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Sylvanus Now #2
What They Wanted
In her new novel, What They Wanted , awardwinning author Donna Morrissey explores both new and familiar the wild shores of a Newfoundland outport and the equally wild environment of an Alberta oil rig. After Sylvanus Now suffers a heart attack, family tensions come to the daughter Sylvie must deal with her feelings of estrangement from her mother, Addie, while her brother Chris, a natural artist, frustrates his dreams by going to work on an oil rig. A novel about uilt,responsibility, tragedy, and the enduring ties of family, this is vintage Donna Morrissey.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2006
5 people are currently reading
377 people want to read
About the author
Donna Morrissey
18 books272 followersDonna Morrissey has written six nationally bestselling novels. She has received awards in Canada, the U.S., and England. Her novel Sylvanus Now was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and she was nominated for a Gemini for best writing for the film Clothesline Patch. Her fiction has been translated into several different languages. Born and raised in Newfoundland, she now lives in Halifax.
She recently wrote a children’s book, Cross Katie Kross, illustrated by her daughter, Bridget. Morrissey grew up in The Beaches, a small fishing outport in Newfoundland & Labrador and now lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
July 14, 2011
Donna Morrissey is a wonderful writer, I would probably pick up anything she produces. It's been a while, but I think I enjoyed this story even more than Sylvanus Now, possibly because she draws heavily on her own experiences. This one is more immediate as adult memories tend to be, compared to childhood ones. Her strengths are mood and drawing the reader into the story.
December 7, 2012
True to Morrisey this is a book to make you think about relationships and the world we live in. Set in Newfoundland and the rigs of Northern Alberta she vividly describes the sights and sounds of what might appear to be two different settings but in reality are very similar.
January 25, 2018
I found this book to be a bit slow to start, but am so glad I finished. Donna Morrissey's ability to bring characters to life and capture raw emotion is next to none. I truly fell in love with these characters. So real, so captivating.
March 8, 2019
Based on this book (and The Fortunate Brother, which I read about a year ago) Donna Morrisey has officially been added to my list of top 5 favourite authors.
October 9, 2012
I was partway through Chapter 1 before I realized this book was a sequel to her award-winning novel Sylvanus Now.
I kept reading, even though I haven't yet read the first book, and found the storyline well-formed and easy to follow. What struck me was the change in writing style from Kit's Law, Morrissey's first and highly-acclaimed novel. Kit's Law was rich in imagery and memorable, layered characters that annoyed in their faults and engaged in their strengths. What They Wanted reads much like a script, revealing the story through constant dialogue that could take place in anyone's kitchen, backyard, or hospital room as families struggle with the mortality of a loved one. While the characters and story pace didn't excite me, a single quote at the end of the prologue now ranks among my favourites. The scene is Sylvie as a young girl watching her parents argue about the new location of their home:
"They looked away from each other then, but I looked to them both, a knowing stirring deep within me that the morsels for my well-being were stowed within my mother's larder, and the key to its lock was in my father's hand."
Such complexity woven into a simple image is a joy to read, and an inspiration to keep writing. This for me made the book worth reading.
I kept reading, even though I haven't yet read the first book, and found the storyline well-formed and easy to follow. What struck me was the change in writing style from Kit's Law, Morrissey's first and highly-acclaimed novel. Kit's Law was rich in imagery and memorable, layered characters that annoyed in their faults and engaged in their strengths. What They Wanted reads much like a script, revealing the story through constant dialogue that could take place in anyone's kitchen, backyard, or hospital room as families struggle with the mortality of a loved one. While the characters and story pace didn't excite me, a single quote at the end of the prologue now ranks among my favourites. The scene is Sylvie as a young girl watching her parents argue about the new location of their home:
"They looked away from each other then, but I looked to them both, a knowing stirring deep within me that the morsels for my well-being were stowed within my mother's larder, and the key to its lock was in my father's hand."
Such complexity woven into a simple image is a joy to read, and an inspiration to keep writing. This for me made the book worth reading.
