NORTH BATTLEFORD - North Battleford author R. Conrad Speer has recently released his new novel, The Barber's Collection, that should captivate readers interested in history and those who will enjoy the fun adventurous escapades of his characters at the same time.
Speer recently gave a reading of his book at the North Battleford Library.
Described as a tragicomic novel, the story is set around a vast rural psychiatric hospital, inspired by Speer's time working as a groundskeeper at the original Saskatchewan Hospital North Battleford psychiatric facility.
"I grew up in town, and I worked at the Sask. Hospital in my first summer of undergrad, in the late 1990s," he said.
Speer added that his father was employed doing work similar to an orderly at the Saskatchewan Hospital in the late 1960s.
"So many folks in the Battlefords either worked there or knew folks who worked there over the century it was open," he said.
"You'd see things on the hospital grounds or you'd hear things there, about town. That was kind of the genesis for the story," Speer added. "I was actually writing individual short stories well over a decade ago... I was just trying to chronicle interesting little stories about the history of the building and the treatments they were using; and the staff, the doctors, nurses and of course the patients,... and keeping those stories alive - twisting them into fun fiction as well."
He eventually realized the short stories would work best as one cohesive novel, with a central focus, so that's how he crafted his book.
The book's summary best describes the story line:
"Deinstitutionalization has just begun, yet it can't come soon enough for one infamous patient with a violent criminal past. Amidst the sweltering summer heat during a chaotic morning in town, an antsy barber, a nostalgic farmer, a distressed sheriff, and a troubled labourer mull over a shocking escape from the psychiatric hospital."
"All the characters are brought [together] by the reality of this vast rural psychiatric hospital in their backyard," Speer said. "The novel is really centred around a mystery built in around a violent patient escaping from the grounds of the hospital. The novel is all set in one morning in town at the hospital and the golf course, and this mystery around the escape of a violent criminal patient on the hospital grounds."
Speer said there are many comic antics described in the novel, as well as serious matters, such as the treatment of the mentally ill and the history surrounding that topic.
The story takes place in the early 1970s when a movement towards deinstitutionalization had started in psychiatric care.
Speer researched the history of psychiatric advancements, when he wrote his book, that is reflected in the story.
"I did a lot of research, checking facts on the history of treatments...," he said. "This novel is set around the time of deinstitutionalization, about 50 years ago, around 1970 or so. That was an interesting time period, because that's when policy changed, and the hospital went from having thousands of patients to a couple of hundred patients within about a decade."
Speer noted his book has been seeing a good response from readers since it was released.
"The reception I've been getting from authors in press from North America and from readers in reviews has been really positive, so I'm very [glad] to see that," he said.
"It's a fun, fictitious read, looking at a vast rural psychiatric hospital," he added. "I think folks in North Battleford will have fun checking it out."
The Barber's Collection is available at Empress Furniture and Decor in North Battleford, the North Battleford Library, McNally Robinson Booksellers in Saskatoon, Indigo.ca, and Amazon.ca.
