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The Confessions of Nipper Mooney
On a day when a dazzling morning sun invites him out to the green meadows of Kildura, Nipper Mooney experiences both the phenomenon of lost time and the death of his father. These mysteries frame this vibrant first novel. Set in a farming community adjacent to St. John's, Newfoundland, The Confessions of Nipper Mooney is a rich evocation of life in the 1950s and '60s. Searching and sensitive, Nipper is full of questions about everything from fairy lore to the nature of the souls of trout and horses. He finds a kindred spirit in Brendan, Kildura's loner and mystic.
But this story is far from a rural idyll. Nipper's mother, feeling the need for both a solid education and male role models, sends him off to All Angels, a St. John's school run by the Christian Brothers. Here, Nipper struggles with an education system deeply rooted in draconian discipline and steeped in the kind of Catholicism that leads him to more and more questions. In this claustrophobic and often violent world, Nipper survives by becoming a reader and a dreamer, and by developing a scrappy toughness.
But this story is far from a rural idyll. Nipper's mother, feeling the need for both a solid education and male role models, sends him off to All Angels, a St. John's school run by the Christian Brothers. Here, Nipper struggles with an education system deeply rooted in draconian discipline and steeped in the kind of Catholicism that leads him to more and more questions. In this claustrophobic and often violent world, Nipper survives by becoming a reader and a dreamer, and by developing a scrappy toughness.
- GenresFiction
320 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2001
33 people want to read
About the author
Ed Kavanagh
5 books1 followerEd Kavanagh grew up in Kilbride, Newfoundland and Labrador, and now lives in St. John's. He received an Honours B.A. in English and a B.Ed. from Memorial University of Newfoundland, a B.A. in Music from Carleton University, and an M.A. in English and Creative Writing from the University of New Brunswick. He has worked as a writer, actor, musician, theatre director, university lecturer, and editor. His stories, essays, dramatic scripts, and poetry have earned 14 awards in the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts and Letters Competition. Ed has taught creative writing through the extension services of both Memorial University and the University of New Brunswick. He is a past president of the Writers' Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador.
In addition to the Amanda Greenleaf series of children's books, Ed has also published The Cat's Meow: The 'Longside Players Selected Plays 1984-1989 (co-author and editor), and released a cassette tape of his children's songs: Alison Gross and Other Wickedly Wonderful Songs. In 2001, Killick Press published his first adult novel, The Confessions of Nipper Mooney, which won the Newfoundland and Labrador Book Award for Fiction, was a finalist for the Winterset Award, and was also nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. His most recent releases are the CD Weaving the Wind: Music from Newfoundland Performed on Celtic Harp and Amanda Greenleaf: The Complete Adventures. This new book includes the three previously published Amanda Greenleaf stories, plus the never-before published fourth and final installment The Journey Home.
In addition to the Amanda Greenleaf series of children's books, Ed has also published The Cat's Meow: The 'Longside Players Selected Plays 1984-1989 (co-author and editor), and released a cassette tape of his children's songs: Alison Gross and Other Wickedly Wonderful Songs. In 2001, Killick Press published his first adult novel, The Confessions of Nipper Mooney, which won the Newfoundland and Labrador Book Award for Fiction, was a finalist for the Winterset Award, and was also nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. His most recent releases are the CD Weaving the Wind: Music from Newfoundland Performed on Celtic Harp and Amanda Greenleaf: The Complete Adventures. This new book includes the three previously published Amanda Greenleaf stories, plus the never-before published fourth and final installment The Journey Home.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 1, 2021
This charming coming of age story is set in the farming community of Kildura just outside St John’s Newfoundland. Nicholas Mooney, called Nipper by his father because he was only four pounds six ounces when he was born, is a curious sensitive boy. Although Sharon his mother insisted on calling him Nicholas because it was a “lovely name” with just the right combination of dignity and flair, it was the name “Nipper” that stuck and only a handful of people ever call him by his Christian name.
The community in Kildura is ruled by the Roman Catholic Church where religion is central to everyone’s life. Nipper goes to St Brigid’s where he and his friends are taught by the strict nuns including the principal Sister Mary Ignatius and the more kindly Sister Bernadette. Nipper is observant and questions everything he doesn’t understand. A serious reflective soul, he thinks about the difficulties life poses, wonders if animals and fish have souls and questions the nature of sin. So many things about religion make no sense to him. He wonders why the nuns are covered from head to toe, yet Jesus hangs on the cross around their necks half naked. He wonders why a simple-minded boy like Roy Driscoll, whose printing and numbers are always backwards and jumbled and who is still in Grade one, is guaranteed a place in heaven while he has to learn catechism and arithmetic to get there. It just didn’t seem fair.
