Customer Reviews

The Colony of Unrequited Dreams

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I have had the good fortune to live and travel in Newfoundland, so I was excited to read Wayne Johnson's unforgettable book, The Colony of Unrequited Dreams. I loved the book for its amazing characters and its haunting landscapes. I was particularly fascinated with Smallwood and Fielding, and find myself wanting to know much more about the real life and history of Joey Smallwood. I grew up in Nova Scotia and knew of Smallwood only as some mythical person, the Only Living Father of Confederation, who dragged Newfoundland kicking and screaming into Canada. This book gave me a sense of the real man behind the myth, and Smallwood is as unforgettable as his province. Even though I lived at one time in a remote outport on White Bay, I never fully understood the outporter's perspective on Canada until I read this book. The book is beautifully sad and desperate, but it is also hilarious in places. It holds its own with other recent books I have read about this special place: Howard Norman's The Bird Artist and E. Annie Proulx's The Shipping News. For the reader interested in reading more about Newfoundland, I would recommend Ray Guy's humorous You May Know Them As Sea Urchins, Ma'am and Claire Mowat's The Outport People. My all time favorite Newfoundland book remains Cassie Brown's Standing into Danger. The Colony of Unrequited Dreams portrays the generosity and courage of the ordinary Newfoundlander, but Standing into Danger captures the spirit of a people who have nothing and who are willing to give everything.

"The Colony Of Unrequited Dreams" is unquestionably Wayne Johnston's breakthrough book. The author of four previous works, none of which I am familiar with, breaks ground with a book he is sure to be remembered for. Despite its strong echoes of Dickens and/or John Irving, Mr. Fielding finds his voice early on in the contrasting narrative voices of Sheilagh Fielding and the adventures of Joseph Smallwood, sometimes separately, sometimes simultaneously, in the most unlikely setting imaginable--Newfoundland. Indeed, when I picked up 'Colony,' I questioned just how interesting such a setting could be. Well, style and characterization triumph over geographic unfamiliarity, in a work of mystery, history and social change. The very last sentence written by Fielding is a real heart wringer. In fact, I was sorry to have 'Colony' end; it was that rare experience, a book I wished had gone on, one I know I will re-read in a few years to savor Johnston's narrative technique. I look forward to his follow up from here; his is a voice I want to hear more of.

All I can say is that...it is Newfoundland's voice, it is Canada and it is brilliant. I found Ms. Fielding to be the most memorable, realistic and engaging character I have encountered in the last year of reading. In some ways Dickension but with a true Canadian voice. Thrilling to find a female character who is quirky, demanding, complex and bloody funny. Nice change eh kids?

Mr. Smallwood our beloved past Premiere of Newfoundland, is the everyman..that is if everyman is a myopic, driven political animal. Fortunately they are a rare, if necessary breed. Joey Smallwood was our sacrifice.

I would recommend this book to anyone I know who loves reading. This is the book to cuddle up to while the wind rages and your life howls. One could expect no less from a life on the Rock. (Newfoundland for the outsiders)

Perhaps I'm a little bit biased towards this novelization of the life of Joey Smallwood. No, I'm not from Newfoundland. No, I'm not a historical fiction buff. No, my name's not Joey.

But as I read along, a sneaking suspicion entered my mind. I did a little bit a family research, and it turns out that I am distantly related to the character of Prowse, who could be loosely described as Smallwood's arch-enemy. Admittedly, it is a tenuous relation (three generations by marriage), but still, very cool. And of course, it helps that the novel is one of astonishing quality.

COLONY tells of the slow rise of Joey Smallwood, from his very humble beginnings to his eventual election as Newfoundland's first premier. Now, I don't know anything about the history of Newfoundland. I don't believe the book is meant to be a technically accurate representation of Smallwood's life. This is not a biography.

What COLONY is, is a vastly entertaining look at the twists and turns that can occur in the life of one man. As in John Irving's best novels ( I kept thinking of THE CIDER HOUSE RULES as I read along), COLONY is an epic view of a tiny subject. As Smallwood's life progresses, the story becomes more and more enriched with characters and themes and regrets and promises. What Smallwood does with his life is miraculous, and sometimes awe-inspiring. I don't mean to imply that Smallwood is a saint. But his flaws and delusions only serve to heighten his triumphs and failures.

