An unusual rural outpost is peopled with funny and strange characters in local author George Connell's latest book. It reminds the reader of a place like Egmont. The novel, Saint Thomas of Egmont, that Connell launched last week is a blend of a good Biblical yarn accompanied by close-to-home Sunshine Coast current events.
Two hockey players have clear cut the slopes across from the settlement, angering residents. Sound familiar? Others have figured out how to grow a great yield of marijuana deep in the forest.
A dispute among church goers has resulted in a divided congregation. The church that is inclusive of all people invites a stranger, Thomas, to their soup and song evening. An unpleasant developer's consultant is about to scam residents when the stranger Thomas asks cogent questions that earn him respect from the public.
A cross-dressing sea captain is tripped up on porch stairs and may have broken his back until the stranger Thomas works a miracle.
Irene, barmaid at the Backeddy Pub, enjoys a night of love with the ubiquitous Thomas. He touches lives and changes outlooks. The fact that Thomas has a twin brother by a different father is a conundrum that Joseph, Thomas's new friend, struggles to grasp.
The strength of Connell's book lies in these quirky characters - that may or may not bear a resemblance to those living, though Connell asserts that his book is fiction. He has a suitably confusing answer for those who mayfeel they have been skewered.
"If they think they've found themselves in the book, they probably haven't," he said. "But if you think you're not in the book, then you just may be."
Connell was brought up in the United and Anglican churches. He has made a study of secular accounts of the Bible and is well versed in the intricacies and language of Biblical times - a skill that is apparent when the author sets a scene in the Holy Land to describe the relationship between two main characters.
"I want people to question what they believe," Connell said.
The book's flaw is that it jumps from one character to the next in a confusing array of incidents. This lack of clarity is not helped by the absence of punctuation, particularly in dialogue. It is a bend-the-rules book that showcases Connell's sense of humour.
Connell grew up in Montreal as one of few Anglophones. He learned French "in only three fights" as he said.
After living in Vancouver for years, he moved to the Sunshine Coast with his wife, Pia Sillem, a widely respected potter and sculptor. and the couple have a studio, Geopia, with a wood-fired kiln near Earl's Cove.
Connell paints, though he reports that he has never taken a sketching class, primarily out of stinginess and eventually out of fear. His primary interest lies in showing the spirit of working people at their jobs. He also sings and plays guitar at local watering holes, appears in commercials occasionally and loves to have secular spiritual discussion with all denominations.
Saint Thomas of Egmont is self-published through Les Editions Extroverse and will be available at local bookstores - if Egmont residents don't buy them up first.