Nipper hates enclosed spaces. They him sweaty and clammy. So in grade one when he must begin going to confession, he finds ways to go into and get out of that claustrophobic box with Monsignor Murphy as quickly as possible. Sometimes it means he makes up sins just to have something to say. The ritual of Holy Communion also remains a mystery to him. You didn’t have to do much, just stick out your tongue, swallow a wafer, bow your head respectfully and go back to your seat. That wasn’t hard, nothing to memorize, nothing to say, anyone could get it right.
When Nipper’s father Patrick dies after a long illness, Nipper finds it difficult to remember the time of his funeral. He believes he must have been taken and held by fairies because he cannot account for the time following his father’s death.
Nipper becomes friends with Brendan Flynn, an eccentric older man, a loner and a vagabond who is always hiking the surrounding fields and climbing the hills until he reaches the sea. He has a special place there he calls the Lookout where he stops, thinks about things and says his prayers to St. Brigid, patron saint of farmers and poets. Long ago, Monsignor Murphy banned Brendan from the church because he asked too many questions and often argued if he did not like the priest’s answers. Monsignor Murphy considers him a heretic.
Brendan says some religious people believe God lives in the church but he sees God more clearly in the things God has made, like the trees, the flowers, the birds and the woods. Brendan believes religion and nature are inextricably linked and so the great outdoors has become his church. He no longer says the rosary, goes to confession or attends church. As Brendan explains his point of view it makes sense to Nipper, especially when he remembers how often they said the rosary when his father was sick. It didn’t make any difference, his father died anyway. Brendan says he doesn’t understand the Holy Trinity either, so he makes peace with God in his own way and prays a lot, always to St. Brigid. As Nipper struggles to understand religion, Brendan tells him he will learn more about God outside in nature than he will in any church. Nipper finds a kindred spirit in this man, someone who thinks likes he does.
Kavanaugh places realistic characters in this community and grounds his story in real events. It is the late fifties, sixties and seventies, so we hear of President Kennedy’s death, Elvis Presley’s appearance on the Ed Sullivan show and the music of the Beatles.
Nipper has a small circle of friends and relatives that play an important part in his story. Paddy Dunne lives in a shack in Kildura with his father and his sister Rosarie. He is the best fisherman around but does poorly at school. Much of what he says and does makes a lot of sense to Nipper. Especially when he challenges a nun visiting the school from a mission in Peru. After seeing pictures of the poverty in which the people there live, Paddy asks her why, if God loves us all equally, he doesn’t provide housing and food for the poor Peruvians. The question makes infinite sense to Nipper but it earns Paddy a strapping and a week’s suspension from the nuns.
Aunt Mona his mother’s sister often drives up from St John’s and loves to play cards. At one time, she had a run-in with Monsignor Murphy because she laughed at him while he was saying mass and feared she might be ex-communicated. Mona’s favourite game is naming the “best of” something. She enjoys posing the question and asking who is the best hockey player or the best singer.
Brigid Flynn, Brendan’s niece is smart, kind and earns Nipper’s heart. Her companionship helps him endure what is happening at school and it is with her he later experiences his first sexual awakening hidden in a hayloft.
There is a housefire and a child’s funeral before Nippers gentle lessons on the home front come to an end. Everything changes when his mother decides to send him to All Angels, a day school in St John’s run by the Christian brothers as he starts grade five. She believes it will give him a good education and provide him with some male role models, but Nipper finds many of the teachers are not qualified and several are sadists who’d rather punish than teach. They are not the kind of male role models his mother believes them to be. The feared instrument of that punishment is the strap, called the “Black Doctor”, although Brother Crane has his own self-made model, an instrument of torture he calls the “White Bomber”. But not all punishment is delivered by the strap, Brother Spencer has a way of dealing with boys who talk too much, wrapping their heads mummy-like in gauze and parading them from one classroom to the next to serve as an example to others.
And there are other acts of abuse, punches, painful neck squeezes and open faced slaps. One of Nipper’s friends has a protractor thrown in his face, opening a huge cut above his eye that required seven stitches. Some of the boys fight back and a well landed punch in the face of one of the brothers has readers silently cheering. Bullying is endemic. Darrell Wiggins, a simple boy with a vacant look on his face, trying to pass grade eight for the third time, was an easy target for the sadistic Brother Crane, who strapped him viciously for every perceived misdemeanor. Such was the environment for so called learning at the school.
There were also lessons to be learned about the big city in St John’s where roving gangs had to be avoided or beatings would be meted out by the Townies. Part of Nipper’s education is just learning to survive in this very different environment.
