Reviews – Cedar, Salmon and Weed

Hailing all Readers!

Admin — Thu, 06 Jul 2017 17:21:50 +0000

We want you to be a part of the next printing of Cedar, Salmon and Weed!

As Louis prepares to do another printing run of the book, he is looking for new testimonials/comments to use on the book. And he would like them to come from you! So, what would you like to say about the book to help those who haven’t read it know if they will like it?

Use the comment form below, or email directly to louis@cedarsalmonandweed.ca

Thanks in advance!!

Geist Review

Admin — Sat, 07 Jan 2017 04:41:37 +0000
More catch-up material on the book!

Geist is a Canadian magazine hailing from Vancouver that is an eclectic mix of literature and culture, published four times a year. The summer 2016 issue had a brief endnote review of Cedar, Salmon and Weed. See it in the attached pdf file below.

Geist book review

Reader Memories and Comments

Admin — Tue, 19 Jan 2016 23:31:41 +0000
Sylvia Reynolds sent this lovely note to Louis at the end of November (Your webmaster has been rather negligent of late, but promises to be more active in the coming months – stay tuned!) and graciously agreed that we could share it here. So much fun to hear of readers’ experiences of the book!). Here are Sylvia’s words:
I know the expression to never judge a book by its cover, but I really like the atmospheric picture and it does represent the content! [Ed. Note: Kudos go to Hamo Djoboulian for creating the great cover image! (See image to right.)]

With your descriptions, I could visualize the coastline and vegetation around Bamfield, but was never there for long enough to get to know the more permanent residents. I thought Gaz and the other main characters in your book strong and interesting. I have a happy memory of being with the first group of students to stay in the old cable station. We slept together in a large room and I seem to remember ghost stories being told before we settled off – probably by Dan Pace who is still a friend of ours.

Coming from Ireland as a rather innocent and politically ignorant 21 year old Vancouver was an exciting place to be in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Apart from becoming more politically aware (Vietnam was always in the news), I learned about cannabis! My fellow housemates and I tried to grow it at the bottom of the garden of our Burnaby house, but it was a wet year and the plants did not thrive. Years later, it was I who showed our children cannabis grown in our Dublin garden, from bird seed – as part of my work on ‘alien’ plants.

WooHoo!

Admin — Fri, 11 Dec 2015 17:47:10 +0000
There is review of Cedar, Salmon and Weed in the current edition of BC Book World (find it on your next Ferry ride!) You can read the issue here: (CSW review is on p. 25)
Louis is also featured BC BookLook – he made the cover on the December 1 issue! http://bcbooklook.com/2015/12/01/the-great-bamfield-novel/

More Reader feedback

Admin — Sat, 13 Jun 2015 01:27:15 +0000

Jo Dette posted this to Facebook & we wanted to share it here. Thanks Jo! I just wanted to tell you that I finished your book today and enjoyed it very much. The sentence “Just let me finish this chapter.” was said often when tasks demanded my time. The more I read it, the more I thought the character Gaz was Boomer, and it was confirmed when I read the last page. Thank you for bringing back the memories of him. Like how he used to relish in the scaring of me when I would unlock the Marine Station kitchen door in the mornings. Or how he told me, in his polite way, that when he wanted his coffee refilled, he would let me know and not to approach him with the “topping up” when I was doing my waitress duties at the Tides and Trails. Will recommend your book to my reader friends and was wondering….. will there be a sequel?

Book Review by Ann Rose

Admin — Mon, 01 Jun 2015 19:37:21 +0000

Ann Rose is a Professor of Medical Genetics at the University of British Columbia and a recipient of the Outstanding Alumni Award from Simon Fraser University. She has generously agreed to allow us to share her lovely review of Cedar, Salmon and Weed here. The review was originally published in the SFURA Newsletter, Vol XIII, Number 1, Spring, 2015. If you’d like to buy a copy of the book for yourself to read, click on “Buy the Book!” at the left of the top menu bar!
Photograph by Marc Phillips.
I had been looking forward to reading Cedar, Salmon and Weed by Louis Druehl, and I wasn’t disappointed. I know the author. I knew the person whom the protagonist was based upon, and I know he died. When I set out to read this book, I thought it would be a mystery story in which the villain was the wild nature of the West Coast of British Columbia. But it wasn’t. What the book is is a love story of a very unconventional kind and like marine life itself, which is hidden beneath the surface of the ocean, the deeper themes of this book lie below the surface. In order to understand this, we need to know something about the place where the novel is set. The small fishing village of Bamfield has a unique and proud history. Druehl begins his story by introducing us to Bamfield and the Bamfield Marine Station, which in the early 1900s was the Eastern end of the trans-Pacific telegraph line that circled the globe and provided a communications link to countries around the world. The author’s love of this place plays a central role. Across the Pacific, this cable line lay under the ocean and like the deeper connections between the characters of Druehl’s book, was hidden from sight. Bamfield is made up of diverse communities that live in and pass through it. The members of these groups come together to form a single image, like a flock of birds, and then come apart, fraying at the edges as they separate into their individual beings. Druehl captures in his novel the irony of community, our need to be a part of a social network versus our desire to be unfettered by social norms. He treats both the community and the individuals that form it with humour and affection. However, at the heart of the book is the author’s love for his friend who was tragically lost. To understand Gaz, the central character, one needs to know that his creation was inspired by Louis Druehl’s friend, John Boom. The tragedy of John’s death is not part of the book itself and is only revealed, poignantly, in the Remembrance, but there is a real sense of loss that ripples through the characters and action. On one level the book is as described on the back cover as “a wild ride through a community turned upside-down.” On another level, it is the story of friends and lovers, and the turmoil created as they search for their place in a world full of potential but hindered by limited possibility. Louis Druehl is a marine biologist, university professor, lover of seaweed, innovator of kelp farming, and an editor and author. His multi-dimensional talent results in the madcap world of Gaz and his friends. However, the author’s real feelings and motivations lie discretely below the surface as he brings to life the characters with his special brand of tongue-in- cheek humour. The novel takes place between August 1974 and October 1975. Sections of the book are introduced with quotes from John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row – also set in a West Coast marine station environment – one of my favorites being, “For there are men who can look, listen, tap, make an adjustment, and a machine works.” It appears Gaz has a talent for making machines work, while in his personal life he and his buddies get into all sorts of high jinx dealing with the isolation of a small ocean-based community. This book will appeal to those who know West Coast life, as well as a wider audience. Students of all ages looking for answers in a complex world will find something of interest here.