Rough and tumble Newfoundland
Chris Robinson
|
Blackstrap Hawco by Kenneth J. Harvey (Random House Canada) 848 pp
|
Kenneth J. Harvey's Blackstrap Hawco offers a blunt appraisal of life on the Rock
Easily the best book of the year and an instant classic, Kenneth J. Harvey's Blackstrap Hawco is a ferocious 800-plus-page beast that traces the history of the Hawco family, and with it Newfoundland's rough and tumble legacy. Harvey's complex and riveting narrative - reminiscent of Faulkner's masterpiece Absalom, Absalom! - jumps between past and present, fusing a myriad legends, characters and stories that manically move between despair, horror, humour and back again. Like Harvey's previous books (Inside, Skinhound), there's - thankfully - not a snippet of faux sentimentality here. Harvey's writing is uncompromisingly blunt, brutal and honest. Prior to leaving on his cross-Canada reading tour that includes a stop at the Ottawa International Writers Festival, I chatted with Harvey via email.
Was there a specific starting point to this book or did you just have a collection of stories and go from there?
I remember seeing a man. His name was Hawco and he was buying smokes and beer in a convenience store. He was dressed in jeans and a jean jacket and he had just come from doing some sort of construction hobble, rebuilding something or taking something apart. And I thought, he's very much like the essence of Newfoundland. His image struck me and stayed with me.
A lot of bad shit happens to these people - and yet, incredibly, they just keep going on. Yet you don't feel any real sense of hope or relief. As one character says, there are only two choices, you
survive the land or you are destroyed be her.
This is all about surviving and enduring, about the undefeatable spirit of Newfoundland. In the book, Blackstrap Hawco appears to survive quite a few terrible events. However, has he actually survived, or has he been destroyed again and again, only to keep going on in whatever state that might be, even if it is as some form or representation of a ghost?
You say that Hawco seemed to represent the essence of Newfoundland. What is, for you, the essence of Newfoundland?
The essence of Newfoundland, as is the case with any place, is next to impossible to define. In order to attempt to approach the essence of Newfoundland, I had to do quite a bit of research. Through this research, tracing the beginnings of where Newfoundlanders came from, plus gathering stories from over the years and incorporating them into a book, I hope I was able to offer a particular view of Newfoundland. How close to the truth it is or how close it is to my own personal view of Newfoundland must be left for the reader to determine.
Chris Robinson's unabridged interview with author Kenneth J. Harvey is available online at www.ottawaxpress.ca/books.
Kenneth J. Harvey
@ Ottawa International Writers Festival
National Library and Archives
(395 Wellington St.)
Sunday, Oct. 26, 6 p.m.
Info: www.writersfestival.org
While I have heard many claim that Newfoundland exists, I have never seen any proof.
|
|
Brian Newman
|
|
|
|
