Product Description
"I have lived many times, Doctor Jung. Who knows, as Leda I might have been the mother of Helen--or, as Anne, the mother of Mary.... I was also crippled shepherd in thrall of Saint Teresa of Avila; an Irish stable boy and a maker of stained glass at Chartres.... I saw the first performance of Hamlet and the last performance of Moliere, the actor. I was a friend to Oscar Wilde and an enemy to Leonardo.... I am both male and female. I am ageless, and I have no access to death."

On April 15, 1912--ironically the very date on which more than a thousand people lost their lives as the Titanic sank--a figure known only as Pilgrim tries to commit suicide by hanging himself from a tree. When he is found five hours later, his heart miraculously begins beating again. This isn't his first attempt to end his life, and it is decided that steps must be taken to prevent Pilgrim from doing himself further harm.

Escorted by his beloved friend, Lady Sybil Quartermaine, Pilgrim is admitted to the famous Burgholzi Psychiatric Clinic in Zurich, where he will begin a battle of psyche and soul with Carl Jung, the self-professed mystical scientist of the unconscious--who is also a slave to his own sexual appetites.

Hungry for intellectual and spiritual challenge, Jung is fascinated by this compelling and enigmatic patient who refuses to speak. Slowly, though, Jung coaxes him to reveal the astonishing story of his existence. Pilgrim claims to be ageless and sexless, having lived as both male and female for four thousand years. Asserting that he has witnessed the greatest events of human history, he recounts his involvement with numerous figures who have shaped world culture, including Leonardo da Vinci, Oscar Wilde, and Henry James.

For Jung, probing this patient's mind proves a challenge that is both frustrating and enlightening. Is Pilgrim delusional? Are his memories only dreams or something far more fantastic? Is it madness or a miracle? These interactions with Pilgrim have a profound and unexpected effect on the esteemed and controversial doctor's own life and sanity, for his dreams soon become entwined with those of his patient's, while the anchor of his soul, his marriage, begins to disintegrate. The puzzle called Pilgrim will seemingly lead either to Jung's salvation--or his damnation.

Beautifully written, deeply evocative, and filled with a fascinating cast of historical characters, Pilgrim is both a richly layered story of a man's search for his own destiny and an absorbing, mind-expanding novel that explores the timeless questions of humanity and consciousness.Amazon.com Review
Timothy Findley's Pilgrim is the story of a man who can't dieeven though he tries over and over to kill himself. Diagnosed asschizophrenic, in 1912 he's placed in a Zurich clinic where Carl GustavJung is hard as work trying to determine the perimeter of thecollective unconscious. For Jung, this man becomes anembodiment of the psyche's mystery. Claiming to have no past history but tohave simply arrived one day at consciousness, Pilgrimlives in a limbo outside individuality and subjectivity. He's everyoneand no one. Is he a messenger? Or is he a basket case? As the novelgathers momentum, we realize that Pilgrim is a character much like VirginiaWoolf's Orlando, traversing gender and time, a witness. But whereasWoolf is a feverish and emotional writer, Findley is philosophical anddry, playful and slightly pretentious. Imagining conversations betweenPilgrim and Henry James, Leonardo da Vinci, and Oscar Wilde, thisnovel is like a party full of beautiful guests. Or a safe train tripthrough an exotic landscape of consciousness where men use cologne thatsmells like "moss... lemons... ferns" and schizophrenics areelegant and well dressed, like the old countess who believes she lives on the moon and asks her doctor, "Is this a ballroom? Am I being courted?"--Emily White ... Read more

Customer Reviews (22)

good book.
I really enjoyed this book. Intresting characters, facinating creative licence on historical figures and the whole plot with Da'vinci and the Mona Lisa is great. His charactersation of Dr. Jung was very enjoyable. My only critisism is the author diverges into other minor characters without any reason and uses whole chapters to do this. I can see a few paragraphs but a chapter was to much. By relating a few facts or tid bits it would have made a much more facinating read. I was also left with a feeling that I did not really know the main character as much as I would have liked. Pilgrim is shown hopping from body to body through time and space but there was a lack of essential essence to the man save as witness to greatness.

pilgrim
one of the finest books i have ever read.you will not be disapointed.the blend of fiction, and history is exceptional.all i can say is read it.if you're not happy let me know, i'll buy you another book

