The Boys: Or, Waiting for the Electricians Daughter

By John Terpstra

"I would not have wanted not to know you exactly as you were. I would not like to lose even a moment of your slow decline." From acclaimed author John Terpstra comes the story of his wife's family and the short lives of her three brothers, each of whom lived with muscular dystrophy until their early twenties. With humour, reverence and great love, Terpstra charts the experience of a family under unusual, but resoundingly human, circumstances. He recreates the daily life, the vitality and wit shared by the three boys, and his relationships with them as they entered the final stages of their illness. Above all, he underlines the privilege of spending time with each of them-Neil, Paul and Eric-coming to know their persistence as individuals, their collective brand of humour and the force field of their personalities in unison. Terpstra recounts the habits, the gentle rituals and oddities of living in the boys' realm: their shared passion for sports, their penchant for nicknames, their records and correspondence, and the steady flow of friends, family and caregivers who participated in their lives. Many times along the way, convictions are checked, challenged and rechecked, faith upended and restored, and perceptions of illness, disability and quality of life vigorously shaken. The Boys honours the last year in the lives of three brothers whose days could never rightly be called wasted or tragic, but whose time on earth was all too brief. Terpstra celebrates life and challenges the brackets we place around lives characterized by illness. He centres the mechanics of the boys' physical presence within the geography of their home and community. The Boys is also a gradual examination of storytelling, of the ownership of stories, of where stories effectively begin and whether they ever end. "I have made a heap of all that I could find. . ." says Terpstra, "the stuff kept in trunks and boxes; loose photos and albums, a diary, keepsakes, the written notes. What remained, materially, of their lives. Can art be made from terminal disease? After all these years the narrative of their lives had distilled into key moments and events, I would like to say, but it was really in the putting-together and spelling out in words of insignificant and mundane moments and events that their various lights began to shine. I was also thinking about St. Augustine, and the brief, numbered chapters of his Confessions. I thought, at first, that each of the chapters should be addressed directly to God, as they are in that book, because then the big why of the family's story could stay front and centre the whole time. It seemed appropriate. Except that the big why never dominated the story as it originally unfolded, and was not doing so as the story unfolded before me. Scrap St. Augustine. With their lives these brothers who had no future raised life high; in their daily routines, routine itself became holy. Can art be made from terminal disease? I took my cue from them." This book is a smyth-sewn paperback bound in card stock with a letterpress-printed jacket. The text was typeset by Andrew Steeves in Fred Smeijer's Quadraat and Quadraat Sans, and printed offset on laid paper. Finalist for the 2006 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-fiction and finalist for British Columbia's National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1554470110
• ISBN13: 9781554470112
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Gaspereau Press
• Length: 1 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.

Customer Reviews

My life

It is very rare that someone is able to accurately capture life with a handicapped relative without too much saccharine filled language or despondency. Terpstra managed to portray what my life was like for 9 years with the same matter of fact, frank attitude that I used to approach it (an attitude which seems strange and callous to many who have not been there). This book is very real. If you have lived this life in some way you will appreciate the honesty of the book. If you know someone who has been in the same situation or is actively living it you should read the book to better understand what it is like.

The Boys continue to inspire others

Through reflective prose, John Terpstra records the impact his brothers-in-law had on his life and the lives of everyone who knew them. The Boys creatively reflects on the final years that three brothers, all inflicted with muscular dystrophy, lived. The reader is compelled to view their lives as the author does - lives that influenced and impacted many other lives, and continues to live on within others. Rather than viewing their lives as a burden, the author shares his personal story of how the lives of all three brothers have enriched his life, the life of his wife, and through The Boys, continue to enrich the life of each reader. The Boys is a must read for anyone whose lives or deals with chronic or terminally ill patients. While remaining completely frank and open, the author's words are a source of encouragement as he challenges his readers not to view a shortened or handicapped life as a waste. The reader is challenged to recognize that the "simple fact of your created being is sufficient for all time" to justify your existence here on earth. "[The boys] proved it by being themselves and having no `future.'"