Profound, perceptive, and wryly observed, Estates Large and Small is the story of one man’s reckoning and an ardent defense of the shape books make in a life.
What decades of rent increases and declining readership couldn’t do, a pandemic finally did: Phil Cooper has reluctantly closed his secondhand bookstore and moved his business online. Smoking too much pot and listening to too much Grateful Dead, he suspects that he’s overdue when it comes to understanding the bigger picture of who he is and what we’re all doing here. So he’s made another decision: to teach himself 2,500 years of Western philosophy.
Thankfully, he meets Caroline, a fellow book lover who agrees to join him on his trek through the best of what’s been thought and said. But Caroline is on her own path, one that compels Phil to rethink what it means to be alive in the twenty-first century. In Estates Large and Small Ray Robertson renders one man’s reckoning with both wry humour and tender joy, reminding us of what it means to live, love, and, when the time comes, say goodbye.
"Undefeated by decades of rent increases and declining readership, Phil Cooper's secondhand bookstore finally succumbs to COVID-19 and he reluctantly decides to move the business online. In the newfound quiet of cybercommerce, he starts to suspect he's been smoking a little too much pot, listening to a little too much Grateful Dead, and may be overdue on sorting out who he is and what he's doing here, and where, in fact we might all be going. So he makes another decision: to teach himself 2,500 years of Western philosophy. Thankfully, he's met Caroline, an ex-postal worker and fellow book lover, who agrees to join him on his quest. But they'll have to hurry: Caroline has stage 4 cancer. Thankfully, they've got plenty of books, a stash of potent medical marijuana, and the Dead to see them through. It's going to be a long, strange trip. Profound, perceptive, and wryly observed, Estates Large and Small is the story of one man's reckoning and an ardent defense of the shape books make in a life."--
Praise for Ray Robertson
“While How to Die is a slim book, it offers some hefty insights, leavened with frequent, self-effacing humour. There are numerous passages here which, while quick to read (the book is very accessible, despite its philosophical bona fides), nonetheless take hours to fully internalize … Brilliant.”
—Toronto Star
“Robertson is a moral writer and a bitingly intelligent one, a man who writes with penetrating insight of what needs to be written about: beauty, truth and goodness.”
—Globe and Mail
“Heartfelt, funny, rigorous, practical without ever being preachy . . . a book that feels like a friend.”
—Montreal Gazette
“One of the country’s finest literary voices."
—National Post
“Many of us sense that the world has too many moving parts and can become utterly defeated. Ray Robertson has found a road back in this splendid and intriguing book [Why Not: Fifteen Reasons to Live].”
—Jim Harrison
