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The Love Songs of Henry Canary

by Ken Bontempo

371 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); Mature audiences only - contains graphic sexual sequences; catalogue #02-0495; ISBN 1-55369-682-4; US$30.50, C$35.95, EUR25.50, £18.00

Kelly Kane, 25, is on a personal quest to write about her mother's first and only love for her magazine. An interview with Henry Canary recalls his life from his childhood in Connecticut in the 1940s to his life as an emotional drifter in California in 1988. Kelly becomes entangled in Henry's life and neither can predict the surprising outcome of his story.

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about the book      about the author      Prologue      catalogue info

About the Book Henry's is a life filled with loves and losses, hopes and dreams, with happiness and tragedy balaned by humor and kindness. His life is full, yet empty -- crowded with emotional, psychological, and philosophical dichotomies. He is John Doe wandering across the landscape and recent history of America. Henry Canary, a middle-aged writer and part-time truck driver, receives a surprise visit from Kelly Kane, the illegitimate daughter of his first girlfriend. Although Henry is not her father, 25-year-old Kelly wants to write a story about him for her magazine. She tracks him down with the intention of interviewing him, but gets involved in his life. As they travel from Santa Cruz to Los Angeles in his truck, she learns the story of a boy growing up in a factory town in Connecticut in the 1950s. During trips from L.A. to Las Vegas to Death Valley and Arizona, Kelly learns about the happy, sad, humorous and tragic events from grade school to college to Vietnam and back and hears about his succeseses and failures in love and life. Henry tries not to fall in love with the girl who reminds him so much of her mother Kelly tries not to fall in love with Henry as she learns about his family, friends, lovers and other strangers. She hears loving descriptions of favorite people, places and things as well as the tragedies and losses that we all endure in our own lives. Henry talks about his first crush at 14 on a 26-year-old woman; a high school street battle dubbed the Creampuff War; his on/off, love/hate relationship with Kelly's mother; his tour in Vietnam where he kills an "enemy"; his move to New York City after the Army; his girlfriend who was a third generation orphan; his job at a bank where the workers plot to kill their boss; his cross-country adventure with a friend and two call girls; his whirlwind marriage to a girl he hardly knew; the Summer of Love in San Francisco; graduate school; the birth and death of his son; driving a taxi in New York City; his short-lived career as a TV sit-com writer in Hollywood; the various women that came and went after his divorce; the sex, drugs and rock and roll of Greenwich Village in the early 80s; his third move to California, and his philosophis on life and God's mistakes. The story ends with an unpredictably surprising revelation.

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About the Author Mr. Bontempo is an advertising copywriter who attended high school in Connecticut, received his BA from CCNY and an MA from NYU. The story of Henry Canary is a compilation of people, places and events that have influenced and affected the author's own life. Visit www.henrycanary.com

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Prologue

"'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all."
- Alfred Lord Tennyson

    If Alfred Tennyson were alive today he might have spoken those words to Henry Canary.
    The Love Songs of Henry Canary is, indeed, a story of love, but it is not exactly a romantic tale. It is about a man who is in love with life even though his life seems as disoriented as a blind man walking through a minefield. It is the story of the boy-next-door who grew up in a small factory town in Connecticut believing life should be fair and, in spite of his experiences to the contrary, that the pursuit of happiness was still possible.
    Henryıs is a life filled with loves and losses, hopes and dreams, with happiness and tragedy balanced by humor and kindness. His life is full, yet empty‹crowded with emotional, psychological, and philosophical dichotomies.
    "Be careful of what you wish for because you might not get it." -
Henry Canary
    Celebrities keep telling struggling contenders to follow their dreams. Psychologists often tell their patients to give up their fantasies. How do you know if your dream is really a fantasy? At what point do you give up the fantasy and try to understand reality? Can you be happy with your reality knowing that you have given up your dream?
    If, sitting in the back of a tavern, Henry's friends were to comment on his life, they would probably say his life is just a life, unlike any other, yet similar to all around him. Were Henry to enter the tavern, they would certainly invite him over for a drink and ask him to tell them a story, for Henry always had a story to tell. Henry would tell his story to the entertainment of his audience, then be dismissed from their consciousness minutes after his departure.
    At many points in time, we all become stars for a moment. Then we slip back into being a member of the audience. The trick to living a well-balanced life is knowing when, and to whom, you are truly a star and when you are merely a spectator.
    If you have love, you will always be a star. Without love, you will only be a spectator (or a spectacle).

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Catalogue Information

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