This post originally published April 7, 2010.Author: Jack Hodgins
Published: 1977
Publisher: Ronsdale Press
354 pages (paperback)
Summary: Donal Keneally is a man with a legendary origin. They say he was fathered by a bull-god, killed his mother after she gave birth to him and was taken to a small Irish village by an old woman (who he later killed) to be raised. Donal Keneally grows up and dreams of doing something great — he decides to start a utopian village and so, rounds up his entire village and together, they travel by ship to Vancouver Island, where they found the Revelations Colony of Truth. One century later, old Becker is researching and trying to piece together story of Donal Keneally and the many mysteries and scandals he was involved in, while living in the remains of the old Colony …
My Thoughts: This is the last novel I had to read for Canadian Literature class, and though it’s only 300-ish pages, the book is larger than your average paperback so it’s probably really a 400 or 500 page book if you think about it in standard paperback novel size. Anyway, I was surprised by this book! I thought it’d be boring because frankly, the back cover gives a really unappealing summary of what I should expect from it, but actually, I quite liked it. I wasn’t blown away by it, but it was an enjoyable read.
The first 2/3 of the book I found quite interesting, I was actually quite hooked onto it, but the last third (or maybe less than that, the last quarter or so) kind of went downhill for me. Most of the book deals with Donal Keneally in the late 1800’s, early 1900’s being some sort of ruler in his Colony that he founded and the scandals he created. The book also has a separate but related plotline in the present time (present, as in the 70’s, based on when this book was first published!) where the character Becker is trying to research about the Colony and Keneally. There are also other main characters, such as Maggie, who actually lives in the main Colony house and has a “collection” of strange boarders living with her, Wade, who built a fake Native fort to attract tourists to go to, and Lily Hayworth, an old lady who is actually Keneally’s third and last wife. Now, Becker and Lily’s stories I can relate to Keneally’s plot easily, but I was never quite sure how Maggie and Wade’s stories fit into the whole thing. Regardless, it was all very interesting until near the end, which just seemed to drag out way further than it needed to. The final scene was most confusing of all. Of course, this book is not real, it’s a work of fiction, but everything that happened was logical based on the rules of the story world. Well, the ending went totally weird — it was of a wedding scene where EVERYBODY attended (it was described that people all over the country attended, even people who didn’t know the couple, Queen Elizabeth got an invitation, the Prime Minister of the country sent a representative … what?!) and it ended with some guy chainsaw-ing his saw through a wall into a bathroom which started a massive fight with people chucking chairs and food and dishes at everyone else … If that sounded weird, it’s because it is!
Overall, enjoyable book. Will I read it again? Probably not. But if you ever see this in a library or something, it’s worth a read.
My Rating: 3/5
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