Farthings Fortunes

Farthing’s Fortunes is a rollicking,picaresque tale that follows the fortunes of Bill Farthing as he travelsthroughout North America at the turn of the 20^th century.Seduced at 15 by his amorous guardian, Mrs. Fletcher, and fleeing ruralCanada for a life of adventure, Farthing joins up with an irrepressiblecompanion, Cass Findlater, perhaps one of the last great Americanentrepreneurs.

Farthing’s journey is also a quest, a devoted search for the love ofhis life—a red-headed music hall beauty, the incomparable Sally Butters.It is a search that takes him to the bustling, immigrant-filled New YorkCity of the 1890s; to the Klondike Gold Rush; to Europe, where he runsinto the "war to end all wars"; and to the rail yards and hobojungles of the Great Depression. Whether they are riding in a Pierce-Arrowor on a box car, Farthing and Findlater are always in the company of anassortment of characters: bootleggers and poets, aristocrats and tramps,confidence men and chorus girls.

Wright casts a splendidly irreverent eye on a colourful period andcreates a coming-of-age tale that is a triumph of comic imagination.