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No Great Mischief (Hardcover)

by A Macleod (Author) "As I begin to tell this, it is the golden month of September in southwestern Ontario ..." (more)
5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 288 pages
  • Publisher: W. W. Norton & Co.; 1st American Ed edition (21 Jun 2000)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0393049701
  • ISBN-13: 978-0393049701
  • Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 16 x 2.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 3,189,194 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Product Description
In 1779 Calum MacDonald set sail in exile from the Highlands of Scotland with his wife and 12 children, landing in the New World at Cape Breton after a catastrophic crossing. Two hundred years later, another MacDonald tells the story of coming of age in that same Cape Breton landscape.
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As I begin to tell this, it is the golden month of September in southwestern Ontario. Read the first page
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinary., 3 Jul 2005
By Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)   
This review is from: No Great Mischief (Vintage International) (Paperback)
Alexander MacDonald, the narrator of this warm and ennobling family saga, comments to his brother that "Talking about history is not like living it...Some people have more choice than others." And there, in a nutshell, is the essence of this tender generational novel. The MacDonalds are, in many ways, an "ordinary" family on Cape Breton, but MacLeod creates a history for them so alive that the reader experiences it, too, feeling their sorrow and joy, admiring their pluck and independence, and celebrating their loyalty and bravery as they make the hard choices their lives require. They become heroes to us not because they have performed unusual feats but because they have achieved nobility within the collective memory of their own family.

Alexander MacDonald, the speaker, no longer lives on Cape Breton. An orthodontist, he travels weekly to Toronto to visit his alcoholic brother Calum, named for the family patriarch who came to the island in 1779 from Scotland. As he travels back and forth and reminisces, sometimes in Gaelic, with his much less fortunate brother, many generations of MacDonalds come to life, and we see how these forbears have shaped the two brothers and influenced their different, but shared, destinies.

MacLeod is very lyrical. Like a musician, he repeats certain themes. Gaelic phrases echo throughout, almost like a refrain. First names continue in different generations to remind the reader of historical resemblances and differences. And always, in every generation, he celebrates the dominance of the original Calum MacDonald and of Cape Breton in shaping their lives.

MacLeod never stoops to sentimentality, however. His main characters are all macho males living macho lives, and he includes no romantic love story to soften the harshness of life. Still, he has created one of the warmest, most loving, and enduring family stories anyone will ever find. The book pulses with heart, an unforgettable novel by a writer who is so precise in his structure and word choice that in his entire career he has produced only this one novel and fourteen short stories published in two extraordinary collections. Reading MacLeod is a great, rewarding pleasure for anyone interested in beautiful prose and careful execution. Mary Whipple

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written- an epic, 29 Feb 2004
I was hesitant to read this book, and only did so upon the recommendation of my sister. The reason for my hesitation was that it seems every book to have come out of Canada in the last ten years is a family saga, predominantly of Irish or Scottish ancestry, set in the Maritimes (examples include "The Shipping News" by E. Annie Proux, "Fall on Your Knees" by Anne Marie-MacDonald, "Mercy Among the Children" by David Adams Richards... I could go on) I thought "No Great Mischief" would be another such book.
I was, however, very pleasantly surprised. Not only was it original, it was lyrically written, in a style very similar to Hemmingway. MacLeod takes us through the history of the MacDonald family, from the battle at Bannockburn in the 14th century to 21st century Canada with emotion and realism. I would recommend it to anyone- especially those who think they have read too many family sagas!
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