The Iconoclasts Journal

Description

Spooked by some ball lightning on his wedding night, repressed young Catholic Griffith Smolders interprets this as a sign and abandons his conjugal responsibilities by escaping through the window, enduring a series of misadventures along the way involving, among others, con men, murderesses, shipwrecks, and autodidact biologist hermits. Giving chase, his betrothed, Avice Drinkwater, finally runs Grif aground in a tiny island community, and prepares to exact her revenge.Set in the rough-and-tumble late nineteenth century backwoods,The Iconoclasts Journalis wildly kinetic, a madcap picaresque and comic anti-romance by one of the most inventive writers at work today.Praise forThe Iconoclasts JournalTerry Griggss second novel [The Iconoclasts Journal] is as exuberantly inventive, verbally juiced up and sexually outrageous as her first,The Lusty Manand more pointedly iconoclastic.The language, the verbal fireworks, the apparently limitless stream of image and metaphorstartling, heady, hilariousdo it all.The Globe and Mailsmashes apart Victorian society (and modern society by extension) and rebuilds it as a Swiftian fantasy, raucous asHuckleberry Finnand nearly as bizarre asAlice in Wonderlandintensely intoxicating and bestowing delicious feelings of hallucination.Quill & Quire[a] humorous novel, delivered with verbal panache and the writers tongue firmly planted in cheeka delightful fairy tale for adults, a fable set in Victorian Canada with an enjoyable cast of characters, and quite probably a moral or two hidden somewhere within its pages. New York Journal of BooksRibald and rambunctious the greater pleasure of it is where it travels. Whenever you think you know where the tale is heading it zigs once and zags twice, bringing you to places you never imagined going. James Crossley, Mercer Island BooksTerry GriggssThe Iconoclasts Journalcompels thoughts, things, places, and faces to populate its pages with their hidden stories: too outrageous to be believed yet too convincing to be doubted, and universally successful in exposing the truth, tragedy, and humor within. Foreword Reviews(starred review)[Grif] stumbles, quite literally, into one adventure after another, treating each with bewilderment and hope strongly picaresque, in the irreverent manner of ApuleiusThe Golden Ass The humor is punctuated by moments as tragic as they are comic.Arkansas InternationalTerry Griggs has just immortalized the runaway bridegroom. Shes a wildly inventive storyteller, gifted with a superb turn of phrase.The Montreal GazetteThis book is a carnival, filled with freaks and wonders. The narrative is preposterous, the characters fabulous, drawn sharper than life, coloured more brightly, yet after you put the book down, you see them everywhere.The Ottawa CitizenThe strangeness of Griggss novel is matched by its panache. She takes the tall tales of rural Ontario and turns them into a story that moves with the speed and certitude of a bullet. [The Iconoclasts Journal] has the hilarity of a Jack Hodgins novel and the inquisitive menace of the Melville who wroteThe Confidence-ManandMoby Dick. Its definitive proof that fiction about the Victorian bush doesnt have to be stodgy, dull, or conventional. For those who enjoy a good smart cock-and-bull story, [The Iconoclasts Journal] is a must-read.Jack Illingwortha rollicking romp and frivolously fantastical; its not heavy, but heavenly.The Hamilton SpectatorIve long been an admirer of Terry Griggs writing. Her language is precise and evocative, even magical. Her talents are on full display in The Iconoclasts Journalthis book is a delight. Andrea Curtis,49th ShelfNever should have gone out of print . . . the novel now has a home worthy of it.David Worsley,49th ShelfIf rollicking nineteenth century adventure coupled with the oddities that make a marriage are of interest to you,The Iconoclasts Journalis a must read. Manhattan Book Review