| Lancette Arts Journal Founded in 2000 |
Book Reviews From our Archives |
February 2005 |
Cape Breton
Road
by D. R. MacDonald, Doubleday Canada,
288 pages, hardcover, $32.95 ISBN0-385-25901-8
An
Inexplicable Story
by Josef Skvorecky, Key Porter Books,
179 pages, hardcover, $29.95 ISBN 1-55263-368-3
By J. M. Smith
This is the tragic tale of Innis Corbett, an artistic young man born into a rural Cape Breton community, whose family moved to Boston when he was a child. When his father is killed in a car accident, Innis is raised by his mother. She has a fondness for men and liquor.
Fancy cars and pot help Innis to escape his unstable home life, and they become his ultimate downfall. At the age of 19, he is arrested, deported to Canada and taken in by his uncle, Starr, a rather down and out Cape Breton bachelor. The subsequent appearance of Claire, an attractive women in her late thirties, initiates an uncontrollable spiral toward tragedy.
D. R. MacDonald's exceptional prose coaxes the reader into an inhospitable, isolated community of priceless local characters, held to the island by ties of memories, ancestors and acceptance of their harsh lives. Haunting descriptions of rugged beauty and inescapable, depressing loneliness provide the background. MacDonald shows great insight into the human condition and the restless mind of a young man.
By J. M. Smith
Josef Skvorecky devotes the first 100 pages of this fictitious tale to a translation of a mysterious Latin manuscript discovered in an ancient Central American tomb. The find is a conundrum to archaeologists. How did it come to be in the burial chamber of a Mayan king in the Western Hemisphere? Belonging to Questus, a 19-year-old Roman living in the first century AD, the diary details his childhood, his youth, and the endless characters, who move in and out of his life.
A mystery writer is entrusted to present the translation of the fragmented scrolls. He includes a multitude of detailed, explanatory footnotes. The final 74 pages revolve around the translator's further lengthy dissection of the seven scrolls, and letters concerning their authenticity with various sidetracks.
Perhaps this novel will appeal to Roman history buffs, who do not mind a little fiction interfering with historical facts. Perhaps translating it from the original Czech dampened the sparkling, enthralling mystery that we are promised on the book jacket. Perhaps the endless details, explanations and further explanations just seemed too much for this reviewer.
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