November 15, 2013
A rich story of heartbreak, loss and hope, of displacement and connection. The agony of the failure of the fishery and the forced abandonment of the outports of Newfoundland appears throughout the story. Migration of Newfoundland workers to Alberta oilfields does not seem the salvation it promised.
January 14, 2021
I liked the way the author combined the two stories together; the older Sylvie and Addie with the story of their children. I wasn’t very interested in the oil rigs but the characters had a lot to say through words and feelings. It was very emotional and I realized that the author was telling her story through the voices of Sylvie and Chris.
August 16, 2023
What the characters wanted was not what they got. Loyalty and family responsibilities get in the way of dreams. Newfoundlanders are tied to the rock even as they toil in the oil fields of Alberta. Home can be a bleak, unforgiving place, but it's still home.
January 31, 2021
I looked forward to this read. It's truly Canadian in every sense. While Morrissey has a wonderful way of winding words into poetry, I found the storyline to be without any real interest to me. From the day-to-day lives on the Rock to what appears to be an incredibly harsh existence on Alberta's drilling rigs, the first 275 pages was much akin to a chore that needed doing before reaching the sweet spot. It was not until the last 50 pages that I became spellbound. Not until the last 50 pages was I captured by the natural flow and structure of Morrisey's writing. While those last 50 pages made the read somewhat worthy, it really shouldn't be this hard.
February 26, 2009
Excellent read,I could not put it down. I have learned that you cannot assume you know what a family member wants out of life just because you grew up together.This book would be a great read for anyone who has moved to Alberta in search of economic security.
May 30, 2020
3.5 stars. I love Donna Morrissey's writing but did not enjoy this as much as Sylvanus Now. I found the characters less sympathetic. Too many troubled characters. I would have preferred more focus on 1 or 2 characters.
March 5, 2013
This is the only one of Morrissey's books I didn't enjoy. The story was stagnant and redundant.
June 13, 2018
This is the second book in the Sylvanus Now trilogy.
Morrissey takes her readers back to the rocky shores of Newfoundland after Sylvanus has cut his home in half, sailed it forty miles down the bay to Ragged Rock and planted it on the wharf, vowing always to be next to the sea. The fish are gone and the family has relocated as Morrissey continues the story now centered on a new generation in the family.
The narrator is Sylvie, the first child that lived after the death of the three babies Addie and Sylvanus left behind in the little cemetery back in Cooney Arm. Sylvie was raised for most of her early life by her grandmother as her mother sunk into a deep depression. The birth of her brothers Chris and Kyle raised Addie’s spirits and Sylvie moved back home to join her own family although she always remained firmly attached to her grandmother. Like her mother, Sylvie felt stifled by the isolated life in the outport and left home as soon as she could, longing for experience in a much wider world. When she finished university in Halifax she moved out west to Grande Prairie Alberta where she works as a waitress near the oil rigs. The money is good and she tries to send some home when she can although both Addie and Sylvanus refuse to take it. She was called home when Sylvanus had a heart attack and he is now recovering in a hospital in Corner Brook.
Sylvie has always been estranged from her mother and this visit brings back the old resentments that have plagued their relationship for years. Her brother Chris is a talented artist and not one for the fishing and logging life of his father. Sylvie has been urging him to go to art school and develop his talent rather than stay home doodling at the kitchen table. Chris decides to leave, but not to go to school. Instead he intends to join his friend Ben out west and work in the oil fields in Alberta. Sylvie is upset at his decision, knowing that kind of work is both dirty and dangerous. But Chris is feeling guilty after losing his father’s prized boat and needs the money to replace it. He also knows that after his heart attack his father will not be able to resume the heavy work logging that supports his family. So Chris defies both his mother and Sylvie to join Ben and his friend Trapp who are already out west earning good wages. Sylvie’s mother is furious with her for encouraging Chris to leave home and enticing her favourite child away from her.
Morrissey moves her story back and forth between the small community in Newfoundland and the wild oil fields in Alberta as a terrible tragedy brings an unexpected reconciliation between Sylvie and Addie. But it comes at a terrible price.
