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Some of the most interesting and genuinely commendable people in the world are systematically overlooked by our celebrity-obsessed media. This book is a reminder of just what a mistake that is--here you will meet some truly extraordinary people, from subsistence farmers, cattle ranchers, rodeo rascals, a miraculous middle school teacher, and a munificent unlicensed auto mechanic, to Italian Franciscans, out-of-the-box college and university professors, an independent-minded British poet, and a northern timber wolf. All of these characters have something to teach, but they do it in eccentric ways that will challenge your expectations and reward your willingness to break a mold or two yourself.
David Lyle Jeffrey is a retired professor who, for much of his life, lived and worked in the rough highlands and marginal farm country of the upper Ottawa Valley in Canada. The author of books about historic Christianity and its influence on poetry and the visual arts, he has occasionally ventured upon uncredentialed theological reflection and, even more precariously, committed random acts of poetry.
“David Jeffrey’s latest book . . . is a mingled yarn about the extraordinary-ordinary people who set him straight on life’s path. Rural and urban, Christian and pagan, lettered or life-wise, every one of the ‘real characters’ we meet in these pages left their trace on this masterful storyteller’s wide and tender understanding.”
—Graeme Hunter, University of Ottawa
“Real Characters is not just great storytelling; it is a refreshing introduction to genuine folk who don’t find it necessary to live up to other people’s expectations. . . . Among the characters . . . there is one whose own life threads through them all—David Jeffrey, who in these reminiscences reveals his own quirks and passions for learning, love, and faith.”
—Paul W. Gooch, Victoria University in the University of Toronto
“Whether in the Ottawa Valley of his youth, the ivory towers of Princeton, or a Florentine trattoria, David Jeffrey shows that the Front Porch Republic isn’t just limited to American small towns or rural homesteads. Porchers everywhere will want to ‘sit a spell’ with Jeffrey for his delightful and moving stories of the ‘real characters’ who made him the man he is.”
—Scott H. Moore, Baylor University
“This is a delightful and most pleasurable book. It brought back memories of some nonconforming individuals that I have known over the past sixty-plus years. I wholeheartedly and enthusiastically endorse Real Characters.”
—Bill Robbins, business leader and major financial supporter of Christian colleges and universities
“David Jeffrey is a lad from the Ottawa Valley, a curious lost Canadian landscape where, over the centuries, the law of gravity seems to have been inconsistently understood and applied. The resultant misfits who have graced the place are some of the subjects brought to light in this book. These oddballs from the ozone populate the pages of this scholarly and tractor-friendly tome.”
—Ray Corrin, Health Canada
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