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13 Works 91 Members 3 Reviews

Works by Maura Hanrahan

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Common Knowledge

Birthdate
1963
Gender
female
Nationality
Canada

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Reviews

Decisiveness isn't all it's cracked up to be.

This is a fascinating idea: A set of capsule biographies (the average is about six pages; given the type size and the number of sidebars and photos and such, I'd guess they were shooting for 1000-1200 words each) of Newfoundlanders who were either heroes or people you didn't want to be around. It's a nice, gentle way to be introduced to noteworthy historical characters.

Of course, the problem with such short bios is that they don't allow for much in-depth study. This makes it hard to convey nuance. But... the authors could have tried. And therein lies my real gripe.

I'm not a Newfoundlander. I know just enough to know how little I know about their culture -- which is not Canadian. (Most of the characters in the book weren't Canadian, either; they lived before Newfoundland joined Canada.) But I have studied several of the characters in this book -- notably Abram Kean the sealing captain and Robert A. Bartlett the sealing captain and arctic explorer -- in detail.

The portrait of Bartlett is the one that bothered me most. The story told here is so one-sided as to be utterly misleading. Bartlett was a brave and dedicated man with wide-ranging interests. He was also, flatly, dangerous -- incapable of caution, unable to imagine the consequences of his actions, immune to learning from his experience. Men died and ships were lost because he couldn't manage a coherent plan of action. And he let Robert Peary lead him around by the nose. Does Bartlett deserve praise? Sure. But he also should be used as a cautionary tale. Even in 1200 words, the authors could have presented a fuller picture, and they didn't.

Are the other bios as incomplete? I don't know, because I haven't studied the people involved. But when there are problems with the parts of a book that I can check, I tend to get cautious about the parts that I can't.... Clearly the authors have often decided that their characters are either Good Guy or Bad Guy. I could use a few more "Er... Well..." Guys.
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waltzmn | May 11, 2018 |
This book tells the story of a little-known chapter in Newfoundland’s history (little known, at least, to those outside of Newfoundland): a tsunami that occurred on November 18, 1929, devastating communities on the Burin Peninsula, at the southern end of Newfoundland. The wave took out livelihoods, food stores for the winter, and residents. It also happened one month after the stock market crash that would be seen as the start of the Great Depression.

The author was able to gather personal testimony from many survivors of the disaster, which was helpful. However, the accounts became repetitive after a while—not in the sense of all the stories sounding the same, but in literally the same story being told over and over again. And it wasn’t until the Afterword that it became apparent that conversations had been reconstructed. I *thought* some of the dialogue between the government officials in particular seemed a bit exposition-y.

I wouldn’t necessarily dissuade anyone from reading this, but I’m not about to go pressing copies into everyone’s hands either.
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rabbitprincess | 1 other review | Aug 3, 2017 |
In 1929, Newfoundland was still its own country; it wouldn’t join Canada for another 20 years. In November of that year, under the ocean closeby, there was an earthquake, followed shortly after by a tsunami that hit the small island nation – three successive waves that hit the shores of the Burin Peninsula the worst. Many small fishing communities in that area lost food and fuel that was meant to get them through the upcoming winter, they lost homes, livelihoods, and 27 people’s lives, many women and children. The following day, as communication lines were still down, a blizzard hit the area.

The author describes people and families as they feel the tremor, wonder what’s happened, then relax when it ends... then, as the waves first arrive. Later, she follows one nurse, Nurse Dorothy Cherry, as she travels (with two local men to accompany her) through the blizzard between the small communities to offer help. Later, the word finally gets out to a wider world, and more help arrives in the form of clothes, building supplies, food, coal.

This is a disaster I hadn’t known about. This book is mostly facts, but the author does add in dialogue and even invents some background for some key people when she couldn’t find out enough. There is a note at the end of the book to explain this. Very interesting and heartbreaking, in some cases.
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LibraryCin | 1 other review | May 22, 2017 |

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Works
13
Members
91
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Rating
½ 3.4
Reviews
3
ISBNs
21

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