Maclean by Allan Donaldson

Description

In this novel set over the course of a day, an alcoholic, Canadian, World War I veteran attempts to find peace while shopping for a birthday present. Twenty-five years after the Great War, John Maclean is still struggling to carve out a meaningful existence in his small New Brunswick hometown. One late summer day he embarks on a seemingly prosaic search for a little money, a little booze, and a birthday gift for his mother. But he's haunted by memories--of war, of his cruel father, of show more opportunities wasted and lost--and each moment is shadowed by his bleak history. Shell-shocked and alcoholic, Maclean is divided between a lonely present and a violent past. With clean and evocative prose, author Allan Donaldson exquisitely depicts a shattered war veteran's search for peace. Praise for Maclean "Slim yet encompassing, tender yet merciless . . . This book merits a media flurry." --Globe and Mail (Canada) show less

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Bcteagirl 114 reviews

Set after WWI and at the beginning of WWII in a small town in northern New Brunswick. MaClean is a vetran... although he survived (He was sent home with a 'weak heart and lungs' after some gassing) he has memories that still haunt him. He never had a family; he lives in a boarding house and uses his pension to drink. The plot of the book as written on the back cover is him earning some money to buy his elderly mother a birthday present. In reality this book includes a lot of flashbacks to his youth and some during the war... what went wrong, and wondering if things could have turned out differently.

½

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