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Book Reviews and Quotes

Praise for Stanley Park

"Timothy Taylor writes straight, strong, unadorned prose… He's well in command of his material. Writes great dialogue. Early on, he sets his scene, gives us Jeremy's background, and keeps his story, yes, cooking. Stanley Park is alive with the places and sights, sounds and smells, the psychic character of Vancouver. It thrums with a powerful sense of the city, urban surfaces as well as primal currents. Also food… Taylor is as good as the American novelist Jim Harrison when it comes to writing about textures and tangs, colours and sensations."
-Quill & Quire

"Stanley Park is both feat and feast: a smart and enthralling narrative that urgently binds together its twin obsessions with place and food and culminates in a pièce de resistance that proves a triumph both for Chef Jeremy Papier and his creator, Timothy Taylor."
-Catherine Bush

"Stanley Park grabs an audience in a way that augurs a wide readership. [It's] like Babette's Feast or Chocolat. They all celebrate a meal that never was, a hope that the right meal can be turned into a Eucharist. Enjoy!"
-Vancouver Sun

"[A] vibrant debut novel… Taylor is a fine prose craftsman."
-Andre Mayer, eye, 29 Mar 2001

"Taylor's debut offers an inside look at the workings of a high-end restaurant, a cut-throat character in the person of a coffeehouse owner who wants to take it over and an intense sense of location, as the title suggests."
-NOW Magazine, 5 Apr 2001

"[Stanley Park] is a modern morality play with Jeremy Papier's very soul at stake… Stanley Park is an assured debut that stands well above many first novels. Taylor is a writer of undeniable talent who has proven himself adept at both the long and short form, and whose wave will no doubt reach the shores."
-Stephen Finucan, Toronto Star, 1 Apr 2001

"Delicious first novel must be savoured. [This] intelligent and leisurely… novel serves up chi-chi restaurants, Blood and Crip sous chefs and exotic culinary dishes, but it is also a pointed comment on the act of creation - whether someone is working toward a soufflé, a movie, a work of art or a romp in the sack… [O]ne thing is clear: the talented Timothy Taylor… is very good at writing about food, on a par with Jim Harrison or Sara Suleri… You'll never look the same way at a weary chef or the loaded, coded words of a menu in your hands."
-Mark Anthony Jarman, Globe and Mail, 31 Mar 2001

"Vancouver breathes in Stanley Park, from its architecture and granola culture to its status as an American TV-show haven. It is a cosmopolitan, big city pushing to become an international, economic hub. It is also a natural wonder, with an ocean and a mountain range within spitting distance, a rainforest, and enough red tendencies to elect quite a few NDP governments. Jeremy is at once an élitist and a man of the people. Bravo to Timothy Taylor for capturing this tension so well… This is a poweful début; expect to hear a lot from him."
-Todd Babiak, Edmonton Journal

"Vancouver writer Timothy Taylor takes a meat cleaver to mystery fiction by packing the novel with backroom culinary politics, a heartwarming tale about a father-son reconciliation and some moralizing on the outrage we should feel about the wastefulness of bourgeois society. What it all simmers down to is a frothy entertainment with a dash of piquancy… it is a well-calculated piece of fiction… with just the right amount of angst and social conscience."
-Montreal Gazette

"A charming first novel… unflaggingly intelligent."
-Maclean's

"Your mouth waters as you read Timothy Taylor's first novel. Not since Isak Dinesen's Babette's Feast has so lavish a table been set for a reader. If Margaret Atwood's first novel The Edible Woman put you off food, this one will put you back on it… In Stanley Park he does for the restaurant business what John le Carré does for spying; he makes it alluring. And he does for food what Patrick Suskind does for perfume; he makes it exciting… Timothy Taylor has written a novel with a plot to return to, characters to remain with, and themes to think about. The quest for authenticity, for instance, isn't an easy one, either for fictional characters or real people. His style skips along merrily… He also casually slips in some of the most mouth-watering recipes ever sprinkled on the pages of Canadian fiction."
-J.S. Porter, National Post

Praise for Silent Cruise

"There can be little doubt that Taylor is one of Canada's best short-story writers… Taylor rises to the challenge Northrop Frye set for the poet: he shows us the world completely absorbed and possessed by the human mind."
-Quill & Quire, March 2002

"Timothy Taylor exploded onto the literary scene in Canada last year with his novel, Stanley Park, but his real strengths lie in short fiction. Silent Cruise, a collection of eight previously published short stories and one new novella, demonstrates Taylor's diversity of subject and ease with language… If you've already read all eight stories in the various literary journals, then you may think it's not worth buying the collection. Wrong. The book is worth it simply for the novella, 'Newstart 2.0 ™'… Silent Cruise is a chunky collection, packed with dense and complicated stories. Flaws are minimal, and they are the result of trying something big. The rarified narrative level that Taylor inhabits is a delight to explore in this collection."
-Monday Magazine, May 2002

"An intriguing collection of short fiction [from] a master stylist… Taylor's use of language is exact. He has a gift for choosing exactly the right word to express an idea or an emotion, giving his writing a feeling of strength and precision. Each character rings true, enabling the reader to become engrossed in the stories. Silent Cruise is excellent writing and enjoyably hypnotic."
-Hamilton Spectator, May 2002

"These stories are awfully good, for starters, but good in a way especially likely to wow you on first reading. Ingenious, is what they are. Almost every one is a marvel of conception and construction - a clever idea even in synopsis, then shrewdly played out. Taylor has an obvious gift for plots, one of the storytelling arts that is irresistibly alluring, but which has fallen somewhat into disuse among short-story writers. These are page-turners, with dramatic turns of events and 'hidden stories' that are revealed in surprising, trump-card endings… [O]ne of the pleasures of his writing is that it is packed with interesting minutiae about diverse hobbies or obsessions… Taylor's stories are intelligent and immensely readable - no, enthralling… Taylor is blessed with a prodigious dramatic imagination… as perfectly gemlike as they come. Nearly every story Taylor has published has been singled out for some prize or honour, and this first collection affirms that he is more than just lucky."
-The Globe and Mail, May 2002

"Intelligen[t] and rich… A work of baroque elegance and inventiveness… Timothy Taylor [is] a writer to seek and savour."
-Annabel Lyon, National Post

"…Timothy Taylor is a gifted writer who successfully catches the neurotic (and creative) zeitgeist of our times… both amusing and thought provoking… In Silent Cruise, Taylor treads the subtle border territory separating outright parody from the strange truths and beauty of our time… this is a fine collection, and Timothy Taylor is a major talent who continues to make his mark on the Canadian literary scene."
-Times Colonist, May 2002

"An eclectic collection…"
-The Edmonton Journal, June 2002

Links to Extra Resources

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