The Flannigans.

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.

“From the moment Confederation with Canada began being touted as a possible option for Newfoundland’s political future, Ernest Flannigan saw it as an evil without parallel, and he undertook to do everything in his power to defeat it.” Just as in real life, the “Confederation issue” tore families apart, so in this most-believable fictional family a dedicated, sometimes irrational, political persuasion results in a split, and ultimate tragedy, that destroys its solidarity forever.

The restoration of Newfoundland (after years of Commission of Government) to the status of a self-governing nation is Ernest Flannigan’s obsession, one that he hopes his favourite nephew, Gerald, will share, but when the young man makes it known that he is supporting, indeed working for, Joey Smallwood and the Confederation cause, the family peace is shattered. Even Gerald’s tragic death cannot mend the wounds.

Dohaney, much praised for The Corrigan Women, again brings us into the presence of real people whose passions and principles are brilliantly portrayed and whose lives become intimately a part of our own.