You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
kayteslibrary 's review for:
On South Mountain: The Dark Secrets Of The Goler Clan
by David Cruise, Alison Griffiths
A sound, if disturbing, look at local history.
"The social workers, health professionals, educators, were like everyone else in the Valley ... They might know something but were content not to really know—at least to the point of doing anything ..."
I'm not sure at what point I became aware of the Golers and what they did. I remember being in junior high about five years after this book was released. It was not uncommon to hear people joke that certain students lived on "Goler mountain", and understanding what was meant by it. I didn't know which of the mountains was "Goler" mountain (having grown up in town), but at thirteen, that's irrelevant information.
As such, I write this review from the perspective of someone who grew up in the Annapolis Valley and who, on at least some level, has been "aware" of the nightmare surrounding the Goler family for as long as I can remember.
The story itself is an interesting one—I can't say I really enjoyed the book, given the subject matter, but it certainly both sated and inspired further morbid curiosity. Eventually.
The first several chapters were...unnecessary, to say the least. The valuable content they contained (the lack of agricultural promise on the mountain, and the societal rift between mountain and valley) could have been summed up in a quarter of the pages without the authors waxing poetic about Pangaea and plate tectonics. While the section on the Acadians and their subsequent expulsion was more interesting, it still struck me as wholly unnecessary to a book subtitled The Dark Secrets of the Goler Glan.
Once we're finally introduced to the family itself, the book picks up steam and becomes vastly more engaging, though not perfect. The inclusion of court transcripts in some points helps to underpin the horrors these children endured, but in others, because of the English used, make it more difficult to follow.
The last segment of the book shows Donna as an adult and her efforts to regain custody of her own trial. Frustratingly, rather than discuss the outcome of these efforts, the epilogue instead lists new charges for Cranswick and William.
"The social workers, health professionals, educators, were like everyone else in the Valley ... They might know something but were content not to really know—at least to the point of doing anything ..."
I'm not sure at what point I became aware of the Golers and what they did. I remember being in junior high about five years after this book was released. It was not uncommon to hear people joke that certain students lived on "Goler mountain", and understanding what was meant by it. I didn't know which of the mountains was "Goler" mountain (having grown up in town), but at thirteen, that's irrelevant information.
As such, I write this review from the perspective of someone who grew up in the Annapolis Valley and who, on at least some level, has been "aware" of the nightmare surrounding the Goler family for as long as I can remember.
The story itself is an interesting one—I can't say I really enjoyed the book, given the subject matter, but it certainly both sated and inspired further morbid curiosity. Eventually.
The first several chapters were...unnecessary, to say the least. The valuable content they contained (the lack of agricultural promise on the mountain, and the societal rift between mountain and valley) could have been summed up in a quarter of the pages without the authors waxing poetic about Pangaea and plate tectonics. While the section on the Acadians and their subsequent expulsion was more interesting, it still struck me as wholly unnecessary to a book subtitled The Dark Secrets of the Goler Glan.
Once we're finally introduced to the family itself, the book picks up steam and becomes vastly more engaging, though not perfect. The inclusion of court transcripts in some points helps to underpin the horrors these children endured, but in others, because of the English used, make it more difficult to follow.
The last segment of the book shows Donna as an adult and her efforts to regain custody of her own trial. Frustratingly, rather than discuss the outcome of these efforts, the epilogue instead lists new charges for Cranswick and William.