Journal Entry 1 by Ibis3 from Newcastle, Ontario Canada on Saturday, December 17, 2005

Note: this book includes all the stories from his two other collections: The Lost Salt Gift of Blood (1976) and As Birds Bring Forth the Sun and Other Stories (1986). Those books were included in The Modern Library's 200 Best Novels Since 1950.

From the back cover:
"Alistair MacLeod's collected stories, including two never before published, are gathered together for the first time in Island. These sixteen superbly crafted stories, most of them based in Cape Breton even if its people stray elsewhere, depict men and women living out their lives against the haunting landscape that surrounds them. Focusing on the complexities and abiding mysteries at the heart of human relationships, MacLeod maps the close bonds and impassable chasms that lie between man and woman, parent and child, and invokes memory and myth to celebrate the continuity of the generations, even in the midst of unremitting change. Eloquent, humane, life-affirming, the stories in this astonishing collection seize us from the outset and remain with us long after the final page."

Here are some quotations from my Book Talk Forum thread on this book:

"I can see why they say MacLeod's short stories are among the best ever written in English. Beautiful, lyrical, poignant. His talent with language is phenomenal."

"The Boat has the same concerns as most of the other stories by MacLeod. It is in essence, about the change from the old ways of living (fishing in this case) to modern life with the resulting break between generations. As we (as peoples) educate the younger generations much is gained: we are safer, more comfortable, more learned; yet much is lost: our language, our songs, our connection to the land, and maybe above all, our bonds with our parents and their ancestors. This common theme makes his stories universal. All over the world cultures are going extinct, old knowledge and wisdom are disappearing."

"This story is almost mythical in it's conception and poetic in it's expression. [...] Like all of these short stories, I could read this over and over again. Each one is like a miniature novel or even a miniature epic."

"MacLeod is a master at evoking a sense of time and place while at the same time calling forth that universal mythic beyond-time-and-place, and he does it yet again in this story."

"Reading MacLeod's stories have a similar impression as reading something aloud in Latin. Even if the content or subject matter is mundane, ordinary, everyday, somehow it sounds weighty, poetic, sacred."

"I'm constantly amazed at how much MacLeod manages to 'stuff' into a story. It's really no wonder that it takes him so long to write them. Each one is truly a little masterpiece. Again, a very sensual piece of writing giving the reader a sense of almost endless time. Yet the story is focused on the lifespan of one person. One could probably read this many times over and get something new each time. Someone has even written an opera setting for this one."

"Every one is a bridge between what has gone before and what is to come. In this story a man retains threads of his family's past in Scotland, of his own past when life was lived differently. But time moves forward and things change. Can one change to the same degree as what surrounds them? Or does there come a time when the future is too far gone, and a man must lie with the past?"

This was a great book--one of those that everyone should read. I see no reason why MacLeod can't be as well known and as well respected as Hemmingway or Mansfield. 

Journal Entry 2 by Ibis3 from Newcastle, Ontario Canada on Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Sent this book along with No Great Mischief and Reading Alistair MacLeod DVD on May 23rd.

Order of go:
sent on May 24/06
1. bibliotreker (Pennsylvania, USA) - arrived May 30/06; sent June 29/06
2. uppity (British Columbia, Canada) - arrived July 11/06; sent August 1/06
3. eicuthbertson (British Columbia, Canada) - arrived August 2/06; sent August 31/06
4. ldpaulson (California, USA) - arrived around September 25/06; sent February 26/07
5. OneMorePage (California, USA)
6. Pooker3 (Manitoba, Canada)
7. teacher57 (Wisconsin, USA)
... Back to Ibis3 (Ontario, Canada) 

Journal Entry 3 by bibliotreker from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA on Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Arrived today along with No Great Mischief and DVD as part of the Alistar MacCleod set by Ibis3. I'm looking forward to this reading treasure of the Maritimes. 

Journal Entry 4 by bibliotreker from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA on Wednesday, June 14, 2006

It's been a real treat to be able to read this book and No Great Mischief while on vacation in Nova Scotia. I enjoyed them both tremendously. No Great Mischief being my favorite of the two. The trouble with short stories is that they end too quickly. I found the references to the Celtic culture and language of interest. I would have loved to listen to an audio version of these to hear the spoken Gaelic. I'll send a PM to Uppity in B.C. for an address and mail the Alistair MacLeod set when I'm back in the States. 

Journal Entry 5 by uppity from Chilliwack, British Columbia Canada on Tuesday, July 11, 2006

received 2 books and DVD today. Great material to get me my out of my present no reading slump. 

Journal Entry 6 by uppity from Chilliwack, British Columbia Canada on Monday, July 31, 2006

I enjoyed reading the short stories wich I read first before playing the DVD. Should have done that before I read the books.
I love the descriptions and the Cape Breton stories.mail to eicuthbertson tomorrow. Loved the cards . happy reading. 

Journal Entry 7 by eicuthbertson from Burnaby, British Columbia Canada on Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Received in Alistair MacLeod package today.
Looking forward to all this on the weekend.
Thanks, Ibis3, for organizing this. 

Journal Entry 8 by eicuthbertson from Burnaby, British Columbia Canada on Friday, August 25, 2006

I've enjoyed reading every one of these stories...they deserve to be read with time between to think about them.

Perhaps "Second Spring" was my favourite.

