Jennie's Boy: A Newfoundland Childhood

by Wayne Johnston

NATIONAL BESTSELLER
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE CBC

Consummate storyteller and bestselling novelist Wayne Johnston reaches back into his past to bring us a sad, tender and at times extremely funny memoir of his Newfoundland boyhood.

For six months between 1966 and 1967, Wayne Johnston and his family lived in a wreck of a house across from his grandparents in Goulds, Newfoundland. At seven, Wayne was sickly and skinny, unable to keep food down, plagued with insomnia and a relentless cough that no doctor could diagnose, though they had already removed his tonsils, adenoids and appendix. To the neigh­bours, he was known as “Jennie’s boy,” a back­handed salute to his tiny, ferocious mother, who felt judged for Wayne’s condition at the same time as worried he might never grow up.

Unable to go to school, Wayne spent his days with his witty, religious, deeply eccentric mater­nal grandmother, Lucy. During these six months of Wayne’s childhood, he and Lucy faced two life-or-death crises, and only one of them lived to tell the tale.

Jennie’s Boy is Wayne’s tribute to a family and a community that were simultaneously fiercely protective of him and fed up with having to make allowances for him. His boyhood was full of pain, yes, but also tenderness and Newfoundland wit. By that wit, and through love—often expressed in the most unloving ways—Wayne survived.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Canada, Audiobook, Biography, Book Club, Biography Memoir

9 pages, Audiobook

First published September 20, 2022

About the author

Wayne Johnston was born and raised in Goulds, Newfoundland. After a brief stint in pre-Med, Wayne obtained a BA in English from Memorial University. He worked as a reporter for the St. John's Daily News before deciding to devote himself full-time to writing.

En route to being published, Wayne earned an MA in Creative Writing from the University of New Brunswick. Then he got off to a quick start. His first book, The Story of Bobby O'Malley, published when he was 27 years old, won the WH Smith/Books in Canada First Novel award for the best first novel published in the English language in Canada in that year. The Divine Ryans was adapted to a film, for which Wayne wrote the screenplay. Baltimore's Mansion, a memoire dealing with his grandfather, his father and Wayne himself, won the Charles Taylor Prize. Both The Colony of Unrequited Dreams and The Navigator of New York were on bestseller lists in Canada and have been published in the US, Britain, Germany, Holland, China and Spain. Colony was identified by the Globe and Mail newspaper as one of the 100 most important Canadian books ever produced.

Reviews

[Jodi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy crap!!!😲 ALL the stars for this one!!⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐♾️

The poverty this tight family lives in—and the primary reason for it—will make you sad😢 and enraged😡! But Johnston's talent for finding the levity in everything will grow your heart💗 and make you laugh out loud!

You really have to read it to believe it. Jennie's Boy will absolutely delight you!

[theliterateleprechaun · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jennie’s Boy is a Newfoundland memoir written by Wayne Johnston highlighting a six-month period when he was seven years old, frail and sickly. Not able to go to school, he was cared for by his maternal grandmother, Lucy Everard, whom he credits with teaching him resilience and providing the antidote for any of his simultaneous sicknesses. Although this book deals with tough topics like illness, poverty and addiction, it’s propelled by lighter moments showcasing life in 1960s Atlantic Canada.

Things that had my jaw dropping:
😯“The whole house smelled of mothballs, a problem she didn’t bother addressing because, she said, it wouldn’t be long before the whole house smelled of cigarette smoke.”
😯“Jennie often sat on one of the bunks beside my bed attending to me, nervously watching over me even as she smoked a cigarette that worsened my condition.”
😯By November 1966, when the author was seven years old, he’d lived in 20 houses!

Things that made me smile:
😊The pet crow
😊“I’m trying to rub some colour into you. You look like evaporated milk.”
😊“One of these days he’s going to go flying out of that bed, straight out the window, and there’ll be no one laughing then.” - referring to the bedmobile!
😊TV with upside-down picture tube
😊Drinking ice-cold chocolate Quik; the only thing he could keep down

Things that gave me pause:
🤔“Your parents are a good match. Like salt and pepper shakers. They might not stand out among the dishes on a dinner table, but you’re glad they’re there when the food is really bad.”
🤔“You don’t get what you pay for, you get what you can pay for.”

