The Life of Hope is a novel by Paul Quarrington, published in 1985 by Doubleday Canada.[1] It is part of an unofficial trilogy with Quarrington's later novels King Leary and Logan in Overtime;[2] although none of the novels centre on the same protagonists, they all feature some background interrelationships of character and setting.[2]

The Life of Hope
First edition
AuthorPaul Quarrington
LanguageEnglish
GenreNovel
PublisherDoubleday Canada
Publication date
1985
Publication placeCanada
Media typePrint (Hardback)
Pages288 pp
Preceded byHome Game 
Followed byKing Leary 

The novel's central character, essentially an authorial self-insertion, is a novelist named Paul who is suffering from writer's block after the publication of his baseball-themed novel Home Game.[1] Attending a writer's retreat in the small Southern Ontario town of Hope, he learns about the town's history as a free love and nudist commune established by an expatriate American cult leader named Joseph Benton Hope,[3] which reignites his creativity as he begins to write a fictionalized account of the town's establishment.[1]

The novel was a shortlisted finalist for the Stephen Leacock Award in 1986.[4]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Free love and hope". The Globe and Mail, September 21, 1985.
  2. ^ a b "Tale of a goalie on the skids isn't Quarrington's top scorer". Edmonton Journal, March 10, 1990.
  3. ^ "Novel about free-love commune mixes comedy and message". Ottawa Citizen, September 21, 1985.
  4. ^ "Star's Slinger up for humor prize". Toronto Star, April 11, 1986.