As I said, I don't know how much of COLONY is factually true. Did he have an ongoing unrequited love affair with his childhood friend and nemesis Fielding? Are the motivations behind his actions accurate? In the end, it doesn't matter. This isn't meant to be a treatise on the political background of a premier. This is a story, and a damned fine one. And it is obvious after reading it why, for all his mistakes, Joey Smallwood is a widely beloved figure in Newfoundland.

I was a little disappointed. I loved the descriptions of the railway track odyssey and some of the characters were colourful but all the details of Joey's life became a bit tedious. The relationship with Fielding was rather strange, was it believable or did it just further the plot? The mystery of the letter WAS absurd, much ado about nothing. But at least it was well written which is more than one can say for many books on the market and on the best seller lists.

Describing this novel will almost certainly minimize its tremendous power. A fictionalized first person of a key Newfoundlander's life, coupled with intercalary chapters which are a satiric history of Newfoundland, sounds like one of those heavy tomes worthy of a Canadian TV mini-series rather than a good evening's read. But this book is a powerful, solid read, the kind of read one imagines cannot be obtained in a modern novel. Smallwood, Newfoundland's first premier upon its confederation with Canada, is portrayed in a variety of situations throughout a long life, some historical and some fictional. But this novel does not bear the cobwebs of the "fictional history" genre. Instead, the book's two major characters--Smallwood and Sheilagh Fielding--seem as real as life, flawed and fascinating.

This book is vibrant and alive, straightforward, believable,and wholly warm and human. The parts of the book based on actual history are much more fantastic than the parts of the book which are pure fiction. The book explores some interesting ideas--the twin pursuit of compassion and ambition, the persistence of love over time, and the effects on the protagonists of constant self re-invention. The reader comes away with a sense of place as to Newfoundland, with that feeling of having "known" the characters,and with an abiding respect for a gifted novelist. This is one of the truly great novels I've read.

Wow. I just finished _The Colony of Unrequited Dreams_, and it's left me reeling. Johnston weaves so many techniques that we admire in the masters of contemporary fiction--the juxtaposition of time and voice (Faulkner); the theme of conquest and ambition (Fitzgerald); the idea that human endeavor must equal the grandeur of place (Fitzgerald); the permanence of landscape (Fitzgerald). Fielding's last column ties all of the novel's voices and sensibilities into a persistent din like the night air in the woods by her section shack:

"We are a people in whose bodies old sea-seeking rivers roar with blood."

Arresting.

This is a brave and imaginative piece of work; it impossible to catagorize -- is it historical fiction, an anti-epic with beautifully rendered scenes of naturalistic realism, or a brillant pseudo-biography? It's all these things, and more. Johnston's story of Smallwood and Fielding works on every level, and there are rich rewards for any lover of sparkling prose and satisfying storytelling. Particular sequences of the book will stay with the reader: the disasterous seal hunt, Smallwood's walk across Newfoundland, and the frozen sea beneath his feet the winter he attempts to unionize the colony's fishermen. Anyone who has grown up in one of the former British colonies will instantly recognize the atmosphere of irony and sense of arrested possiblities that pervades this story. The most remarkable thing about this book is its spot-on combination of wit and melancholy. Though it is ultimately a deeply sad book, an ode to a Newfoundland that never stood a chance, _Colony of Unrequited Dreams_ is also one of the funniest books you will read.

I completely disagree with,"it is goodbook if you want to learn something about the history of Newfoundland, but I don't think it offers much in the way of portraying the subtle interactions of human manners." The characters are what got me, not the history of Newfoundland. The tension, stark realizations of loss, lack of care time has for life, and the sadness of the characters mirror the barren grey landscape. The fact that Fielding and Small cannot find fulfillment in each other in real life, but that they crave it much to their own chagrin, is one of the testaments to what we hope versus what can be. Thoughtful, stark, and haunting.

I read this novel 40 books ago. I still think about it. Wayne Johnston pulled me right into his wild, stark, exotic Newfoundland, where I found two unique characters with an ever tense and often wacky relationship. Johnston's writing is clean and crisp and never conceited. His landscape is frozen and beautiful. And his humor is dead-on. While the well-done SHIPPING NEWS gets all the Newfoundland publicity, that book doesn't quite measure up to this masterpiece. For fiction at its finest, visit A COLONY OF UNREQUITED DREAMS.