Promising elements, disappointing realization
Imagine a novel crafted around Carl Jung, a man who believes that he has lived forever, and Leonardo da Vinci.What could be wrong with that? Findley's novel seems to exist to answer that question.The set-up is engrossing, the reality postulated (and challenged) in the story is compelling (what is "madness", are there really immortals who live more or less forever at the behest of superhuman beings, what is psychotherapy intended to accomplish)and (at least some of) the characters are larger than life, yet the overall result is dismaying.Probably more because of the distance between the setup and the result than for any other reason. Findley writes in a smooth and fastidious style, but is maddeningly drawn to surface details.Its a little like imagining the fashion section's report of a meeting of the greatest thinkers of human history.Paragraph after paragraph about who was wearing what, nothing about what anyone said.Here we have a portrait of Jung as a total failure of a husband and father and only inklings of his power as an explorer of human consciousness.This is combined with another portrait, that of the eponymous pilgrim, a person who has lived for ages --but who has gotten out of this long life only a complex (and probably justified) resentment of Leonardo da Vinci. Ultimately this novel is a failure.It hints at issues, but doesn't address them, sketches characters and doesn't face up to the realization of their implications.It has some wonderfully evocative writing, some beautiful set pieces (the most striking of which is the funeral of a mysterious English noblewoman), but it is ultimately shallow and cowardly.It pretends to raise issues but won't really grapple with them.It pretends to advance characters but doesn't really develop them. Behind its smooth facade, it is an intellectually and narratively lazy work. If you want to grapple with Jungian ideas in a novelistic setting, read Robertson Davies's *The Manticore*.If you want to read a work of magical realism, there are many to choose from, not the least of which is Mark Halprin's "Winter's Tale".This book is all surface and no substance.I wish that I had not bought it or wasted the time it took to read it.

Death at a Jung Age
How must modern psychiatry, circa 1912, react when confronted with a subject whose most ardent desire in life is to die?For many patients the answer would be straightforward--identify the roots of the suicidal misery, pick them out of the subconscious, force the patient to confront and discard them, and lead him back into the hopeful world of the living.

But the peculiarly named Pilgrim presents renowned alienist Carl Jung with some unusual twists which defy a simple diagnosis.For one thing, Pilgrim has attempted suicide multiple times, seemingly succeeding, only to be involuntarily and inexplicably brought back to life.He has no history.Yet he claims to have lived through centuries.He speaks of Da Vinci, Oscar Wilde and Henry James as though they were his most intimate friends and enemies.

The doctors all agree:a clear case of delusional paranoid schizophrenia.But as Dr. Jung's professional arrogance is gradually worn away by Pilgrim's extraordinary insights into truth and beauty, the very nature of insanity comes into question.

Tim Findley's novel is a rich tapestry of historical fact and literary grace.Through the story of the time traveller Pilgrim, the reader spends intimate moments with some of history's greatest minds, and learns about the failure of genius to guide the human spirit.But through Pilgrim the reader retains a faith in the power of beauty to move mountains and achieve the impossible.

For any reader who ever questioned accepted orthodoxies about art, history, literature, and the way they have shaped our world, this book is a must.

Pilgrim
I've only read about half of this book, but I'm already convinced that Pilgrim is a monumental literary achievement and an intelligent, enlightening read.This narrative describes the real Doctor Karl Gustav Jung's therapy and obsession with afictional, suicidal patient named Pilgrim.Pilgrim has attempted to take his life on several occasions but is unable to achieve death.He appears to be immortal. The story brings to life Jung's theory of the subconscious and the significant role it plays in all our lives.Pilgrim represents the "Everyman" of our inner worlds.His character, intentionally lacking a proper name and individual identity represents, all collective unconsciousness.As the story unfolds this premise becomes increasingly apparent. So far, Pilgrim is mute in the story.Jung fails to achieve verbal communication with him.Instead he studies his patient with the aid of a collection of his personal journals, which span time from the 15th century to the novel's current 20th century setting .As Jung studies these journals his own inner-voice is in constant dialog with him helping to clarify Pilgrim's experience.Is this the voice of Pilgrim?As Pilgrim's story unfolds there is arecurring theme of vagueness where Pilgrim's own sense of sexual identity is concerned. This theme corresponds closely with Jung's theory of the Anima and Animus.Through this theory Jung postulated that we are all psychologically bisexual due to the fact that the only thing that determines our external sex is a dominant number of female or male genes.He believed that, "the smaller number ofcontrasexual genes produces acorresponding contrasexual character which usually remains unconscious."In the story Jung discovers that the inner-voice he dialogs with as he is reading Pilgrim's journal is female. The above context renders the character's designation as Pilgrim an appropriate one. Jung's belief was that consciousness by its nature has no limits.It is capable of indefinite extension.Pilgrim's story and experiences of immortally traveling through time, as well as his own struggles with Anima and Animus throughout his journeys, is artfully illustrated through Findley's work. Aside from the psycho./spiritual revelations that this novel provides, there are two other reasons for reading it- theintense imagery found inFindley's writing and the sense of enjoyment and adventure experienced through Pilgrim's journey. For a more thorough understanding of the novel, I recommend that you read Herman Hesse's, Demian and Karl Jung's autobiography, Memories, Dreams, Reflections. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

