Galore

For its sheer extremes, both real and conjured, Newfoundland occupies a singular place in Canada’s history and literary imagination. While the typical Newfoundland narrative emphasizes the rugged terrain and pragmatic lifestyle of the land’s inhabitants – usually in a mode of straightforward naturalism – Michael Crummey’s third novel injects an element of magic realism to convey an otherworldly quality. The result is a work that surprises and reveals. With this new novel, the very title of which suggests Newfoundland’s wealth of stories, Crummey, a Newfoundland native now living in St. John’s, reaffirms his position as a leading voice in the literature of the Rock.

Galore vividly imagines Newfoundland’s early permanent settlements, established around the beginning of the 19th century when English and Irish immigrants, among others, set up cod fisheries. Scattered along the coastline, these tiny settlements endured in an unimaginably hostile environment and with scarce resources. Focusing on two stark coastal communities – Paradise Deep and the Gut – Galore depicts multiple generations of two families divided by wealth, status, politics, and religion, yet inextricably bound by duty, shame, clandestine love, revenge, and the challenge of survival in the New World. The English Protestant Sellers, headed by patriarch, magistrate, and tyrant King-me Sellers, reside in Paradise Deep, where they run a merchant operation and exercise significant economic and political power over the two communities.

Galore is an endearing romp. For the language alone — and there is so much more — I loved the book. May Newfoundland English never die.