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Too Young to Die
by Brad Houston
368 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); **** AVAILABLE NOW ****; catalogue #00-0119; ISBN 1-55212-454-1; US$28.50, C$33.00, EUR23.50, £16.50
A collection of humourous yarns: chiefly the escapades of a newly married family "Doc" coping with the weird ways of prairie folk, customs, and weather in the '50s.
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about the book about the author sample excerpts catalogue info
About the BookYoung man, in the early 50's, survives medicalcollege, marries, and moves with his wife to a prairie town. A humourous look at their life, setting up a home, the weird and wonderful people they meet: against a backdrop of the triumphs and disasters of a country medical practice. The prairie scene, its weather, its denizens - human and otherwise, give a unique twist to the tales. A wry, behind the scenes look at life, death, and the practice of medicine, as the horse and buggy days fade away. There was lots of black humour, that kept the intolerable, bearable. |
About the AuthorDr. Brad Houston, a survivor from the times when the "Country Doc" did it all, from the "cut 'em up" trade to "storking", to acting as the local "shrink", and even inquesting as a pre- "Da Vinci". A family doctor, writer, hiker and back country skier, gardener and sailor, he exercises his dry wit in "Too Young To Die". Visit the author's web site |
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Sample Excerpts
Chapter 4-- Stuck In The Mud
"Prairie Gumbo", a species of mud, infamous for its completely clinging, omni-obstructive, and yet supremely slippery qualities. It is truly "designer mud", obviously designed to be maximally messy, a horrendous hindrance, and a slick, sneaky, slithery surface to trap the unprepared.
Chapter 7-- The Sneezing Wheezing Season
Why is it that cats class me only one rank below catnip? Whenever I make a house call to a patient, owned by a cat; (no, I meant it that way, I know how it really is); that said feline will give up whatever cat-napping, caterwauling, or cat-bird catching it had been up to, and head straight to me.
Chapter 9 -- My Patient Wife
Meet wife Marie: Part of being a patient wife is putting up with hubbie crawling back into bed after making a winter country call. There is nothing like having a "Docsicle" snuggle up next to you.
Chapter 27 -- Interesting Eating Habits
The old bachelor's eating habits: The drawer in the table was opened, a spoon was lifted out, and the cooked oatmeal was poured in. So, any time he felt hungry, all he had to do was pull open the drawer, and spoon in some oatmeal."
Chapter 36-- "Circumcisions I Have Known"
"They are going to cut off my Pee-Pee", cried the utterly devastated little guy, afraid he was going to be turned into that creature , most despised by little boys, a GIRL.
Chapter 40 -- The Honey Wagon
Joe, the driver of the "Honey Wagon",who felt that he and the Mayor had quite similar jobs: "He looks after the motions passed by town council, while I look after the motions passed by the whole damn town."
Chapter 46 -- Fearless Forsdick
However I was completely awake when I was greeted by "HANGING IS TOO GOOD FOR THE LIKES OF YOU!" I suddenly remembered that I had forgotten to phone the ambulance, thus leaving the corpse and the Corporal waiting in the gale.
Chapter 49 -- Winter Clothing
There is an increasing sense of invaded privacy as one approaches the inner snactum. and divests layers of Stanfields, BVD's, red flannels, woollen long johns, etc. And from these depths what creatures may come, must give us pause.
Chapter 60 -- Old Aunt Em
Old Aunt Em: When I listened to her chest, I could get her to breathe in, but she had to "talk" out. She was never one to waste her breath on mere breathing.
