The Island Walkers

Ronald Charles Epstein is a Toronto-based freelance writer and published poet.

John Bemrose is an arts journalist, playwright, and poet. He has written
for CBC Radio, Maclean’s, and the National Film Board.

This epic novel, a Giller Prize finalist, is set in Atawan, a
southwestern Ontario textile mill town. It is 1965, and Bannerman’s
mills have been taken over by the Intertex corporation. Veteran employee
Alf Walker adapts to the changes by joining Malachi Doyle’s
unionization drive and spying on the union for corporation
vice-president Bob Prince. These decisions place his job, family,
self-respect, and social position at risk.

Readers who have had to adjust to contemporary economic trends may
appreciate this story. Families and a community face ruin because
traditional factories are declared too costly, or obsolete, by senior
executives. The only difference is that corporate headquarters is in
Quebec, not in the United States or overseas. This 1960s tragedy can be
viewed as a dress rehearsal for globalization.

Bemrose’s social observations establish a sense of perspective. In
describing Atawan’s downtown, he notes that “many of the old stores
were boarded up ... their life sucked away by the malls on the city’s
edge.” He also skilfully evokes the tragedy of lost opportunities.
When Joe, Alf’s eldest son, appears to be headed for university, he
displays an awareness of history and literature. After his father’s
death forces him to work at the liquor store, he reads a letter from his
girlfriend, Anna, who is studying in Paris. She refers to the seminal
French philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre, but “He had no idea who Sartre
was.”

John Bemrose enriches his fiction by mining his background and
exploring reality’s implications.