The Oatmeal Ark: From the Scottish Isles to a Promised Land

by Rory MacLean

After the death of his father, Beagan Gillean finds himself stranded on a wild Scottish island, alone except for a trunk full of three generations of family history. His life adrift on an empty sea, he resolves to retrace the journey his great-grandfather made two hundred years before from the Western Isles to the promised land of Canada, a home that he himself has not seen for twenty years. Immersing himself in the lives, loves, hopes and dreams of his forefathers, Gillean decides to travel as they did - not on land or by air, but by water - navigating the old water routes that ribbon through Canada from the Atlantic to the Pacific. A wave-rocked, wind-tossed travel adventure unfolds, carrying him into his family’s past and across the world’s second-largest country. In his wake trail three his great-grandfather, the minister-mariner; his grandfather, a paddle-wheel publisher; and his father, a boat-building broadcaster. Together they cruise up the Saint Lawrence on a lottery-winner’s yacht, canoe through the lonely majesty of the northern woods and cross the Prairies by inflatable dinghy and submarine. Along the way Gillean discovers that his forefathers’ struggles, achievements and failings mirror Canada’s own. Through their memory and the majestic landscape he reaches out to find a place of his own. A haunting tale of loss and discovery, The Oatmeal Ark is the story of one remarkable family and a candid, beautifully rendered portrait of the country that defined it.

Genres: Canada, Travel, Fiction, Scotland

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Canadian Rory MacLean is one of Britain's most expressive and adventurous travel writers. His twelve books include the UK top tens Stalin's Nose and Under the Dragon as well as Berlin: Imagine a City, a book of the year and 'the most extraordinary work of history I've ever read' according to the Washington Post. He has won awards from the Canada Council and Arts Council of England and was nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary prize. His works – according to the late John Fowles – are among those that 'marvellously explain why literature still lives'. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he divides his time between the UK, Berlin and Toronto.

Reviews

[Bettie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this enough for a 4*. There is that metaphysical tweak that was a surprise. If you like slow whimsical journeys, you may be pleasantly suprised with just how calming this is.

Research Highland Clearances - Prebble.

Re Launched.

blurb - A wave-rocked, wind-tossed adventure story which reaches from Scotland to Nova Scotia, across Canada by water, and through three generations of extraordinary family history. It weaves ghostly invention through true stories, stitching imaginary characters into real events, to unravel Canada's epic history. It traces the dreams of the courageous men and women who left Scotland - and England, Ireland and all of Europe - in the hope of building a better world overseas.

Travel with me and my forefathers - the minister-mariner, paddle-wheel publisher and boat-building broadcaster - across the world's second-largest country. Seek out earthly Paradise! Canoe through the lonely majesty of the northern woods! Cross the Prairies with a wild Newfoundlander in an inflatable dinghy and a submarine! And discover the history of a divided nation whose parts have grown greater than its whole.

'The Oatmeal Ark' was nominated for 1999 International IMPAC Dublin Literary award and read on BBC Radio Scotland. In 2008 it is republished with a new introduction by Jan Morris.

[Colin Milligan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An engagingly told travelogue, tracing a Scots family's passage from the old world to the new, and from the East to West of Canada.

I read this book in preparation for a trip to Canada, and felt I gained a good insight into this fine nation's heritage through this sideways glance. I did feel the complex storytelling devices sometimes got in the way of my enjoyment of the book, but at the sametime, the complementary viewpoints added much to the overall narrative.

[Tony · Rating 1 out of 5]

Canadian traces his ancestry from the Scottish Isles to Vancouver, travelling by water as his forbears had. too much was made of the author's knowledge and research gets in the way of the story. the ancestors, as "ghosts", get pretty annoying too.

[Brad Erickson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quirky hit and miss memoir? Travelogue? Novel? I liked the two narratives of the contemporary Beagan's travels and that of his forebears but the narrative of the ghosts traveling along with Beagan was too confusing and unnecessary. Still, there were some sections that were laugh out loud funny.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the ghosts!

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A excellent travelogue written in a semi magic realist style - that may seem unusual for a book from the northern hemisphere- but the style sits comfortably and is a good way for the past to be eased into the story. Also good as the book evolves it includes partial histories or other peoples forced to move to Canada for a better life and acknowledges the native tribes to. Shows that a country so unimaginably large swallows ideas and people extremely quickly..
A good book for anyone wanting a introduction to Canada the sections about Quebec and Ontario are very well described

[Steve Chilton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Never really got to grips with the strange narrative style, jumping about from reality to ghostly virtuality. Some interesting observations on 'going west' but overall a big disappointment. Shan't rush to pick Stalin's Nose!

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really interesting in terms of Canadian history, which I didn't know much about. A sweet book, a little quirky, better for the travel and history info than the story itself. Would read his others though.

[Carolyn Wilhelm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Profound and moving saga of a Scottish man who traveled to Vancouver to trace the route his ancestors took — and four of their spirits travel with him. With their conversation and the papers they left behind we learn all about history of Canada.