- Hardcover: 352 pages
- Publisher: Knopf Canada; 1 edition (Oct 19 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0676976433
- ISBN-13: 978-0676976434
- Product Dimensions: 23.1 x 15.5 x 3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 227 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #392,685 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
He may not know it--and he may not even want the job--but author and humourist Will Ferguson is poised to replace Pierre Berton as national keeper of the facts. Think about it: both men are clearly obsessed with Canada, its history and wrinkles and seams. Both conjure characters from the past to help explain our present. Both have forgotten more about this country than most of us will ever know. The key difference between them, if a metaphor might be permitted, is that while Berton tends to move vertically through the annals of Canada, Ferguson moves horizontally. And he's funnier. So it is with Ferguson's travel memoir, Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw. The author grabs us by the hand for a guided coast-to-coast tour of the country, peppering each stop with factoids. In Alberta, we learn that boreal forest covers one-third of our overall landscape. On a polar bear excursion in Manitoba, we discover that the Arctic fox has the warmest, thickest fur on earth. And at Lake Superior, we are reminded that half the world's fresh water supply resides here. But Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw is more than just a grocery list of information. As with his bestselling How to Be a Canadian, Ferguson attempts to capture the essence of Canada, this time through topography and history. Take this passage lifted from his visit to Newfoundland. "This wasn't Ireland. It was Ireland lost. And Ireland found. It was Ireland cast adrift and washed up on a cold island. It was Ireland reconstructed, like a portrait assembled by someone working from memory, getting the mood right if not the details." Beauty Tips gets the mood and the details just right, with some welcome conjecture and lots on winking humour thrown in. Required reading for Canucks and wannabes. --Kim Hughes
From Publishers Weekly
Humorist Ferguson (Why I Hate Canadians) offers an appealing, brisk account of his many travels in his native land, from the "England as it never really existed" veneer of Victoria to the "certain dignified ugliness" of Newfoundland moose. The title story, in which Ferguson has his limbs and his ego massaged at a Saskatchewan health spa, perfectly represents the book's twin charms: Ferguson's comic cynicism, and his descriptions of intriguing events and individuals tied to the places he visits. In this tale, the levity of Ferguson's interaction with a male "reflexologist" bearing peppermint oil is offset with an account of a hard-luck 1930s Finnish immigrant so desperate to return to his native land that he built an iron ship completely by himself, which stands to this day on the Canadian prairie as a sad but powerful symbol. While humor and history are the book's uniting elements, a lack of narrative harmony results from breaks in chronology and distinct shifts in scene. Ferguson acknowledges as much in his introduction, and while the approach makes the book episodic, it jibes with the author's premise that "Canada is not a country but a collection of outposts." (June 16)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Read!,
By annemarie (Calgary, Alberta Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw: Travels in Search of Canada (Paperback)
I was expecting a comedic travelogue- and I got it. But along the way we learn so much more. Ferguson tells touching stories of his friends and family or characters he discovers, with their special brand of quirkiness and eccentricity that makes me proud to be Canadian. We learn the history of the areas he visits and how they make Canada the country we have today. But all the while you are drawn along on an incredible road trip, with a variety of travel companions, that remind us of the road trips we took with our parents way back when.I recommend this book to anyone who wants to laugh out loud and gain a deeper insight into our home and native land. I hope there will be a volume two, because it ended far too soon.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Does the stripy woolen toque make me pretty?,
By
This review is from: Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw: Travels in Search of Canada (Hardcover)
Beauty Tips from Moose JawBy Will Ferguson I love this author! Will Ferguson co-wrote the book How to Be a Canadian, which was also filled with his unique brand of irreverent humor and charm. In his new book, Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw, Will takes us to visit what he calls the 'outposts' of Canada, starting west and heading east. I particularly like travel books, especially those sprinkled with a little history. With this author you get the added benefit of feeling like you actually accompanied him on his travels - saw the majesty and diversity of the Canadian scenery and smelled the awful stench of threes days enclosed in a tour bus with an unemptied Porta-Potty. He doesn't tell it like a glossy tourism brochure, he tells it like it is, real. The realness of the locales and the realness of the locals, just entices you to visit his favorite places all the more. I found this book is best enjoyed while actually wearing a striped wooly toque to get one in the proper mood. Canadian symbology, the things that identify us as a nation, such as the polar bears of Churchill, the humble canoe, the mighty Hudson Bay, which most Canadians will never see, much less dip their big toe into, are talked about with fondness and many interesting nuggets of information. Knowing such details makes an immigrant to this country such as myself, feel all the more...well...Canadian. Ferguson also delves into the Canadian psyche, which started out as a "garrison mentality" in the early days of settlement and hasn't changed that much over the years. How many of us choose to cocoon ourselves in our living rooms with our rental movies, books, video games and popcorn most winter evening weekends, garrisoned away from the cold, dark expanses of nothingness for miles around each direction of our own little outposts? Put this book on your reading list this winter and you won't be disappointed. Buy the book here at Amazon or support your local library. Homemade, striped toques can sometimes be found at your local Farmer's Market :-)
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
So Funny!,
By Jenny (Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw: Travels in Search of Canada (Paperback)
Awesome Author! I read "How to be a Canadian" before this one, and my family thought I was crazy because I was laughing out loud!Beauty Tips is excellent, not just from a humourous perspective, but I learned so much about my country from reading it! I loved reading the section on Victoria (my hometown)! But it was so interesting to read all of it! It was like a textbook that I totally enjoyed reading!
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