After the Angel Mill

Louise E. Allin, a poet and short-story writer, is also an English instructor at Cambrian College.

Carol Bruneau’s well-crafted saga of four generations of women in a
Cape Breton family is a pleasure to read. The dozen stories begin in the
1890s with the tragedy of an English couple losing their first child
shortly after settling in Canada, yet grateful for their drafty company
home. After the couple moves to Cape Breton Island, the narrative
encompasses historical events—like the 1925 coal-miners’ strike and
the deaths of 20 men in the Princess Colliery—before bringing us to
more contemporary times. As true as a seam of anthracite, the people are
bound together, their fates wedded to resources, the dominant metaphor
escape or perhaps just survival. And yet the joy and love that
infiltrate their hard lives build a rich background with real people and
true voices: “My girl’s workin’ for the government now and doin’
right good for herself. Yup, the young fella’s got a job makin’ cars
in Oshawa or Windsor, somewhere in Ontario. An’ he’s got the wife,
the kids, a pool in the backyard. Imagine that, now, if ya will.”
Bruneau has an eye for details; she can stroll with her readers down the
rows of identical houses like “toy blocks scattered on a sooty carpet,
not a tree in sight” and make us cherish the experience.