Feasting on Misfortune: Journeys of the Human Spirit in Alberta's Past

Michael Payne is head of the Research and Publications Program at the
Historic Sites and Archives Service, Alberta Community Development, and
the co-author of A Narrative History of Fort Dunvegan.

In the first sentence of this book, the author states that his subject
is nothing less than “the search for human fulfilment.” In
particular, he is intrigued by how people responded to the social,
economic, and personal misfortunes that marked much of Alberta’s
history in the 20th century.

Jones focuses on a number of interesting individuals, some relatively
well known but most not, and details how their experiences with
adversity affected their spiritual well-being. Among his unusual cast of
characters are Willet Trego, who fought the CPR over the railway’s
dubious advertising and promotion of Alberta lands before becoming
embroiled himself in an equally questionable scheme to settle frontier
lands in Bolivia; Carl Anderson, who also fought the CPR and helped to
create the farmer-owned and -operated Eastern Irrigation District; Lois
Valli, who endured her role as a ranch wife in drought-stricken southern
Alberta before finding a certain solace in writing poetry; and Father
Louis Culerier, who, after wrestling with his vocation and his mental
health, found some personal peace in ministering to remote coal mining
communities. Perhaps the most conventionally successful of his subjects
was Donald Albright, a pioneer agriculturalist in the Peace River
district; but despite his considerable local eminence and distinguished
career, Albright’s family life was often unhappy and his stern and
rather pedantic character made him more respected than liked.

Many of the people Jones profiles appear in his other, more
conventional, historical studies, such as the acclaimed Empire of Dust
(1989). In this book, however, he attempts something much more complex
and innovative than simple narrative or even analysis of a historical
problem. In some respects Feasting on Misfortune is a throwback to
earlier traditions of historical writing that sought to explain the
meaning of history. Whether you accept the meaning Jones attaches to his
subjects’ lives or not, the result is an unusual and thought-provoking
book.