Terry [Paperback]

Equal parts coffee-table-style picture book and vivid retelling of one of Canada's most enduring stories, Terry fetes the Marathon of Hope campaign for cancer research 25 years after the start of Terry Fox's celebrated cross-country run. Any book about Terry Fox is bound to be well-received and worth reading--consider the material one has to work with. The trick for author Douglas Coupland (Generation X, Eleanor Rigby) was to present a fresh angle. That he's done it, with acknowledged assistance from the Fox family, Fox biographer and Toronto Star columnist Leslie Scrivener, and a heap of archival research, speaks to Terry Fox's ongoing ability to inspire anew. Though Coupland leads us through some familiar terrain--Fox's cancer diagnosis, the amputation of his right leg on the cusp of his 19th birthday, the impact of his hospital stay on his psyche, and his ensuing crusade against cancer--he aggregates words and pictures, in the distinctive style of his Souvenir of Canada books, to give the story punch. Coupland is especially effective in reminding his readers of context. Coordinating and executing a cross-country media blitz was a Herculean effort in the days before email and cell phones. Yet in the spring of 1980, with little more than blind faith to guide them, Terry Fox and friend Doug Alward set off from St. John's, Newfoundland, with two things on their minds: reaching the Pacific and raising one dollar for every Canadian to aid cancer research. If they failed to achieve the former, they surpassed all expectation for the latter. "It's now common for people to do cross-Canada events of all kinds, but in 1980, running--or doing anything else--across Canada was a pretty new idea," Coupland writes with a straightforwardness typical of the book, making it ideal for younger readers. "Although many people in the press thought Terry's idea was too flaky to cover, others were a bit more generous, but a lot of people simply didn't get the idea, it was that new." Coupland caps the book with an astonishing "listing of where the just over $17-million-dollar allotment from the Terry Fox Foundation went in 2004/2005." "As you'll see," he writes, "the research is of breakthrough quality and international in its scope and every penny spent on funding is a very realistic penny towards cures." As Coupland makes clear, Terry Fox's legacy lives on in ways he could not have imagined. Heroes don't come any better defined. --Kim Hughes

"A haunting and sentimental tribute book." (Maclean's 20050401)

"Terry is remarkably upbeat for such a sad story, and that note perfectly suits Coupland's passion for quirky Canadiana, as well as the stoic personality of the eighteen-year-old who lost his life to cancer." (Geist 20051201)

"The text makes sure we remember." (Daily News 20081209)

"Douglas Coupland traces the beginning of the Marathon of Hope, helping us learn more about this young hero who became possibly the best-known Canadian of all time." (North Shore News )

In 1980, Terry Fox was just a young man with a dream. Three years earlier, he had lost a leg to cancer. Some combination of passion, idealism and sheer guts led to the impossible notion that he would run across Canada on one good leg and a prosthesis. His goal was to raise $1 from every Canadian to help find a cure for cancer. Twenty-five years later, the dream remains alive, and Terry's legacy has raised more than $360 million for cancer research.

Terry has been written with the support of the Fox family and the design reflects the style of Douglas Coupland's Souvenir projects, mixing more than 145 superb photographs of a previously unknown collection of family memorabilia with a very moving text about Terry's life and the Marathon of Hope. Printed in full colour, the book brings a profound moment in Canadian history, and the young man who inspired it, freshly to life.

(20060608)

Douglas Coupland was born on a Canadian NATO base in Germany and raised in Vancouver, where he still resides. Among his best-selling novels are Generation X, Shampoo Planet, Polaroids from the Dead, Microserfs, Miss Wyoming, Hey Nostradamus! and Eleanor Rigby, altogether in print in some 40 countries. Coupland also exhibits his sculpture in galleries around the world, indulging in design experiments that include everything from launching collections of furniture to futurological consulting for Stephen Spielberg.