Another Night: Cape Breton Stories True and Short and Tall

R.G. Moyles is a professor of English at the University of Alberta, and
the co-author of Imperial Dreams and Colonial Realities: British Views
of Canada, 1880–1914.

“North America,” wrote Ray Smith, “is a large island to the west
of the continent of Cape Breton (pronounced Caybrittn).” We don’t
doubt it a bit. Its rugged beauty; its Scottish, Loyalist, and Acadian
influences; its independent mindset—these qualities set it apart from
the rest of Canada, investing it with a distinctiveness matched only by
that other “large island to the east.”

These two books certainly attest to that fact and give us insights into
why it should be so.

The first (the less interesting of the two) records some of the oral
anecdotes told by elderly Cape Bretoners—stories of supernatural
occurrences, of unusual natural phenomena, of amusing social events, of
eccentric acquaintances.

The second (which is more satisfying in both design and content)
concentrates on the people of Cape Breton. showing how “their lives
fell into place.” And what fascinating lives they are: the Martells,
lightkeepers on Flint Island; Bill Fraser, retired superintendent of the
RCMP; Yvon LeBlanc, an architect involved in the rebuilding of
Louisbourg; Annie and John Battiste, Micmacs; Anne Morrell, quilting
artist; and many more. The variety of interests, the creativity, the
optimism are truly impressive and salutary.

Ronald Caplan, for 25 years producer of Cape Breton’s Magazine (from
which these life histories are taken), has done a great service to Cape
Breton, preserving a valuable part of its heritage by interviewing the
“elders at the kitchen table” and recording their stories. “What
seems to me to be of particular value,” he writes, “is not so much
what happened to people as what they made of what they had—and what,
looking back, they find worth telling.” So the storytelling is itself
a strategy—a means of survival. It is this dual purpose—the story as
both art and utility—that makes them all so fascinating.