A reader who thinks a novel should render a clear image of what life would be like in a particular place at a particular time will appreciate this story, a fascinating imaginative tour of pre-confederation Newfoundland.
Duley’s novel is a wonderful articulation of the contrast of life in an outport and life in town, of the poor and the well off, of the subsistence fishing family and the educated class, and of the human joy and suffering in every level of society.
It is the story of Mary Immaculata’s perception of the narrow world of the Cove and the wide world of town, a world that required a man be married to a woman who could manage a large family, a house and garden on the meager recompense his long, hard dangerous work supplies. Duley creates two powerful worlds in a complex plot of powerful characters.
Cold Pastoral
by Margaret Duley, Introduction by Joan Clark
$19.95, paperback, 368 pp.
Breakwater Books, March 2014
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