Moses Sweetland is the embodiment of a Newfoundland that's disappearing: twelve generations of Sweetlands gave their name to the tiny and inhospitable island off the southern coast of Newfoundland, and in his lifetime, Moses was part of the Toronto-based diaspora that left home in search of a quick buck in the 70's, a codfisher until the 90's moratorium, a lighthouse keeper until it was automated, and now, the final holdout in a government plan to relocate the community to the mainland -- and as everyone must sign on for the program to take effect, Moses is under pressure (from subtle to menacing) to take the deal.
With Sweetland, Michael Crummey has written a book that, although exotic to me, rings true with every word, interaction, and plot detail: this is a part of Newfoundland that I've never seen but, somehow, recognise and believe. This is undoubtedly Crummey's goal as he has characters react to other books set in Newfoundland, beginning with Queenie, whose Edmonton-based daughter sends her books in an attempt to elevate her mother's reading tastes (with "serious books -- literary novels, prize-winners, Oprah's picks".)
Queenie never cracked a spine, but for the few written by Newfoundlanders or about Newfoundland. She took those on as a kind of patriotic duty, though it was torture to get through them. They were every one depressing, she said. Or nothing happened. Or there was no point to the story. Half the books supposedly set in Newfoundland were nowhere Queenie recognized and she felt insulted by their claim on her life. They all sounds like they were written by townies, she liked to say.And by "townies" I assume she means St. John's -- the only part of the Rock I've seen, and the "big city" that most residents of Sweetland have never before visited. Although the residents of this outport yet live in a way that would not be wholly unrecognisable to their grandparents (heating with wood stoves, snaring rabbits and jigging for cod, hauling up seaweed to fertilise a vegetable garden), the reader never forgets that this is today: now the young men go off to Fort Mac and the oilfields, and Moses' great-nephew Jesse has gotten the old man online. Moses calls the internet: A window they could peer through to watch the modern world unfold in its myriad variations, while only the smallest, strangest fragments washed ashore on the island. But for all the anachronisms, there is nothing cute or sweet about this book: this is a 100% believable story about complex people living fully human lives. As for the writing, the dialogue is idiosyncratic without being impenetrable or played for laughs and the exposition is in gorgeous language without being florid or sentimental (and you remember that Crummey has been primarily a poet: not because he plays with language here, but because he chooses his language so carefully). And, above all, this book broke my heart. Even a retired construction worker-codfisher-lighthouse keeper can have existential crises:
He hated confronting those lost moments, being presented with some detail from his past and having to look on it like a stranger. It made his life feel like a made-up thing. A net full of holes.And later:
A life was no goddamn thing in the end, he thought. Bits-and-pieces of make-believe cobbled together to look halfways human, like some stick-and-rag doll meant to scare crows out of the garden. No goddamn thing at all.I am sorry that I didn't really like Galore, but this is the third time that Crummey has blown me away and just goes to prove that, while I might not always care for the magical and mythical, I am definitely open to the folkloric and ethereal; and wherever that dividing line lies, Crummey has situated a novel that worked for me on every level; this book is funny and instructive and dramatic and touching. Definitely my early pick for this year's Giller Prize.
By now I know that Sweetland didn't make the Giller Prize long- or shortlist, but will put it as my favourite for the G-G's so far.
The 2014 Governor General's Literary Awards Shortlist, with my ranking:
English Fiction:
- Sweetland by Michael Crummey
- Juliet Was a Surprise by Bill Gaston
- My October by Claire Holden Rothman
- The Back of the Turtle by Thomas King
- The Opening Sky by Joan Thomas
The 2014 Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction winner is The Back of the Turtle. Meh.
