Bad Ideas: A Novel

(Paperback)

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Description

Wildly funny and wonderfully moving,Bad Ideas is about just that a string of bad ideas and the absurdity of love.

Trudy works nights in a linen factory, avoiding romance and sharing the care of her four-year-old niece with Trudy's mother, Claire. Claire still pines for Trudy's father, a St. Lawrence Seaway construction worker who left her 20 years ago. Claire believes in true love. Trudy does not. She's keeping herself to herself. But when Jules Tremblay, aspiring daredevil, walks into the Jubilee restaurant, Trudy's a goner.

Loosely inspired by Ken "the Crazy Canuck" Carter's attempt to jump the St. Lawrence River in a rocket car, and set in a 1970s hollowed-out town in eastern Ontario, Bad Ideas paints an indelible portrait of people on the forgotten fringes of life. Witty and wise, this is a novel that will stay with you a long time.

'An unusual story of both familial and romantic love, the strange dreams humans have, and the cost and benefits of loyalty.' Kirkus Reviews

Reviews

"Bad Ideas is a great read, a well-balanced mix of pathos and humour . . . The way Ms. Marston brings all the threads of each character's past into the present is a marvel of writing that makes Bad Ideas well worth reading. Put it on your Summer Reading List." -- Miramichi Reader

Author Bio

Missy Marstons first novel, The Love Monster, was the winner of the 2013 Ottawa Book Award, a finalist for the CBC Bookie Awards and the Scotiabank Giller Prize Readers Choice. She lives in Ottawa, Ontario.