Like Two Solitudes, this book deals with the conflict between English and French Canada as French Canada seeks to throw off the twin yokes of the Catholic Church and the wealthy Anglo establishment. We have a family with a French mother, an English father, and fully bilingual children, each of whom have their own struggles. The main focus of the jacket blurb is the son, Daniel, who is part of a movement that uses riots and other physical tactics to spread its message.

I couldn’t finish this book. The characters, particularly Daniel, are more like mouthpieces for the various movements that are in conflict. I ended up skipping half a chapter of Daniel blathering on to the mother of his sort-of girlfriend because it felt so lecture-y (and mansplainy). And normally I’d slog through the mouthpiece stuff. What did this book in for me was the fact that the female characters get short shrift in this story: Daniel’s mother, Constance, is dead before the story begins, and his sister ends up sleeping with her dad’s old friend (EW) and then says she’s in love with him and the thing she wants most in this world is to give him a son! EW EW EW EW so unprogressive. Daniel’s girlfriend’s mother ends up sleeping with him after spending an evening listening to him complain about les maudits Anglais. And then there’s the recurring narrative tic of male protagonists noticing people’s butts as if they were Tina Belcher or something.

This book was better than Voices in Time but worse than Two Solitudes. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone starting out with MacLennan. Try his novels that are more autobiographical: The Watch That Ends the Night, or Barometer Rising. ( )

Excellent book, deep in its themes and expansive in its scope. Should be read by anyone who wants to understand what Canada is all about. I had read Two Solitudes a number of years ago and I wondered if I had outgrown MacLennan, but I think he is the best author Canada's ever had and perhaps ever will ( )