The Night Season

R.G. Moyles is a professor of English at the University of Alberta and
the co-author of Imperial Dreams and Colonial Realities: British Views
of Canada, 1880–1914.

When I began reading this novel about life in urban Newfoundland, I was
absolutely beguiled by one of the best openings I’ve ever encountered
in my many years of reading: “Mother discovered the croissant late in
life—I remember it was on her sixty-fifth birthday, when my sister,
Ruth, and I took her down to the Newfoundland Hotel for brunch. And
after a lifelong loyalty to the lemon cream cracker, brief affairs with
the bagel and the English muffin, and an abiding, if intermittent,
affection for the jam jam, the tea bun, and the apricot square, the
croissant was now her absolute favourite.”

Bowdring is a superb stylist, with a deftness for metaphor that often
astounds. He is also witty, in a subtly ironic way that makes one
re-read just to relish his sensitivity. And he evokes a sense of place
without overdescribing. I have lived in St. John’s, and The Night
Season not only aroused memories of the city but also gave me a fresh
perspective on it.

The novel does have some weaknesses. Its abundance of epigraphs (а la
John Fowles) sometimes overpowers the story, and the story itself
occasionally gets bogged down in pseudoautobiographical navel-gazing
that seems as if it will never end. But persistence is rewarded by the
author’s impressive, often humorous, prose. The Night Season deserves
dozens of awards and a wide readership.