Man Descending
Man Descending is a collection of short stories written by Saskatchewan-born writer Guy Vanderhaeghe. The book was first published by Macmillan of Canada in 1982 and Vanderhaeghe went on to become one of the few first-time authors to win the coveted Governor General's Award for Fiction for this work.[1] It also won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize.
The book consists of 12 stories covering different ages in people's lives, ranging from teenage romance to the onset of Alzheimer's disease. Among the more often-quoted stories in this work are "Sam, Soren and Ed" which introduced characters Vanderhaeghe would later feature in his first novel, My Present Age, and "The Expatriates' Party" in which a high school teacher launches a profanity-laced tirade against a troublesome student.
Several stories in this collection were previously published in Canadian literary journals, magazines, and compilations. One story, "Reunion", was later reprinted in an edition of Best American Short Stories, even though its author was Canadian.
A short film by Raymond Lorenz and Neil Grieve, based upon the story "Man Descending", was nominated for the Genie Award for Best Theatrical Short Film at the 12th Genie Awards. Canadian singer-songwriter Justin Rutledge's 2008 album Man Descending was also named for the book.[2]
Story list
- The Watcher
- Reunion
- How the Story Ends
- What I Learned from Caesar
- Drummer
- Cages
- Going to Russia
- A Taste for Perfection
- The Expatriates' Party
- Dancing Bear
- Man Descending
- Sam, Soren and Ed
References
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- Bertram Brooker, Think of the Earth (1936)
- Laura Salverson, The Dark Weaver (1937)
- Gwethalyn Graham, Swiss Sonata (1938)
- Franklin D. McDowell, The Champlain Road (1939)
- Ringuet, Thirty Acres (1940)
- Alan Sullivan, Three Came to Ville Marie (1941)
- G. Herbert Sallans, Little Man (1942)
- Thomas Head Raddall, The Pied Piper of Dipper Creek (1943)
- Gwethalyn Graham, Earth and High Heaven (1944)
- Hugh MacLennan, Two Solitudes (1945)
- Winifred Bambrick, Continental Revue (1946)
- Gabrielle Roy, The Tin Flute (1947)
- Hugh MacLennan, The Precipice (1948)
- Philip Child, Mr. Ames Against Time (1949)
- Germaine Guèvremont, The Outlander (1950)
- Morley Callaghan, The Loved and the Lost (1951)
- David Walker, The Pillar (1952)
- David Walker, Digby (1953)
- Igor Gouzenko, The Fall of a Titan (1954)
- Lionel Shapiro, The Sixth of June (1955)
- Adele Wiseman, The Sacrifice (1956)
- Gabrielle Roy, Street of Riches (1957)
- Colin McDougall, Execution (1958)
- Hugh MacLennan, The Watch That Ends the Night (1959)
- Brian Moore, The Luck of Ginger Coffey (1960)
- Malcolm Lowry, Hear Us O Lord from Heaven Thy Dwelling Place (1961)
- Kildare Dobbs, Running to Paradise (1962)
- Hugh Garner, Hugh Garner's Best Stories (1963)
- Douglas LePan, The Deserter (1964)
- [no award] (1965)
- Margaret Laurence, A Jest of God (1966)
- [no award] (1967)
- Alice Munro, Dance of the Happy Shades (1968)
- Robert Kroetsch, The Studhorse Man (1969)
- Dave Godfrey, The New Ancestors (1970)
- Mordecai Richler, St. Urbain's Horseman (1971)
- Robertson Davies, The Manticore (1972)
- Rudy Wiebe, The Temptations of Big Bear (1973)
- Margaret Laurence, The Diviners (1974)
- Brian Moore, The Great Victorian Collection (1975)
- Marian Engel, Bear (1976)
- Timothy Findley, The Wars (1977)
- Alice Munro, Who Do You Think You Are? (1978)
- Jack Hodgins, The Resurrection of Joseph Bourne (1979)
- George Bowering, Burning Water (1980)
- Mavis Gallant, Home Truths: Selected Canadian Stories (1981)
- Guy Vanderhaeghe, Man Descending (1982)
- Leon Rooke, Shakespeare's Dog (1983)
- Josef Škvorecký, The Engineer of Human Souls (1984)
- Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale (1985)
- Alice Munro, The Progress of Love (1986)
- M. T. Kelly, A Dream Like Mine (1987)
- David Adams Richards, Nights Below Station Street (1988)
- Paul Quarrington, Whale Music (1989)
- Nino Ricci, Lives of the Saints (1990)
- Rohinton Mistry, Such a Long Journey (1991)
- Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient (1992)
- Carol Shields, The Stone Diaries (1993)
- Rudy Wiebe, A Discovery of Strangers (1994)
- Greg Hollingshead, The Roaring Girl (1995)
- Guy Vanderhaeghe, The Englishman's Boy (1996)
- Jane Urquhart, The Underpainter (1997)
- Diane Schoemperlen, Forms of Devotion (1998)
- Matt Cohen, Elizabeth and After (1999)
- Michael Ondaatje, Anil's Ghost (2000)
- Richard B. Wright, Clara Callan (2001)
- Gloria Sawai, A Song for Nettie Johnson (2002)
- Douglas Glover, Elle (2003)
- Miriam Toews, A Complicated Kindness (2004)
- David Gilmour, A Perfect Night to Go to China (2005)
- Peter Behrens, The Law of Dreams (2006)
- Michael Ondaatje, Divisadero (2007)
- Nino Ricci, The Origin of Species (2008)
- Kate Pullinger, The Mistress of Nothing (2009)
- Dianne Warren, Cool Water (2010)
- Patrick deWitt, The Sisters Brothers (2011)
- Linda Spalding, The Purchase (2012)
- Eleanor Catton, The Luminaries (2013)
- Thomas King, The Back of the Turtle (2014)
- Guy Vanderhaeghe, Daddy Lenin and Other Stories (2015)
- Madeleine Thien, Do Not Say We Have Nothing (2016)
- Joel Thomas Hynes, We'll All Be Burnt in Our Beds Some Night (2017)
- Sarah Henstra, The Red Word (2018)
- Joan Thomas, Five Wives (2019)
- Michelle Good, Five Little Indians (2020)
- Norma Dunning, Tainna (2021)
- Sheila Heti, Pure Colour (2022)
- Anuja Varghese, Chrysalis (2023)
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