As his schooling continues, Nipper questions himself about sin and the many facets of Roman Catholicism that make no sense to him. At the same time, he fears the number of prayers it will take to atone for looking at pictures of naked women or wondering about the whorehouse on Gardiner Street.
Kavanagh’s writing is charming and he has a good ear for dialogue as what appears on the page feels natural and flows freely. The characters are vividly portrayed and the well-placed bits of humour, especially when the boys need to determine if a large number of cigarette packages rescued from a fire and "dropped in their laps" is either opportunity or temptation. It can’t help but bring a chuckle to the reader.
This is Kavanaugh’s first adult novel and was recognized by earning the 2002 Newfoundland and Labrador Book Award. It has an excellent and appealing cover with Nipper in the foreground cradling a dragonfly and an overlay of the confessional.
It was a pleasure to read.
The community in Kildura is ruled by the Roman Catholic Church where religion is central to everyone’s life. Nipper goes to St Brigid’s where he and his friends are taught by the strict nuns including the principal Sister Mary Ignatius and the more kindly Sister Bernadette. Nipper is observant and questions everything he doesn’t understand. A serious reflective soul, he thinks about the difficulties life poses, wonders if animals and fish have souls and questions the nature of sin. So many things about religion make no sense to him. He wonders why the nuns are covered from head to toe, yet Jesus hangs on the cross around their necks half naked. He wonders why a simple-minded boy like Roy Driscoll, whose printing and numbers are always backwards and jumbled and who is still in Grade one, is guaranteed a place in heaven while he has to learn catechism and arithmetic to get there. It just didn’t seem fair.
Nipper hates enclosed spaces. They him sweaty and clammy. So in grade one when he must begin going to confession, he finds ways to go into and get out of that claustrophobic box with Monsignor Murphy as quickly as possible. Sometimes it means he makes up sins just to have something to say. The ritual of Holy Communion also remains a mystery to him. You didn’t have to do much, just stick out your tongue, swallow a wafer, bow your head respectfully and go back to your seat. That wasn’t hard, nothing to memorize, nothing to say, anyone could get it right.
When Nipper’s father Patrick dies after a long illness, Nipper finds it difficult to remember the time of his funeral. He believes he must have been taken and held by fairies because he cannot account for the time following his father’s death.
Nipper becomes friends with Brendan Flynn, an eccentric older man, a loner and a vagabond who is always hiking the surrounding fields and climbing the hills until he reaches the sea. He has a special place there he calls the Lookout where he stops, thinks about things and says his prayers to St. Brigid, patron saint of farmers and poets. Long ago, Monsignor Murphy banned Brendan from the church because he asked too many questions and often argued if he did not like the priest’s answers. Monsignor Murphy considers him a heretic.
Brendan says some religious people believe God lives in the church but he sees God more clearly in the things God has made, like the trees, the flowers, the birds and the woods. Brendan believes religion and nature are inextricably linked and so the great outdoors has become his church. He no longer says the rosary, goes to confession or attends church. As Brendan explains his point of view it makes sense to Nipper, especially when he remembers how often they said the rosary when his father was sick. It didn’t make any difference, his father died anyway. Brendan says he doesn’t understand the Holy Trinity either, so he makes peace with God in his own way and prays a lot, always to St. Brigid. As Nipper struggles to understand religion, Brendan tells him he will learn more about God outside in nature than he will in any church. Nipper finds a kindred spirit in this man, someone who thinks likes he does.
Kavanaugh places realistic characters in this community and grounds his story in real events. It is the late fifties, sixties and seventies, so we hear of President Kennedy’s death, Elvis Presley’s appearance on the Ed Sullivan show and the music of the Beatles.
Nipper has a small circle of friends and relatives that play an important part in his story. Paddy Dunne lives in a shack in Kildura with his father and his sister Rosarie. He is the best fisherman around but does poorly at school. Much of what he says and does makes a lot of sense to Nipper. Especially when he challenges a nun visiting the school from a mission in Peru. After seeing pictures of the poverty in which the people there live, Paddy asks her why, if God loves us all equally, he doesn’t provide housing and food for the poor Peruvians. The question makes infinite sense to Nipper but it earns Paddy a strapping and a week’s suspension from the nuns.
Aunt Mona his mother’s sister often drives up from St John’s and loves to play cards. At one time, she had a run-in with Monsignor Murphy because she laughed at him while he was saying mass and feared she might be ex-communicated. Mona’s favourite game is naming the “best of” something. She enjoys posing the question and asking who is the best hockey player or the best singer.
