Fair’s Fair “For Book Lovers”

Zuerich, Switzerland

Timothy Findley’s Pilgrim is set primarily at Switzerland’s Bergholzli Psychiatric Clinic (a clinic for patients who are schizophrenic). The main character, Pilgrim, who arrives on the arm of his companion, Lady Quartermaine, believes he is the last surviving member of the Titanic.

His major dilemma is that he wants to die, and no matter how much he attempts to do so he cannot. Carl Jung enters the picture to try and help dispel Pilgrim of his suicidal ideations.

Finally, the variety of characters and Pilgrim’s escape from the clinic, plus the diversity of subjects from visual art to ways of reading to studies in psychology, make Findley’s Pilgrim an intriguing and dazzling work of “madness,” history, language play, science fiction, action and adventure.

There is a review of Pilgrim by Sharon Schulz-Elsing for Curled Up With a Good Book. As well, you can read a discussion of the work by Daryl Jung for NOW and another discussion by Lynne Van Luven.

About the author

Timothy Findley was born on 30 October 1930, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and died on 21 June 2002. He published 14 novels, six plays, and several screen plays, plus non-fiction. Findley’s early life was spent as an actor and later he turned to writing. In 1977, Findley’s novel The Wars received the Governor General’s Award in the area of fiction.

Most of Findley’s main characters display some sort of mental illness, and Pilgrim, published in 1999, is no exception. Findley took a keen interest in the work of pyschologist, Carl Jung, from early on. Carl Jung plays a major role in his novel Pilgrim.

You can learn more about Timothy Findley from a profile by Sandra Martin for Quill & Quire, an interview by Linda Richards for January Magazine, and an obituary by Martin O’Malley and Randy Potash for the Canadian Broadcast Corporation. There also is a bibliography of his works.