No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod

by Alistair MacLeod

Excellent Book

Paperback

About the author

When MacLeod was ten his family moved to a farm in Dunvegan, Inverness County on Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Island. After completing high school, MacLeod attended teacher's college in Truro and then taught school. He studied at St. Francis Xavier University between 1957 and 1960 and graduated with a BA and B.Ed. He then went on to receive his MA in 1961 from the University of New Brunswick and his PhD in 1968 from the University of Notre Dame. A specialist in British literature of the nineteenth century, MacLeod taught English for three years at Indiana University before accepting a post in 1969 at the University of Windsor as professor of English and creative writing. During the summer, his family resided in Cape Breton, where he spent part of his time "writing in a cliff-top cabin looking west towards Prince Edward Island."
-Wikipedia

Reviews

[Denise · Rating 5 out of 5]

The ties that bind: from Scotland to Cape Breton and through generations that follow is a good read. Considering that siblings can have very different upbringing and lives that sometimes merge and sometimes keep them apart leads the reader to consider what privileges or tragedies make up the flow of a life’s path. In this story, it’s a mystery that keeps us curious.
The clan Chalum Ruaidh are a strong and hardy bunch whose elders teach that blood is thicker than water and instil the Gaelic language, culture and history in each generation’s hearts.
The years they spend mining give a greater understanding of just how rugged that life is.
After having done drives through Northern Ontario, from Ontario to PEI and from Halifax around Cape Breton, I found the familiarity of place enjoyable when reading of their travels for work. Canada is a beautiful and scenic country with diverse landscapes.