Sylvie has a compelling voice. She carries many childhood memories and wounds in her heart including a longing for Ben who protects her like a sister and offers her nothing more than friendship. She cares for and loves her mother deeply but they are so alike they are always bickering and at odds with one another. Sylvie has never felt first in her mother’s thoughts and when Chris follows Sylvie out to Alberta, Addie blames her daughter and the rift between them deepens.
Morrissey describes the close connection between Ben and Trapp, bound together by a childhood trauma that deeply affected them. They went off to school together and both were good students, studying for their engineering degrees. But five credits short of graduation they both abandoned school and disappeared. The two share an unlikely but very deep bond that Sylvie finds hard to understand.
Like the first book in the trilogy, this novel is focused on character rather than plot, a story of individuals and families shaped by the changes forced on them by the world around them. It explores the complex relationships between a mother and daughter, a brother and sister, a father and son and two boys tied together in an enduring but unlikely friendship.
Once again Morrissey demonstrates her expert ability to describe two very different but dangerous environments where strong men risk their lives to make a living. In Sylvanus Now, she showed readers how the sea can quickly and easily take even the most experienced fisherman and as she moves the narrative to the boom towns in Alberta, she proves equally able to describe the wild, filthy, and noisy oil fields. It is a dangerous environment that attracts strong men who risk their lives to make quick money. Her detailed scenes of a land of sucking mud, screaming drills and dangerous machinery, easily transports readers to the stench of gas and the noisy inferno created by pumps, pipes and pistons. It is a chaotic and different environment filled with the kind of people that type of work attracts.
The final sections of this book are some of the best I have read on the individual experience of desolation and absolute grief. It concludes the second novel in the trilogy which matches the first in the quality of the prose, the depth of the characters and the ongoing themes it explores.
Morrissey takes her readers back to the rocky shores of Newfoundland after Sylvanus has cut his home in half, sailed it forty miles down the bay to Ragged Rock and planted it on the wharf, vowing always to be next to the sea. The fish are gone and the family has relocated as Morrissey continues the story now centered on a new generation in the family.
The narrator is Sylvie, the first child that lived after the death of the three babies Addie and Sylvanus left behind in the little cemetery back in Cooney Arm. Sylvie was raised for most of her early life by her grandmother as her mother sunk into a deep depression. The birth of her brothers Chris and Kyle raised Addie’s spirits and Sylvie moved back home to join her own family although she always remained firmly attached to her grandmother. Like her mother, Sylvie felt stifled by the isolated life in the outport and left home as soon as she could, longing for experience in a much wider world. When she finished university in Halifax she moved out west to Grande Prairie Alberta where she works as a waitress near the oil rigs. The money is good and she tries to send some home when she can although both Addie and Sylvanus refuse to take it. She was called home when Sylvanus had a heart attack and he is now recovering in a hospital in Corner Brook.
Sylvie has always been estranged from her mother and this visit brings back the old resentments that have plagued their relationship for years. Her brother Chris is a talented artist and not one for the fishing and logging life of his father. Sylvie has been urging him to go to art school and develop his talent rather than stay home doodling at the kitchen table. Chris decides to leave, but not to go to school. Instead he intends to join his friend Ben out west and work in the oil fields in Alberta. Sylvie is upset at his decision, knowing that kind of work is both dirty and dangerous. But Chris is feeling guilty after losing his father’s prized boat and needs the money to replace it. He also knows that after his heart attack his father will not be able to resume the heavy work logging that supports his family. So Chris defies both his mother and Sylvie to join Ben and his friend Trapp who are already out west earning good wages. Sylvie’s mother is furious with her for encouraging Chris to leave home and enticing her favourite child away from her.
Morrissey moves her story back and forth between the small community in Newfoundland and the wild oil fields in Alberta as a terrible tragedy brings an unexpected reconciliation between Sylvie and Addie. But it comes at a terrible price.
