Galore

Jul 08, 2011 Callie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, audio

Two parts history and one part fairy tale, Galore takes place on the isolated island of Newfoundland, where the lines between reality and fantasy, and between superstition and happenstance all get a bit blurry. While at the beginning, I would find myself questioning how any of this could actually happen, by the end I freely accepted the idea that the reason a girl would be born with webbed fingers could be traced to an affair her great-grandfather had had with a mermaid decades earlier.

The quali...more

6 likes · like · see review

Sep 22, 2011 Mary rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Started this book last night and can't wait to read more!! Starts off with a beached whale that when cut open reveals a living man. There are names like Devine's Widow and King-me. A baby called Lazarus, who survives death, but sleeps in his coffin which is turned into a cradle. All about Newfoundland and Labrador. Multi-generational. Even a family tree at the beginning. What more could I ask???

Enjoyed this book very much. Learned about Newfoundland --lots of myths, great tales.

2 likes · like · see review

Jan 22, 2013 Julie Aquilina rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: newfoundland

It's a true shame I haven't read this book before now, especially considering it was Michael Crummey's poetry collection Hard Light that first sparked in me the idea of moving to Newfoundland for a stint for school years ago. And this book doesn't disappoint. It's a wonderfully delicious sprinkling of folklore spread over generations of characters in the coastal town of Paradise Deep. I didn't want the book to end - the magic spread throughout its pages is scrumptious. I remain in awe of Crummey...more

1 like · like · see review

Dec 11, 2012 Sandie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Life is difficult in the small fishing settlement of Paradise Deep in Newfoundland. The people are tied to the sea, suffering if the catch isn't good and making it through the winter with the help of their families and friends. When a whale is beached, it is a major event, and the entire town turns out to butcher it and save the meat to make it through the long cold days ahead. The whale is miraculous enough but no one expects what is found in its stomach. Hacked open, out rolls an albino man, s...more Life is difficult in the small fishing settlement of Paradise Deep in Newfoundland. The people are tied to the sea, suffering if the catch isn't good and making it through the winter with the help of their families and friends. When a whale is beached, it is a major event, and the entire town turns out to butcher it and save the meat to make it through the long cold days ahead. The whale is miraculous enough but no one expects what is found in its stomach. Hacked open, out rolls an albino man, somehow alive, although barely so.

In the days that follow, he regains his health, but is a mute. The townsfolk name him Judah, a variation on the Biblical tale of Jonah and the whale; life is so hard there that the only Bible is a partial one rescued from a wreck, leaving the people to create their own tales to fill in the blanks.

There are two main families in Paradise Deep. The Sellers are the merchants of the town, rich and powerful; their patriarch named King-Me Sellers. The Devines are the guardians of the town's folklore and superstition; some would say its magic. The family is headed by Devine's Widow, often called a witch but also the person everyone turned to for cures and predictions of what would come next. The two families are caught in a decades-old feud.

Sellers wants to get rid of Judah. Devine's Widow binds him to the settlement and her family. His presence adds more fuel to the fire of the feud. The reader is swept into the lives of these people for generations as they fight to survive. We see the marriages, the separations, the religion that binds folks, the stirring of a union to fight the rich and powerful. Judah remains an enigmatic figure in the lives of both families as they fight and love over the years.

This book is highly recommended for readers interested in history, in folklore, in how societies grow and survive. The characters are finely drawn, each one in the myriad of folk given their own personalities that distinguish them. There is an undercurrent of magical realism, but the miraculous things that occur arise out of the beliefs of the townspeople. Galore won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book and was a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction. Readers who plunge into this novel will emerge stunned and glad for the experience. (less)

like · see review

Nov 21, 2011 Bill rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is an old fashioned multi-generational novel with a bit of fantasy thoughtfully thrown in. It won numerous Canadian and Commonwealth literary prizes.
The setting begins with a whale stranded on a Newfoundland beach in the late 1700 or early 1800s. As the villagers are stripping the whale for blubber and oil they pull a man from the whale’s stomach. He is barely alive, very white and stinks. They are somewhat religious but there only source of instruction is a Bible recovered from a shipwreck...more

3 likes · like · see review

May 12, 2013 Leon rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book, Caribbean & Canada and the Canadian Authors Association Literary Award; Finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, the Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Book Award, and the Winterset Award

When a whale beaches itself on the shore of the remote coastal town of Paradise Deep, the last thing any of the townspeople expect to find inside it is a man, silent and reeking of fish, but remarkably alive. The discovery of this my

...more

Winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book, Caribbean & Canada and the Canadian Authors Association Literary Award; Finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, the Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Book Award, and the Winterset Award

When a whale beaches itself on the shore of the remote coastal town of Paradise Deep, the last thing any of the townspeople expect to find inside it is a man, silent and reeking of fish, but remarkably alive. The discovery of this mysterious person, soon christened Judah, sets the town scrambling for answers as its most prominent citizens weigh in on whether he is man or beast, blessing or curse, miracle or demon. Though Judah is a shocking addition, the town of Paradise Deep is already full of unusual characters. King-me Sellers, self-appointed patriarch, has it in for an inscrutable woman known only as Devine’s Widow, with whom he has a decades-old feud. Her granddaughter, Mary Tryphena, is just a child when Judah washes ashore, but finds herself tied to him all her life in ways she never expects. Galore is the story of the saga that develops between these families, full of bitterness and love, spanning two centuries.
With Paradise Deep, award-winning novelist Michael Crummey imagines a realm where the line between the everyday and the otherworldly is impossible to discern. Sprawling and intimate, stark and fantastical, Galore is a novel about the power of stories to shape and sustain us.

