Sonny Poolroom

I finished reading Sonny Poolroom today and thoroughly enjoyed it. When I finish reading a good book, I feel like I am saying goodbye to a good friend. Your memory of events that shaped your life is unbelievable.

Congratulations on the fantastic memoir. I hope that the news of Sonny Poolroom will reach others of our generation so they too can enjoy this wonderful, well-written book.

Compelling, riveting, a compulsive page-turner. I very much enjoyed Sonny Poolroom and I know many others will as well, especially those who came of age in the mid-20th century, well in advance of the Internet era when not every house had a telephone, and indoor plumbing was a novelty, and neighbours pitched in to raise a barn, and you could get a haircut for $1, and one-room country schools dotted the province and everyone knew a guy who could provide some home-made moonshine. Seems like another world, and in many ways it was.

My mother was in Regina for appointments and started reading Steve’s book and now she can’t put it down She said that is just the way it was. She is 95 years old and she’s taking Sonny Poolroom home to finish reading it. Must confess the only thing I have seen her read before was her cookbooks.

I am thrilled to have a copy of your memoir. It is so well written. You know how to tell a story!

I have been an enthusiast of autobiographical material, mainly literary, and I find Sonny Poolroom completely absorbing. Truthfully, entertaining and a page-turner. And I judge my own background against it. Bravo!

Hey, Grandpa. I just had a quick scan through Sonny Poolroom. I just want to say congratulations for finally publishing it. I know it took you hours and hours of work and I’m so happy that it is finally out. I also wanted to say thank you for dedicating this book to me and my cousins. I will be sure to show Sonny Poolroom to my children and grandchildren so they can see what it was like when you were growing up and know more about our family history. I am excited to start reading Sonny Poolroom!

I enjoyed reading Sonny Poolroom - a real trip down memory lane and an eye-opener and awareness of just how much we didn't know about our rural community. A real wealth of Saskatchewan history as well.

First and foremost, I can say that the voice in your narrative is as honest and true as the face of that boy on the back cover. I would recognize both anywhere. Secondly, I am struck by the depth of your memories of growing up in Lac Vert. Sonny Poolroom takes me back to people and places I hadn’t thought about in years. What shines in these reminiscences is your interest in people as individuals, and as persons with beguiling lives who have their own ideas, talents, and foibles, no matter their stations or situations in life. Their characters live again in your words. And that’s already a remarkable achievement, even if that were all you had hoped to accomplish. But by the time I came to the last page, I was ready to say that Lac Vert and its people had found their rightful place in a work of literature. It reminds me in many ways of Sherwood Anderson’s American classic, Winesburg, Ohio (1919).

It took me less than two days to finish reading Sonny Poolroom – it’s an excellent read. Anyone raised in a small town just needs to change the names in Steve’s memoir and the stories he tells are pretty much the same for all of us. I know it was for my brother Don and me while growing up in Pleasantdale and Naicam. Mom laughed like hell at some of the stories.