Sylvie has a compelling voice. She carries many childhood memories and wounds in her heart including a longing for Ben who protects her like a sister and offers her nothing more than friendship. She cares for and loves her mother deeply but they are so alike they are always bickering and at odds with one another. Sylvie has never felt first in her mother’s thoughts and when Chris follows Sylvie out to Alberta, Addie blames her daughter and the rift between them deepens.
Morrissey describes the close connection between Ben and Trapp, bound together by a childhood trauma that deeply affected them. They went off to school together and both were good students, studying for their engineering degrees. But five credits short of graduation they both abandoned school and disappeared. The two share an unlikely but very deep bond that Sylvie finds hard to understand.
Like the first book in the trilogy, this novel is focused on character rather than plot, a story of individuals and families shaped by the changes forced on them by the world around them. It explores the complex relationships between a mother and daughter, a brother and sister, a father and son and two boys tied together in an enduring but unlikely friendship.
Once again Morrissey demonstrates her expert ability to describe two very different but dangerous environments where strong men risk their lives to make a living. In Sylvanus Now, she showed readers how the sea can quickly and easily take even the most experienced fisherman and as she moves the narrative to the boom towns in Alberta, she proves equally able to describe the wild, filthy, and noisy oil fields. It is a dangerous environment that attracts strong men who risk their lives to make quick money. Her detailed scenes of a land of sucking mud, screaming drills and dangerous machinery, easily transports readers to the stench of gas and the noisy inferno created by pumps, pipes and pistons. It is a chaotic and different environment filled with the kind of people that type of work attracts.
The final sections of this book are some of the best I have read on the individual experience of desolation and absolute grief. It concludes the second novel in the trilogy which matches the first in the quality of the prose, the depth of the characters and the ongoing themes it explores.
July 6, 2024
Intrigued to find a sequel to Sylvanus Now about the lives of a fishing community in Newfoundland as the cod fishery collapsed, I snapped up What They Wanted. The story has several surprising turns: Newfoundland shore community aging in a dwindling economy, Alberta needing men on the oil rigs, relationships among the family members, lifetimes of grief and survival.
Sylvie, the eldest daughter of Sylvannus and Addie, is called home because her father had a bad stroke. The family of Gran, who was still the heart of the family, Chris and Kyle, the younger brothers, and Addie, are rocked by this shock. Sylvie, aka Dolly, isn't the most stable of young women, beset with feelings of being rejected by her mother, her protectiveness of a brother, and her rebelliousness, her memories of childhood and her student infatuation with Ben Rice. It's a hard time for her.
From this tight Hampden community, she and Chris leave for the oil fields of Calgary. Sylvie works in a bar serving guys from the oil rigs who leave large tips, so much for a Philosophy degree from Memorial University. To Chris's shock, she is living in a tent in a "hippie camp." The idea was that Chris could get a job in construction - not the oil rigs. "Four thousand, four hundred accidents in one year - out of a crew of seventy-five hundred." as she exclaimed to Ben when he proposed it (p. 156)
Where else might one read about the lives of Newfoundlanders who go west as migrants sending remittances home? I wouldn't expect to find this book on a recommended reading list from Tourism Alberta and not in the premier's library.
"The treeline was black as smut against a brightening sky, the rig a ghoulish yellow. I quickly shut the door behind Chris, reducing the screamy jimmies to a distant whine/"(p. 191) - to excerpt one of many grim descriptions of the conditions on the site.
Morrissey set the tone with an opening quote from David Weale - "Like cats, we carry within us knowledge of the way home."
Sylvie, the eldest daughter of Sylvannus and Addie, is called home because her father had a bad stroke. The family of Gran, who was still the heart of the family, Chris and Kyle, the younger brothers, and Addie, are rocked by this shock. Sylvie, aka Dolly, isn't the most stable of young women, beset with feelings of being rejected by her mother, her protectiveness of a brother, and her rebelliousness, her memories of childhood and her student infatuation with Ben Rice. It's a hard time for her.
