Donovan's Station

R. Gordon Moyles is professor emeritus of English at the University of
Alberta, the co-author of Imperial Dreams and Colonial Realities:
British Views of Canada, 1880–1914, and the author of The Salvation
Army and the Public.

“Eighty-four years is time enough for one life,” says Keziah
Donovan, proprietress of St. Ann’s Hotel, who has been left paralyzed
by a stroke. Happily, 84 years is just time enough for plenty of
memories of a Newfoundland Irish life from about 1830 to 1914, replete
with details of a Catholic schooling, farming and fishing techniques,
personal tragedies and blessings. McGrath not only creates a lovable and
believable narrator, but invests her reminiscences with an abundance of
folklore (traditional medicines, superstitions, and so forth).

Most impressive is Keziah’s language, rhythmic and full of
colloquialisms: “Paddy had the colleywobbles”; “the doctor was on
the randy”; “my brain is moithered”; “pudding was figged duff,
gooseberry tart with clotted cream, and tipsy parson”; “the bedlamer
is a nice little fellow.” The uninitiated might need to consult The
Dictionary of Newfoundland English while reading this wonderfully rich
novel, but that will only add to the pleasure.