Limited and is illustrated by Michael Foreman. It was not initially planned for Morpurgo to write a sequel to War Horse, but the story was inspired after receiving many enquiries about what happens to Joey, a horse in service of the Army after the Great War. In an article in ChronicleLive Michael Morpurgo also stated that his favourite of his own works was Farm Boy. The book captures modern life on a farm in rural Devon, where Michael Morpurgo lives, while having retrospective flashbacks to the lives of Albert and Joey. He stated in the article in ChronicleLive:
Who Shall Die or Les Bouches inutiles is the only Drama written by Simone de Beauvoir.