Burden of Desire

by Robert MacNeil

Burden of Desire centres on the love triangle between bohemian Halifax south-end belle Julia Robertson, Dalhousie professor Stewart MacPherson, and young Anglican minister Peter Wentworth.

Julia keeps a diary detailing her sexual fantasies, which she has with her at the moment of the blast that was the Halifax Explosion. She hides her diary in her coat, which is subsequently donated to a clothing drive for the individuals from the north end of the city who've lost everything in the explosion. Peter discovers the diary and becomes fixated on its author, enlisting the help of his friend Stewart to find her.

Burden of Desire explores the repression and expression of sexual desire at the time of the First World War. It also offers a compelling fictional account of the impact on Halifax society of the Halifax Explosion.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Canada, Book Club, Historical, War, Romance

482 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Robert Breckenridge Ware MacNeil, OC, was a novelist and former television news anchor and journalist who paired with Jim Lehrer to create The MacNeil/Lehrer Report in 1975. MacNeil wrote several books, many about his career as a journalist, but, since his retirement from NewsHour, MacNeil dabbled in writing novels.

He attended Dalhousie University and later graduated from Carleton University in Ottawa in 1955. He began working in the news field at ITV in London, then for Reuters and then for NBC News as a correspondent in Washington, D.C. and New York City.

On November 22, 1963, MacNeil was covering President Kennedy's visit to Dallas for NBC News. After shots rang out in Dealey Plaza MacNeil, who was with the presidential motorcade, followed crowds running onto the Grassy Knoll (he appears in a photo taken just moments after the assassination). He then headed towards the nearest building and encountered a man leaving the Texas School Book Depository. He asked the man where the nearest telephone was and the man pointed and went on his way. MacNeil later learned the man he encountered at about 12:33 p.m. CST may have been Lee Harvey Oswald. This conclusion was made by historian William Manchester in his book The Death of a President (1967), who believed that Oswald, recounting the day's events to the Dallas police, mistook MacNeil as a Secret Service agent because of his suit, blond crew cut, and press badge (which Oswald apparently mistook for government identification). For his part, MacNeil says "it was possible, but I had no way of confirming that either of the young men I had spoken to was Oswald."

Beginning in 1967, MacNeil covered American and European politics for the BBC and has served as the host for the news discussion show Washington Week in Review. MacNeil rose to fame during his coverage of the Senate Watergate hearings for PBS, which led to an Emmy Award. This helped lead to his most famous news role, where he worked with Jim Lehrer to create The Robert MacNeil Report in 1975. This was later renamed The MacNeil/Lehrer Report and then The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. MacNeil retired on October 20, 1995.

On September 11, 2001, after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, he called PBS, asking if he could help them with their coverage of the attacks, as he recalled in his autobiography, Looking for My Country: Finding Myself in America. He helped PBS in its coverage of the attacks and the aftermath, interviewing reporters, and giving his thoughts on the attacks. He hosted the PBS television show America at a Crossroads, which ran from April 15-20, 2007.

In the late 1990s, he discussed openly his son's homosexuality, saying it could help other fathers to know how he dealt with the fact in a positive way.

Reviews

[KOMET · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book I cannot recommend enough!!! My interest in "BURDEN OF DESIRE" was first kindled when I heard Mr. MacNeil talk about the 1917 Halifax tragedy on National Public Radio a few years ago. I was intrigued because I had never heard of this tragedy before. Then around Christmastime, I bought and read "BURDEN OF DESIRE". I became so wrapped up in the lives of the main characters (each of whom Mr. MacNeil creates with a full-bodied and multi-dimensional personality) that I felt as if I were a fly on the wall, watching events unfold.

I give Mr. MacNeil special kudos for the way he created the main female character. From the way he wrote this novel, you'll feel that it is a real woman confiding her inmost thoughts in her diary.

On so many levels, this is a well-written and beautiful story. Read "BURDEN OF DESIRE" and savor it. You'll be glad that you did.

