Waiting for time
Registered by gypsysmom of Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada on 8/9/2009
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
1 journaler for this copy...
My sister cleaned out some books and gave them to me. This is one. It was the 1995 Winner of the Canadian Authors Association Award and the sequel to Random Passage. I haven't read either this book or the previous one but they sound interesting so I am going to put this on Mount TBR.
Bernice Morgan is another one of those writers from Newfoundland that have done so much to bring a picture of life on the Rock to the rest of the world. This book and the previous one, Random Passage, tell the story of a small group who settled in a remote outport along the Newfoundland coast. CBC produced a mini-series based on these books in 2000.
Thank goodness that Morgan provided a genealogical tree at the front of the book because it would have been impossible to keep track of who was a descendant of whom without it. There were only a few original settlers, mostly Andrews and Vincents, but as children grew and intermarried and a few newcomers showed up the settlement increased. Mary Bundle, the main protagonist of Waiting for Time, was one of the newcomers. Mary and her sister, Tessa, were orphans from England who came to Newfoundland as indentured servants. Tessa died from being whipped for a crime she didn't commit and Mary ran away with Tim Toop, a boy she knew from home. Mary became pregnant and gave birth to a daughter, Fannie, but Tim did not want to be burdened with a wife and child. He arranged for Mary to be taken on as a cook aboard a ship that was visiting the outports in the spring. Mary and Fannie jumped ship in Cape Random and Mary lived there for the rest of her life.
Mary's story is bracketed by the story of Lav Andrews, a marine biologist who was the daughter of one of the Cape Random descendants. Lav's mother and father met in England during WWII and her mother was shipped as a war bride to Newfoundland toward the end of the war. When she found out that her husband was missing, presumed dead, Lav's mother moved to Ottawa where she raised Lav. Lav got a position with Fisheries and Oceans and she was sent to St. John's to produce a paper about the cod stocks. Lav had never met her Newfoundland relatives but she managed to track down some descendants of Mary Bundle.
The modern story about Lav covers the time just before and after the cod moratorium and shows how devastating (and probably avoidable) that was on the Newfoundland economy. That is juxtaposed with the abundance of the fishery during Mary Bundle's lifetime. It's a sad reminder of how people have destroyed nature's bounty.
Thank goodness that Morgan provided a genealogical tree at the front of the book because it would have been impossible to keep track of who was a descendant of whom without it. There were only a few original settlers, mostly Andrews and Vincents, but as children grew and intermarried and a few newcomers showed up the settlement increased. Mary Bundle, the main protagonist of Waiting for Time, was one of the newcomers. Mary and her sister, Tessa, were orphans from England who came to Newfoundland as indentured servants. Tessa died from being whipped for a crime she didn't commit and Mary ran away with Tim Toop, a boy she knew from home. Mary became pregnant and gave birth to a daughter, Fannie, but Tim did not want to be burdened with a wife and child. He arranged for Mary to be taken on as a cook aboard a ship that was visiting the outports in the spring. Mary and Fannie jumped ship in Cape Random and Mary lived there for the rest of her life.
Mary's story is bracketed by the story of Lav Andrews, a marine biologist who was the daughter of one of the Cape Random descendants. Lav's mother and father met in England during WWII and her mother was shipped as a war bride to Newfoundland toward the end of the war. When she found out that her husband was missing, presumed dead, Lav's mother moved to Ottawa where she raised Lav. Lav got a position with Fisheries and Oceans and she was sent to St. John's to produce a paper about the cod stocks. Lav had never met her Newfoundland relatives but she managed to track down some descendants of Mary Bundle.
The modern story about Lav covers the time just before and after the cod moratorium and shows how devastating (and probably avoidable) that was on the Newfoundland economy. That is juxtaposed with the abundance of the fishery during Mary Bundle's lifetime. It's a sad reminder of how people have destroyed nature's bounty.
Journal Entry 3 by gypsysmom at Upper Fort Garry in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada on Saturday, July 8, 2017
Released 6 yrs ago (7/8/2017 UTC) at Upper Fort Garry in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
I left this book on the blue hammock that is part of the Cool Gardens art exhibit. You can read Waiting for Time while wasting time lying in the hammock.This release is for the 2017 Canada Days release challenge which runs for two weeks around July 1st and which seeks to distribute Canadian writing around the world.When you find a BookCrossing book it is yours to do with what you like. You can read it and keep it or pass it on or if you don't think it is your kind of book pass it on to someone who might like it or release it in a spot for someone else to find like you just did. Whatever you choose it would be great if you could write a short note letting us know what new adventures the book is on.
