Showing results by narrator "Arthur Smith" in All Categories

In electric prose T. C. Boyle explores myriad facets of society: greed and excess, parenthood and responsibility, the digital world and the way we understand our mortality. Roaming unrestrainedly through the present and near future, he inhabits his characters’ minds with a ventriloquist’s flair, skewering human motivations and revealing us to ourselves with empathy and wry humour.

A coveted prize has surfaced in New York drawing Celebrity Chef Cameron Kincaid into an 800-year-old war. In 1208 the clandestine Rex Mundi began the Albigensian crusade in an effort to gain control of the treasure held by the Cathar. For 36 years the Languedoc region south of France was washed in blood. By 1244 the last of the Cathari were eradicated when the Ch'teau de Montségur finally fell. Though the Rex Mundi searched everywhere, the Cathari Treasure remained elusive.

Barry Goldman is a sensitive boy. He’s being primed to run the family business but has discovered a talent for making audiences laugh at his silly poems. At last, he has found something that might make him attractive to girls—in particular, Harriet Fink—but there’s not much call for delicate, earnest poets in the 1970s comedy world of hot-panted dolly birds and battle-axe mothers-in-law. Then one night he sees Kris Dean on stage and understands that the world of comedy is about to change forever.

The narrator boasts of his well-known kindness and compassion towards animals, which was mirrored by his wife. His favorite pet of theirs was a large black cat named Pluto. As the years passed, the narrator became more besotted by drink and consumed by his own cruelty and perverseness. He abused his wife and the animals. Pluto, who was his favorite, bore the brunt of his rage. One day, the narrator cut out one of the cat’s eyes, and not long after that, he hanged the cat from the branch of his tree.

Arthur Smith is famous for his innovation and audacity, and as the man behind some of the longest-running unscripted series in television history. His groundbreaking hit Hell’s Kitchen forged the modern food competition reality genre, while his Emmy-nominated American Ninja Warrior has spawned a cultural movement, with Ninja-inspired gyms in every major American city. In Reach, Smith shares adventures, triumphs, and hard-won lessons from his astonishing career, beginning with his unprecedented ascension from the ranks of sports production to become the youngest-ever head of CBC Sports.

The Potter's Daughter really is a special story of a woman's relationships with her father, her past, and the new man in her life. Abby Bellen, the estranged daughter of an aging ceramic artist, feels obligated to return to her home on Willow Lake to put her father's life in order on account of a promise made to her dying mother. Years have passed since Abby fled the home of her youth and a past she would rather forget.

A boy in the Midwestern United States celebrates an anticipated rite of passage with his grandfather.