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was intrigued by this book because it's historical fiction about Nova Scotia - a place I haven't been but am fascinated by - and also because it's written by Robert MacNeil, who co-founded the MacNeil/Lehrer Report, and which later became the Lehrer News Hour on Public Television. I was curious what a journalist and former news anchor could do in a novel about his hometown. And overall I was impressed. It's a little like The Outlander - which I think of as part smut, part historical fiction - where you keep turning the pages because of the smut but the really interesting part of the book is the historical fiction. It's not about time travel and it's not as good as The Outlander so the comparison ends there. The book takes place in the aftermath of the accidental explosion of an ammunitions cargo ship in Halifax Bay during World War I (true event), which wiped part of Halifax off the map, killing and injuring thousands. Though the book, the author paints a picture of Halifax during the war effort, the coming together of the local community, life in Nova Scotia, social mores at that time and the pressure to uphold them, boarding school in the early part of the century, and even the early days of psychology and psychotherapy.

A young clergyman finds the journal of a woman that drops out of a pocket during a coat collection. It's full of racy thoughts for the time and predictably, both he and a friend are taken in by this woman and a curious potential love triangle ensues. The two main male characters are played off each other - one a clergyman, one studying psychology, one the athletic popular kid, one the geeky teased kid, both struggling with different aspects of their lives and eventually coming into their own. While I was annoyed with the male characters off and on during the book, in the end I saw that there was a strong psychology undercurrent. This would be an interesting book to explore from that angle - how people respond to societal expectations, to perceived interests, to reconciling family needs with personal aspiration, etc. There's a side story about the beginning of psychotherapy in treating mental illness and post traumatic stress disorder (not called that then), which is interesting.

Three things I didn't like: 1) I felt like the personality of the young clergyman in boarding school was totally different than his personality as an adult and I had a hard time reconciling him as a character overall. 2) I couldn't help thinking that this was so definitely written by a male - the journal that is found presents the secret true feelings of a local woman, full of lust and desire. Cynically I just thought 'of course, that's what a guy would want to read if he found a journal,' which colored a lot of the book for me. And 3) the title is so cheesy. I was actually embarrassed that I'd brought it on the plane with me during work travel. I felt I had to explain 'no, really, it's historical fiction.' In all, a mixed review from me but overall I enjoyed it.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

MacNeil is the co-founder of the PBS MacNeil Leher Report. He is the author of several non-fiction books but Burden of Desire is his first novel. It is excellent. MacNeil was born in Montreal. His grandparents, mother and uncle lived in Halifax during WWI.

On December 6, 1917 the Mont Blanc, a freighter with a cargo of highly explosive picric acid, TNT, gun cotton and benzyl entered Halifax harbor. Its cargo was secret and certainly the Halifax port authorities did not know the ship was a floating bomb. To dock, the Mont Blanc had to pass through the Narrows. Due to crowding and confusion she collided with the Imo. At first, there was a spectacular fire that drew many to their windows. Next there was an explosion. Many of the onlookers were blinded by flying glass, others were killed or seriously maimed by collapsing houses and resulting fires. Although MacNeil does not give the statistic, over 2,000 were killed and the entire north end of Halifax was destroyed. The event was the largest explosion in history until the atomic bomb was set off in the 1940's

The two male protagonists; James, an Anglican clergyman assigned to the Halifax Cathedral, and Stewart, a psychologist working with shelled shocked soldier, joined the rescue operations. Julia, the female lead, lives in the affluent south end and was not harmed by the explosion. In a rush to provide clothing to the unfortunates whose homes were destroyed, she put her diary into a pocket only to have it drop out in the confusion.

James finds the diary and reads it. Julia began recording her thoughts two years before the explosion shortly after she was married. Her husband is a Canadian Army officer and was assigned to the front in France shortly after the wedding. Julia's diary is very revealing, she likes sex.

The primary plot revolves around how the diary affects the relations between Julia, James and Stewart. But there is much more. This is 1917 and Canada is part of the British Empire. Halifax has sharp class distinctions: rich manufacturers and bankers in the south and workers in the north. After the blast Julia goes to the north end. It is her first visit. She is 26.

