Island: The Collected Stories

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University and an avid outdoor recreationist. She is the
author of several books, including The Mountain Is Moving: Japanese
Women’s Lives, Kurlek and Margaret Laurence: T

Set in Atlantic Canada, Alistair MacLeod’s fiction transforms his
regional tales into universal human experience. This sea change is one
of the touchstones of great literature.

The 16 stories in Island have never before been collected, and include
two published here for the first time. Most are based in Cape Breton,
although a few characters leave their beloved birthplace to seek their
fortunes elsewhere. In “To Everything There Is a Season,” the
narrator reflects that in “Christmas of 1977” when he was 11 and
doing a man’s work, Christmas was “a time of both past and present
and often the two [were] imperfectly blended. As we step into its
newness we often look behind.”

In “Vision” (1986), the narrator struggles to recall a story he had
heard much earlier, one that made a deep impression on him and, indeed,
“went into [him] in such a way that [he] knew it would not leave again
but would remain there forever.” He was 17 years old at the time and
working with his parents and siblings in the lobster fisheries and
factories that serve the New England market. The story is strong and
poignant.

Years ago, Hugh MacLennan called MacLeod’s stories “the best pure
writing ever to appear in Canadian fiction.” A reviewer in Time
magazine wrote, “These personal, searching stories affirm a literary
contribution of enormous depth and magnitude.” The present reviewer
feels like a Johnny-come-lately assigned to review a Shakespeare play or
a Jane Austen novel. Try not to miss this collection, and enjoy the
stories at a leisurely pace.