Tales from the Outer Fringe

R.G. Moyles is a professor of English at the University of Alberta,
co-author of Imperial Dreams and Colonial Realities: British Views of
Canada, 1880-1914, and co-editor of The Collected Works of E.J. Pratt.

These are Newfoundland tales—with a difference. In most books that
offer first-hand sketches and stories the writers belong to what might
be called “the naive school”: they simply tell as they talk. Here,
however, are five stories and a novella, all of Newfoundland outport
life, by a professional writer who not only understands how to create
suspense, tension, and setting, but is also an expert in using irony,
understatement, and humorous word play. In other words, the pleasure in
Pitt’s stories lies as much in the telling as in the tale. For
example, when he describes Hark Harbour’s ignorance of legal
discourse, he suggests that such terms as “heir-at-law,” “civil
action,” “in chancery,” and “intestate” “would have been
constructed with an illumination that was ingenious but hardly helpful
in the circumstances. ‘Heir-at-law,’ for instance, would have become
a species of in-law, a ‘civil action’ the logical contrary of an
uncivil or impolite one. ‘In chancery’ would have conjured up all
the hazards of the dice, and leaving this life ‘intestate’ would
have conveyed the painful notion of one’s departing in such a sadly
mutilated state as propriety bids me pass over without further
amplification.”

These are stories, then, to be savored. The five tales (“Uncle
Williard,” “Brother Kirk,” “The Heiress of Lobster Bight,”
“The Barber of Hallelujah Cove” and “Julie-Ann”), and the
70-page novella (“The Wiss Money”) all feature distinctive
individuals who make outport life memorable. And, with great deftness
and at times a Leacockian wit, Pitt enlarges their eccentricities and
individuality until they come alive for us, infecting us with their lust
for life. A truly powerful performance.