The Republic of Nothing

Matt Hartman is a freelance editor and cataloguer, running Hartman Cataloguing, Editing and Indexing Services.

Everett McQuade—fisherman, anarchist, visionary—declares
18-square-mile Whalebone Island, off the east coast of Nova Scotia, to
be the independent “Republic of Nothing.” He types the Declaration
of Independence on a Smith-Corona, which has washed up on shore in a
shattered box. This is a favorite means of arrival onto the island, used
by a dead elephant, various articles of furniture, a bale of high-grade
marijuana, and most significantly, McQuade’s wife.

On the day of the Republic’s birth—March 21, 1951—Everett’s
son, Ian, is born. Ian is the novel’s narrator, its conscience, and
its soul; his thoughts, feelings, and actions define Whalebone
Island’s quirky identity. As Ian grows up, his father becomes obsessed
with the idea of entering politics in order to bring his anarchic
philosophy to Nova Scotia. Through a series of flukes Everett succeeds,
and becomes Premier. But his humanistic goals succumb to the
requirements of party politics and it takes his son and his wife to
steer him back on track.

Choyce takes this deceptively simple story and, with a level of writing
skill with which he has until now just been flirting, fills it with
characters who are wry, warm, funny, and magical. This is by far the
author’s best novel, better even than the remarkable The Second Season
of Jonas MacPherson (1989).