The Iconoclast's Journal

by Terry Griggs

Overview

Spooked by some ball lightning on his wedding night, repressed young Catholic Griffith Smolders interprets this as a sign and abandons his conjugal responsibilities by escaping through the window, enduring a series of misadventures along the way involving, among others, con men, murderesses, shipwrecks, and autodidact biologist hermits. Giving chase, his betrothed, Avice Drinkwater, finally runs Grif aground in a tiny island community, and prepares to exact her revenge.

Set in the rough-and-tumble late nineteenth century backwoods, The Iconoclast’s Journal is wildly kinetic, a madcap picaresque and comic anti-romance by one of the most inventive writers at work today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781771962292
Publisher:	Biblioasis
Publication date:	06/12/2018
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.25(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Terry Griggs is the author of Quickening, which was nominated for a Governor General’s Award, The Lusty Man, and Thought You Were Dead. Her popular children’s novels include the Cat’s Eye Corner series, and, most recently, Nieve (Biblioasis). In 2003, Terry Griggs was awarded the Marian Engel Award in recognition of a distinguished body of work, and in 2010 honoured with the installation of a Project Bookmark Canada plaque in Owen Sound. Her latest book is the short fiction collection, The Discovery of Honey (Biblioasis, 2017). She lives in Stratford, Ontario.

Table of Contents

Part 1 1

1 Theft 3

2 Passing Through 13

3 Nominus Umbra 25

4 A Scream 35

5 Mal De Mer 45

6 Modern Hero 55

7 Flotsam 63

8 Light-Keeping 71

9 Skelf 83

10 The Irish Constellation 93

11 Unnatural History 103

12 The Gorgon's Mouth 117

13 Wickedness 125

14 No Lies 133

15 Call Us Not Weeds 141

Part 2 149

16 Mr. and Mrs. 151

17 Free Speech 161

18 Fly 175

19 Hugh 183

20 Seven Friars Hugging a Nun 193

21 Rue 205

22 Blue Ruin 215

23 The Lady Protests 225

24 16 FPS 235

25 Take One … And Take That 247

26 Vulcanic Love 257

27 Best Man 265

Editorial Reviews

Praise for The Iconoclast's Journal

“Terry Griggs’s second novel [The Iconoclast’s Journal] is as exuberantly inventive, verbally juiced up and sexually outrageous as her first, The Lusty Man―and more pointedly iconoclastic….The language, the verbal fireworks, the apparently limitless stream of image and metaphor―startling, heady, hilarious―do it all.”―The Globe and Mail

“...smashes apart Victorian society (and modern society by extension) and rebuilds it as a Swiftian fantasy, raucous as Huckleberry Finn and nearly as bizarre as Alice in Wonderland…intensely intoxicating and bestowing delicious feelings of hallucination.”—Quill & Quire

“[a] humorous novel, delivered with verbal panache and the writer’s tongue firmly planted in cheek...a delightful fairy tale for adults, a fable set in Victorian Canada with an enjoyable cast of characters, and quite probably a moral or two hidden somewhere within its pages.” —New York Journal of Books

“Ribald and rambunctious... the greater pleasure of it is where it travels. Whenever you think you know where the tale is heading it zigs once and zags twice, bringing you to places you never imagined going.” —James Crossley, Mercer Island Books

“Terry Griggs’s The Iconoclast’s Journal compels thoughts, things, places, and faces to populate its pages with their hidden stories: too outrageous to be believed yet too convincing to be doubted, and universally successful in exposing the truth, tragedy, and humor within.” —Foreword Reviews (starred review)

"[Grif] stumbles, quite literally, into one adventure after another, treating each with bewilderment and hope ... strongly picaresque, in the irreverent manner of Apuleius’ The Golden Ass ... The humor is punctuated by moments as tragic as they are comic." —Arkansas International

“Terry Griggs has just immortalized the runaway bridegroom. She’s a wildly inventive storyteller, gifted with a superb turn of phrase.”—The Montreal Gazette

“This book is a carnival, filled with freaks and wonders. The narrative is preposterous, the characters fabulous, drawn sharper than life, coloured more brightly, yet after you put the book down, you see them everywhere.”—The Ottawa Citizen

“The strangeness of Griggs’s novel is matched by its panache. She takes the tall tales of rural Ontario and turns them into a story that moves with the speed and certitude of a bullet. [The Iconoclast’s Journal] has the hilarity of a Jack Hodgins’ novel and the inquisitive menace of the Melville who wrote The Confidence-Man and Moby Dick. It’s definitive proof that fiction about the Victorian bush doesn’t have to be stodgy, dull, or conventional. For those who enjoy a good smart cock-and-bull story, [The Iconoclast’s Journal] is a must-read.”―Jack Illingworth

“...a rollicking romp and frivolously fantastical; it’s not heavy, but heavenly.”—The Hamilton Spectator

"I’ve long been an admirer of Terry Griggs’ writing. Her language is precise and evocative, even magical. Her talents are on full display in The Iconoclast's Journal...this book is a delight." —Andrea Curtis, 49th Shelf

"Never should have gone out of print . . . the novel now has a home worthy of it." —David Worsley, 49th Shelf

"If rollicking nineteenth century adventure coupled with the oddities that make a marriage are of interest to you, The Iconoclast’s Journal is a must read." —Manhattan Book Review

From the Publisher

2018-03-05
A young husband flees from his newlywed bride in 1898.On Thomas Griffith "Grif" Smolders' wedding night, a ball of lightning chases him out of his hotel window. But even after the ghostly orb fizzles out, Thomas keeps running. It isn't hard to see why. He's clearly no match for his better half, Avice, who had "enchanted and stolen him" and is now waiting in the next room for him to get up "the nerve to open that door and see her, behold her, stretched out naked on the bed. The gift of herself too beautiful for wrapping." Headstrong and vain, she naturally takes his disappearance hard, vows revenge, and gives chase. In the grand tradition of the picaresque, Canadian author Griggs (Thought You Were Dead, 2009, etc.) throws up one obstacle after another in front of our hero: a con man, a shipwreck, a family of grotesque and maybe murderous bumpkins. Every one is nearly as dangerous as Grif's bride, who is coming up fast behind him. The narrative goes back and forth between husband and wife, spending more time with Grif. That's a shame because he is a bit of a snooze, more interested in insects than introspection, whereas the novel picks up whenever Avice appears. Griggs' style also slows the pace of the story. Ornate, even baroque descriptions pile up on every page. Sometimes Griggs hits on a splendid formulation (Avice's hats are "trim and stylish, functional as punctuation") but too often she reaches for one clause too many: "Her voice was level, and had heft, as if weighted like a sling with a chunk of rock or glass—something that might hurt if she lobbed it at you." It only delays the final confrontation that Avice (and the reader) is eagerly awaiting.It's a zany tale that doesn't need its overwrought style.

Kirkus Reviews