Saturday, March 29, 2014

Island





Alistair MacLeod, Island: The Complete Stories  (New York: W. W. Norton, 2000), 434 pages, no illustrations.

This is a wonderful collection of short stories that are set in and around Nova Scotia or about people who are from the Maritime Islands of Canada.  The author, who was raised on Cape Breton, draws upon the rich heritage of his childhood home to create characters grounded in a mystical setting.  There great variety in these stories.  Some deal with coming of age themes: growing up, leaving home, and learning the truth about Santa.  Many of the stories deal with loss: of a spouse, a lover, child and a horse.  And then there are stories of change: a new way of life, new stages of life, and the seasons.  Throughout the stories there is a connection to home and even one deeper, across the sea to the islands of Scotland. The characters are involved in a host of occupations: mining, fishing, lobstering, tending lighthouses, hiring out on Great Lake freighters.  Although the characters may leave their home for jobs (miners going to West Virginia and even Africa), there is a magnetic connection to the islands as seen in miners making sure a fellow miner's body parts are returned home.  

MacLeod is a master at providing great depth within a short period of time.  In "The Vastness of the Dark,"  a story that takes place on the day of a boy's 18th birthday, we learn of his father's and grandfather's history as miners in the coal veins that are playing out on Cape Brenton.  The story is set in the late 1950s.  He has decided to leave home and he recalls with detail how his day begins.  Before leaving the island, he stops to tell his grandparents goodbye and we pick up more of the family history.  His father had also left the island, but had come back to take his grandfather's place in the mine (which has since closed).  In a way, his setting out is the same as his father's.  He hitches a ride with a salesman, betraying his home as he says he's heading home to Vancouver.  The salesman brags of "getting lucky" in the mining towns where there are a large number of widows.  Instead of exciting the boy with the possibility of a sexual encounter, he finds himself repulsed.  He recalls a trip with his father and grandfather who went to help the miners trapped underground and from collecting coins in school for the families who lost their father.  His disgust rises as he realizes this man could be hitting on his own mother. Leaving the salesman behind, he is picked up with a group of guys heading back to a uranium mining job in Ontario.  Realizing that they, too, are from Cape Breton, he drops his story of being from Vancouver and admits that he is also from the Cape.  This long story all takes place on one day, his 18th birthday.   

These are stories to be cherished.  MacLeod beautifully captures the lure of his homeland.  When his characters leave the Maritimes for jobs in the West, the reader feels their pain as they travel the long highways toward Toronto.  I recommend this book.

15 comments:

  1. Looks like a great book. I like the location;)
    You have been busy!! I wish to sail out of this snow....

    ReplyDelete
  2. A lot of my favorite things in the one book. I always enjoy your reviews of books, especially when my time is short and I can't read every book that I want too! Your reviews are so darn enjoyable. It's great seeing a post of yours too! Happy to see you aren't lost in a snowbank. Gee whiz we've all had so much winter this year.

    ReplyDelete
  3. my absolute favorite short story is from this collection, "In The Fall". i had the opportunity to read it aloud once while on an autumn drive to a nearby town. by the time we arrived at the nearby town my husband and i were both weeping.

    cape breton is an incredibly unique place. the mystique is rooted in the real.

    xo
    erin

    ReplyDelete
  4. I always want to read anything you review, and this is no exception.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I often like these kinds of tales set in settings like this. Gives you a feeling of getting to know the place as well as the folks.

    ReplyDelete
  6. nice....this sounds delightful...i love short story and the art of it....having a whole book on a place as well allows you to get a feel for it too....

    ReplyDelete
  7. There are few places in the New World that so condense the hellish existence of these islands in one place. Everything bad here was distilled in the Maritime Provinces.
    It was usual to wait until a fishing village was on the edge of starvation before arriving to trade cod barrels for supplies. And those mining towns weren't much better.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Novia Scotia is a wonderful setting for a book. I'm sure this paints a vivid picture of what life was like there.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Sounds good, I like short stories and the setting for these would certainly interest me

    ReplyDelete
  10. Nicely reviewed. Your synopsis of one story conveys so much of the whole collection, the ethos, location, and mood. I long had a fascination with islands and came to think of the Hebrides as the most iconic. Island geography, climate and history produce people of uncommon character.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Sounds like a good read! I would love to visit that area.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Another book I haven't read. I know I am not supposed to judge by the cover but I love the cover!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I love short story, the craft of it -- and sometimes its very brevity!

    Pearl

    ReplyDelete
  14. Sage: Reminds me of Gordon Lightfoot's explanation behind his song, "A Painter Passing Through". Very interesting!

    ReplyDelete
  15. It sounds really good. I have a ton to read already, but I'm going to check this out. thanks for info...

    ReplyDelete