{"product_id":"9780307356154","title":"The Ravine","description":"\u003ctable\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAuthor\/Contributor(s):\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"\"\u003eQuarrington, Paul\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eVintage Canada\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDate:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e3\/10\/2009\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBinding:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"\"\u003ePaperback\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCondition:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"\"\u003eNEW\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/tbody\u003e\u003c\/table\u003eOne morning in Don Mills, Phil and his brother Jay agree to let their friend Norman Kitchen tag along on an adventure down into a ravine — and what happens there at the hands of two pitiless\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003eteenagers changes all their lives forever. Years later the horrifying details are still unclear, smothered in layers of deliberate forgetting. Phil doesn’t even remember the names: Ted and Terry? Tom and Tony? It’s only when he descends into a crisis of his own that he comes to realize that perhaps, as he drunkenly tells a crisis line counsellor, “I went down into a ravine, and never really came back out.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Ravine\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eis Phil’s book — we read it as he types it, in the basement apartment he’s called home since his wife kicked him out for having an affair with a make-up girl. As he writes, and then corrects what he’s written, we hear how he went from promising young playwright to successful, self-hating TV producer. We listen in on his disastrous late-night phone calls, and watch his brother (once a brilliant classical pianist) weep to himself as he plays Ravel and \u003ci\u003eWaltzing Matilda\u003c\/i\u003e in a desolate bar. \u003cb\u003eThe Ravine\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003etells us all about the influence of \u003ci\u003eThe Twilight Zone\u003c\/i\u003e on Phil’s work and his life — how it helped him meet his wife Veronica and then lose her, and how it led to the bizarre\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003edeath of his friend, TV star Edward Milligan. Sometimes, when Phil’s drunk, a friend will look at what he’s written so far and call him on it — like when Jay tells Phil that he’s remembered it all wrong: that he was just as good as Phil at tying knots back when they were in the cubs. \u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePhil’s “ravine”\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eis his attempt to make sense of things, to try to understand how everything went so wrong just as it seemed to be going so right. But \u003cb\u003eThe Ravine\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eis also a Paul Quarrington novel, meaning that it’s hilarious and ingenious, quietly working its magic until the reader is at once heartbroken and hopeful. A darkly funny story about loss and redemption, \u003cb\u003eThe Ravine\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eis also about how stories are made — how they can pull us out of disasters that seem too much for anyone to bear — and about how, sometimes, what we need to forgive ourselves for is not what we think it is at all.","brand":"Vintage Canada","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44216208130303,"sku":"9780307356154","price":16.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0452\/0886\/2873\/files\/9780307356154_s600x595.jpg?v=1782148704","url":"https:\/\/massivebookshop.com\/products\/9780307356154","provider":"MASSIVE BOOKSHOP","version":"1.0","type":"link"}