Each Man's Son

Set in 1910s Cape Breton, Each Man's Son is a story of fathers, religion, and purpose in a world and town overcome by the demands of the coal mine that is slowly leaching the life of the people forced to work there. Alan is the son of Mollie and Archie MacNeil, and lives with his mother, listening t......more

A finely wrought but pretty maudlin romp through the lives of the descendants of Highland Scot immigrants in Cape Breton that functions as an excellent character study and also a poignant rebuke to Calvinism, which MacLennan regarded as a poison in the Canadian character. If any of the above makes s......more

Daniel Ainslie is a brilliant doctor whose colleagues in the coal-mining town of Broughton, Cape Breton can't understand why he sticks around patching up the miners after their Saturday night fistfights when he could be off in Europe or the U.S. becoming the next Lister. Archie MacNeil is a boxer wh......more

Depressing Cape Breton is depressing. This may get a real review when I have time. I liked Ainslie! Sort of. 2.5/5 I guess.......more

I read mostly classics. After reading a number of works by Australian writers Richard Flanaghan and Randolph Stow, I thought to turn back to Canadian writers of the post war era. Hugh MacLennan came to mind, and this was a random pick. He's more known for books like 'Two Solitudes' and 'The Watch tha......more