Belmullet

Fay Lando was Projects Officer at the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food in Toronto.

Maudie MacFarlane was ten years old when she went to live at Belmullet, in northern Ontario, with her aunt, uncle, and cousins in 1933. This, her story, spans the next 15 years. It is the story of Maudie’s relationship with her relatives, her life on the farm, her maturing. It is told with warmth and compassion.

The theme of love is central to the novel — love between Maudie and her relatives, parents, and finally her lover, and between the other characters in Maudie’s world. Other themes recur — one’s perception of the importance of property, the strength of family ties, pride in the family name and reputation — and are shown to be both illusory and a source of strength during hard times.

This book provides a modest amount of the flavor of rural and small town life in the thirties and forties. But it is an interesting, well-written story that will appeal to both adult and teenager.