Halifax can be more British than Brittan but simultaneously wants independence and feels superior to England. Following the blast the Governor General, who is also an English duke, tours Halifax to see the destruction. The wealthy head of the rescue committee, a Halifax resident, finds it difficult to decide whether to call the GG, Your Grace or Your Excellency. Canadian soldiers look down on their British counterparts and many hate Haig, Brittan's top general.

There is also much insight into Anglican beliefs at the time.

[Barbara A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most romantic historical novels of the late 20th C. Meticulously researched and emotionally compelling. Unforgettable read.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Folks my age will remember the author, Robert MacNeil, from PBS's MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. MacNeil is a Haligonian, the odd name for people from Halifax, Nova Scotia.

This book is a rare re-read for me. We recently traveled to Nova Scotia for the first time, and I wanted to enjoy the visit with this story on my mind. I love it because of an uncertain mix of the quality of the book and my high tolerance for melodrama.

MacNeil indulges in the dramatic irony of characters in the Edwardian era coming to terms with new ideas about psychology, sex, art, and religion. Julia worries about her radical thoughts while we can easily think "you're fine, lady, that's OK and normal." Maybe that's a cheap move by the author. On the other hand, that era really did happen, so of course authors and readers go there.

MacNeil burdens his characters but shows real compassion for Julia, Stewart, and Margery. He is cooler toward the good-looking, athletic, ambitious Peter, whose intensity makes him linger in my mind.

Julia's house was on South Park Street. While in Halifax I walked the street to see if it still had homes for the well-to-do. Condos.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a complete surprise. Its title is at once misleading and accurate: one might easily expect Burden of Desire to be third-rate lightweight romantic escapism for a predominantly female readership. The only reason I read it was that I was urged to do so by a friend whose judgement I trust.

It is, in fact, an historical novel of depth, complexity and insight, which starts from a single event – the explosion of a munitions ship in Halifax harbour, Nova Scotia, in 1917 – and traces the aftershock of that disaster through the lives of three main protagonists, a woman and two men. In examining the psychology of the sexual repression and liberation of a post-Victorian era, it provides a detailed, almost clinical analysis of – yes, you’ve guessed it – the burden of desire.

It is above all a study of conflict: the Freudian tension between sexual repression and liberation, certainly, but also the conflict between the entrenched hierarchical certainties of the past and the fluid uncertainties and passionate experimentalism of the present.

The main arena for this conflict is in the characters of the three protagonists. Julia Robertson, unfulfilled wife of a soldier absent for two years, is stifled by the attitudes and expectations of family and society. Peter Wentworth, Anglican clergyman, is repressed on the one hand by theology and church hierarchy, and oppressed on the other by his own inadequate marriage and by the social and financial ambition of his in-laws. Stewart MacPherson, psychologist and student of Freud, does daily battle with medical, military and political authorities who refuse to acknowledge issues of mental health. These three are forced to confront a challenging agenda, ranging from personal loyalty and honesty to the meaning of courage, honour, duty and heroism.

In the wake of the three main characters, and alongside the baggage-train of their families, friends and neighbours, the city of Halifax - or rather, the aspirational middle-class element of Halifax - is a player in the drama in its own right. The social ambition; the strident patriotism and jingoism of a colonial city at war at the behest of its ruling power; the uneasy relationship with the less refined Canadian hinterland and the uneasier relationship with Canada’s brash, energetic young neighbour to the south – all these factors create an environment of mental turmoil, an emotional and societal powder-keg ripe for detonation by a far lesser spark than an exploding munitions ship.

Burden of Desire is a demanding read, as one would expect from a writer of MacNeil’s intellectual calibre. One would not want to spend forever in this atmosphere of unbridled Freudian sexual self-awareness, but it is a thoroughly satisfying read with a credible conclusion.

In fiction, my fifth star is normally reserved for the kind of prose that sinks deep into the mind for the sheer beauty and majesty of the language. MacNeil is a supremely competent writer, but the language of Burden of Desire stops just short of this kind of inspired linguistic craftsmanship.