I can see why this book was shortlisted for Canada Reads 2025. The strength of the human spirit, the idiosyncrasies of the time, and the intergenerational family experience shine through the sickness and poverty. You’ll appreciate the narrow focus of this memoir because Wayne Johnston digs deep to bring the time and place alive for his readers. In light of the news these days, this book highlights struggle and overcoming adversity, something we want to see in our own uncertain immediate future. Wayne got through these 6 months and moved forward. This book provides that for whatever we are wrestling with - hope for the future.

I was left Googling Toutons and now I have a hankering for one…or two!

[Krista · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was seven that November when we were tossed from our apartment in St. John’s. I had lived in twenty houses by then. I don’t remember a lot of them, but most of them were scattered along a couple of roads in a place called the Goulds, about an hour away from town. It wasn’t much of a place, not even a village, but it was where Jennie was born and where her parents, Lucy and Ned, still lived, on Petty Harbour Road.

You might think that a memoir covering a span of six months as a seven year old would be of scant general interest or entertainment value but the story within Jennie’s Boy: A Newfoundland Childhood is surprising, engaging, and full of heart. Reading like narrative nonfiction, Wayne Johnston’s account of having been a sickly child with a chaotic home life is told with warmth and humour, and has a satisfying narrative arc. And for anyone who has read a pile of Johnston’s novels, as I have, there’s something very intriguing about seeing the influences behind his later writing; between this and The Mystery of Right and Wrong, I feel like I’ve gotten to really know the author this year and the experience has been a delight. (Note: I read an ARC through NetGalley and passages quoted may not be in their final form.)

Repairing me seemed to be impossible because no one seemed to know why I was sick. A doctor I could not remember having been to see had once said I had a nervous cough. Jennie seemed to think I had a nervous cough because I was nervous all the time. She said she had heard of other people who had nervous coughs, but she never named them. Calling it a nervous cough made it sound like I was constantly trying to clear my throat, but that wasn’t the case. The cough was so deep, so loud and so relentless that each of my three brothers had tried to kill me to shut me up.

Born the third of four sons (with more siblings to follow), Wayne’s barking cough was so disruptive that not only was he forced from his brothers’ bedroom at sleep time (aided in hauling his rollaway “bedmobile” into the living room at night, where his insomnia kept him awake), but he was banished from school and usually removed from Mass in the clutch of a coughing fit. After his father drank away the rent money, again, the family relocates to a substandard house across the street from Wayne’s maternal grandparents, and when his parents take the bus into town to work, and his brothers go to class, Wayne spends the days with his grandmother, Lucy: a loving, deeply religious woman who is still mourning the untimely death of her own young son so many years before and who knows that iced chocolate Quik, taken three sips at a time, is the only thing that Wayne is able to consistently hold down.

There is a health scare and trips to specialists, but this is mostly about the Johnston family dynamics: Wayne’s mother, Jennie, “ripping into” his father, Art, for secretly drinking away the poor family’s meagre means — until Art starts to berate himself and the whole family needs to gather around and tell him what a great man he is. Wayne’s brothers enjoy digging into him — making the case that everything would be better if he wasn’t so sick, putting so much pressure on their parents — until Wayne starts to cry and the brothers hug and reassure him. This is the story of a family, and especially seven year old Wayne, under tremendous strain, but it’s not bleak: this is a story with a tremendous amount of heart and warmth.

I didn’t want to be led to the living room by Jennie and have to kneel with her while she held my hand to keep me from losing my balance and tipping over sideways like a statue. I didn’t want to walk among the same grown-ups I had walked among the day Lucy had her false alarm, Jennie’s boy dressed to the nines as if nice clothes could disguise the fact that I looked as though I would be the next to go.

Because this reads a bit like a novel, I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but I do want to make the point that you don’t need to have read Johnston’s novels to be moved and entertained by this memoir (there are medical mishaps! brawls! car chases!). Turns out, six months in the life of this seven year old makes for a very satisfying tale.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for Canada Reads 2025

Bestselling novelist Wayne Johnston tells us the very sad story of his childhood in Newfoundland.
He was a sickly boy surrounded by a dysfunctional family and an alcoholic father.
Many have found humour in his story.
I just felt heartache.

[George Ilsley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This memoir is about six months in a boy's life, a fragment of his childhood, one fraught with his fragile physical health and precarious circumstances.

