The Lost Salt Gift of Blood

Reading Joyce Carol Oates' afterword to this short story collected by Alistair MacLeod--I found myself completely in agreement with her sentiments. Calling this collection stunning when MacLeod's writing in itself tends towards understatement might seem a bit much to others but in not one of the seven stories here did I find something that did not seem perfect. Every one of these stories IMO were brilliantly concieved, plotted, written and concluded. That MacLeod's material comes from his native Nova Scotia and much of it revolves around the fishing and mining milieu he grew up in does not inhibit it at all. As in his Impac winning novel 'No great mischief' these people are connected to a Gaelic culture going hundreds of years back. show more There is a quiet beauty to his language and masterful psychological depth to his seemingly ordinary characters and situations. But there is an eye for detail as well and a sense for epiphanic moments--for instance in one story (The vastness of the dark) a miner survives a mine's collaspe realizing when the rats inside all begin rushing past him for the entrance that he has to turn and run himself.

In any case though short stories all seven seem so fully realized that as Ms. Oates remarks in her afterward they give one the feeling of fully realized works--at least that's how I read this: ' The lost salt gift of blood contains seven stories, and it took seven years for them to be written. This is to confirm our sense that there is nothing in the volume at hand that has not been deliberated at length; nothing written in haste, or for ephemeral purposes. Virtually all of these stories, one feels, might be expanded into novels, and, indeed, they give the satisfying sense of being part of a large, generous, imaginative whole, not mere fragments. The voice varies from story to story, but it is recognizably the same voice, addressing us from out of the same authorial consciousness.'

Anyway I would recommend very highly. show less

Far beyond the harbor's mouth more tiny squalls seem to be forming, moving rapidly across the surface of the sea out there beyond land's end where the blue ocean turns to gray in rain and distance and the strain of eyes. 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.

Twelve short stories set in the remote, Gaelic speaking communities of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. The author's interests seem to include lighthouses, dogs and dying fathers and the first few stories are quite down-beat. I was finding it all a bit depressing show more before the mood lightened (a bit) about half-way through the book. My favourite stories were "The Lost Salt Gift of Blood", "The Road to Rankin's Point" and "The Closing Down of Summer", but overall, I still prefer the author's novel "No Great Mischief". show less

Strong, poignant, memorable prose. Some pieces, such as "The Boat" and the title piece stand out with their calmness and boldness of expression that permeate the consciousness of the reader. These stories are a valuable rarity in the literary world.

Oh, I love to read original editions from the library stacks and see how an established - indeed, revered - Canadian writer was viewed before (s)he was known!

From the blurb of this first edition:
An exciting new discovery in Canadian fiction . . .
Born in North Battleford, Saskatchewan, Alistair MacLeod grew up in the coal-mining areas of Alberta and the farming areas of Dunvegan and Inverness, Nova Scotia.
Educated at St. Francis Xavier University, the University of New Brunswick and Notre Dame University, he has worked as a school teacher, miner, logger and, most recently, as Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Windsor. His short stories have appeared in magazines and journals . . . The present show more volume is the first full-length collection devoted to his work.

Back cover: To an outsider the stories in The Lost Salt Gift of Blood seem to belong to Cape Breton because they are stubborn, reflective, melancholy, and overflowing with the energies of family life. There are seven stories in the book; it took seven years to write them: a good part of the life of a young writer. But with this superb collection, as anyone will know who reads it, Al MacLeod’s career is just beginning. (My note, one story is set in Newfoundland and another concerns a family from Kentucky living in Indiana.)

In The Road to Rankin’s Point pg 181
“It does not matter that some things are difficult. No one has ever said that life is to be easy. Only that it is to be lived.” (90-something grandmother)

Lovely, just lovely! show less

http://pixxiefishbooks.blogspot.com/2...

This is a book I had long wanted to read, supposed admirer of Canadian literature that I am. I have read one or two short stories of Alistair MacLeod's before. This is a collection of seven stories, all focused around family love and family relationships. They are all based in or focused on Cape Breton, but have meaning and value beyond those borders. There's a reason why Alistair MacLeod is commonly included in the canon of Can-Lit, and I am looking forward to reading more of his work in the future.

wonderful book with short stories with a Scottish background from Canada's east coast.

These are my favorite stories.