[Gail Amendt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was expecting this to be a book about the Halifax Explosion of 1917, in which a ship loaded with munitions collided with another ship and exploded, destroying much of the city of Halifax and killing and injuring thousands. To some extent that is what this book is about, but the explosion and its aftermath is more of the background against which a rather racy romance is set. I suppose the title should have tipped me off. This book is filled with a great deal of desire and sexual tension, and examines the sexual attitudes of the day, as Victorian values clashed with the new ideas of Sigmund Freud in a world being forever changed by a brutal war. This is no poorly written Harlequin romance. The characters are delightful, complex and well developed. The plot is very compelling, and the background story of the explosion is well researched and very interesting. The author impressed me with his ability to write about sex and desire from both a male and female perspective. This was not the book I was expecting, but I loved it and will be adding the sequel to my ever growing to-read list.

[Emily Dawn]

DNF. You know those parodies of how men write women? That is how this felt to me. The Explosion just seems like the absolute weirdest backdrop for all this stuff about Freudian and Victorian desire. The older I get the less I want to read men writing women, and this book is a concrete example of why.

[Sandy · Rating 1 out of 5]

There is something to be said for a great historical fiction novel. The author—a journalist of some repute according to the internet—lays out a meticulously researched and detailed setting for his novel. The story of the Halifax explosion is little known (at least in Australia!) and reading through the book's early pages, I was excited at the prospect of the journey I was being taken upon. My curiosity was piqued. But small red flags started to pop up. There was an incongruity between the tone of the narrative and this creeping element of lewdness that just struck me as odd from its first appearance. It was completely out of place for me.

Now, please don't take me for a prude. I am a fan of all genres of fiction including erotica, and Angela Carter's 'The Bloody Chamber'—as an example—is particularly raunchy and confronting in its graphic details and depictions, but the writing is lyrical and utterly delicious!

I absolutely cannot say the same for MacNeil's novel. He ruined a perfectly good historical fiction by lacing it with tasteless smut. It ruined the believability and relatability of the characters in the love triangle and utterly robbed me of any reading pleasure. No. Just, no.

For example:
Mrs Gagnon said, "Sometimes I get such a big longing for it. I'll pour some beer on it myself.
There you are pussy! Have a little drink." She was talking in a singsong like a child to a kitten: “Nice pussy! Pussy, have a drink of beer!”
Stewart opened his eyes and was astonished to see her with her legs apart, her skirts up, holding her underwear open and trickling beer between her legs. Anne-Lise was doubled up with giggles.
"Pussy, pussy have some beer," crooned Mrs. Gagnon.

It lends no credibility to any character, these seemingly random and out-of-place interjections of trashy over-sexed sentiments and scenes. Perhaps the book's title really says it all. But due to the mismatch of expectations and what is delivered, I can only afford to give this book 1.5 stars. A Mills and Boon style novel would score higher since it doesn't misrepresent itself for being anything other than what it is. Burden of Desire is tainted by the author's repressed sexual desires while masquerading as historical fiction.

[BookSweetie · Rating 3 out of 5]

***Special TIP To Enrich The Reading of BURDEN OF DESIRE

Check out the CBC DIGITAL ARCHIVES online for related interviews and visuals connected to the actual historic Halifax ship explosion that occurs early in the fictional BURDEN OF DESIRE. Among the Halifax survivors who tell their stories,

I wish to alert readers to search for an extraordinary interview of the MUNITIONS SHIP CAPTAIN. He describes his own personal memories beginning the day before he received the okay to enter Halifax harbor on through his survival experience which involved abandoning the doomed ship, landing on shore, turning to head inland and then being blown over ( his coat being sliced off him by the blast) followed by a tree toppling on him.

