I've been on vacation all week and this is one of the books I threw in my suitcase before I left home. By the cover design, I'm sure you can tell it's a 60s printing. Actually, it's a "New Canadian Library" edition printed in 1968. I adore "New Canadian Library" not only for the series' unique and colourful covers, but also because through these printings, I've been introduced to many Canadian books and authors I would not have discovered otherwise.
Many readers of literature, I'm sure, will recognize the author, Robertson Davies, as the writer of Fifth Business. Having read Fifth Business in a high school English class a few years back, I was taken by surprise when I started to read this book. While I recognize Davies' style, the content is much different. Fifth Business is a fairly serious, thought-provoking piece of work, while Samuel Marchbank's Almanack is comedy. I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard . . . well actually I can. The last time I laughed as hard as I did reading this book was when I read Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
The book takes the form of a series of letter between Samuel Marchbanks' and a number of acquaintances, covering every subject from a law suit about a skunk, to a request for a garden hose, and a critique of the price for which a Sunday school is selling fudge. Much of the material, in an indirect way is a critique of Canadian society and government, as well as a few jabs at our American neighbours. I admit, I stopped many times in the course of this book, to read a passage aloud to the others in the room with me who had stopped their own activities to stare and ask what I was laughing so hysterically at.
Not only is it a hilarious book, but I do have to admit, it will look lovely on my bookshelf stashed between Gabriel Roy's The Tin Flute and Margaret Laurence's The Stone Angel.
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