From this tight Hampden community, she and Chris leave for the oil fields of Calgary. Sylvie works in a bar serving guys from the oil rigs who leave large tips, so much for a Philosophy degree from Memorial University. To Chris's shock, she is living in a tent in a "hippie camp." The idea was that Chris could get a job in construction - not the oil rigs. "Four thousand, four hundred accidents in one year - out of a crew of seventy-five hundred." as she exclaimed to Ben when he proposed it (p. 156)
Where else might one read about the lives of Newfoundlanders who go west as migrants sending remittances home? I wouldn't expect to find this book on a recommended reading list from Tourism Alberta and not in the premier's library.
"The treeline was black as smut against a brightening sky, the rig a ghoulish yellow. I quickly shut the door behind Chris, reducing the screamy jimmies to a distant whine/"(p. 191) - to excerpt one of many grim descriptions of the conditions on the site.
Morrissey set the tone with an opening quote from David Weale - "Like cats, we carry within us knowledge of the way home."
September 2, 2025
“What They Wanted” highlights siblings Sylvie and Chris, and their relationship shifting the focus to Sylvanus and Addie’s children. It’s a book that will captivate the reader. The storyline is weaved between the lines of guilt, tragedy and responsibility, all in the quest for big and easy money in the oilfields of Alberta, a new terrain that will test familial strength and the ties that bind or will those ties become severed? Sylvanus’ severe heart attack acts as a catalyst, intensifying existing family tensions and exposing unresolved issues and every family has them. You can run but you can’t hide, those issues will chase you no matter where you go.
It’s a deeply emotional story where tensions run high in a family that is divided and the complexities run rampant. The prose is electrifying, with Sylvie narrating the story and the descriptive style of writing is enthralling. Sylvie yearns for a larger world, to escape the remoteness and seeks to help her brother, Chris, escape the confines of their Newfoundland home and pursue his dreams. The sibling relationship in this particular book is a central, compelling focus of the novel, with each sibling making the other more complete in an unforgiving environment.
While the novel explores themes of the enduring nature of family ties, it also illustrates how these bonds can be strained and damaged under pressure, leading to rifts and individual journeys away from the family unit. Loss is tragic, but renewal and reconciliation is possible in hardship and difficult circumstances. The deep and enduring bonds that connect the family members is effectively defined in this book. It was an awesome read.
It’s a deeply emotional story where tensions run high in a family that is divided and the complexities run rampant. The prose is electrifying, with Sylvie narrating the story and the descriptive style of writing is enthralling. Sylvie yearns for a larger world, to escape the remoteness and seeks to help her brother, Chris, escape the confines of their Newfoundland home and pursue his dreams. The sibling relationship in this particular book is a central, compelling focus of the novel, with each sibling making the other more complete in an unforgiving environment.
While the novel explores themes of the enduring nature of family ties, it also illustrates how these bonds can be strained and damaged under pressure, leading to rifts and individual journeys away from the family unit. Loss is tragic, but renewal and reconciliation is possible in hardship and difficult circumstances. The deep and enduring bonds that connect the family members is effectively defined in this book. It was an awesome read.
April 28, 2021
Not a favourite book....one I would call a 'constant struggle' novel....everyone seems to have so many problems and poor Chris is under fire with both his mother and his sister, Sylvie. Chris is an artist but doesn't know what he wants to do. His father is very ill in the hospital so he feels he must take over his father's jobs....but he is unskilled and awkward at them. His mother wants him to stay home and find enough work even though the fishing industry is no longer; his sister wants him to go to Alberta with her but the job Chris chose there....to work in the Alberta oil fields....is not her choice....so she joins him on the rig. I can't imagine a sister being that controlling over her brother....I would think Chris would be humiliated with his sister tagging along in his workplace.
I got tired of the constant struggle, arguments, nagging that went on between the brother and sister. I found the middle of the story dragged and I didn't enjoy all the friction and hate between the workers on the oil rig; one knew something drastic was going to happen...and it did. With all the drinking the workers did, it's no wonder there were so many accidents.
