| Lancette Arts Journal Founded in 2000 |
Book Reviews |
April 2006 |
Algonquin Elegy: Tom Thomson's Last Spring by Neil J. Lehto
iUniverse, paperback, 225 pages, U$19.95 ISBN 0-595-36132-3
By Alidë Kohlhaas
Tom Thomson is, without a doubt, the most enigmatic of Canadian artists, the most famous in his own country though hardly known outside it. His death is surrounded by mystery. Did he accidentally drown in Algonquin Park’s Canoe Lake, did he commit suicide, or was he murdered? We’ll most likely never know because his family refuses to exhume his body for examination. If you read Neil J. Lehto’s Algonquin Elegy: Tom Thomson’s Last Spring, you may even wonder whether the metal casket buried in the Leith cemetery, near Owen Sound, actually contains his remains.
Many writers have attempted to untangle the events of July 8, 1917, when Thomson vanished, his overturned canoe found on Canoe Lake. His body was discovered on July 16 near the canoe. Scientifically this is possible because in the 40-foot deep, very cold water, his body would have sunk first and then floated upward as the body’s natural production of methane and hydrogen gasses made it float upward in due time.
Lehto is the latest in a long line-up of journalists, arts writers, historians and novelists who have tangled with this tale. His is most likely one of the most thoroughly researched books of them all; it fits well into the historic fiction genre in which real . . .
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