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Beloved Canadian novelist, musician and screenwriter Paul Quarrington, dead at 56. I attended a fet for Paul at Harbourfront in the fall. If you hadn’t known of his diagnosis of terminal cancer, you’d have hardly known at all. Goodbye, Paul, from all of us!
Paul Quarrington, the multi-talented, award-winning Toronto author of “Whale Music,” has died. He was 56.
“He passed peacefully at home in Toronto in the early hours surrounded by friends and family,” said a statement on his website. “It is comforting to know that he didn’t suffer; he was calm and quiet holding hands with those who were closest to him.”
Quarrington, who was diagnosed with an advanced form of lung cancer last year, maintained a wide-ranging creative career over the past decades as a playwright, musician, writer and filmmaker.
He achieved perhaps his greatest success as a novelist and author.
Update: The Canadian literary community remembers Paul Quarrington at The Afterword.
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January 21st, 2010 at 11:09 am
Terrible,terrible news. It happened so fast and he was so young. Heartfelt condolences to his family and friends.
January 21st, 2010 at 12:15 pm
Oh, Paul. Even knowing this was coming, it’s really heartbreaking. He will be terribly missed.
January 21st, 2010 at 3:36 pm
I feel as if my heart has dropped to my shoes and I didn’t know Paul as well as a lot of people. But Paul was Paul to everyone he met and that meant jokes, magic tricks, songs, literature… fun. I’ll never forget sitting on a panel with him and hearing Paul tell Wayston Choy that he wanted to kill Wayston for winning an award Paul coveted. We laughed until our sides ached and Wayston (who was sitting right beside Paul), laughed as hard as the rest of us. Somehow Paul made the toxic competition writers can feel over prizes a cause of celebration and a subject to debunk. What a relief.
Paul also represented something quintessential about the Canadian spirit: irreverence, pluck and an understanding of the need to pass the puck from time to time so the team can score. He’ll be badly missed in our literary community. For a brief time, his illness made many of us feel our own strength as well as our vulnerability, and I’m glad he lived long enough to see all that appreciation for him and his work.
But most of all Paul was a wonderful story teller. I especially loved his last book, The Ravine, which reminded me of Robertson Davies taking a walk on the wild side. Good bye Paul. I didn’t expect you to go so soon. love Susan Swan
January 21st, 2010 at 3:49 pm
This is such sad news. Paul was a rare combination of talents; he will be very much mourned and missed.
January 21st, 2010 at 5:26 pm
Sad, but I wondered when this was coming. Rest in peace.