Blackstrap Hawco [Import] [Paperback]

Kenneth J. Harvey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 3, 2009 | ISBN-10: 067931430X | ISBN-13: 978-0679314301

Fifteen years in the making, this book is the one Canada’s “heavyweight champ of brash and beautiful literature” was meant to write. An epic masterwork about Newfoundland’s working class, Blackstrap Hawco spans more than a century in gorgeous and widely varied prose, reminding us that even when writing about the degradation of identity and language, Harvey does it magnificently.

Named in a moment of anger, Blackstrap Hawco is heir to an island dominion picked over by its adoptive nation. From the arrivals of the indentured Irish to the Victorian drawing rooms of the English merchants, from the perilous seal hunt to the raucous iron ore mines, from a notorious disaster at sea to the relocation of outport communities, the family legend might be all his people have left to live for. But as Blackstrap Hawco – a novel that will consume you in its dazzling swirl of voices, legends and beautiful hearsay – testifies, a story this haunting, this powerful, might just be enough.


From the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Harvey’s searing narrative encapsulates the brutal, majestic history of Newfoundland by outlining the events and experiences that shaped the characteristically dismal history of the extended Hawco family. Stretching back and forth through time as Blackstrap details the often painful exploits and ordeals suffered by the Hawco clan during the twentieth century, the hapless narrator serves as both a pitiable victim of his hardscrabble working-class circumstances and as a noble symbol of endurance and tenacity. Starkly elegant, the author’s prose mirrors the desolate magnificence of the island itself. After years of being overshadowed by its culturally overpowering neighbor to the south, Canadian literature is finally coming into its own and savvy readers are sitting up and taking notice of writers like Harvey who mine uniquely Canadian experiences to tremendous effect. --Margaret Flanagan --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Review

“Mesmerizing scenes worthy of a national epic... Its meticulous construction and control contain a breadth of incident and characterization seen only in the most ambitious and imposing novels.”
—The Globe & Mail

“Kenneth J. Harvey, Atlantic gale, continues to astonish. And in Blackstrap Hawco, he has given Newfoundland, not to mention the world, something very great indeed.”
—National Post

“ A masterpiece... brutal, poignant, stunning, infuriating, heartbreaking and hopeful, hard to read and harder still to put aside.”
—The Chronicle Herald

“Blackstrap Hawco is an ambitious book, far-reaching, deliberately complex, blunt, ruthless and lyrical.”
—The Telegram

“Brilliant... a loving tribute to the uniqueness of Newfoundland.”
—Winnipeg Free Press

"There are moments that are literally awe-inspiring and writing so skilled it almost brought me to tears... more ambitious than any Canadian novel in recent memory."
—The Vancouver Sun

“Easily the best book of the year and an instant classic.”
— Ottawa Xpress

“By virtue of its sheer size and scope, it’s a deep source of impression, reflection and consideration.”
— The Globe & Mail


From the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 848 pages
• Publisher: Vintage Canada (March 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067931430X
• ISBN-13: 978-0679314301
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

More About the Author

International bestselling author Kenneth J. Harvey's books are published in Canada, the US, the UK, Russia, Germany, China, Japan, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark and France. He has won the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award, the Winterset Award, Italy's Libro Del Mare, and has been nominated for the Giller Prize, the Books in Canada First Novel Award, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and the Commonwealth Writers Prize. His editorials have appeared on CBC Radio, in The Times (London) and in most major Canadian newspapers, including The Globe & Mail, National Post, Ottawa Citizen, Telegraph Journal, Vancouver Sun, Toronto Star and Halifax Daily News.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Do you like ugly, depressing books?, December 25, 2010

By 

David Bereznai "amateur critic" (Lafayette, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blackstrap Hawco (Paperback)

I read about 600 pages of this book before I put it down in frustration. I only read this far because I kept thinking that surely the author had some purpose in writing such a long book and eventually I would be able to figure it out. But no, it just went on and on describing the life of an immigrant family in Newfoundland. A group of poor,mean, ignorant (and proud of it), unhappy people. The main character, Blackstrap Hawco, is typical of the group. Mentally unbalanced, he and his cohorts endure tragedy after tragedy, quite a few of them self induced. You would be hard pressed to find another group of such unlikeable characters.

I also didn't care for the author's style of jumping back in forth in time so much. This technique works well for some authors, but in this case, it just seems to add to the disconnectedness of the novel. The author also has a penchant for having his characters seeing ghosts; perhaps this is his way of emphasizing the fragile nature of the character's sanity. Whatever his purpose, I found this jarring, inserting a woo-woo factor in a gritty ugly reality just didn't work for me.

All in all, I'm sorry I wasted so much time on this book.