Brilliantly written, but the book was too long and repetitive for something covering only six months. When the same argument his parents have is repeated, in detail, I found myself less and less engaged in the material. I also had to wonder — how does a sick 7 year old remember so many conversations and so much detail of the day to day? What do you remember from being seven?

It is an extraordinary tale, an ordinary tale really, but it's a miracle that Wayne made it through all that. Other reviewers here seem to have little concept what poverty really means, and what it might have been like growing up poor in Newfoundland way back in the nineteen-hundreds. One should read a book like this to learn, not to judge.

But I judged it too, didn't I? I deemed it too long.

[Alan (the Lone Librarian) Teder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Canada Reads Jennie's Boy
A review of the Knopf Canada eBook (September 20, 2022), released simultaneously with the hardcover/audiobook.

You read more books in a week than anyone I know has read in their entire life. I never saw the point of books, but there might be one. You better hope there is. You have a lot of time invested in them that you won’t get back. - Grandmother Lucy to young Wayne.

It was kind of the funniest year in a lot of ways, a bit sad in some other ways. And even though the book is called Jennie's Boy, I kind of struggled with the notion of calling it Lucy's Boy. - Author Wayne Johnston interviewed about "Jennie's Boy."

Jennie's Boy is novelist Wayne Johnston's 2nd memoir about his family, following Baltimore's Mansion (1999) which was about his father and grandfather. This time the focus is on his mother Jennie and grandmother Lucy and a time when Wayne was 7-8 years old in 1966-67 and living at a house in The Goulds, Newfoundland.

The memoir reminded me of Frank McCourt's Angela’s Ashes (1996) as the books share a similar scenario of an alcoholic father, a family surviving in downtrodden circumstances but with humour and wit to help both them and the reader endure.

The main difference is that young Wayne was a sickly boy whom most of the family did not expect to survive. He had various ailments and symptoms, the most prominent being a persistent cough. Eventually he was diagnosed and cured of pleurisy. I don't think revealing that is a spoiler as obviously he survived in order to write this book and many others.

The book recounts the family's various misadventures with moving into low rent housing across the street from Jennie's parents' farm. Wayne is too sick to go to school and spends most days with his grandmother Lucy. He listens to her stories and joins her at her family shrine where she prays for Leonard, a child she lost when he was Wayne's age. The heart of this book centres on Lucy's pithy comments but there is also the humour of the family trying to keep up appearances with Jennie especially loathe to accept charity or social benefits. The family of 4 boys also try to keep their father's drinking under control.

This hardscrabble growing up / coming of age story was an absolute joy to read and I have GR friend Jodi's enthusiastic review to thank for pointing me to it! As Jodi says, your heart will feel a lot bigger after you finish this book 💓.

Trivia and Links
Jennie's Boy is shortlisted for the 2025 Canada Reads debates where various Canadian personalities champion a selected book. The debates run from March 17-20, 2025 on various CBC outlets. You can read about the 2025 shortlist here. Canadian thriller novelist Linwood Barclay is the champion of Jennie's Boy and you can read some background on that here.

You can listen to the opening chapters of Jennie's Boy as narrated by author Wayne Johnston on YouTube here (this might be geoblocked in some regions).

Author Wayne Johnston is interviewed about Jennie's Boy at the University of Western Ontario Arts and Humanities Faculty which you can watch on YouTube here.

[CATHERINE · Rating 2 out of 5]

So on the art is subjective, how boring it would be if we all liked the same things this book is a case in point.
Why no-one just took this child to a doctor or reported the family to social services probably reflects them constantly moving around. This read as child abuse, telling a child they are the reason for all their problems and that they expect him to die does not make for an entertaining read.
Then the repeation, the same argument between his parents, the endless descriptions of his symptoms made this very dull and we know he wrote the book so he survived so I was waiting for an explanation of his illness.
Then after all that the rest of his life is crammed into a few pages and sounds a lot more interesting that this.
Overall found it dull and frustrating.

[Maryam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up as part of the *Canada Reads 2025* list, and it proved to be a heavy but meaningful read. The autobiography moves at a slow and steady pace, reflecting on the author’s early years. It paints a raw and honest picture of what it meant to grow up sickly, in poverty, within a family marked by unemployment, lack of education, and even ignorance—yet also a strong sense of pride.

