You can always tell which books on my shelf are my favorites; they have been read so many times that the spine is creased, the pages dog-eared and they refuse to stay closed unless you put a heavy weight on top of them. Apparently the publisher of Grant Lawrence’s Adventures in Solitude, a history of B.C.’s Desolation Sound, knew how much I would enjoy it and gave the soft-cover book a “distressed” look straight from the printer.
Indeed, the book’s appearance is one of the first things you notice about it — naturally. Smudges mar the cover and first few interior pages, and the edge of each page has been roughly cut. According to Lawrence, a music journalist with the CBC, this was in an effort to make it “look like a book that could have been sitting on the shelf of a cabin for decades,” enticing you to read it “because it looks cool.”
Not everyone has gotten the gag however: “There have been lots of people who have been like ‘oh, mine has all sorts of marks on it,’” says Lawrence.
On the inside of cover (which cleverly has flaps which fold out like the dust-jacket of a hardcover . . . built-in bookmark FTW) is a map of the area, as charted by
Captain George Vancouver — the late 18th century explorer, and namesake of the city and island.
Although the publisher pressed to include a more recent and detailed map of the area, Lawrence insisted on Vancouver’s map, due to its lack of detail. According to Lawrence this was out of respect for the residents of Desolation Sound, whose adventures and antics make up a large proportion of the book, some of whom were “basically pissed off” that Lawrence would jeopardize their little slice of paradise by popularizing it.
Perhaps when I called Adventures in Solitude a “history of B.C.’s Desolation Sound” I was being a bit obtuse. The book is actually a collection of stories that take place in and around Desolation Sound. Some do chronicle the adventures of people such as Captain Vancouver, early Scandinavian immigrants, hippies and draft dodgers; however, these tales are mainly there to give context. The majority of the book is about Lawrence’s life, as told through his experiences in the Sound.
Lawrence first visited the area via seaplane with his father in the late ’70s, when the elder Lawrence was considering buying a large piece of land, with the intention of developing it into several cabin sites, and again — by car and rickety motorboat — after the family purchased the land.
Given the terrifying, wet, cold and even vomit-inducing conditions of Lawrence’s first couple of visits, it is amazing that over the arc of the book, which spans some 30 years, he falls madly in love with the place and the people who inhabit it.
Lawrence starts off as an awkward kid in glasses and knee-braces, regarding the locals with trepidation and alarm, but through his adventures and interactions he becomes “one of those people [he] feared.” According to Lawrence: “Now I am one of those hairy, stinky machete wielding weirdos.” To the point where he has started to regard himself more and more as a resident of Desolation Sound who spends time in Vancouver, rather than a cottager from the city.
When asked if he thought his neighbours’ concerns, that this book might popularize the area for tourists, Lawrence dismisses the notion mainly due to the remote nature of the area. “There are no roads; humans [in Desolation Sound] are at the mercy of Mother Nature,” says Lawrence. He goes on to explain that “[ . . .] you are either on your feet or on a boat,” and that many people find the notion of being away from their cars too “uncomfortable.”
Lawrence goes on to say that the place demands respect and that there is no guarantee for survival: “There are people who are killed, there are drownings all the time, because people didn’t respect the place.” This, he feels, weeds out about 90 per cent of the people who might consider visiting the Sound. “[Humans] are a very domesticated creature, and [Desolation Sound] will kick your butt.”
Over the years Lawrence has acclimated to this environment such that he goes into Desolation Sound mode as soon as he hits the dock, and now finds it harder to adjust to life in the heavily populated concrete jungle that is Vancouver.
“There is so much silence up there, and it’s such a green place. If you want, you can go for days without seeing another human being.”
Put simply, the stories found in Adventures in Solitude are heart-warming and hilarious, in the way that only true stories, told by someone who lived through them, can be. Cottagers will appreciate the common experiences, but anyone with an appreciation for nature and the occasional desire to get away from it all will fall in love with this book.
Adventures in Solitude is published by Harbour Publishing, and is available from your favorite local bookseller.
