Cabbagetown
CRITIQUE | QUOTES
First editionFirst publication
1950
Literature form
Novel
Genres
Literary
Writing language
English
Author's country
Canada
Length
Approx. 144,000 words
Notable lines
"Goodbye, Tilling, and good luck," said the principal, Mr. J. K. Cornish, proffering his hand.
— First line
"Talking like that borders on the sentimental, and nobody should get eulogistic over a slum."
— Preface to 1968 edition
He understood the words but it was another girl sitting in the booth of a cheap Chinese restaurant who was telling a guy sitting crosss the talbe from her that she was going to have another man's baby.
Somne called it socialism, some communism, some Christian radicalism, some Social Credit, and other Technocracy. Ken Tilling remained an interested skeptic.
During the winter of 1935 Ken Tilling discovered he had become something that a short time before had been an odious designation: a socialist.
When she first caught sight of him Myrla felt her knees grow weak, and she had to prevent herself from crying out his name. Then her feelings turned to a maternal pity for him, for he looked so—so decent and—dedicated, and so out of place. Her warm glow of affection for him changed to a vague feeling of humiliation, as one person feels when unknown to another he catches him in a shameful act.
She watched him disappear along the street before she turned and made her way back towards the centre of the park again. This time she was on the lookout for a two-dollar trick.
"The trouble with you, Ken, is that you're a rebel, and for a negative reason. It may sound funny but real rebels never make good revolutionaries."
The dawn is in the crease of his trousers and in the new-appeared eyelets of his shoes. The dawn is in the new shapes around him and in the lighted fields. The dawn is a widened earth—a populated earth. The dawn is not only the beginning of the day, but the ending of the night.
— Last lines
CRITIQUE | QUOTES