The narrative doesn’t shy away from difficult truths, such as the shadow of alcoholism, the financial struggles that followed, and the ways in which these circumstances led to unintentional neglect of a child’s well-being. It isn’t a joyful or uplifting read, but it carries its own weight and value. The strength of the book lies in its unflinching portrayal of hardship, showing how environment and circumstance shape a life from the earliest days.

Though the pacing may feel slow at times, it allows room for reflection and for the reader to sit with the realities being described. Reading about such lives, even when painful, has its merits—it broadens perspective, evokes empathy, and reminds us of the quiet resilience found in survival itself.

[Violet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jennie's Boy: A Newfoundland Childhood by Wayne Jhonston is a delightful Memoir. This book is a great introduction for me to this Author.

The story covers six months of Wayne Jhonston's sickened childhood happened between 1966 and 1967. He grew up with several worse medical conditions that no doctor could diagnose. His poor family were relocating often, has no permanent home. His family totally ignored him, his Father was a alcoholic and his brothers were quite mean to him.

The setting of Newfoundland is pleasant to read but the story felt slow and repetitive. Anyhow it is a quite good read.

[Kathleen]

This book was shortlisted for Canada Reads 2025 and defended by Linwood Barclay in the debates.
In this memoir, Wayne Johnston tells about his sad, tender boyhood between 1966 and 1967. He and his family lived in a wreck of a house across the road from his grandparents in Gould, Newfoundland. At seven, Wayne was sickly and skinny, unable to keep his food down, plagued with insomnia and a relentless cough that no doctor could diagnose. To the neighbours he was known as “Jennie’s boy”, a backhanded salute to his tiny, ferocious mother, who felt judged for Wayne’s condition at the same time as worried that he might never grow up.
Unable to go to school, Wayne spent his days with religious, deeply eccentric maternal grandmother, Lucy. During these six months of Wayne’s childhood, he and Lucy faced two life-or-death crises.

[Susanne Latour · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’m going to apologize now for my harsh review but when you nominate a book for a competition that is hoping to get the whole of Canada to read it think an honest review from your ‘target’ audience ie: a regular Canadian, is warranted.

First off I’m not sure how this book was chosen for the Canada Reads 2025 long list let alone make it to the shortlist. In general I find it difficult giving someone’s a memoir a star rating because who am I to rate someone else’s life. But this book was just not enjoyable and I got nothing out of reading it. Part of the blurbed states ‘at times extremely funny’, there was nothing funny about this book. I should have DNF’d it but I wanted to finish it because of the fact that it made the shortlist for this ‘competition’. While it covered difficult topics as poverty, alcoholism and child neglect, I did not feel anything for the author nor his family. There was absolutely no reflection by the author of these events and as it was published 22 years later this is something I would have expected and what this book needed.

One of the things I struggled with most was that this memoir is VERY heavy on dialogue, very little happens as it only takes place over a six month period and what does happen feels repetitive. Given that Wayne was only 7 years old during this time I find it very difficult to believe he has remembered word for word all the conversations that took place, they were so heavy detailed that you have no other option then to think that this is exactly what everyone said. There was very specific detail and obscure words used that I find hard to believe a seven year old would understand let alone remember all these years later. There is no mention in the authors note like I have seen in other memoirs that other family members have helped in the recollection of events and maybe I should take this for granted but it’s Wayne’s memoir. Another example of me questioning the believability of some of this memoir is that Wayne was doing math that included using the quadratic equation and reading The Grapes of Wrath (he did read a lot so he quite possibly could have been able to read this book but his detail on his comprehension of what happened in this book at his age is what made this detail questionable for me) both of which I studied in grade 9. While there are those super gifted kids out there that maybe doing these things at that age, Wayne was not attending school and it didn’t sound like he had been in sometime because of his chronic illnesses as well as his family moving 20 times since his birth and he was spending his days at his grandmother Lucy’s house seemingly mostly praying.

I don’t questions Wayne’s family struggles I’m just questioning the choice in which Wayne decided to recount this time.

I recently read the fiction book Dandelion by Jamie Chai Yun Liew which was long listed but did not make the short list for Canada Reads 2025. And I know I’m comparing a non-fiction book with a fiction book and the books also cover different themes. But I found the author of Dandelion was able to make me see and feel what it is like for immigrants living in Canada but with Jennie’s boy I didn’t feel anything for this family.

