How the World Began: A Parable of 1812

Les Harding is Reference Librarian at the University of Waterloo.

This unconventional tale of the War of 1812 focuses on how the
turbulence of that war affected a family of pioneers in what is now
Lambton County, Ontario. The book is rich in historical, imaginative,
and mythological details. Dreams and Indian legends are intertwined, to
good effect, with the more conventional devices of plotting. One of the
Indian legends is about the beginning of the world, a story which echoes
throughout the book. The implication is that the War of 1812 was how the
world really began for the pioneers and for all of us as Canadians.

The book is often gripping, sometimes gruesome and savage, and always
unvarnished. The virtues are represented here too, but the “noble”
Indian and the “intrepid” pioneer alike could be cowardly, cruel,
vulgar, and lustful. The author must have done a great deal of research,
and it shows. After reading the book I was left with the feeling that
life on the frontier of Upper Canada must have been very close to the
way in which it is described here.

This is Gutteridge’s fifth novel, and the seventh and final book in
his Time Is the Metaphor prose and poetry series set in Lambton County.