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His big theme is the abandonment of the rural. Though his characters live in the fishing communities of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, the seaside isn't a place where they dwell contentedly. In half the stories, young men and boys feel a pull toward academe and the centre of the country. In the other half, academically successful middle-aged men return to the wild eastern coast of Canada to try to reclaim the life they left behind. Both dilemmas are impossible to resolve--no one can be both a city mouse and a country mouse--and MacLeod wisely doesn't offer easy solutions.
What makes the writing sing, though, is the specificity of his descriptions of rural life. He tells you how things work, exactly: "The sheep move in and out of their lean-to shelter, restlessly stamping their feet or huddling together in tightly packed groups. A conspiracy of wool against the cold." The people here are ultimately defined by the physical world, and MacLeod has a farmer's visceral feel for geography. As he writes in "The Lost Salt Gift of Blood": "Even farther out, somewhere beyond Cape Spear lies Dublin and the Irish coast; far away but still the nearest land, and closer now than is Toronto or Detroit, to say nothing of North America's more western cities; seeming almost hazily visible now in imagination's mist." This is regional fiction in the best sense: it belongs to one perfectly evoked place. --Claire Dederer, Amazon.com
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Book Description Condition: new. Seller Inventory # FrontCover0771055684
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. McClelland & Stewart, Toronto 2000, Hardcover First Edition/First Printing. Stories by the great MacLeod, author of 'No Great Mischief'. Book Condition: New & unread, in a like dustjacket which is not price clipped - comes in a brodart protective & removable sleeve. Nice Copy!. Seller Inventory # ABE-1536949608014
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: new. New Copy. Customer Service Guaranteed. Seller Inventory # think0771055684
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Seller Inventory # Abebooks149504
Book Description Condition: New. New. In shrink wrap. Looks like an interesting title! 1.7. Seller Inventory # Q-0771055684