Eyemouth

Janis Svilpis is a professor of English at the University of Calgary.

This odd and largely unsuccessful historical novel traces half a dozen
characters from 1790 to 1815. They tell their stories through letters to
each other, and they usually see the action in retrospect, at a distance
from immediate experience. There are sometimes long gaps between letters
and interesting phases of their lives receive minimal development. For
instance, Gavin Hamilton’s years in the fur trade, during which he is
almost murdered by Alexander Mackenzie, are described in two letters;
his adventures after he is pressed into the Navy are similarly abridged.
This perspective allows some vivid moments, but it generally prevents
excitement and suspense.

So this is not an adventure novel, and for similar reasons it also
fails to be several other things. Mary Masson, who marries “auld”
Mr. Graham to legitimize her daughter by Gavin, and who has bouts of
guilt-ridden psychosis thereafter, might be a powerful character, but
she drops out of the story at crucial moments. Mary’s friend Nessie,
who rises from lady’s maid to lady herself, anchors another of the
novel’s strands—a satirical comedy of domestic and political
life—but again, erratic development works against an intriguing
possibility.

Harrison’s characters meet, see, hear of, and discuss plenty of
people and events. Many settings (Scotland, Canada, and the
Mediterranean; shipboard and shore) are tirelessly evoked in
descriptions. A lot of these details are laboriously inserted; however,
only a few (like Mary’s brief and telling references to her
imprisonment in Bedlam) convey a powerful effect. That a novel with so
much potential should turn out so unrewarding is really a shame.