I only wish I could see it in person!
A Canadian Ambassador is called back from his Moscow post after the body of a Russian youth is found beaten to death in a hotel room. Held in a safe house alongside his wife Marian, suffering from Alzhiemer's, and daughter Diana; the Ambassador and his family are forced to deal with their past and reveal secrets.

My regret after reading this play was not having been old enough back in '93 when it was written to see it perform by the actors it was written for. The characters are true, Marian and Raymond in particular break your heart. Mr. Findley knew what he was doing when he wrote this play. Read it and if you can see it! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

a covenant broken
You take a lot on faith when you open the cover and start that first paragraph. You're going to give this a chunk of your most valuable possession: your time. You assume that someone held this up to some objective standards for quality. You put your faith in the publisher and the editor, assuming that if the author himself has somehow lost his bearings, they'll put him right. They wouldn't send it off to the printer with huge glaring plot holes, massive inconsistencies, multitudinous loose ends unresolved, and heaps of just plain nonsense never explained. I wish I could get back the money I paid for this book and I wish I could get back the time I wasted reading it. The author, publisher and editor all owe us an apology for passing off this lazy, self-indulgent piece of sloppiness as a whole, entire novel.

*massive spoilers ahead* Imagine any doctor anywhere observing a patient who can voluntarily manipulate the muscles of his forehead to form shapes approximating letters -- and never reporting it to anyone! On what planet? People see wings and birds that aren't there -- even photograph them! But nobody says nor does anything about it. Useless characters clutter up the story along with useless description about them, their lives, their clothing, their thoughts -- and it all leads to nothing. Carl Jung is content to disregard the fact that a woman killed in an avalanche had the great good luck to have written a farewell letter before heading out that day. Was this just a handy coincidence? Apparently so. And then there's Jung's wife with all those journals. After she miscarried, she just lost interest in those fantastic journals and no doubt put them away in a shoebox somewhere and forgot about them, right? Cuz they were never mentioned again. Right.

I admire what the author set out to do. It was a tantalizing premise, a great idea, and Findley launched it in good order, but it absolutely fell apart in the last pages of the book. I was frustrated and miffed. It was a good story, I'd become emotionally invested in the outcome, and so I wanted RESOLUTION. Do we not deserve that? No, I don't need to be spoonfed an explicit explanation of every little thing, but a book should cover the basics. It should make sense. This writer apparently feels he doesn't owe us that.

I'll never read anything by this man ever again and I think the book's publisher should be ashamed of himself. If you were the editor, you let us all down.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

An excellent book
Findley is a very gifted writer, and his talent shines through in this book. "The Last of the Crazy People" is a stunning piece about a dysfunctional family. From the first page, Findley calculatingly begins to describe the family in such a way that holds the readers attention. Reading this book is like watching a car crash in slow motion. It is a creative and intriguing read.

powerful goth tale
This is Findley's first novel, written in 1967 and set in the mid-1960s.It takes place in a small town setting outside of Toronto, but could very well have been set in deepest Mississippi for all the southern goth elements that dominate this book.A family disintegrates through the eyes of an 11-year-old boy.Mother won't leave her room, Brother is consumed by alcohol, Father is powerless.The boy's best friends are his cats and the black housemaid he is most attached to.In true southern goth style, things unravel in horrible ways as the family members drift further apart over the course of what should be a magical summer for the typical 11-year-old.Darkness, decay, death, despair, and the opening of a young boy's eyes to the realities of the world.Emotionally powerful, this book is simply awesome.Highly recommended for southern goth fans.

An incredible look at human nature in dysfunctional families
Much of Findley's work revolves around upscale families with problems.The Last of the Crazy People is no exception.As seen through the eyes of the youngest child in the family, who is really the only one not yetcorrupted by loss of innocence, the story is told with the accuracy thatonly a child's perception will grant.Beautifully written, this is yetanother book by Timothy Findley that i have loved.