[Jeff Bursey · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a relatively cool style, this focused memoir shows Wayne Johnston (b. 1958) as a good guide to his earlier life. His family from Hell treat the sickly seven-year-old Johnston (he has so many conditions he is eventually termed idiopathic) as someone who is a chore and not long for this world. Johnston's father is constantly drinking, his mother is arrogantly proud as well as ignorant, his grandmother is superstitious, and Craig is a truly mean brother (the other two brothers are not). It's a wonder he survived them, let alone his conditions.

You don't need to have read Johnston's novels or other books to appreciate this. I'm not sure if how readers might view his family is what he was aiming for. Worth reading.

Longer review here:

https://atlanticbooks.ca/stories/jenn...

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's beautifully written, but dear god is there a bleakness to this memoir that made it hard going. It's a piece of art that nearly defeated me through its subject matter...but I made it through to the other side.

[Lindsey Reeder · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a nice treat that while reading this memoir, I learned it was longlisted for 2025 Canada Reads. I’m already ahead of the curve!

This book was heartfelt, raw and funny at times. More endearing than anything though, and I can’t recommend it enough

[Brandon St. Croix · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found repetitive and hard to engage with as the story was same theme over and over between sickness and family addiction

[Rachelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was good though sad. I am amazed at the detail of his recollections given his young age and ill health at the time. I felt as if I were alongside him, wishing to intervene, crying and rooting for him and really all of us who had challenging childhoods.

[Sarah B · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a depressing read

[David Waltner-Toews · Rating 5 out of 5]

A few years ago, I swore off giving stars to books; some were brilliant writing accessible to a small group of people, some brilliant insights but so-so writing, some dated, some great as novels. I broke my rules & gave this book 5 stars because it is wonderful in every possible wasy I can think of. Wayne Johnston gets better with every book he publishes - better as in more skilled, more deft with language, with deeper, more profound insights into what makes us human, into the mysteries of right and wrong, without pontification or cant, more entertaining as a story-teller. I wonder if he could have written this until he had written The Mystery of Right and Wrong, where he almost sees the bottom of that darkest of gullies. In Jennie's Boy he dives so deeply into his life that we gasp as he touches that place in the bottom of the bottomless gully, the common wellspring of tragedy and comedy, joy, laughter, shuddering tears, silent grief. I have read a lot of books about dysfunctional families in Eastern Canada; it has become a tiresome trope in Canadian literature. But Johnston caused me to examine by whose standards we judge some families functional or not, to see beyond our judgements to see people as they are, to understand their struggles and our own. This is the perfect book on which to end 2022 (or any day, or year).

[Ellen McClure · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wowie folks. If you want a lesson in resiliency, humour, & first world poverty, read this book. Honestly, this book was slog. I think the timing of life affected my enjoyment of the story. Don't get me wrong, I appreciated all the tenacity and deep moments of ordinary life but, what this little guy & his family went through is awful and it didn't let up. I'm glad he got through it. I was worried there for a while. Not my favourite memoir but, still worth reading all the same.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jennie's Boy is one of the five finalists for Canada Reads 2025. It will be defended by Linwood Barclay. I gave this one 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

For those readers not familiar with bestselling Canadian author Wayne Johnston's works, he is the the author of The Colony of Unrequited Dreams and The Navigator of New York, among many other works. To think that such a talented writer could be the result of such a dismal childhood is amazing.

Jennie's Boy takes place in Goulds, Newfoundland, during a six month period when Wayne was seven years old. To say that Wayne's family was disfunctional is an understatement, and to me, it bordered on abusive. Wayne was a very ill little boy, unable to eat and gain weight, unable to sleep, with a cough that bordered on tubercular, extremely small for his age and unable to attend school. He slept on a cot, called the 'bedmobile' so he could be wheeled around their house when his cough became annoying. His father drank the rent money regularly, and his mother's ignorance and fear of the medical establlishment kept her from treating her son with much needed medicine. Wayne spent his days across the road from their delapidated house, with his grandmother Lucy, where he got a daily bath and chocolate Quik, and prayed everyday with her in her shrine room.

Although the writing in this book is terrific, the family story is not. Some of the shenanigans were humorous, but for the most part, the family's disfunction made me uncomfortable and angry, to the point where I almost didn't want to finish it. Bravo to Wayne Johnston for showcasing some of the darkness of his childhood and for rising above it all despite it all.

