The Custodian of Paradise: A Novel [Hardcover]

Wayne Johnston (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 17, 2007

A Book-of-the-Month Club "Best Novel of 2007."

In the waning days of World War II, Sheilagh Fielding makes her way to a deserted island off the coast of Newfoundland. But she soon comes to suspect another presence: that of a man known only as her Provider, who has shadowed her for twenty years.

Against the backdrop of Newfoundland's history and landscape, Fielding is a compelling figure. Taller than most men and striking in spite of her crippled leg, she is both eloquent and subversively funny. Her newspaper columns exposing the foibles and hypocrisies of her native city, St. John's, have made many powerful enemies for her, chief among them the man who fathered her children—twins—when she was fourteen. Only her Provider, however, knows all of Fielding's secrets. Reading group guide included.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Sheilagh Fielding—a striking, unconventional, six-foot-three Newfoundland woman with a limp—returns from prolific Johnston's The Colony of Unrequited Dreams for this highly atmospheric sequel. Near the end of WWII, Fielding (as she is known), a notorious St. John's columnist, holes up on the nearby deserted island of Loreburn after her mother dies and leaves her a small inheritance. There, Fielding senses the presence of her mysterious "Provider," who has shadowed her all her life and whom she has never met face-to-face. As Fielding tells her story—abandoned by her mother at six; raised by a father who insinuates she's not his—Fielding's Provider draws closer to her solitary retreat. But Fielding has long kept another secret: she gave birth to twins at the age of 15, who were raised as her half-siblings by her mother in New York City. Johnston's descriptive prose can be exhilarating, from the windswept island to a dingy Manhattan, and he has a sure hand with historical nuggets. There's little tension over the 500-plus pages, and the denouement (her father's identity; her children's fate) is overblown. But Fielding is a fascinating character: she courts her own estrangement as much as she is tormented by it. (Apr.)
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From Booklist

Suspend your disbelief and sit back for a gripping read in the vein of a nineteenth-century romantic novel but featuring a twentieth-century woman. Feisty, iconoclastic, and extremely ironic, Sheilagh Fielding was originally introduced in Johnston's^B award-winning historical novel, The Colony of Unrequited Dreams (1999). There she was featured as the fictitious companion of Joey Smallwood, first premier of Newfoundland. Now, however, she is the star, and her story is a riveting one. The novel opens with Sheilagh, in time and space very close to the end of the novel, trying to find a deserted island to live on. The novel ends with her leaving that island, not many months later. But the time between those two events spans almost 30 years and two wars. Through the use of diaries--her own and others--as well as letters, Sheilagh tells her fascinating story, a tale that includes the puzzle of her paternity and the everlasting effects of her own motherhood. The unsatisfactory ending begs a sequel, but even so, this would make for a rousing discussion in a book club. Maureen O'Connor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 582 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (April 17, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393064913
• ISBN-13: 978-0393064919
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,563,672 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great companion to colony of unrequited dreams, June 3, 2007

By 

David W. Straight (knoxville, tennessee United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Custodian of Paradise: A Novel (Hardcover)

Johnston's excellent Colony of Unrequited Dreams featured Joey Smallwood

with Sheilagh Fielding as a strong secondary presence. This novel

reverses that order--it features Sheilagh Fielding with Joey Smallwood

more in the background. This is not a book that you can hurry through--

think of a cup of very hot, very rich coffee--you have to sip it and savor

it slowly.

The writing is superb--rich prose with a wonderful sense of time and

place. Sheilagh Fielding, for reasons unclear at first, takes up

residence on an island off Newfoundland's south coast--in an abandoned

fishing village. There's very little of the present--perhaps 90% of

the story is retrospective--a looking back at the events in her life.

At six feet three and sharp-tongued (to put it mildly) she has not made

many friends (other than Smallwood). But she has a mysterious "provider"

who has kept an eye on her. The provider's role slowly unfolds--and much

of what Sheilagh (and the reader) thought they knew about her (Sheilagh's)

life gets turned around. In a way, this reminds me of Robert Goddard's

novels (qv) where the past gets unravelled many years later--but in this

case (unlike Goddard's books) Sheilagh starts learning about the

provider when she's 16, and at age 44 (when the novel opens) she has

been learning bits and pieces since she was 16. For me, the process was

like slowly and carefully taking the many layers of wrappings off a very

delicate object.

Johnston has written another wonderful book--this doesn't have the

historical sweep of Colony--but it's layered and rich, and not to be

missed.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This man is a genius, May 29, 2007

By 

Janeway (United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Custodian of Paradise (Hardcover)

I have to admit, Wayne Johnston could write about anything and I'd gladly read it, and the fact that critics have compared him to Dickens is no surprise to me. I would, without hesitation, say he is the greatest novelist of our time. His words are like a warm sea that I could float in all day, and the continuity between this book and The Colony is perfect.

Sheilagh Fielding is my favorite character of all time, and when I first heard Mr. Johnston was devoting an entire novel to her, I thought it was too good to be true. And it was definitely worth the wait. There could have been no better followup to The Colony, and The Guardian may even be a greater book, if that is possible. My hat is definitely off to Mr. Johnston, a true genius in our midst.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Articulately Depressing, June 26, 2008

By 

Elizabeth J. Love - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Custodian of Paradise: A Novel (Paperback)

Wayne Johnston is a favorite author of mine. He writes so beautifully but the heroine this time around chained me and dragged me into whatever abyss the author happened to be in at the time. I always enjoy the historical aspects of his work, and the colorful characters generally make one think, laugh and commiserate but I could only find despair in Sheleigh. Her sarcasm was clever and intriguing for about three chapters, then I had no further tolerance. It was difficult to finish.