Sea-Change

R. Gordon Moyles is professor emeritus of English at the University of
Alberta, co-author of Imperial Dreams and Colonial Realities: British
Views of Canada, 1880–1914, author of The Salvation Army and the
Public, and the editor of “Improved by Cultiv

This is, to put it bluntly, a strange novel. To say, as does the blurb,
that the novel is about “humanity’s relationship to itself,” is
merely to obfuscate the fact that the authors don’t seem to know what
their novel is all about. It is too diffuse, too enigmatic in terms of
its structure (based on random hexagrams of the I Ching), and too
shifting in its focus to allow the reader a clear sense of its
intention.

All one can say is that the basic storyline involves two brothers, Jos
and Jed Farrell, whose lives take completely different paths to ultimate
self-recognition. One remains a fisherman on the Newfoundland/Labrador
coast, enlightened by a shamanic experience among the Inuit; the other
becomes a wealthy financier, whose fate is entwined with that of a
beautiful (almost shamanic) woman. While there are many fascinating
glimpses of the Newfoundland lifestyle—including vivid depictions of
cod fishing (by handline) and seal hunting—the whole is so
unnecessarily complex that it loses its readers halfway through. A more
streamlined version, with some explanation of the I Ching significance,
would have made for a very interesting fictional experience. Alas, such
was not the case.