BURDEN OF DESIRE by (former MacNeil-Lehrer PBS journalist) Robert MacNeil

Setting:Halifax, Nova Scotia during World War I -- 1917

Main Characters: Julia Montgomery Robertson (diary writer/married to WW1 officer Charles who has been absent 2 years); Stewart MacPherson (professional studying shell-shocked soldiers), James Wentworth (tormented handsome Anglican clergyman who is married to Margery, who suffers post-partum extreme depression/disturbance )

The heart of BURDEN OF DESIRE by Robert MacNeil is the response to a devastating historic munitions ship explosion in Halifax's narrow harbor that killed and injured thousands both on and offshore during December 1917.

I will long remember this historic Canadian tragedy because of reading this historic novel for a book group. However, because the characters were so tortured by desire, I cannot admit to enjoying much of the read. I couldn't tell if I was meant to laugh or groan or squirm or cheer or something else.

Many issues were interwoven in the pages of the story: Canadian society in World War I; mental health; sexual repression in post-Victorian times; class conflict; religious belief; peace and war; trust in relationships; response to a tragic explosion; heroes.

The ending disappointed me in its particulars.

[Terri · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't, for the life of me, remember where I saw this novel recommended, but am glad i happened upon it. Were there a 3.5 rating, i would assign that.

There is a LOT to unpack in this novel. Although I was aware of the great Hallifax explosion. there is a great deal I didn't know as to the lives lost, the damage that occurred to survivors, and its great repercussions.

in this novel, the explosion is the backdrop to the central plot centering on an Anglican minister and a nascient psychotherapist when they find a young woman's diary in the rubble and the resultant chaos the find brings to their lives.

But wait ... there is more! Did I mention Freud theory, Anglican church angst, WW II attitudes in Canada, the impact of the British class system in Hallifax, the importance of healthy attitudes towards sex to both men and women, one's viewpoint on religion, and the result of overprotective parenting? i said there was a LOT!

I had 3 definite disappointments in this novel. i found the minister, Peter, to be incredibly annoying in almost every way possible. I found Julia's diary entries far more reflective of what a man might imagine she'd write than what a woman would actually write. Finally, why did the editor let the title of thus novel go to press? it sounds like a Harlequin Romance bodice wripper.

Don't approach this novel lightly ... but do approach it!

[Jean St.Amand · Rating 4 out of 5]

The factual part of this book was very interesting; I didn't know anything about the 1917 explosion that destroyed a large part of Halifax. The fiction part of the book was great, really we written. There were a lot of characters but they were all so real and believable that I had no trouble keeping everyone straight in my head. Nobody said or did anything that made me think "No, that wouldn't have happened"....I expect that I will read this book again.
The first part of the book is basically an introduction to the three main characters and I actually found it hard to get interested in the story and almost gave up on it, but I decided to skip ahead to the actual explosion and see if that grabbed my attention. Once I did that, I went back to the beginning and read everything again, because then it made sense that the author was taking a fair amount of time to introduce Julia, Stewart and Peter.

[Arlene Richards · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the historical content but the love story got quite tedious.

[Doris · Rating 3 out of 5]

The cover says it's a romance. If you're thinking it's traditional, you will be woefully disappointed.
I am conflicted with this story. It should get 5 stars for the superb and unique setting in Halifax during the worst man-made, war-time (1917) disaster (munitions ship explosion). It made for a most intriguing backdrop (as historical fiction, it's excellent). It gave the author opportunities to explore much about medicine and shell-shock and the handling of the psyches of both men and women. It was also an exploration of love, loss, desire and who should and shouldn't be able to express such feelings (very Victorian). I loved how the story built around the three main characters, however, after weaving such intricacies and building to a much "desired" climactic moment, the conclusion (which was anything but) felt very abrupt and unsatisfying. So No Stars for that. Want to know how it ended? SO DO I!! I'm not sure I get it, and having invested in the lengthy read, I feel rather cheated. Like another explosion, but this time all the characters were gone.

