For very smart people who like to laugh a lot and learn a lot at the same time, iconoclast Andrew Struthers of Tofino has written an undeniably brilliant and original memoir that surprises on every page. Around the World on Minimum Wage (New Star Books $21) has been described as a comedic memoir/ philosophical investigation of the tensions between eastern and western philosophies. That's very misleading and it doesn't do justice to the brilliance of his writing style, the clever candour of his observations and the genius of his magpie mind.

Mimicking the language and structure of a Victorian travelogue, the Scottish-born, Uganda/Prince George-raised Struthers can be hilarious on paper. His description of taking some hasty sky-diving instructions from a quintessentially coarse-mouthed Aussie, then absurdly risking his life in order to avoid embarrassment, should be enough to gain him an invitation to every writers festival in the land. Struthers is one of those rare people who obviously reads and retains ten times more than normal folks--one of those oddniks who might do well on Jeopardy--but he has a healthy, anti-elitist mindset that makes him a chronic outsider.

It is increasingly rare in this era of spellcheck and Google to find someone whose writing style is uniquely their own. Anyone who values such originality would be well-advised to be curious about Around the World on Minimum Wage. It is the sort of book that is far too audaciously unlike any other book that nobody outside of British Columbia is likely to notice. For anyone on non-fiction prize juries in Ontario, it might as well be sanskrit. It is maverick, West Coastal to the bone. You will laugh. You will learn. And you will hesitate to recommend it to everyone because not everyone is going to be prepared to digest the denseness of its intelligence.

For two reviews of his equally impressive follow-up, The Devil's Weed / The Sacred Herb (New Star 2017), see BELOW.

As a longtime resident of Tofino, Andrew Struthers of Victoria has also produced a comic graphic novel about the strife between hippie environmentalists and local rednecks, The Green Shadow (Transmontanus 3, New Star, 1995), based on the confrontations about logging in Clayoquot Sound. The original serialised version of this story received a National Magazine Award for humour.

His follow-up was a memoir of living aboard a 'Mifflin fleet' fishboat, the Loch Ryan, with his young daughter Pasheabell. Called The Last Voyage of the Loch Ryan: A Story from the West Coast (New Star, 2004, $18), it contains shipbuilding lore, local history and observations of his neighbours on the docks of Tofino after he was forced to give up his pyramid-treehouse on the outskirts of town. The 'mechanically declined' author prefers local ship lore to making repairs on his bargain-priced wooden boat courtesy of the federal government's fishing license buyback program.

Struthers' cartoon panel called The Cheese Club has been syndicated throughout North America. His films include The Magic Salmon, Tiger Bomb: A Symphony in Dynamite and Spiders on Drugs.

In May 2021, The Sacred Herb / The Devil's Weed was released in a Polish edition by Vis-A-Vis Etiuda of Warszawa: Swiete ziolo / Diabelski Chwast.

BOOKS:

The Green Shadow (Transmontanus series) (Transmontanus,3) (New Star Books 1995) $16 978-0921586449

The Last Voyage of the Loch Ryan: A Story from the West Coast (New Star, 2004) $18

Around the World on Minimum Wage (New Star Books 2014) $21 978-1-55420-086-3

The Devil's Weed / The Sacred Herb (New Star 2017) $19 978-55420-115-0

[BCBW 2017] "Humour" "Maritime" "Travel"