Island: The Complete Stories

ISLAND is many things. On the most superficial level, it is a collection of short stories (though some don't have the "feel" of fictional short stories). Indeed, it is a collection of all sixteen short stories that Alistair MacLeod wrote between 1968 and 1999. On another level, it is a superb portrayal of Cape Breton Island and life there in the first three-quarters of the 20th Century among descendants of the Scots who had been expelled during the Highland Clearances. They are hardened, clannish people eking out a marginal existence in the mines, on the seas, and raising sheep and cattle on the rock-studded fields. Throughout the 20th century, many of the younger Cape Bretonites dispersed elsewhere - leaving them with a sense of homesickness and nostalgia and leaving among those who remained on the island a sense of abandonment. On a third level, ISLAND is an evocation and exploration of those senses of homesickness, nostalgia, and abandonment. Finally, ISLAND is a book on the implacable passage of time.Three of the stories are exceptional: "The Boat", "The Lost Salt Gift of Blood", and "Clearances". The first of those took my breath away. All of the stories are above average. But some of them - and here is my criticism of the book -- are contrived to one degree or another; they have elements that are precious or sappy and the reader senses the strings by which MacLeod is manipulating his emotions.MacLeod is a consummate literary craftsman. In that regard, he reminds me of another descendant of displaced Scots, Norman Maclean, whose backwoods Montana is redolent of MacLeod's Cape Breton Island. The stories are so finely wrought that I can well understand how MacLeod produced, on average, only one every two years.Here is one example of the craftsmanship: "Clearances" opens with an elderly man being awakened by the dog's pulling at the Condon's woollen blanket. MacLeod tells us that the blanket is now over a half century old, made from the best fleece shorn in the spring from the sheep the man and his wife kept and then sent to Condon's Woollen Mill, which, months later, would send them a box of blankets, each containing the label "William Condon and Sons, Charlettetown, Prince Edward Island." There then follows a paragraph about the one and only time the man and his wife had gone to Prince Edward Island, and about all they did was to go look at Condon's Woollen Mill. Then there is a paragraph about how, when they were young, he often would retrieve the Condon's woollen blanket from the foot of the bed or on the floor by the bedside after a session of passion and carefully spread it over his wife's shoulders and his own. The next paragraph begins: "The blanket had been on them when his wife died; died without a sound or a shudder." Finely and exquisitely honed.

Why has it taken me, as a compulsively page-turning American, until my sixties to discover an author of the superlative quality of Alistair MacLeod! I bought "Island" because I intended to vacation on Cape Breton Island and wanted to read something about it other than travel guides. Once I started into "Island," however, it became quickly apparent that I had in my hands one of the finest collection of short stories I'd ever read. MacLeod's writing is beautiful, evocative, lyrical, and intensely sensuous. There's a cinematic, visionary quality to his descriptions of the landscapes, seascapes, and weather of Cape Breton, along with brilliant, if sometimes horrific, accounts of the lives and struggles of its miners, farmers, and fishermen, and of their wives and children. Running through all the stories is the life and language of the descendants of the original Scottish immigrants still speaking (and singing) in Gaelic.MacLeod's Cape Breton is, for the most part, a beautiful, harsh, melancholy land, where the struggle merely for shelter and food is enough to drive the young rising generations to Halifax, Toronto, and points west, while the Scottish past remains stubbornly alive. He limits himself to one small region of space, pretty much the west coast of Cape Breton, while allowing his temporal horizons to reach back to the 1700s and forward into the late 20th century. There is little bright future in these stories, though there is often great courage, decency, and generosity on the part of his characters. MacLeod has the rare gift of portraying good people interestingly and even makes credible characters out of animals; his cows and horses and dogs have individual personalities while not being anthropomorphized. The first story, "The Boat," ends with a shocking image that was the result, the reader finally realizes, from an act of extraordinary generosity; that blend of the appalling and the humane is characteristic of the stories. It is hard to imagine a reader finishing "The Boat" and not reading story after story to the end. It's hard to overstate the quality of this collection. MacLeod should be much better known in the US than he is.

This book is a compilation of the author’s short stories of life in Cape Breton. Each is powerful, personal, profound. These stories are of generation to generation, telling the dreams and hopes, tragedies and sorrows, longings and memories of a people from Scotch descent. They still speak Gaelic, live on the land with cattle, horses, dogs, and sheep. They view the seas and sky each day and night of their lives in self-determined isolation. From marriage to children to old age, with sudden disasters and dedicated loves, the people remain there. Even as some of their children grow and leave for cities like Halifax and parts of Canada and America, others return. The tone of these stories is poignant, almost mythical—each wrenches your heart. The author is one and only---a true master storyteller.

This was such a helpful, exquisitely written traveling companion for me throughout my first visit to Nova Scotia and particularly Cape Breton. It gave me such an appreciation for some of the complexities and challenges of individuals living within a more traditional culture transitioning into the challenges and complexities that accompany a modern culture. HIs subtle yet cognizant of the heart depictions of the diverse characters drew me in completely, and although this is a compilation of short stories, each stood exquisitely on its own, yet left me wish it could go on and on. Reading these stories enabled me to ask questions, learn, and have numerous conversations with local residents that would have otherwise been impossible as an outsider.

Though I have been an avid reader all my life, I have not read many collections of short stories. This book has shown me what I have been missing. I previously read MacLeod's book " No great mischief" and was delighted to find that his short stories are written with the same, consummate skill. As a Scotsman, I warmed to his perceptive portrayal of the third and fourth generation Scots who had been evicted from their land and ended up in the wilds of Nova Scotia. Every story is tinged with melancholy. Death features in every one. The concept of the "second sight" is referred to frequently. All of this contributes to the brooding atmosphere which he creates. The harshness of life is described with real insight and his characters resonate with reality.As with all truly great novels, the characters in this book will remain with me forever, and I am certain that I will reflect on them time and time again.

What beautifully crafted writing. It manages to capture the miscommunication and misunderstanding between generations. The generation that worked in dangerious, horrible conditions and lived with poverty and illness - mines and fishing. This generation wanted their children to have a better life but when the next generation were introduced to education and new ways of working there arises a gulf in understanding the different worlds and ways of each other. MacLeod captures both worlds in detail and the human pain of work, not knowing, not belonging and trying to understand. This generation should read this book to understand what our parents went through to survive and bring up a family.

The book was well packaged and arrived within the scheduled time. Although second hand, it is in a very readable state. I read this book when I was in Skye in a holiday cottage and am now enjoying it once again. The stories are very human and tell a lot about the hardships of the early settlers in Cape Breton and Nova Scotia, as well as describing the changing lives of the sons and daughters who leave to look for new lives in the cities.

I never read this book because I ordered it by mistake! I meant to order "No Great Mischief" . I cancelled it and didn't download it hoping Amazon would reimburse me, but I seem now to have paid for a book I don't even have.I tried sending amazon emails so far to no avail!The moral of this story is, be v careful with your ordering!

This is a wonderful collection of complex, long, short stories all linked to the lives of Cape Breton Islanders .It spans a wide time range and gives a sense of the strong cultural ,social and emotional ties binding them together,to their Gaelic origins and to their land.