Canada: A Novel Summary
Richard Ford

Canada: A Novel Overview

Canada, by Richard Ford, combines the genres of the coming-of-age story with crime drama/mystery as it tracks the life of 15-year-old Dell Parsons for a few months during the year of 1960. After his parents rob a bank, Dell immigrates to Canada with the help of a family friend Mildred Remlinger to live with her brother Arthur. Arthur is an American fugitive who planted a car bomb years earlier behind a union hall that ended up killing a man. Arthur takes Dell on as his ward but Dell soon becomes involved in the murder of two Americans who have finally arrived to confront Arthur and bring him to justice. Canada thus explores the plight of a sensitive young man growing up in and coping with a world perennially on the verge of exploding into violence. Unsettled as his world is, Dell finally finds a sense of peace and stability that has long eluded him. The novel thus thematically explores the difficulties of a sensitive young man living in a chaotic world and, as unfair as this kind of life seems, illustrates how inexperienced youth can adapt, survive, and eventually live a relatively normal and even happy life.