3.5 Stars
Set in the Miramichi region of New Brunswick, the plot focuses on a community where the asbestos mine owned by the Raskin Brothers is the main employer. When reports emerge about the health effects on workers, the brothers want to stop mining asbestos, but the government does not allow them to shut down. Albert, a nephew, who lives on the proceeds of the mine, becomes involved in protests against his uncles. Choices Albert makes as a young man have a devastating impact on him and many others, especially after two criminal brothers, Mel and Shane Stroud, become involved and further complicate matters.
Shortly after I began reading, I decided to make notes on the various characters and their connections to each other. There are many characters and their stories are intertwined so it is important to keep track of their relationships; the backgrounds of these many characters are also significant. The title is appropriate in that Eva Mott is the person whose life is touched by virtually all the other characters.
Eva, however, is not the only person to suffer tragedy. There are many who suffer because they are deprived, oppressed, and exploited. The message seems to be that “suffering is the human condition” so the book is anything but a light read. For instance, there are eight deaths that are the result of murder or criminal negligence. Sexual assault, drug addiction, and blackmail all feature in the narrative. The book includes infidelity, theft, beatings, heartbreak, loneliness, family disintegration, suicide, government ineptitude, environmental degradation, and swindling. The book ends with the promise that the world is filled with love, there is “a fulsome chance at a new life, a new beginning, a new and holy destiny, here as well as in all the world,” and “honour follows virtue like a shadow,” but the number of characters who are loving and virtuous is far outnumbered by those who are motivated by self-interest and manipulate others. And the virtuous seldom receive their just rewards.
In many ways, the book reads like a critique of many groups. Academics are a target: “he had a trait that was widespread among professors: he was petty and jealous.” Politicians are portrayed as hypocrites; the government won’t let the Raskins close the asbestos mine even after reports emerge about the effects of asbestos. Scientists “wore white coats and told white lies.” First Nations people have suffered much for too long, but the author believes there should be less talk about “how much they were owed and how much was taken”; a Mi’kmaq argues his people must “decide their own lives by their own conscience” and says, “’I know you want to protect the land but remember some of us exploit it just as much as others.’” Protestors, whether environmentalists, women’s rights activists, or supporters of First Nations claims, are described as an “ignorant army . . . ready to clash by night.” The author even takes a swipe at his detractors who have dismissed him as “a journeyman writer from New Brunswick . . . [whose writing shows a] backward regionalism.” The author seems angry at everyone.
I wanted to like this book, but it is full of countless tragedies, despair, and darkness. A re-reading would perhaps result in an appreciation of its layers; unfortunately, I cannot see myself re-reading it very soon. It is too depressing, and I need to find something more uplifting after this heartbreaking tale.
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