Sean Cadigan

How well you like this book will probably depend on where you are standing.

As in, "As an American, I found this very confusing, but I suspect it would make sense to a Newfoundlander." There are parts of Newfoundland history that I know something about, from other books, and I often found that this volume brought extra focus to those topics. But when it was something I knew nothing about, it seemed an endless drone of "Now this faction [religious, or industry-based, or from some particular part of the country] gained some power, so their opponents in [wherever] organized in opposition and created a new party to do [whatever]." It read more like sports league standings than a real history. Hard to plow through.

If you have hooks in it -- if your grandparents were some of those Irish Catholics, or those Bonavista fishermen, or whatever -- it probably feels much more real to you. I don't really think it's a bad book. But it's probably not the ideal first book about Newfoundland for those from somewhere else.… (more)