Grant Buday is very much a B.C. writer. Though he has written about India and the fall of Troy, his characters belong on the streets of Vancouver or, more recently, on Mayne Island.
Buday writes both fiction and non-fiction. He has been short-listed for the BC Book Prize and for the City of Vancouver Book Award. His short fiction has appeared in two Canadian anthologies and has won the Fiddlehead magazine contest for short fiction.
Buday’s people belong to Vancouver’s East End. He observes them on the buses, or in the alleys, bars and brothels of Downtown Eastside. In his latest novel, The Delusionist (2014), the three main characters are from more comfortable backgrounds, but they share the same characteristics as those encountered in his earlier work. At the beginning of Monday Night Man, Buday quotes from Samuel Beckett and, indeed, his characters resemble Beckett’s, alienated but constantly hoping that their ship will come in. And Buday describes these “lovable losers” with such empathy that we come to not only tolerate them, but enjoy them and, alarmingly, recognize ourselves.
Grant Buday reads at the Arts Centre in Sechelt on Friday, Sept. 25, at 8 p.m. The readings are sponsored by the Canada Council for the Arts. Admission is by donation.
