DR SAD

by David Bateman

Overview

Stephen is middle-aged. He's gay. He's content, except when he isn't. Stephen is a teacher. He's a poet. He has a new teaching job in Kamloops, BC. Stephen has HIV.

DR SAD is the story of one man's journey across Canada and through his diagnosis. It is the story of the distance between queer urban spaces and a small campus in a small city in small-town BC. It is the story of discovering the self within the world, and the world within the self, of discovering the difference between living a life and simply enduring one. This is a tragicomic cross-campus, cross-country romp that believes in the power of romance.

Weaving together narratives of past and present, of Toronto's Gay Village and the streets of Kamloops, BC this lively and dynamic semi-autobiographical novel dives deeply into gender and queerness, class and privilege, and the realities of aging. It is a dynamic and engaging hybrid, stylistically daring while remaining intimate and human.

Leaping through time and mixing the playfully serious with the seriously playful, DR SAD blends poetry with prose and finds the humour in despair in one complete, glittering tragedy of triumph

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781773851037
Publisher:	University of Calgary Press
Publication date:	07/15/2020
Series:	ISSN
Pages:	328
Product dimensions:	0.24(w) x 0.35(h) x 0.79(d)

About the Author

David Bateman is a freelance arts journalist, painter, and performance poet. He has published numerous books of poetry and has taught literature and creative writing at post-secondary institutions across Canada. He lives in Toronto, Ontario

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

dr sad or dr das as he was sumtimes known was built with th unusual gift 2 x periens multi dimensyunal realiteez sew that his manee journeez in2 evree thing wer palimsesting n brethless in theyr xposur uv his resolut opn mindidness wch carreed him thru sew manee trajektoreez his sadness n his joy bcame onlee his as ths brillyant n akrobatik writing reveels n th suspens uv ths wundrful n engayging narrativ is is ths th storee uv a sereez uv illusyuns 2 peel away each layr all th wher n whn n why 4 reed n find out in ths amayzing n awsum book

—bill bissett, poet

Stephen’s journey across country, emotions, and life’s vagaries after a sudden diagnosis is equal parts melancholy and poetry, playful wit, lyricism, and rage. This novel is a complex cocktail that lingers sweet, bitter. Take a sip. Then another. Slip a copy into your overnight bag and hit the road.

—Hiromi Goto, writer, editor and author of Half World

Only David Bateman, one of our finest poets, could bring academe to such sensual life. DR SAD is the story of a generational shift, one that turned learning into careerism and writing into telegraphing, and, most important, all that’s been lost in this turn. DR SAD makes academe sexy again. That in itself is an Everest-like feat, but to do it with style and grace? Only David Bateman.

—RM Vaughan

Editorial Reviews

With this new novel, Bateman reveals the breadth of his talent . . . DR SAD is, like the author himself, smart, funny and kind of wonderful.

Paul Bellini

David Bateman’s voluptuous prose is darkly comic . . . words and metaphors flow and ebb and jump in unexpected ways, before giving a precisely ambiguous reading that is eerily evocative. There is much pleasure to be found.

Drew Rowsome