Sockingview on how our society works as a whole!!!
This is one of Mr. Findley's finest works. The metaphorical imagry used to discribe us as mankind is graphic and haunting. I know that I'll never forget,"The Last Of The Crazy People".

This Canadian author should be read by more Americans
Timothy Findley's first novel is a powerfully shocking read full ofcharacters who reach out to the reader.Set in Ontario in 1964, the maincharacter is an 11 year old boy, Hooker Winslow, living within adysfunctional family.Findley holds your attention while you identify withthis young man trying to learn about the problems in his family--but no onewill tell him the truth.Not his distanced father who speaks to no oneexcept his own spinster sister Rosetta who lives FOR her brother.Not hismother, the "crazy" Jessica who no longer wants to be a mother. Sometimes his drunken brother Gil.And the maid, Iris, tries to helphim--but the truth is never within his grasp.The ending is breath-taking. Read this novel and you'll become a Findley fan. ... Read more

Product Description
Based on the original stage production at the Stratford Festival of Canada, directed by Martha Henry.

In this daring and original production of Timothy Findley's Governor-General Award winning play, William Shakespeare and the formidable Virgin Queen, Elizabeth I, are brought together in a remarkable encounter on the night of April 22, 1616. The night the Queen's Lover will be executed, by the Queen's decree. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A great piece of theatre
Elizabeth Rex is a tremendously moving and thoughtful play. Timothy Findley's play is an overlooked gem that rarely gets its do in the United Stares.

Read it, but more importantly see it.

The King and the Queen
Writing a "book" review on a play that one has not read may seem a bit presumptuous. However, my wife and I saw the US premier of this play at Houston's Stages Theater a few weeks ago and can attest that it is some of the finest entertainment we have seen in many a day. I hope that many people will read it, that college English classes will study it, and, most importantly, that numerous theater groups will stage it.

Historical.Hilarious. Poignant. An exhaustive list of appropriate adjectives would exceed Amazon's page limitations.

The play has a large cast of memorable characters including a semi-blind theater seamstress and a bear. The scene is a barn in England in 1601, and Queen Elizabeth seeksdiversion from the impending beheading of her lover in the company of William Shakespeare and his band of actors. The dialogue is both scholarly and witty, with many echoes from Shakespeare's plays.

But the driving force for the drama is the point/counterpoint exchanges between "King" Elizabeth, who feels compelled to shirk her womanly feelings for the good of her country and the actor Ned, a 17th century drag-Queen. More than that I will not tell.

See it if you can, but, until it plays in your area, read the book.

One of the most haunting plays ever written...
In 1601, Queen Elizabeth I was forced by duty to condemn to death a man widely believed to be her former lover. On the night before the execution, she demanded that William Shakespeare's acting troup, The Lord Chamberlain's Men, perform a play to distract her from the heartbreak that would occur in the morning. This much is truth. Timothy Findley takes these historical facts, blends in a few "what if's?" and creates a powerhouse play about men, women, fantasy, death, and ultimately, love.

After a performance of Much Ado About Nothing, Queen Elizabeth goes backstage to talk with the actors, and finds them all mourning the iminent death of the Beatrice of the evening, their terminally ill leading "lady," Ned. Ned has lived all his life as a woman, and does not know how to face his upcoming death with the courage of a man. Elizabeth, by contrast, has had to destroy her feminine side in order to rule England successfully. Realising this, the two strike a bargain: Ned will teach Elizabeth how to be a woman, if she can teach him how to be a man. What follows is a heartbreaking journey of self-discovery in which Elizabeth learns how to mourn, Ned learns how to die with grace and how to live with love, and William Shakespeare finds the greatest play never written.

This is an excellent choice for any Shakespeare fan, and for any lover of theatre. Powerful, enlightening, heartbreaking and uplifting, Elizabeth Rex is an exquisite journey for the heart, with beautiful dialogue, strong characters, and fascinating arguments. A must-read. ... Read more

Product Description
In the extraordinary stories of this collection, random events interrupt seemingly quiet lives, forcing people to accept consequences and make choices. Whether exploring the complexity of female sexuality or the horror of urban violence, Marshall’s fiction is always a passionate engagement with contemporary life.

This original New Canadian Library collection brings together 12 of Marshall’s best stories, including two stories here published for the first time. ... Read more