One for Sorrow: Tales from Cook's Cove.

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.

Isabelle Heffernan—called “Issy,” naturally—leads a sad life. This is not merely because her mother, a transplanted English war bride, is discontented with the choice she made and the crude Newfoundland outport to which she is now confined; nor because her sister Louise, fetched from a promising career to take care of her mother, takes most of her frustrations out on Issy; but mainly because she is considered “stupid”—unable to read or write, and seemingly so backward that even she believes herself “stupid, even retarded.”

But when it is discovered that Issy is anything but stupid, that her inability to learn stems from a physical problem with her eyes, and when an operation opens—both physically and metaphorically—a whole new world of learning and love, the novel takes on a fresh note of promise. Described that way, it may seem a melodramatic plot development. It is not. In a realistic, first-person narrative, the inner turmoil is entirely credible and the personality conflicts understandable. One quibble is that the events are somewhat dated, with references to Gordie Howe, Bobby Hull, and the marriage of Pierre Trudeau to “the young Margaret Sinclair,” making it sometimes inaccessible to a modern generation of teenage readers. Another is that, though Puffin Books recommends the novel for readers aged “12 and up,” it’s difficult to believe that many under the age of 16 would be interested in such an angst-ridden story. Otherwise, a worthwhile read.