I got tired of the constant struggle, arguments, nagging that went on between the brother and sister. I found the middle of the story dragged and I didn't enjoy all the friction and hate between the workers on the oil rig; one knew something drastic was going to happen...and it did. With all the drinking the workers did, it's no wonder there were so many accidents.
September 17, 2023
In this 2nd volume of the"Sylvanus Now"trilogy, after the ruin of the inshore & then outshore fisheries, & the devolution of the Newfoundland outports, former fishermen move to Northern Alberta to seek work in the oilpatch, working the rigs-a dangerous & life-threatening employment.
Chris, with the help of Ben who had previously relocated there, along with his sister Sylvie(working as cook assistant) end up on a small oilrig. The author describes the constant danger, the mud, the depressing living conditions, & the friction & tensions among the crew members. Chris whose choice it was to refuse listening to others' advice(mother & sister who wanted him to go to university or art school)) & follow his own tune will be killed by a blowout on the oilrig. Back home Sylvanus is hospitalized with a serious heart attack, which he will survive, but which will make him unable to fish or log, though he will get a laid back job tracking salmon stocks, while his wife & mother keep the household together, to which Sylvie will return, pining for Ben who is away on a voyage of self-discovery.
Chris, with the help of Ben who had previously relocated there, along with his sister Sylvie(working as cook assistant) end up on a small oilrig. The author describes the constant danger, the mud, the depressing living conditions, & the friction & tensions among the crew members. Chris whose choice it was to refuse listening to others' advice(mother & sister who wanted him to go to university or art school)) & follow his own tune will be killed by a blowout on the oilrig. Back home Sylvanus is hospitalized with a serious heart attack, which he will survive, but which will make him unable to fish or log, though he will get a laid back job tracking salmon stocks, while his wife & mother keep the household together, to which Sylvie will return, pining for Ben who is away on a voyage of self-discovery.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 22, 2021
Family...the complexities of a family who are close and loving but also of course misunderstood to each other a lot of the time. Plenty of agonizing but only because they care. Still sometimes it all seems a bit ordinary (except for the "exotic" setting and accents of Newfoundland where I have never been.) I kept reading because I wanted to see what it would be like in the equally "exotic" oilfields of Alberta (in general as well as for these specific characters.) When we got to Alberta the grimness and sense of impending tragedy---OK I knew that from the dust jacket description but still---were a bit of a downer but also an impetus to keep reading to find out what exactly was going to happen.
I found the story to be fairly realistic as opposed to sensationalistic or slick the way that so much of today's writing can be. And Donna Morrissey does grief good!
I found the story to be fairly realistic as opposed to sensationalistic or slick the way that so much of today's writing can be. And Donna Morrissey does grief good!
May 3, 2025
Her style of writing is quite something.
After reading for a while, I googled accents of my father and his family and realized that Newfoundland was settled partlye by people from where they are from. Which makes sense.
I found reading the book very comforting - like hearing from old family members. Very lyrical almost.
The way she writes is lovely. I just kept floating through the pages, and I don't often get into reading. Couldn't put the book down.
Some parts, like the details of the oil rigs .. I just let my eyes drift over - but the relationships - wow.
Captivating.
And made me think of my own.
A wonderful book. Got me all teary eyed.
Recommend highly.
Turns out, she is a friend of someone I greatly admire. Which makes sense. Fellow Newfoundlander and loveliest of people. Also has a way of putting words.
Will be reading more from Donna Morrissey.
After reading for a while, I googled accents of my father and his family and realized that Newfoundland was settled partlye by people from where they are from. Which makes sense.
I found reading the book very comforting - like hearing from old family members. Very lyrical almost.
The way she writes is lovely. I just kept floating through the pages, and I don't often get into reading. Couldn't put the book down.
Some parts, like the details of the oil rigs .. I just let my eyes drift over - but the relationships - wow.
Captivating.
And made me think of my own.
A wonderful book. Got me all teary eyed.
