Paul Quarrington turns to music in face of cancer

Canadian writer Paul Quarrington, whose acclaimed novels include Whale Music, Home Game, Galveston and King Leary, has turned to music and touring with his band as he battles lung cancer.

Quarrington says he was about to embark on a new novel this year but decided against it, choosing instead to return to his singer-songwriter roots and tour the East Coast with his band, Porkbelly Futures.

The 56-year-old Torontonian is putting the finishing touches on one book but says he'd rather be performing on stage. He was in Nashville, Tenn. to record a solo album recently.

'I'm just trying to get a lot in. One year isn't any less beautiful than 30 years.' —Paul Quarrington

"I was in Newfoundland. I was in Nashville. I was up North. It's been pretty hectic," the writer told CBC Radio about his band's summer tour. 

The blues/country band released its first album, Way Past Midnight, in 2005.

"I guess, to some extent, I'm just trying to get a lot in. One year isn't any less beautiful than 30 years," Quarrington said.

Quarrington, whose 1987 novel King Leary captured the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour that year and won CBC Radio's Canada Reads competition in 2008, says his terminal illness has given him pause. He publicly revealed in June that he had inoperable Stage 4 lung cancer.

"I [thought] I was one of the luckiest guys alive. And when I got the diagnosis, I thought, 'Well, my luck has just run out,' " Quarrington said.

"But actually, it hasn't really. You find out how lucky you are in terms of friends and people around you."

'I'm not going too soon'

Friends and family, who say the author is happiest playing music, admire Quarrington's pluck in the face of death. Poet and friend Robert Priest recalls hearing about the diagnosis for the first time.

"He told me he had cancer, and you know that feeling of all your blood dropping out of the bottom of your feet?… I guess it must have shown on my face," says Priest.

"He said, 'Well, don't worry, I'm not thinking of going too soon.' The courage now that he shows … I can't imagine where he gets that from. It's beyond me, but you've got to admire the hell out of him."

Quarrington says sharing his music and performing is a cathartic experience. He cites the example of an African village he knows, which held a ceremony to cure a man of depression.

"What really struck me about that was the idea of bringing out the village to help in the healing matters, and ... that's what we've been trying to do when we play — bring out the village," he said.

He's also in the process of making two albums, a solo one partially recorded in Nashville and one with his band.

Quarrington, whose writing has been praised for its versatility and earned him a Governor General's Award for fiction in 1989  (Whale Music), says his songs are very personal. They touch upon his illness and failed marriage, pushing him into uncomfortable territory.

One song, All The Stars, has these lines: When it seems too much to deal with / When I feel like heading to the bars / Then I head outside just after midnight and I see all the stars/ All the stars /All the stars.

That song, says Quarrington, was written just after his diagnosis.

"It's trying to elaborate on a cliché, but little things really do become much more important and more beautiful," notes Quarrington.

"It actually is amazing that by simply turning up your head and looking at the night sky, you can see a great deal of creation, a great deal of time."