Blackstrap Hawco: Said to Be About a Newfoundland Family.

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, and author of The Salvation Army and the
Public.

The two Newfoundlanders, Kevin Roach and Blackstrap Hawco, having just met, are sitting in a bar somewhere in Boston. As usual, the topic of conversation is “Where you come from?”

“‘Da ’Awcos,’ says Kevin, winking and tilting his head. ‘A fine crew dey are.’ A few moments of silence to watch Blackstrap’s face. ‘Dere’s a ton of stories ‘bout dem. Da ‘Awcos of Bareneed. Christ, b’y.’ He lifts his pint glass. ‘To yer namesakes.’” And, in that gesture, Kevin Roach sums up the gist of this novel; or, as Harvey would have it, this “transcomposite narrative.” It is, in one sense, a large family portrait, the faces of the various Hawcos, not always pleasant to view, dominating the foreground; but they stand or sit or sprawl (in drunken stupors often) against a background that defines not only their heritage but their very natures: the poverty and the richness (in terms of folklore) of the Irish lifestyle they left behind when they immigrated to Newfoundland, the life-giving and life-taking vagaries of the sea at their doorstep, the grasping merchants, the seal fishing hardships, the mining disasters, the uprooting and resettlement against their wishes, and so much more that makes the Hawco story the story of Newfoundland itself. Ranging in style from a most beautiful elegiac prose to a staccato kind of internal musing, presenting us with a cast of characters as diverse as the seascapes themselves, setting us amidst the triumphs and tragedies of the Hawco family, Kenneth Harvey creates one of the most memorable and heartbreaking Newfoundland stories ever written. From the opening scene, brilliant in its evocation of Jacob Hawco tending his rabbit snares, to the equally evocative scenes of Blackstrap at the seal hunt or, later, as a participant in the Ocean Ranger disaster, to Blackstrap’s hopeless gesture in trying to drive off the foreign vessels from Newfoundland waters, we are treated to scenes of determination, defiance, and desperation which define the Newfoundland psyche. This is bound to be an award-winning novel, one which will be soon touted as a Canadian classic, and deservedly so.