The Order of Good Cheer - by Bill Gaston (Paperback)

About the Book

A fascinating yet little-known figure in North American history, the French explorer and mapmaker Samuel de Champlain was the subject of a recent best-selling biography by historian David Hackett Fischer. "The Order of Good Cheer, " a highly readable novel by master storyteller Bill Gaston, offers a beautifully shaded, fictionalized portrait of Champlain, as well as a marvelous window into Canadian culture past and present. In 1607, Champlain and his companions struggled to establish a French colony on foreign soil while warding off scurvy. Separated by the breadth of a continent and exactly 400 years is 21st-century blue-collar worker Andy Winslow and his friends, whose urban landscape is threatened by encroaching environmental and economic disaster. In alternating narratives, Gaston bridges the divide across land and time in this illuminating story about survival, love, feast, and friendship.

Book Synopsis

Indian summer, 1607. Intrepid explorer and map-maker Samuel de Champlain has founded a new and precarious settlement in Annapolis Royal, New France (present-day Nova Scotia). As winter looms, two threats emerge: boredom amongst the men and the deadly sickness scurvy. Champlain hits upon the idea of a moveable feast -- an order of "good cheer" -- where nobles and men can enjoy good local food, excellent wine, and camaraderie.

Separated by the breadth of a continent and exactly four hundred years is twenty-first-century blue-collar worker Andy Winslow and his friends, whose urban landscape is threatened by encroaching environmental and economic disaster. In alternating narratives, award winning author and master storyteller Bill Gaston bridges the divide across land and time in this illuminating story about survival, love, friendship, and feast.

Review Quotes

...extraordinary...one of the most talented writers currently on the Canadian literary scene....The Order of Good Cheer is a feast of nuanced writing, blessed with one of those rare endings that are absolutely perfect. Gaston has crafted a bittersweet ode to friendship, loss, and near-hopelessness that lingers in the mind long after the story has come to a close...-- "Winnipeg Free Press"

...[Gaston] writes with a refreshing ground-level accuracy...[and] takes his readers on a very long and interesting trip through both time and space, without splattering them with ketchup or spilling drinks in their laps. Since this is a novel about food, that's really something.-- "Vancouver Review"

...[The Order of Good Cheer is a] daring, big-hearted work.-- "Montreal Gazette"

...The novel could be viewed as a cousin to David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas...[a] daring, big-hearted work.-- "Montreal Gazette"

[Gaston's] descriptions bring people and places vibrantly alive, and his prose shimmers with colour, humour and passion...[his] voice is utterly and thoroughly his own.-- "Chronicle Herald"

The writing is wonderful, the characterizations strong...The Order of Good Cheer was difficult to set aside and will be impossible to forget.-- "January Magazine"

The Order of Good Cheer is a challenging and provocative book...-- "Georgia Straight"