Whale Music

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First edition

Whale Music is a novel by Canadian writer Paul Quarrington. It was first published by Doubleday Canada in 1989.

The novel's protagonist is Desmond Howl, a reclusive former rock star who has lived in isolation from the public eye since his brother, Danny, died in a car accident. Rather than engaging with the outside world, Howl spends his time in seclusion, composing symphonies for the pod of whales that congregate near his dilapidated seaside mansion. Howl's life is turned upside down one morning when he finds a mysterious woman named Claire asleep in his living room.

The character of Desmond Howl is loosely based on Brian Wilson.^[1]

Howl is a heavy drug user and alcoholic whose diet mainly consists of jelly-filled doughnuts. This lifestyle gives Howl a false sense of reality and affects his short-term memory. Quarrington's nonlinear narrative style aims to make the reader feel as though they are inside Desmond's mind. Paragraphs are rarely finished without distractions and topic switches. Most of the story is told through Desmond's flashbacks, giving the reader a glimpse into the reclusive rock star's past.

Plot[]

The story begins with Desmond finding a naked woman asleep on the couch in his seaside mansion. Rarely receiving visitors, he becomes confused about how she entered his home. Once the woman is awake, she tells Desmond that she is Claire, from Toronto. Desmond thinks that Toronto must be a planet in a nearby galaxy and that Claire is an alien. He thinks that her spaceship crashed into the nearby ocean and she is on his couch to seek refuge. He tells the young "alien" that she may stay with him until she decides she is ready to return to her home planet. Claire moves in and starts helping Desmond with chores such as cooking, cleaning, and running to the store so that Desmond never has to leave the house.

Besides his mother (who often shows up unannounced), Desmond does not allow visitors inside of his home. After Claire's arrival, Desmond's mother (also named Claire) snoops around his house looking for checks he has yet to cash. Desmond's flashbacks reveal aspects of his childhood, including his brother and abusive father. His brother Danny was always their father's favorite and he took a deep interest in everything Danny did. This caused Danny to often quit hobbies as the pressure their father placed on him proved to be too much. Desmond, however, tried as hard as he could to please their cold father, but nothing he did was ever good enough.

Their father was a musician when he was younger and had a single hit on the radio. He pushed both of the boys into music. Danny quickly grew bored of it and quit, unlike Desmond who tried to learn every instrument he could in hopes of receiving his father's approval. After Danny grew tired of most of his interests, due to his father's overbearing nature, his only interest was in "going fast." He began engaging in risky behavior such as riding down big hills on his bike, but eventually progressed to stealing a car. Following this event, Danny was sent to military school.

While Danny was at military school, Desmond learned to play countless instruments. When Danny returned home from military school, Desmond tried to bond with his brother by singing with him when Danny worked on his car. The pair soon wrote their first song about Danny's car called "Torque, Torque." Their father heard them playing and pushed them into starting a band while declaring himself their manager. While scouting for someone to help mix their music, they met "Fred the Head". Fred was very passionate about mixing songs and even showed Desmond how to do it. Desmond was so excited about this, he spent hours locked away with Fred just mixing songs. In the meantime, their father found a record label that signed the boys and released their first song which quickly rose to the top of the charts.

He then decided that the boys needed additional band members that fit the "California look" and put out an ad for teenage musicians. As the band rose to stardom, the boys started doing drugs and drinking heavily. The majority of the band members also engaged in promiscuous sexual activity with the 'groupies' who followed them. Desmond, on the other hand, never preoccupied himself with women. Instead, he preferred to just drink, do drugs, and play music. However, through his flashbacks, it was revealed that Desmond did marry a young groupie called Faye. While married to her, Desmond stopped his heavy partying and acquired an office job where he wrote songs all day.

One day he went home and found Faye in bed with their mutual friend Farley O'Keefe so he kicked Faye out and began his voluntary seclusion staying in the house, drinking a lot, and getting high. Then Danny, while driving drunk, got into a fatal car accident, plunging from a cliff into the ocean below. This proved to be Desmond's last straw, totally withdrawing from the outside world by refusing to leave his home and no longer allowing visitors. His drug habit worsened as he sought to avoid reality. The copious amounts of drugs fried his brain, resulting in poor short-term memory. As his isolation continued, he began experiencing vivid hallucinations. He spent all of his time on a passion project, writing "Whale Music" for the whales that often swam by his seaside home. It was the only this that brought him joy.

This brings the reader to the present day, where he finds Claire. Things go well with Claire until she invites Desmond's friends over for dinner. Desmond gets angry at Claire and reminds her that he does not allow visitors into his home. They get into a fight until finally, Desmond agrees. Desmond then says he is going to the studio to work on the Whale Music, promising he will be back in time for dinner. But when he does return, dinner is over and he and Claire get into a massive fight that results in Claire walking out of the house. Desmond then goes back to working on Whale Music. After a while, realizing that Claire has left for good, he decides to go after her and steps out of his house for the first time in years. When he steps outside, a small dog runs at him and he kicks it across the yard. Despite being kicked, the dog is okay and Desmond apologizes to it and promises to give him a steak if he follows Desmond into town.

When they get into town, Desmond buys the dog the steak as promised. The dog, deciding he'd rather walk with Desmond, follows him everywhere. Desmond heads to a nearby bar to look for Claire where he asks if anyone there has seen her. A man offers to take Desmond to a strip club where he says he saw Claire. The trio head to the strip club and upon arrival, Desmond finds Claire. He jumps on the stage and demands she return home with him. A security guard approaches to kick Desmond out. He ignores the guard and keeps trying to persuade Claire to go with him. The security guard keeps saying his name which he finds odd because he didn't think anybody would recognize him. Eventually, Desmond turns around and sees that the security guard is Farley O'Keefe. Desmond runs at Farley in the hope of punching him but before he makes contact he is thrown to the ground. Farley starts screaming so Desmond assumes he hit him but then notices he is screaming because the dog has attached itself to Farley's leg. Desmond and Claire both end up getting arrested.

Down at the station, everyone is put into a separate room. Desmond's record company provides him with a lawyer and Farley agrees to not press charges resulting in Desmond getting released from custody. Desmond asks about Claire but is told that she is in the country illegally and will, therefore, not be released. Desmond tells the officer they are engaged so they release Claire as well. In the parking lot, Farley approaches Desmond to ask why he's so mad at him as they used to be friends. Desmond tells Farley that it's because of his infidelity with Faye. Farley reminds Desmond of what happened that day stating that Desmond walked in on Danny in bed with Faye, not him. Desmond's memories then snap into place. Suddenly he remembered the fight and how he kicked Danny out that day refusing to speak to him and he felt remorseful that Danny died before he had the chance to forgive him.

Upon finishing the Whale Music, Desmond has a party at his house to celebrate. They have huge speakers lined up all over the property that point towards the ocean so that the whales can hear. Desmond and Claire sit on the rocks beside the ocean at the bottom of the property. Unfortunately, no whales show up which makes Desmond sad. Claire asks Desmond the name of a particular song that she hadn't heard before and he tells her the song is called "Have you guys seen Danny". She begins to cry and asks Desmond why he can't be happy. Desmond replies that he wrote the songs because he never got the chance to forgive Danny. ^[2]

Awards and recognition[]

The novel won the 1989 Governor General's Award for English fiction, and was a shortlisted nominee for the Stephen Leacock Award in 1990.^[3] It was also adapted into a film in 1994. Quarrington co-wrote the film's screenplay, with director Richard J. Lewis,^[4] and the Canadian indie rock band Rheostatics composed the film's soundtrack.

References[]