The Museum at the End of the World - by John Metcalf (Paperback)

About the Book

Humorous but deeply felt stories spanning the life-long career of a writer, painting a memorable portrait of the literary life.

Book Synopsis

"John Metcalf comes as close to the baffling, painful comedy of human experience as a writer can get."--Alice Munro

Set in Nashville, Memphis, New Orleans, and Ottawa, the stories in this collection span the life of writer Robert Ford and his wife Sheila. Playing with various forms of comedy throughout, Metcalf paints a portrait of twentieth-century literary life with levity, satire, and unsuspecting moments of emotional depth.

John Metcalf is the author of more than a dozen works of fiction and nonfiction, including Standing Stones: Selected Stories, Adult Entertainment, Going Down Slow, and Kicking Against the Pricks.

Review Quotes

"Sharp and funny."--Publishers Weekly

"These four related fictions follow a British boy's coming-of-age and his older self enduring a world that rarely lives up to his standards... Brings to mind variously Wodehouse, Waugh, [and] Kingsley Amis... This is a book that could restore anyone's faith in the pleasure of reading."--Kirkus Reviews (starred)

"Metcalf is a gifted satirist and very, very funny...But [he] is much more than simply a jester, poking fun at the nonsensical world around him: he is -- beneath all of the grumbling and gruff -- a sentimentalist. For these stories have, at their core, a tenderness, a sadness, that is, at times, heart-rending."--The Toronto Star

"Metcalf's humour follows the tradition of Wodehouse, Waugh and Amis (Kingsley, not Martin)... it's never dull to read Metcalf. He is such a gifted stylist that you can just let yourself be taken by his sentences."--The National Post

"Metcalf is one of Canada's most heralded practitioners of the short story, and Museum assembles work...which revels enticingly in the texture of the English language. He excels at both the wondrous...and the grotesque"--Maclean's

"Ottawa's literary lion has hit a sweet spot."--The Ottawa Citizen

"If you yearn for comedy worthy of Waugh, or Powell, or Wodehouse, relish his savage wit. If you suspect that our culture has easily forgotten and carelessly dismissed things of real value, let Metcalf remind you what they are. The Museum at the End of the World is a wise book written by a master of short fiction, a celebration of the painstaking, exhilarating business of making art."--Guy Vanderhaeghe

"Metcalf is best when he pokes bitchy fun at Canadian universities and the literary scene."--Winnipeg Free Press

"Metcalf draws Forde as an observer, a noticer of life, as a passionate stylist and devoted reader of his old heroes, and a great listener and absorber of the tales and lives recounted to him by others. But Forde's tragedy, perhaps, is that he lacks insight, in a way that Metcalf does not."--Hamilton Review of Books

"Sharp and funny."--Publishers Weekly

"These four related fictions follow a British boy's coming-of-age and his older self enduring a world that rarely lives up to his standards... Brings to mind variously Wodehouse, Waugh, [and] Kingsley Amis... This is a book that could restore anyone's faith in the pleasure of reading."--Kirkus Reviews (starred)

"Metcalf is a gifted satirist and very, very funny...But [he] is much more than simply a jester, poking fun at the nonsensical world around him: he is -- beneath all of the grumbling and gruff -- a sentimentalist. For these stories have, at their core, a tenderness, a sadness, that is, at times, heart-rending."--The Toronto Star

"Metcalf's humour follows the tradition of Wodehouse, Waugh and Amis (Kingsley, not Martin)... it's never dull to read Metcalf. He is such a gifted stylist that you can just let yourself be taken by his sentences."--The National Post

"Metcalf is one of Canada's most heralded practitioners of the short story, and Museum assembles work...which revels enticingly in the texture of the English language. He excels at both the wondrous...and the grotesque"--Maclean's

"Ottawa's literary lion has hit a sweet spot."--The Ottawa Citizen

"If you yearn for comedy worthy of Waugh, or Powell, or Wodehouse, relish his savage wit. If you suspect that our culture has easily forgotten and carelessly dismissed things of real value, let Metcalf remind you what they are. The Museum at the End of the World is a wise book written by a master of short fiction, a celebration of the painstaking, exhilarating business of making art."--Guy Vanderhaeghe

"Metcalf is best when he pokes bitchy fun at Canadian universities and the literary scene."--Winnipeg Free Press

"Metcalf draws Forde as an observer, a noticer of life, as a passionate stylist and devoted reader of his old heroes, and a great listener and absorber of the tales and lives recounted to him by others. But Forde's tragedy, perhaps, is that he lacks insight, in a way that Metcalf does not."--Hamilton Review of Books

About the Author

John Metcalf was Senior Editor at the Porcupine's Quill until 2005, and is now Fiction Editor at Biblioasis. A scintillating writer, a magisterial editor, and a noted anthologist, he is the author of more than a dozen works of fiction and non-fiction, including Standing Stones: Selected Stories, Adult Entertainment, Going Down Slow and Kicking Against the Pricks. He lives in Ottawa with his wife, Myrna.