Brigid Flynn, Brendan’s niece is smart, kind and earns Nipper’s heart. Her companionship helps him endure what is happening at school and it is with her he later experiences his first sexual awakening hidden in a hayloft.
There is a housefire and a child’s funeral before Nippers gentle lessons on the home front come to an end. Everything changes when his mother decides to send him to All Angels, a day school in St John’s run by the Christian brothers as he starts grade five. She believes it will give him a good education and provide him with some male role models, but Nipper finds many of the teachers are not qualified and several are sadists who’d rather punish than teach. They are not the kind of male role models his mother believes them to be. The feared instrument of that punishment is the strap, called the “Black Doctor”, although Brother Crane has his own self-made model, an instrument of torture he calls the “White Bomber”. But not all punishment is delivered by the strap, Brother Spencer has a way of dealing with boys who talk too much, wrapping their heads mummy-like in gauze and parading them from one classroom to the next to serve as an example to others.
And there are other acts of abuse, punches, painful neck squeezes and open faced slaps. One of Nipper’s friends has a protractor thrown in his face, opening a huge cut above his eye that required seven stitches. Some of the boys fight back and a well landed punch in the face of one of the brothers has readers silently cheering. Bullying is endemic. Darrell Wiggins, a simple boy with a vacant look on his face, trying to pass grade eight for the third time, was an easy target for the sadistic Brother Crane, who strapped him viciously for every perceived misdemeanor. Such was the environment for so called learning at the school.
There were also lessons to be learned about the big city in St John’s where roving gangs had to be avoided or beatings would be meted out by the Townies. Part of Nipper’s education is just learning to survive in this very different environment.
As his schooling continues, Nipper questions himself about sin and the many facets of Roman Catholicism that make no sense to him. At the same time, he fears the number of prayers it will take to atone for looking at pictures of naked women or wondering about the whorehouse on Gardiner Street.
Kavanagh’s writing is charming and he has a good ear for dialogue as what appears on the page feels natural and flows freely. The characters are vividly portrayed and the well-placed bits of humour, especially when the boys need to determine if a large number of cigarette packages rescued from a fire and "dropped in their laps" is either opportunity or temptation. It can’t help but bring a chuckle to the reader.
This is Kavanaugh’s first adult novel and was recognized by earning the 2002 Newfoundland and Labrador Book Award. It has an excellent and appealing cover with Nipper in the foreground cradling a dragonfly and an overlay of the confessional.
It was a pleasure to read.
January 13, 2008
Delightful coming-of-age story about growing up Catholic in
Newfoundland. Kind of like Canada's answer to Angela's Ashes. ;-)
Engaging characters, wonderful prose. Completely enjoyable, and highly
recommended.
Newfoundland. Kind of like Canada's answer to Angela's Ashes. ;-)
Engaging characters, wonderful prose. Completely enjoyable, and highly
recommended.
September 15, 2009
Absolutely delightful find! For anyone with any familiarity with Newfoundland, it is bang on: hilarious, touching, shocking, with the most wonderful turns of phrase and descriptions.
December 26, 2022
I might have never heard even about this book. But this year I found myself in St. John's, Newfoundland so reading this novel was special feeling because I can understand and relate much more things being here now. It is joy to read it, if you have never been in Newfoundland I am recommending you this sensitive adventure.
August 19, 2023
I’m from Newfoundland so of course I’m slightly bias, but I found this book fantastic and could not put it down. From the language (perfectly Newfie, not too over the top) to the imagery, i enjoyed every inch of this book.
June 23, 2019
I enjoyed this book, but I felt that it was lacking in some places. This coming-of-age story is set in the fictional farming community of Kildura, Newfoundland. I am convinced that Kildura is a stand-in for the real-life farming community of Kibride, Newfoundland, which is where my father grew up. Furthermore, the young man in the story is eventually sent to a Roman Catholic boys school in St. John's, just like my father. There are a lot of the fictional experiences of young Nipper Mooney that echo and parallel stories my father has told me of growing up - days spent traipsing about the trails around his home town, the seemingly random viciousness of the Christian Brothers, observations of St. John's, the difficulties of traveling from school to home - there is even a reference to an accident prone stretch of road that sounds a lot like a dangerous curve and a culvert that my father remembers being the scene of many accidents. That part of this novel I loved, really loved because it had echoes of my own family's experiences in it. My problem with it is that there are the seeds of a number of wonderful plot lines and devices that are not really followed up on as much as I was hoping they would be. The Confessions of Nipper Mooney is a delightful read, it just doesn't wrap itself up like I was hoping it would.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews