NO GREAT MISCHIEF
By Alistair MacLeod
Paperback
283 pp. New York:
Vintage International. $13.00. 

By Laurie Meunier Graves

“Lament For Cape Breton”

“There’s a longing in my heart now
To be where I was
Though I know it’s quite sure
I shall never return.”

In No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod, the lament to return home winds its way through this beautiful, elegiac novel. Home can be Cape Breton, but it can also be Scotland or Québec or South America or Eastern Europe. Throughout the book there is a swirl of people—miners, migrant workers, immigrants—who are always in motion. Sometimes they are looking for work, and sometimes they are escaping from political situations, of which they are on the wrong side. They must move, and they often gain from it. But there is also a price. With so much moving, the scattered generations gradually lose their group identity, their “clans,” and finally there is the loss of language.

At the center of the story are the MacDonalds, who came from Scotland in 1779 to settle on Cape Breton. The patriarch of the family was Calum Ruadh (Red Calum) who could not bear to leave his dog behind and whose wife died on the long, hard voyage across the Atlantic. When he landed in the new world, he cried for two days, mourning what he had lost. “He was crying for history. He had left his country and lost his wife and spoke a foreign language…He was like the goose who points the V, and he temporarily wavered and lost his courage.” But Calum Ruadh regained his courage and lived to be “one hundred and ten years old.”

It seems that most everyone on Cape Breton is descended from Calum Ruadh, and they either have “bright red hair” and dark eyes or “shining black hair.” Because of this, no matter how far the MacDonalds travel, they always recognize each other, regardless of whether they have actually met.

The same first names, especially Calum and Alexander, make their way through the generations. The book opens in the twentieth century, with two brothers, Calum and Alexander. Calum, who is an alcoholic and is ill, lives in Toronto in a room over a shop. There are other rooms with other alcoholics who are literally drinking themselves to death. Alexander, affluent and healthy, is an orthodontist, and he visits Calum on Saturdays. He does not try to change Calum, to persuade him to stop drinking. Instead, he brings brandy to Calum and buys him beer and leaves him money. There is a serene but sad acceptance that Calum is who he is and that Alexander cannot change his brother. All Alexander can do is make Calum more comfortable and help him when he needs it. As their grandmother was so fond of saying, “Always look after your own blood.”

No Great Mischief then moves back and forth through time to reveal personality and family history and how fate interacts with the two. We learn that Alexander and Calum’s parents drowned when Alexander and his twin sister were very young. This loss splits the family. Alexander and his sister go to live with their paternal grandparents, and the older boys, Calum and two other brothers, go to live by themselves in a house by the sea.

Because of this, Alexander and Calum have very different lives. Alexander and his sister grow up in relative ease and comfort, and both go away to college. Calum and his brothers drop out of school and must do hard, physical work to earn their keep. The relationship of this pair of opposites—calm, careful Alexander and wild, intense Calum—is the main thread of the story, which is told from Alexander’s point of view.

Grandfather and Grandpa, another pair of opposites, are also featured. Grandfather is Alexander’s maternal grandfather. He was an illegitimate child and grows up to be so “clean he makes you nervous.” The same cannot be said about Grandpa, Alexander’s paternal grandfather. His philosophy is “We’re not here for a long time but for a good time.” Grandpa likes to sing and drink and go to parties. The two men form a sort of Gaelic odd couple, but there is great affection between the two, despite their differences.

In fact, in No Great Mischief, affection, sympathy, and loyalty are the saving graces in a world where violence strikes unexpectedly and death often comes from behind. These graces are extended not only to the MacDonalds but also to animals (especially dogs) as well. They are even extended to those who might be considered rivals and to those who have betrayed the MacDonalds—to the French Canadians and to General James Wolfe. And they are especially given to those in the world who have to make their way through hard, manual labor.

As the book comes to its moving conclusion, it ends with another of Grandmother’s sayings: “All of us are better when we are loved.” Who can argue with that?  
 

5 1/2" x 5" 2008 Wolf Moon Calendar just $10.00 each
More Info

More Info

© Wolf Moon Press 2002-2008 all rights reserved.

Submission Guidelines