Bookshelf: Galore

I just finished Michael Crummey's latest abundant novel, Galore. Crummey's epic is set in the coastal town of Paradise Deep, a remote settlement in northern Newfoundland. A pale man named Judah is pulled out from the belly of a whale and into the bitter rivalries and harsh realities of two feuding families. Set in the 19th century, melancholy and moody prose weaves throughout the story. Several generations pass through Paradise Deep, each with their own quirks, their own loves, their own losses, and their own mythologies.

Crummey manages to reveal bleak realities with tenderness and grace. The town is filled with strong, broken people, who almost always accept their situation in life as-is. One of the most poignant story lines was about an old woman who married as a girl, out of duty, and thought she'd consequently lost the one man who ever loved her. Her discovery that she'd spent an entire lifetime unknowingly married to her anonymous admirer was too late, and about crushes the reader's heart with hers. 

For more, read this interview with Michael Crummey, this review and check out the book.