Alistair MacLeod must always have been a keen observer---so well does he describe the sound, feel & smell of things around his characters.

And, he always seems to play with the idea of memory as much as with the memories themselves & the layers of individual & family memory they bring out...

"I don't remember when I first heard the story but I remember the first time that I heard it and remembered it...[it] more or less became 'mine'....VISION

 

Journal Entry 9 by eicuthbertson from Burnaby, British Columbia Canada on Thursday, August 31, 2006

This book, in the Alistair MacLeod ring, is off already to ldpaulson in California.
Enjoy! 

Journal Entry 10 by ldpaulson from Ventura, California USA on Saturday, September 30, 2006

This book was among a massive stack of CanLit Ring goodies found in my postal box the week of September 25 along with an avalanche of other Book Crossing rings and rays. I promise to read this as soon as humanly possible. But sadly, it may be a while given the pile up.

Thanks! 

Journal Entry 11 by ldpaulson from Ventura, California USA on Monday, January 29, 2007

This collection of stories was extremely difficult reading. The writing was superb. The emotional content was phenomenal. Reading five stories in a sitting was far, far too much.

MacLeod tells stories of days past that are not nostalgic. These events, the people, the places were what they were. Unvarnished. Exceedingly masculine, yet tender. If ever there were a writer who embodied the word "paradox" I think it would be he.

Of the collection, I think the title story is perhaps my favorite. It brings to mind the Gaelic tales of the Selkies while being wholly different.

I am waiting until I have read NO GREAT MISCHIEF to view the DVD, but I am reading it now. It shares some of these same qualities. 

Journal Entry 12 by ldpaulson from Ventura, California USA on Monday, February 26, 2007

The complete Macleod package is en route to the next reader. 

Journal Entry 13 by OneMorePage from Mission Viejo, California USA on Friday, March 23, 2007

Sorry for the delay in journalling. Books are here, along with the DVD and a lovely collection of postcards from previous readers. Ibis I love your CanLit stickers on the inside, too. I look forward to reading and forwarding this package. Thanks for including me! 

Journal Entry 14 by OneMorePage from Mission Viejo, California USA on Monday, May 07, 2007

It took me a long time to finish this book. Normally I would buzz through a book of this size in a week or so. To be fair, I have an infant at home and am not reading as much as usual. But even if I were, these stories just beg to be savored. I found myself reading one story, putting the book down, and not picking up any other book for a couple of days as I let each story sit with me.

I agree that hearing the stories read out loud would be a magical experience. The recurring theme of losing youth and tradition moved me. I think it takes pure artistic genius to make small, everyday life events resonate so deeply, each in a contained piece.

My favorites were "The Road to Rankin's Point" and the title story - probably because they both tell of old women, hanging fiercely on to their independence and pride. I imagine those two both moved me so much since my grandmother was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's, and I am watching the family spin around her, making "plans" to help her, while she just tries to maintain her dignity. She is a fierce Irishwoman, and both of the women in these two stories reminded me of her a bit.

Thank you so much for sharing these beautiful stories. I will watch the DVD next and start "No Great Mischief" tonight. 

Journal Entry 15 by OneMorePage at sending to a fellow bookcrosser in Mission Viejo, A Bookring -- Controlled Releases on Thursday, June 28, 2007

Released 4 yrs ago (6/14/2007 UTC) at sending to a fellow bookcrosser in Mission Viejo, A Bookring -- Controlled Releases

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

RELEASE NOTES:

I'm so sorry - I mailed this to Pooker3 about 2 weeks ago and just noticed I forgot to journal it. Thanks again for the opportunity to read this incredible book. 

Journal Entry 16 by Pooker3 from Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada on Saturday, July 14, 2007

Like a fool I "dropped in" to my office today "to check on things". I officially don't get back from holidays until Monday, the 16th. I don't know why I do that to myself. There is, of course, a mountain of work piled up.

But happily this book and its companions were also waiting for me, having arrived sometime this week. I think I will skulk away from the office and bury my nose in these treasures and forget, at least til Monday, that I even noticed the work! 

Journal Entry 17 by Pooker3 from Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada on Saturday, August 04, 2007

I'm not usually inclined to read a book a second time. I loved this book the first time I read it and was reluctant to read it again for fear that my remembrance of the beauty of it would be diminished. It wasn't. These are wonderful stories, as astonishing to read the second time as the first. This would be the answer to the question "If you could only take one book...".

ETA: In the mail to Sujie today. But don't hold your breath Sujie, it's coming by slow boat. Air was just too pricey!

 

Journal Entry 18 by Sujie from Kangaroo Valley, New South Wales Australia on Sunday, October 21, 2007

Arrived with "No great mischief" and accompanying CD, today. Nicely packaged, Pooker.
Ibis, I keep meaning to say how much I like your personalised bookplates and the photographs thereon. 

Journal Entry 19 by Sujie from Kangaroo Valley, New South Wales Australia on Friday, November 09, 2007

Although I enjoyed the novel more I have to give this a ten as well because the writing is flawless. I think "In the fall" will stay with me for life in much the same way Paul Gallico's "Snowgoose" has been with me since childhood.
Just waiting on permission to keep the package a bit longer for my husband to read.
 

Journal Entry 20 by Ibis3 from Newcastle, Ontario Canada on Monday, December 31, 2007

Arrived back home today! Thanks for the pile of post cards, everyone. :D