Currently out of print
RIGHTS SOLDUS: Penguin, paperback, 1988
Canada: Viking, hardcover, 1987
Canada: Penguin, 266 pages paperback, 1994
(Photo: Danielle Schaub)
George Bowering is a major figure in Canadian literature, and has written over forty books. He has won the Governor General's Award twice: once in 1969 for poetry, for the books Rocky Mountain Foot and The Gangs of Kosmos; and again in 1980 for fiction, for Burning Water. In 2003, he was appointed Canada's first Poet Laureate.
a novel by George Bowering
SET IN BRITISH COLUMBIA IN THE 1890s, CAPRICE HAS GOOD GUYS AND BAD GUYS, COWBOYS AND INDIANS, AND A CENTRAL FIGURE DETERMINED TO BRING A KILLER TO JUSTICE
This is far from your average Western – the hombres have ethnic identities, the Indians debate metaphysical questions and the would-be avenger is the six-foot, red-headed French-Canadian Caprice, who writes poetry, carries a European bullwhip and has a schoolteacher boyfriend who plays baseball.
PRAISE FOR CAPRICE
“Caprice … throws us some clever curves … [and] packs it all together in a great North American saga.” — THE NEW YORK TIMES
“Often fun, always crafty and intelligent…” — MONTREAL GAZETTE
“[W]ith Caprice, [Bowering] has demonstrated yet again that he's one of Canada's most original writers.” — THE CALGARY HERALD
“… serious, spontaneous, sly and consistently enjoyable…” — THE VANCOUVER PROVINCE
“… Caprice takes the standard western revenge saga and enriches it with literary allusion and poetry-spouting cowpokes who also, some of them, play baseball.” — THE WHIG-STANDARD MAGAZINE