[Holly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting setting but ponderous story that doesn’t know where to settle. Meanders through four long chapterless sections with very little arc, taking a long time to get to the epiphanies of the last few pages. Ship full of munitions explodes in Halifax Harbor in 1917, blinding and killing thousands and leveling a poor waterfront neighborhood, truth. The disaster serves to introduce us to a sexually repressed Anglican priest in a flat marriage with an unbalanced wife who finds a racy diary in a donated coat and shares it with a Freudian friend, starting a disconnected “love” triangle. There were interesting glimpses of the response to the massive explosion and the religious and social affairs in Halifax at the peak of WW1, but it lost its balance as soon it introduced the every-man’s-dream diary. Would have been fascinating on the historical fiction side if it stuck to the stories of victims, both of wartime shellshock and the explosion, and the medical and psychological stories, rather than the contrived and gratuitous romance.

[Lewis Kirshner · Rating 5 out of 5]

MacNeil has written a compelling historical drama of a well-drawn cast of characters and society in Halifax Nova Scotia during WWI. He recreates the scene of a devastating explosion of a munitions ship
in the harbor that destroyed much of the small city and killed thousands. Central to the drama are three principal characters: Julia, the new wife of a soldier in France; Peter, an Anglican minister married to Margery; and his childhood friend, Stewart, a young psychologist. Their lives are entwined
around Julia's missing diary, fallen from a coat donated after the accident. As events unfold, we see these young people coming of age, facing truths about themselves and the world around them. The wartime climate, the stifling nature of Anglo-Canadian society, the prejudices and pieties of the period are powerfully rendered. This is a deeply felt and evocative book that leaves a satisfying sense of discovery and healing.

[Lynette · Rating 1 out of 5]

OMG. I had to check twice to see if this was written in the 1950s! Totally written by a man thinking with his little head!
I read the passages out loud to my women friends and we ugly laughed in disbelief at the stereotypical women - about the priest getting aroused by his wife’s helplessness (and basically raping her), and the bit about the psych prof coercing his student but convincing himself she wanted it, and on and on!
We laughed that knowing laugh - the one you laugh when you’re going to use the book as kindling at your next Wiccan party night.

[Kelly Greenwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who knew a newsman would include romance and a lost diary containing sexual and erotic messages as the object to link the main characters of this story of the Halifax Explosion and its aftermath. Boyhood friends Peter Woodworth, now an Anglican Priest, and Stewart MacPherson, a psychologist, read Julia Robertson's lost diary and later meet and get to know her. Not a theme I would have picked, but I did enjoy the apparently historically accurate setting and references.

[Rosemary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to a particular interest in the Halifax Explosion as well as sadness this year over the death of MacNeil, the reading of his novel seemed a good fit. It came as a surprise that the characters, the places, and the events were created with such compelling vividness. MacNeil’s weaving of history, romance, and the sexual tensions amongst the characters propelled me to the finish. This book is a masterfully woven tapestry of 1917 in Halifax.

[Dicey100 · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story set in Halifax at the time of the Halifax explosion in 1917, I thought the author created an excellent story with the mindsets that people would have had at that time both socially and religiously. As I'm familiar with Halifax, it felt like going down memory lane when various walking routes were described. I enjoyed the story very much as well.

[Luci · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a good but not great book. I was interested in the characters, but not invested in them. I particularly liked the parts about the Halifax explosion, and the aftermath, and the details about the war.

[Nancy Noble · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had a good premise, setting, time period, and characters - but it was too long and wordy and I felt myself skimming through much of it, which I don't tend to do in a novel.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.7 stars

[Jane Carlson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. I felt it needed to decide what it wanted to be: historical fiction on the explosion, a love story or stories of 3 people.

[Abigail Rop · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fictional story to give a picture of how traumatic the explosion in Halifax was for residents.

[Lynda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great depiction of life in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1917. This story taught me much about the Halifax explosion.

[Jodel Crecelius]

Slow in parts but fascinating history.

[Shelley Stacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent read takes place during the Halifax Explosion - an incident which needs to be better taught. Highly recommend.

[Dean · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting exploration of life, thought, and emotion.

[Marion Fuller · Rating 1 out of 5]

Much too involved with sex. I could not finish it.