Come from Away

Rating:
Summary: Interesting but hard to follow.
Review: The Goodyear family, living in Newfoundland, experienced few events that, directly or indirectly, did not end with someone's death in Come From Away. Bleak, gray conditions were part of the climate of Newfoundland as well as storms and icy waters. To the struggling economy, Hedley Goodyear said, "With managers such as these, who needs natural disasters?" Desolate living conditions were especially negative during the wave of tuberculosis, and people with this condition did not have a happy ending. The Newfoundlanders who enlisted in World War I learned the stages it took for a body to rot: white, yellow, green, purple, and black. Some of the survivors knew just how a person died when they were shot: their eyes rolled back, their breath was cut off, and the skull burst to pieces. At the time of the battle, all they could rely on was luck, so they stayed clear of the number three. David Macfarlane, author, listed thirty-one different things that came in threes, which is enough to make any number evil. Not much was said about the life of the main character, but more about how he viewed the lives of others. One, his great-aunt Kate, lived to be old and modest for her doings. After the loss of her three brothers in the war, she would have flashbacks and would interrupt herself to dab her eyes with a Kleenex. Both the young and old Aunt Kate had fears; "she was terrified of the most sway-backed, overweight, docile pony." The Canadians viewed those "Newfies" as Yankees view Rednecks. They've got the slurred accent, the yellow teeth, and the offbeat sense of humor. Overall, I did not enjoy this book as much as I have others. It concentrated too much on listing facts (and repeating them) and not enough on the plot of the story. If that's your kind of book, then I recommend it. If you're a fan of fiction, follow my lead and stick to the non-informative sources.

Rating:
Summary: Come From Away
Review: The Goodyear family, living in Newfoundland, experienced few events that, directly or indirectly, did not end with someone's death in Come From Away. Bleak, gray conditions were part of the climate of Newfoundland as well as storms and icy waters. To the struggling economy, Hedley Goodyear said, "With managers such as these, who needs natural disasters?" Desolate living conditions were especially negative during the wave of tuberculosis, and people with this condition did not have a happy ending. The Newfoundlanders who enlisted in World War I learned the stages it took for a body to rot: white, yellow, green, purple, and black. Some of the survivors knew just how a person died when they were shot: their eyes rolled back, their breath was cut off, and the skull burst to pieces. At the time of the battle, all they could rely on was luck, so they stayed clear of the number three. David Macfarlane, author, listed thirty-one different things that came in threes, which is enough to make any number evil. Not much was said about the life of the main character, but more about how he viewed the lives of others. One, his great-aunt Kate, lived to be old and modest for her doings. After the loss of her three brothers in the war, she would have flashbacks and would interrupt herself to dab her eyes with a Kleenex. Both the young and old Aunt Kate had fears; "she was terrified of the most sway-backed, overweight, docile pony." The Canadians viewed those "Newfies" as Yankees view Rednecks. They've got the slurred accent, the yellow teeth, and the offbeat sense of humor. Overall, I did not enjoy this book as much as I have others. It concentrated too much on listing facts (and repeating them) and not enough on the plot of the story. If that's your kind of book, then I recommend it. If you're a fan of fiction, follow my lead and stick to the non-informative sources.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting but hard to follow.
Review: While I found parts of this book very interesting -- the history of Newfoundland and how it related to the Goodyear family -- the author's writing style was irritating and hard to follow. The author said that his family told stories in "great, looping circles," and that is what he has done here. I was frustrated with this book because the author would go off on tangents and would not stick to the narrative, making it difficult to follow and to find out what happened to the characters in his family.

I did learn a great deal about Newfoundland and how it was affected by the First World War, and for that alone, it is worth reading.