Causeway was a fascinating book on many levels. Firstly, since I’ve seen Linden MacIntyre many times on television it was interesting to learn about his adolescence and family background. I found as I was reading certain passages that I could even hear Linden’s voice. Secondly, I have travelled to Cape Breton Island driving over the Canso Causeway and visiting many of the places he talks about. Until I read this book I never really thought about the engineering feat that building the Causeway was. Thirdly, the description of the village’s inhabitants was so well done that I felt like I knew them too. And finally, and most powerfully, the father-son relationship is a powerful story in its own right. Dan Rory MacIntyre may have spent many months and years away from home but he obviously had a presence in his son’s life. I suspect he is beaming with pride now. ( )

Just a few months ago I'd never heard of Linden MacIntyre, although he is apparently rather famous in Canada as a TV journalist and documentary filmmaker and has won numerous awards in these fields. Maybe that shows just how "separate but equal" the U.S. and Canada still are in many respects. In any case, a writer friend, Ed Hannibal, happened to mention to me in an email this book, "The Bishop's Man," which was the #1 bestselling novel in Canada last year. It was all about the sexual abuse scandals that rocked the Catholic Church back in the 80s and beyond. Apparently the problem was every bit as serious in Canada as it was here in the U.S. and other countries. I've already read and reviewed (5 big stars) that book not too long ago. And I loved it so much that I took a look at what else MacIntyre has written, and found this book, CAUSEWAY, a memoir of his boyhood in the 1950s in a small village, Port Hastings, on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia.

Since MacIntyre and I are nearly the same age and both grew up Catholic in small towns, I found much here to relate to. But there is also a unique frame to this story, which places a major emphasis on the changes that came to Cape Breton during and after the four-to-five year construction of the Canso Causeway (which displaced more than ten million tons of rock from the brow of Cape Porcupine on the mainland side into the strait), which linked the remote island not just to the western part of the province, but to the rest of the world, or so it seemed to the small boy, Linden MacIntyre, an endlessly curious kid who wanted to know things, and read all he could get his hands on. He wonders what he'll turn out to be, but to me it was pretty obvious. Here are a few telling phrases, all on one page (p. 152 pb copy) -

"I found a book ..."
"I get books from a library ..."
"I've been reading books ..."
"I look for books ..."
"I follow the news ..." and
"I'm beginning to realize how dangerous and interesting the world really is. And I can hardly wait to be a part of it."

Linden MacIntyre began a life-long love affair with words and books early on. Perhaps because of his isolated Catholic upbringing, like me, he toyed with the idea of the priesthood for a time, but it was no surprise to me that he became a writer.

There are a lot of very special things about this book and one of them is the importance placed on family during MacIntyre's childhood, and on customs and traditions. His family was Scotch and Irish and his portrayals of his grandparents and uncles and cousins who live on the mountain "out back" and his descriptions of things like wakes, funerals and simple visits there are priceless. MacIntyre tends to repeat certain facts and stories about his people, much like haunting refrains found in old folk ballads. This gives the book a special sort of feel, I think.

Probably the real focal point of CAUSEWAY is not so much the construction of the causeway and the outward changes it wrought in the the community, but the disjointed and complicated relationship the author endured and enjoyed with his mostly absent father, a "hard-rock miner" who was on the road, working underground in distant provinces during most of Linden's boyhood. Dan Rory MacIntyre didn't have much luck. Locals and family even suggested he might have been "cursed" with bad luck as a young man. In any case, he was seldom home. As a boy, Linden longed for his father's presence and his love. He knew instinctively that he had the latter; he just wished there were more of the former. He makes a very telling observation about relationships between parents and children near the end of the book, in this passage -

"By the time you're old enought to command their serious attention as another adult, you're living away from them, and the only opportunities that arise for a meeting of minds are ceremonial - birth, marriage, death ..."

Too true, Linden. I know just exactly what you mean. Fathers are so very important, and yet so often remain distant, mysteries throughout our lives, until it's too late.

Linden MacIntyre has known his share of success and even fame. He has come a long way from his humble origins. But he has never forgotten them, and is still trying to understand their importance in who he is. He writes, "I've spent years struggling to understand this phenomenon of identity - understanding who you are by knowing where you're from."

Makes sense to me. Maybe he's finally figured it out. One thing I know for sure. He's one hell of a fine writer. So now I'm going to look for his other novel. I think it's called THE LONG STRETCH. ( )