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sambbarnes's review
2.0
Had to read this for school. I loved not even a handful of the stories and hated the majority. Although his writing is superb, at times it dragged SO MUCH and came off as pretentious.
dynamo170's review
5.0
What a fantastic book. I don't know where my copy of this book came from but it has sat around in my house unread for years. (It does have a dull cover so perhaps it never drew me in). But once started I found a collection of extraordinary short stories set around Nova Scotia. Beautiful and haunting. Goes straight into my list of 5 star best ever reads.
lisa_setepenre's review
2.0
I'm going to be honest here: I didn't enjoy these stories. I didn't feel like there was anything that made me want to continue reading. The stories are so grim and with very hope left in them, that it was a real struggle to keep on reading it.
chalicotherex's review
5.0
All of his stories are well told and have a depth that other books should envy. My only problem is that the subject matter never changes. Always with the forlorn family on the windswept cliff. He's knows Nova Scotia so well, but it's a shame he never really sets foot outside the province, and so his stories all sort of run together after a while and start to remind you of Kate Beaton's criticism of Maritime literature.
juliechristinejohnson's review
4.0
Beautiful and heartbreaking, many of these stories will stay with me for a long, long time. It took a while to read because I needed to take a break and breath, allow the images, characters and events to swirl and settle before I could move on.
The Vastness of the Dark, The Closing Down of Summer, Island, To Everything There is a Season, The Lost Salt Gift of Blood, Second Spring...although the themes of mining, farming, tradition, death, family repeat in the setting of Cape Breton, each story is fresh and powerful. This should be required reading in any class on the craft of writing.
The Vastness of the Dark, The Closing Down of Summer, Island, To Everything There is a Season, The Lost Salt Gift of Blood, Second Spring...although the themes of mining, farming, tradition, death, family repeat in the setting of Cape Breton, each story is fresh and powerful. This should be required reading in any class on the craft of writing.
spoth's review
5.0
This is stunningly good writing, a real pleasure to read. The stories mostly take place in rural coastal areas of Canada, with vivid surroundings of remote cliffs, blowing wind and snow, drifting sea-ice, and fishing boats. They engage with a struggle between the romanticism and the hardships and isolation of traditional life in the fishing boats or in the mines or tending a remote lighthouse, in a way that is profound but offers no easy answers, and doesn't get in the way of the feeling of simplicity and lyricism. Highly, highly recommend.
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