Background
Bill Gaston was born on January 14, 1953, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He is a son of Robert A. and Mary Jean Gaston.
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
In 1975 Bill Gaston received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of British Columbia, a Master of Arts degree in 1978, and a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1981.
(A dark, witty novel is reconstructed from the scenes pres...)
A dark, witty novel is reconstructed from the scenes presented by a cameraman who has spent a lifetime studying an enigmatic director and several seductive, fascinating women.
https://www.amazon.com/Cameraman-Bill-Gaston/dp/1551925648
1994
(The Good Body is a triumphant blend of mordant humour and...)
The Good Body is a triumphant blend of mordant humour and heartbreak. It tells the comic and poignant story of a retired pro-hockey ruffian named Bobby Bonaduce who is stubbornly ignoring a disease - multiple sclerosis - that may be killing him. Bobby returns to his hometown and scams his way into university in a misguided attempt to redeem his messy past and lay emotional claim to a son he abandoned twenty years earlier.
https://www.amazon.com/Good-Body-Bill-Gaston-ebook/dp/B00IN8P218/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=The+Good+Body+Bill+Gaston&qid=1581069923&s=books&sr=1-1
2000
("Everyone at the top of Mt. Appetite is as close as they ...)
"Everyone at the top of Mt. Appetite is as close as they can get to heaven. It's work to get there and agony to be denied." Whether a salmon researcher, professional taster, illiterate faith healer, or Malcolm Lowry's illegitimate son, the protagonists in these sly and witty stories have all climbed the mountain, and all share a restless, relentless longing that they struggle to satiate through alcohol, drugs, sex, or schemes of the heart. Bill Gaston, author of the critically acclaimed The Good Body, evinces a remarkable dexterity of voice as he moves effortlessly among his colorful cast of characters, drawing the junkie with the same skill and compassion as the teenaged 7-11 clerk. Grotesque, unsettling, and oddly tender, Mount Appetite is short fiction at its finest.
https://www.amazon.com/Mount-Appetite-Bill-Gaston/dp/155192451X/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Mount+Appetite+Bill+Gaston&qid=1581070012&s=books&sr=1-1
2002
(At the heart of Sointula is Evelyn, a middle-aged woman w...)
At the heart of Sointula is Evelyn, a middle-aged woman who abandons her privileged existence. She throws away the trappings of her civilized life - her antidepressants and her air ticket home, her wallet and most of the clothes off her back - steals a kayak, and embarks on a quest that takes her deep into the wilderness. The goal: to find Tom - her strange, damaged son - in the remote village of Sointula. Equal parts light and dark, compassion and irony, this is Gaston’s most mature work.
https://www.amazon.com/Sointula-Bill-Gaston/dp/1551927195/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Sointula+Bill+Gaston&qid=1581070304&s=books&sr=1-1
2004
(Sometimes lewd and hilarious, sometimes (though not as of...)
Sometimes lewd and hilarious, sometimes (though not as often) reflective, Midnight Hockey is a portrait of Canada’s fastest-growing athletic phenomenon: beer-league and oldtimers’ hockey. Gaston spills the beans about the rules of the game (written and unwritten), weird beer, team names, and road-trip sex, illustrated with stories of Gaston’s life in the game, from the outdoor rinks of Winnipeg, through junior hockey, varsity, the professional leagues of Europe, to the late-night games and road-trip shenanigans of beer-league.
https://www.amazon.com/Midnight-Hockey-About-Beer-Canadian/dp/0385661908/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Midnight+Hockey%3A+All+about+Beer%2C+the+Boys%2C+and+the+Real+Canadian+Game+Bill+Gaston&qid=1581070440&s=books&sr=1-1
2006
(A fascinating yet little-known figure in North American h...)
A fascinating yet little-known figure in North American history, the French explorer and mapmaker Samuel de Champlain was the subject of a recent best-selling biography by historian David Hackett Fischer. The Order of Good Cheer, a highly readable novel by master storyteller Bill Gaston, offers a beautifully shaded, fictionalized portrait of Champlain, as well as a marvelous window into Canadian culture past and present.
https://www.amazon.com/Order-Good-Cheer-Bill-Gaston/dp/0887842003/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=The+Order+of+Good+Cheer&qid=1581071210&s=books&sr=1-1
2008
(Weaving together five heartbreaking stories, Bill Gaston ...)
