"Once there was a family with a Highland name who lived beside the sea." So begins "As Birds Bring Forth the Sun," a 1985 entry from Island. The story continues, "And the man had a dog of which he was very fond." And there you have the basic elements of an Alistair MacLeod story: dog, family, and sea. The author--whose 2000 novel No Great Mischief won him a measure of long-overdue acclaim--shuffles these elements into a surprisingly infinite variety of configurations, always with the same precise, confident, quiet language.

His big theme is the abandonment of the rural. Though his characters live in the fishing communities of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, the seaside isn't a place where they dwell contentedly. In half the stories, young men and boys feel a pull toward academe and the center of the country. In the other half, academically successful middle-aged men return to the wild eastern coast of Canada to try to reclaim the life they left behind. Both dilemmas are impossible to resolve--no one can be both a city mouse and a country mouse--and MacLeod wisely doesn't offer easy solutions.

What makes the writing sing, though, is the specificity of his descriptions of rural life. He tells you exactly how things work: "The sheep move in and out of their lean-to shelter, restlessly stamping their feet or huddling together in tightly packed groups. A conspiracy of wool against the cold." The people here are ultimately defined by the physical world, and MacLeod has a farmer's visceral feel for geography. As he writes in "The Lost Salt Gift of Blood": "Even farther out, somewhere beyond Cape Spear lies Dublin and the Irish coast; far away but still the nearest land, and closer now than is Toronto or Detroit, to say nothing of North America's more western cities; seeming almost hazily visible now in imagination's mist." This is regional fiction in the best sense: it belongs to one perfectly evoked place. --Claire Dederer


From Library Journal
One of Canada's most important writers, MacLeod grew up in Cape Breton. Here he presents a powerful collection of short stories set on Canada's Eastern shore, where the traditions and Gaelic language of transplanted Scots continue in a harsh new world. All of these affecting, elegiac tales focus on the strong ties of loving kin, particularly the link between fathers and sons. Fathers share the experience of work with their sons, and boys puzzle over family events and tragedies and learn to be men in the close-knit communities. Sadly, as times change, fathers lose their sons, who become educated men and leave the land and sea for professions in the city. MacLeod's characters are deeply touching and memorable, and their simple lives are rich with loyalty and affection for their families and way of life. The sumptuous language, which immerses the reader in this stunning but unrelenting land, begs to be read aloud. A very special collection; recommended for all public libraries.DCathleen A. Towey, Port Washington P.L., NY Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
Eight sensual, sentimental tales in a minor key about the small lives of rural Canadian fisherfolk, miners, and farmers are noteworthy for their lyricism and authentic detail. What concerns the author is what concerns his subjects--family, love, the struggle to make a living, pride. The readings in this CBC selection vary from the stentorian pretentiousness of Frank Perry to the superbly atmospheric renderings of Gordon Pinsent and Joseph Rutten. All have been indifferently mastered, suffering intermittent stridency and loss of the upper register. Y.R. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
MacLeod commands a high reputation as a short-story writer in his native Canada, but few readers in the U.S. will have heard of him. Let this collection of 16 stories, then, establish his name here. From the soil, sea, and inhabitants of Cape Breton Island, MacLeod draws the material for his stories. He measures the psychological effects of the harshness of this place in opposition to the warmth between family members. In the opening story, "The Boat," which introduces the geographical setting for the collection as a whole, a boy grows up feeling his mother's bitterness because he loved his father so much. "To Every Thing There Is a Season" is an essaylike remembrance of a childhood Christmas and the arrival of "our golden older brother." And in "As Birds Bring Forth the Sun," MacLeod borrows the properties of the fairy tale to tell a story about cu mor glas, the big gray dog. The author writes a pure, limpid prose that is at once elegant and flinty. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

FROM OUR EDITORS

"Graceful and elegiac," "stunning," "lyrical" -- these are just a few of the the terms used to describe the work of Alistair MacLeod. Hailed as one of Canada's most important writers and celebrated internationaly for his two collections of short stories, he astonished U.S. audiences with the publication -- at age 64! -- of his first novel, No Great Mischief. A passport to a place where time is fluid and history is ever-present, Island is a book about men and women who are bound to their physical setting as much as they are tied to each other.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The introduction, discussion questions, suggested reading list, and author biography that follow are intended to enhance your group's reading of Alistair MacLeod's Island . We hope they will aid your understanding of this powerful short story collection, representing thirty years of MacLeod's writing about his beloved Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, and the descendants of the Scottish Highlanders who inhabit this rugged and beautiful land.

FROM THE CRITICS

John Sutherland - New York Times Book Review

There is something immensely reassuring about MacLeod's late-career success. Good writing, it seems, will out. Talent like his needs no hype. . . . Rarely does a great writer offer himself to us with an oeuvre so complete yet so small.

John Sutherland

Rarely does a great writer offer himself to us with an oeuvre so complete. —New York Times Book Review

Jane Brox

Cadenced, mesmerizing stories...rarely have I been pulled into short works the way I have been pulled into these.

Publishers Weekly

HCollected in one edition for the first time, the 16 short stories of Canadian writer MacLeod (No Great Mischief) span 30 years of his career and brilliantly evoke the lives of the people of his native Cape Breton Island. The place itself is conjured as a character--the stories are anchored by descriptive passages of lobster fishing, the gray waves of the Atlantic, the deep freeze of winter and the Nova Scotian dawn. Coming-of-age experiences are rendered through pivotal moments: "The Return" describes a first-time visit to the island through the eyes of a 10-year-old boy, and "In the Fall" evokes an incident on a family farm and a boy's growing comprehension of the things that are out of his parents' control. "Second Spring"--the only story to hit a comic note in the often somber collection--is the tale of a seventh-grade boy's desire to breed the perfect calf. One of MacLeod's hallmarks is the nesting of tales within tales: in "The Road to Rankin's Point," a dying young man who returns to his grandmother's house high among the island's treacherous cliffs relays the earlier story of his grandfather's death and the harsh but determined life that followed. Themes of family, work, superstition and Scottish tradition enlarge these beautifully crafted stories. (Feb.) Forecast: McLeod made it onto public radar screens with the much-heralded publication earlier this year of his first novel, No Great Mischief, but he was included on the Modern Library's list of the 200 greatest writers in English since 1950 solely on the basis of his stories. Fans of the novel will likely approach Island as something new, since the original two collections reissued here in one volume are out of print. Expect healthy sales. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

One of Canada's most important writers, MacLeod grew up in Cape Breton. Here he presents a powerful collection of short stories set on Canada's Eastern shore, where the traditions and Gaelic language of transplanted Scots continue in a harsh new world. All of these affecting, elegiac tales focus on the strong ties of loving kin, particularly the link between fathers and sons. Fathers share the experience of work with their sons, and boys puzzle over family events and tragedies and learn to be men in the close-knit communities. Sadly, as times change, fathers lose their sons, who become educated men and leave the land and sea for professions in the city. MacLeod's characters are deeply touching and memorable, and their simple lives are rich with loyalty and affection for their families and way of life. The sumptuous language, which immerses the reader in this stunning but unrelenting land, begs to be read aloud. A very special collection; recommended for all public libraries.--Cathleen A. Towey, Port Washington P.L., NY Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information. Read all 6 "From The Critics" >

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