[Tanja Walker · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the one hand, I was really moved by reading about Wayne Johnston‘s growing up in abject poverty, and the superstitions and lack of money that kept him from getting the needed medical care. However, I suspect that some time frames were mixed up in the writing of this memoir. I find it hard to believe that a seven-year-old was doing quadratic equations and reading “The Grapes of Wrath,” especially one who was unable to go to school because of his health issues. Because of that, I dropped a star off of its rating. Still, it was a great read, and very moving, even if I wanted to strangle Wayne’s parents a time or two!

[Alex Jonker · Rating 4 out of 5]

2025 CBC Canada Reads Longlist 4/15 (and shortlist 1/5)

I went into this one without even reading a summary so I really didn’t know what I was getting into, but I feel like it would somehow defied expectations even if I had them. This memoir tells the story of Wayne’s childhood growing up in Newfoundland. It’s terribly tragic, and at times hilarious. Although I enjoyed listening to it (audiobook read by the author) and felt compelled to finish, I found there was something missing - maybe it was the writing style with dark humor, or maybe the way it was read, but whatever it was, I didn’t feel deeply connected to or empathetic towards the characters. A good read, but not one that changed my life or that I’ll continue to mull over in the days ahead.

[La_Renza · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved that this book takes place over just six months. I was captivated by the vivid portrait of Newfoundland and its endearing characters, but most of all, by Wayne’s story, both heartbreaking and funny. Another wonderful author discovered.

[Kerri D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Newfoundland memoir- funny bits and heart wrenching bits. My kind of memoir.

[Nanci · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is the beautifully told truth of Wayne Johnston’s wretched childhood. He and his flawed family lived a rough but, in their own way, loving Newfoundland life.

[Cree · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this a lot. A great memoir, in parts really funny and sweet, and also sometimes really sad. A pretty easy read but not necessarily light. Kind of had vibes of Angela’s ashes but enjoyed this a lot more tbh

[Lolz · Rating 3 out of 5]

A water wheel of tribulations, one after the next after the next. Sometimes wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry.
Canada Reads 2025

[Sandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

A Canada Reads 2025 Shortlist Finalist.
"One book to change the narrative" that is the theme.

This memoir left me feeling desolate and underwhelmed and I haven't a clue how this extremely repetitive book will change the narrative.


The book focuses on approximately 6-7 months in the author's life when he was 7 years old. His family is poor and always on the move because the father keeps spending the rent money on alcohol. Growing up in cramped quarters with his three siblings they've now landed in a house across the street from his maternal grandparents. Wayne is chronically ill but the doctors can't pinpoint exactly why. The family can't afford to pay for his meds, and are trying to do their best with the limited resources they have. They're offered assistance from social assistance but Jennie won't accept the help. His brothers are very mean and think he's faking to get attention. His father is a self loathing alcoholic and his mother is deeply religious and doesn't trust the doctors or the social worker who has been alerted to Wayne's condition.
I didn't like this book at all, I didn't like the way the narrator called his parents and grandparents by their first name, that just felt odd to me. Some reviews have called this amusing but my definition of amusing is vastly different.

I can't recommend it.

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

My choice for winner of Canada Reads 2025: “Jennie’s Boy”, by Wayne Johnston. I will admit to a person bias, as Wayne has been my favourite author for many decades, however, I really did enjoy this book most of all. I read it a few years ago, and I read it and listened to it again this year. Hearing Wayne read it is a real treat and, as usual, adds a whole different dimension to the story. It’s a very sad story, told with punches of humour that caught me off guard. While it only covers a few months of Wayne’s young life in Newfoundland, we know it has a happy ending as he survived his circumstances and went on to write some of the best Canadian literature around.

I’ll give this ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
📚

#jenniesboy
#jenniesboywaynejohnston
#waynejohnston

[Sheila · Rating 5 out of 5]

No one seemed able to find out what was wrong with little Wayne who struggled to keep food down, coughed uncontrollably, and suffered insomnia. He was so thin a booster shot broke his arm, adding to his challenges in a poverty, stricken part of Newfoundland. His parents loved one another, but money was seldom available for most basic needs due to his father’s alcoholism. Mother Jennie, and devout grandmother Lucy cared for Wayne and his brothers, in a no nonsense, blunt fashion, and somehow Wayne’s self-image survived his challenges to become the successful author of many books.