Robert j wiersema biography of christopher
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Bedtime Story
The narrative in Bedtime Story is charmingly simple, but layered with an almost unsettling amount of emotional honesty (as much honesty as one can convey through layers of magical realism). A writer whose second book is years overdue, struggles to connect to his wife and son. On his son’s birthday, Chris, the protagonist, gives him a fantasy book by an author he loved as a child. While reading the book, his son, David, suffers a dramatic seizure and becomes trapped within the narrative, fighting to resolve the story. What follows is, in essence, two interwoven narratives striving towards a unified climax.
This calendar year, I’ve read all three of Wiersema’s books: Bedtime Story, Before I Wake, and the novella The Worl
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Robert J. Wiersema is an independent bookseller, a reviewer who contributes regularly to several national newspapers, and the bestselling author of two novels, Before I Wake and Bedtime Story. He lives in Victoria, British Columbia.
For the last several years now, I've had a standing date with my son Xander.
I've written about this before, and I'm sure I will again1: unless I'm severely under deadline, or out of town, Xander and I spend weekend mornings hanging out. His mom, Cori, works a couple of jobs, does some freelancing, and homeschools Xander and gets him to all of his programs, week in, week out. She deserves a break. So Saturday & Sunday mornings she gets to sleep in, and I get to hang out with the boyo, who turns twelve this summer, and watch TV.
Watching TV with your child might not seem like a big deal, but those weekend mornings are among the highlights of my week. Spending one-on-one time with Xander is, of course, pleasure enough, but watching TV, an
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Book review: Bedtime Story by Robert J. Wiersema
Published by Random House Canada, 479 pp, hardcover
After reading just a few pages of Robert J. Wiersema’s Bedtime Story, one thing becomes abundantly clear. Wiersema, a Victoria-based novelist who also contributes to these pages as a book reviewer, gets full marks for mål. In crafting the multilayered story of an 11-year-old boy who becomes obsessed with a fantasy novel called To the fyra Directions, he actually gives us two books in one. At its best, Bedtime Story manages to seamlessly combine the heart-wrenching story of a father’s love with a parallel narrative that’s an old-school swashbuckler.
After writing a critically acclaimed first novel, Christopher Knox has hit a 10-year dry spell. His marriage fryst vatten on the rocks and his son, David, is at the age where he’s beginning to pull away. The one thing they like to do together? Read a nightly bedtime story. Christopher yearns to pass on his love of books. He tells us