Weaving together five heartbreaking stories, Bill Gaston transforms the cruelty of life into something not only beautiful but heartwarming. A recently divorced, early retiree accidentally burns down his house on the day he pays off the mortgage, only to discover that for the first time in his life he’s forgotten to pay a bill: his insurance premium. An old friend of his, a middle-aged musician, prepares for her suicide to end the pain of esophageal cancer. Her father, who left his family to study Buddhism in Tibet, ends his days in a Toronto facility for Alzheimer’s patients. The three are tied together not only by their bonds of affection, but by a book called The World, written by the old man in his youth. The book, possibly biographical, tells the story of a historian who unearths a cache of letters, written in Chinese, in an abandoned leper colony off the coast of Victoria. He and the young Chinese translator fall in love, only to betray each other in the cruellest way possible, each violating what the other reveres most.
https://www.amazon.com/World-Bill-Gaston-ebook/dp/B00938UHX0/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=The+World+Bill+gaston&qid=1581071416&s=books&sr=1-1
2012
(Bill Gaston’s characteristic keen insight and wit dazzle ...)
Bill Gaston’s characteristic keen insight and wit dazzle in this new collection. Here, we see the world through the prism of unfamiliar perspectives: a bank executive whose excellent sex life might in fact be killing her, an amorous tree surgeon better attuned to the values of his "patients" than to other people, a vacationing schizophrenic wary of his housemates, a pizza-delivery boy convinced he’s witnessed magic - all struggling with the world as they see it. This versatile collection - at times darkly playful, absurd, or shockingly real - illustrates how we can fail to understand the simplest of truths and how we are trapped by the peculiarities of our own points of view.
https://www.amazon.com/Juliet-Was-Surprise-Bill-Gaston-ebook/dp/B00K97AIFG/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Juliet+Was+a+Surprise+Bill+gaston&qid=1581071619&s=books&sr=1-1
2014
(Architects of their own destruction, Gaston's characters ...)
Architects of their own destruction, Gaston's characters provoke an almost mythic response of simultaneous disbelief and recognition, as they painfully, deliberately, stubbornly carve a path for themselves, questioning every turn. Yet somehow, in spite of themselves, they sometimes manage to stumble into peace and even wisdom. This set of ten cautionary tales showcases Gaston's range and narrative versatility, moving seamlessly from the funny to the poignant to the surprising and absurd. The stories revel in the ironic and contrary, from a vegan working at a fish farm to a man getting his boat fixed the same day he plans to sink it to a man exchanging the keys to his Lincoln for a goat.
https://www.amazon.com/Mariners-Guide-Self-Sabotage-Stories-ebook/dp/B0748GRGG8/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=A+Mariner%27s+Guide+to+Self-Sabotage+Bill+gaston&qid=1581072093&s=books&sr=1-1
2017
(But Bill Gaston and his father could always fish together...)
But Bill Gaston and his father could always fish together. When they were shoulder-to-shoulder, joined in rapt fascination with the world under their hull, they had what all fathers and sons wish for. Even if it was temporary, even if much of it would be forgotten along with the empties. Returning to the past in his old fishing boat, revisiting the remote marina where they lived on board and learned to mooch for salmon, Bill unravels his father's relationship with his father, it too a story marked by heavy drinking, though one that took a much darker turn. Learning family secrets his father took to the grave, Gaston comes to understand his own story anew, realizing that the man his younger self had been so eager to judge was in fact someone both nobler and more vulnerable than he had guessed.
https://www.amazon.com/Just-Let-Look-You-Fatherhood-ebook/dp/B074S6TKYC/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Just+Let+Me+Look+At+You%3A+On+Fatherhood+Bill+gaston&qid=1581072564&s=books&sr=1-1
2018
Bill Gaston was born on January 14, 1953, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He is a son of Robert A. and Mary Jean Gaston.
In 1975 Bill Gaston received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of British Columbia, a Master of Arts degree in 1978, and a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1981.
Bill Gaston worked variously as a logger, salmon fishing guide, group-home worker, and hockey player in the south of France. He has taught literature and writing at the University of British Columbia, Seneca College, St. Mary's University, Mount Saint Vincent University, and Naropa Institute (now Naropa University).
Gaston is a former director of creative writing at the University of New Brunswick and from 1990 to 1992 he served as a writer-in-residence there. In 1998 he became a teacher of literature and writing at the University of Victoria. He has published more than fifteen books. He is also the author of the plays New Brunswicker, Ethnic Cleansing, and I Am Danielle Steel.
(Architects of their own destruction, Gaston's characters ...)
2017(A fascinating yet little-known figure in North American h...)
2008(Sometimes lewd and hilarious, sometimes (though not as of...)
2006(A dark, witty novel is reconstructed from the scenes pres...)
1994(Weaving together five heartbreaking stories, Bill Gaston ...)
2012(At the heart of Sointula is Evelyn, a middle-aged woman w...)
2004(Bill Gaston’s characteristic keen insight and wit dazzle ...)
2014(The Good Body is a triumphant blend of mordant humour and...)
2000(But Bill Gaston and his father could always fish together...)
2018("Everyone at the top of Mt. Appetite is as close as they ...)
2002Bill Gaston is married to Edythe Crane. They have four children: Lise, Connor, Vaughn, Lilli.