Jack Burger displays a poster featuring the front cover of his new book ‘You Don’t Know Jack.’
Fort Macleod residents who don’t know Jack have a chance Thursday, April 21 to learn more about the new author.
Crafty Jack Burger will read from his new book You Don’t Know Jack at 7 p.m. Thursday at Fort Macleod Library.
Burger’s appearance is the latest in a series of author readings hosted by the library.
Burger wrote his book at the urging of his late wife Deb, who believed her husband’s many stories would find a wide audience.
“This whole book thing was her idea,” Burger said of his wife Deb, who died three years ago after a battle with pancreatic cancer. “She said that I remembered the stories so well and I told them with such zest and flavour that it would be good to write them down.”
Burger began almost at the beginning of his life, starting with his childhood in Monarch and later Fort Macleod.
To his surprise, the stories flowed and Burger soon had enough material to fill two books.
As he wrote each story Burger would remember others, and when he discussed the book with friends they would remind him of yet more.
“The whole thing of it was I wanted to make sure it was self-depreciating humour rather than picking on somebody else,” Burger said. “I don’t like that sort of stuff.”
You Don’t Know Jack is organized into chapters titled Monarch, Fort Macleod, Lethbridge, Dan, Work Life, Motorcycles and Holidays, LCC and the ’80s, Jack’s Shorts and Other Interesting Stuff, and Deb.
Burger’s life-long friend Dan Davis has a chapter dedicated to their adventures together, and other southwestern Alberta residents figure prominently as well.
The book’s cover is filled with 353 images, with Crafty Jack and Little Debbie’s faces figuring prominently.
“It’s been amazing,” Burger said of response to the book. “I’m hearing from people who tell me it sounds like my voice when they’re reading this. That’s really flattering.”
You Don’t Know Jack is available at The Macleod Gazette office.
Kevin Van Tighem will be at the library at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 28.
Van Tighem, a former superintendent of Banff National Park, has written more than 200 articles, stories, and essays on conservation and wildlife.
