Irate Neighbours and Amorous Tomcats

Les Harding is Reference Librarian at the University of Waterloo.

This is a collection of 35 short pieces, written over the last 15 years
or so, which originally appeared in The Rounder, a periodical published
by the Newfoundland and Labrador Rural Development Council. Don’t let
the corporate sponsorship put you off. These pieces are anything but
dry. The emphasis is on humor. They are splendidly written and
guaranteed to raise at least two smiles and several chuckles per page.
The squib on the cover is accurate when it says that the book is full of
“offbeat, off-the-wall and generally off-the-cuff odds and ends.”

The author has a talent for distilling universal truths from ordinary
life and presenting them in an amusing way. At the same time, he is able
to provide the reader with often fascinating information about fishing,
hunting, berry picking, history, politics, Hibernia, Labrador, and much
more. He even gives us a recipe for fried whale meat guaranteed to feed
12,000 people at a time.

Dealing as it does with rural Newfoundland, the book can be used as an
entertaining introduction to a culture and way of life unfamiliar to
most Canadians. I am sure that it will realize the author’s hope to
“provide a few hours of light entertainment, and maybe a little bit
better appreciation of what it is that makes this place unique, or
different anyway.”