Recommend highly.
Turns out, she is a friend of someone I greatly admire. Which makes sense. Fellow Newfoundlander and loveliest of people. Also has a way of putting words.
Will be reading more from Donna Morrissey.
January 13, 2021
I would say a 4.4 for this book. Donna M is such a great author. I love how this book starts in Newfoundland, and then moves to Alberta. I am from Alberta and it wasn't till that section of the book that I got such a good sense of her ability to recreate the intimacy of a location. I felt like I was back home. I've never been to Newfoundland but I enjoyed the story there, but I know now if someone was from there her writing would have drawn them back and recreated the sense of the landscape, the people and their feelings attached to being there. Her writing is more than describing, it is drawing every aspect together - physical, emotional, the land, the people, the circumstance. She is a master.
July 25, 2021
This book was a 3 at the beginning a 1 in the middle and a 5 the last 30 pages. I loved Sylvanus Now, (this book follows...) but this just wasn't quite as good. The part about alberta and the oil rigs was for the most part, boring....which is interesting as it takes place in Grande prairie (where I live)....so you'd think that would add extra interest.....but all the descriptions of oil rigs and their machinations, while they might build up setting and atmosphere....are just really boring. The last 30 pages are amazing with a look into profound grief, and what we bring into that....that part was amazing writing and insight. So I rounded everything off to a 3*
August 26, 2024
This is the second book in the trilogy after Sylvanus Now, and it pulled me in and grabbed me and didn't let me go until the epilogue. The first book I appreciated as much for the historical background of the collapse of the cod fishery in Newfoundland, and this one was an emotional tour de force about inner family dynamics and longings of the heart. It also followed some family members out to the tar sands of Alberta. Donna Morrissey's writing does not disappoint!
August 15, 2017
This is intensely grim...so much so that, combined with the Newfoundland dialect that permeates the text, it makes for hard going in the first half. The relocation to Alberta knocks the novel into a different level, where it begins to sing like a roughneck opera...one that ends with tragedy worthy of Shakespeare. Exhausting reading, but it leaves behind a very deep impression.
June 5, 2018
Not my favourite book of hers. I still think that Kits Law was the best. I did enjoy reading this one however at times I got very frustrated with the character Sylvie....as I felt she just whined and constantly complained about everything and I felt she was especially annoying when constantly nagging at her brother Chris
March 22, 2022
If part of growing up is figuring out what you want, there are times you can’t do that until you’ve lost the possibility of having at least some of it. And sometimes, not even then can you know exactly what wanted.
But there is hope. You can always start to figure out what next you want. That maybe very different, both in specifics and the in the way you approach your life.
But there is hope. You can always start to figure out what next you want. That maybe very different, both in specifics and the in the way you approach your life.
November 6, 2025
A great surprise and delight to read this book by Morrissey. I love books set in Canada. This started on the east coast and moved to Alberta. A daughter returns home when her father falls ill. Relations between family members tense but love is obvious. Believable storyline, just the right amount of east coast lingo and likeable challanged family. First time in awhile a book brought me to tear.
August 19, 2017
Story of family and love and loss and discovering oneself. Powerfully "real" characters and authentic dialogue. Adult children seek to help support their Newfoundland family when the fishing is no longer profitable, dad has a hard attack and ends need to be met.
January 8, 2018
I didn't think Donna Morrissey could improve on Sylvanus Now, but this sequel is every bit as good. The perspective has changed to his daughter and there is one scene that made me sob so hard, that I could no longer read the words.
Powerful storytelling.
Powerful storytelling.
Read
May 3, 2021Another tricky one. I read this over a very personally difficult two months and as a result, I don't think I can give it a fair assessment.
That said, it has some lovely prose and some affecting musings on loss.
That said, it has some lovely prose and some affecting musings on loss.
June 8, 2022
Grew up in this era. Many workers from newfoundland on the rigs. Paid big bucks Always kinda glorified the people who had these rig jobs. Realize there is another side of that life and what they leave behind.
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