Customer Reviews

The Beothuk Saga

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I am interested in the history of the Maritimes and of the native people there, so I was delighted to find this book at my local library. Not surprisingly, given my interests, I like the parts describing the daily life and customs of the people and the cultural clashes with Europeans and Inuit. The inclusion of a map was very helpful.

The novel retains some structure for the first section (set in about 1,000 AD) as it follows a single character. Thereafter it falls apart, going from one incident to the next. This is unfortunate, since one of the values of a historical novel is to carry us through events so they become real. The narrative here fails to to that.

The style is remarkably flat- I am not sure whether this was a deliberate echo of the style of the native language, a failure of translation, or just poor writing. The dialog is stilted and the characters are stereotyped.

As others have noted, the sex scenes are intrusive, blunt, and weirdly clinical. Not only do we have an initial description of the character's first encounter (with a graphic description of oral sex as a chaser), there are later discussions of choice of positions and of lesbian sex. The latter is not even introduced as a cultural norm in the Beothuk (which would give it some relevance to the book) but as a novelty. Who thought that including this was a good idea? The author? An editor who requires graphic sex in every novel? The author then details what EVERY character thinks about who is coupling with whom and who should be and who each character would like to couple with (first choice, second choice...) It goes on for pages. This lends the book a really trashy tone.

One of the subplots involves a feminist movement for more equal representation in the governing of the clan. In a very 20th century manner, the sisterhood gathers in solidarity and petitions the men for power in the council. This seems bizarre. Does anyone even know whether this kind of change occurred at this time? Or is it some kind of politically correct revisionism?

A great disappointment.

The First Amendment allows freedom of the press, which I am totally in favor of. However, [I was unprepared for ]the ...graphic depiction of sexual encounters in the first part of the book.
Perhaps the author felt that readers would be bored by the tale, so he decided to interject numerous sex scenes into the book. For me, it ruined the tale.
This is definitely not a book which should be on the shelves of any school system.