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Best Books of the Month, April 2011: Out of the belly of a whale, Michael Crummey pulls the marvelous story of Paradise Deep, a remote settlement on the northern Newfoundland coast, a place "too severe and formidable, too provocative, too extravagant and singular and harrowing to be real," teeming with fierce rivalries, affections, and loyalties spanning five intertwined generations. His tale opens in a hungry winter, when a beached humpback arrives as an unexpected gift and the townspeople convene to claim their piece. From a slit in its gut spills a man--white, mute, and eerily alive--who assumes a central role in the lineage of the Divine family. Alternately feared as a devil and revered as a healer, Judah fathers a fish-scented son with the raven-haired Mary Tryphena. Their family comprises the heart of the town's rich mythology, with all its ghosts, mermaid trysts, strange accidents, miraculous babies, and impossible loves, rendered in language so gorgeously raw, it will transport you to a land whose sky is "alive with the northern lights, the roiling seines of green and red like some eerily silent music to accompany the suffering below." --Mari Malcolm

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Crummey (River Thieves) returns readers to historic Newfoundland in his mythic and gorgeous latest, set over the course of a century in the life of a hardscrabble fishing community. After a lean early-19th-century winter, a whale beaches itself and everyone in town gathers to help with the slaughter. But when a woman known only as Devine's Widow—when she's not called an outright witch—cuts into the belly, the body of an albino man slides out. He eventually revives, turns out to be a mute, and is dubbed Judah by the locals. Judah's mystery—is his appearance responsible for the great fishing season that follows?—is only one among many in this wild place, where the people are afflicted by ghosts and curses as much as cold and hunger. Crummey's survey eventually telescopes to the early 20th century, when Judah's pale great-grandson, Abel, sequesters himself amid medical debris in an old hospital where his opera singer cousin, Esther Newman, has returned and resolved to drink herself to death. But before she does so, she shares with him the family history he never knew. Crummey lovingly carves out the privation and inner intricacies that mark his characters' lives with folkloric embellishments and the precision of the finest scrimshaw. (Apr.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(less)

like · see review

May 05, 2013 Ursula rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Set in the small Newfoundland town of Paradise Deep, Galore gets your attention pretty quickly with a pale, odd man arriving on the shore in the belly of a whale. Now you know you're in for some magic realism or some supernatural goings-on or something along those lines. I've seen comparisons to One Hundred Years of Solitude, and I can sort of get it - both novels cover a long time period and multiple generations of families. But where Solitude grabbed me, pulled me in and didn't let me go, I ha...more

like · see review

Nov 04, 2012 Erin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I picked up Michael Crummey’s Galore because a friend of mine suggested it was “the best book he ever read.” Bold claims from a well-read man. I admit being reluctant to read it because I’m using Crummey in my dissertation, and the idea of reading - for pleasure - an author that I’ve spent endless hours thinking about worried me.

(Aside: Longstanding debate between me and M. about whether or not someone can “read for fun” or whether any sort of reading is inherently “critical.” I err on the side...more I picked up Michael Crummey’s Galore because a friend of mine suggested it was “the best book he ever read.” Bold claims from a well-read man. I admit being reluctant to read it because I’m using Crummey in my dissertation, and the idea of reading - for pleasure - an author that I’ve spent endless hours thinking about worried me.

(Aside: Longstanding debate between me and M. about whether or not someone can “read for fun” or whether any sort of reading is inherently “critical.” I err on the side of “reading for pleasure” and “reading for work,” and find that when I’m reading for pleasure I do not annotate; I do not fixate on symbols/images in the same preoccupied way I might while working; I do not consciously consider the novel as a national work… But, of course, I write this blog, and I *think* about what I read as I’m reading it: that is the work of a reader, right? I’m not sure why reading critically cannot also be pleasurable, for me, at least, reading and thinking are pleasurable activities. It just becomes “work” when I then have to write about it, compare it, map the themes and ra ra ra - gag).

I shouldn’t have worried. Galore is beautiful. The poetry of description, the balance of third person limited with third person omniscient sweeps the reader between the intimate thoughts of characters - spanning generations - and the intricacies of the community and the relationships in that community. I suppose it was purposeful that the reader is denied the third person limited perspective of Jonah (the man who opens the novel being born from the belly of a whale), but all the same, my only complaint is that we don’t get the chance to hear his thoughts. Of course, it’s appropriate that we don’t (Jonah is mute), just frustrating because of how much I *wanted* to read his view: a testament, I think, to the strength of his character.

Ambitious in its time-line, Galore maintains a surprising (and pleasurable) balance between the intimate lives of the families on the shore (set in Newfoundland) and the “bigger” concerns of a settlement coming into the 20th century (medicine, education, union organization). Highly recommend.
(less)

like · see review

Aug 30, 2012 Booknblues rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A Newfoundland cross between One Hundred Years of Solitude and Rich Man Poor Man could accurately describe Michael Crummey’s Galore. It is a struggle between the Devine’s and the Sellers set in the Newfoundland towns of Paradise Deep and Gut. It is replete with the type of flolklore and mythology which develops in areas cut off from the world. We find among its characters witches, ghosts and a man born of a whale and each intrigues and captivates the reader.

The story begins with the Widow Divine...more

like · see review

Aug 27, 2012 Julie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Epic! Mythic!
Wild and wooly like the setting

This is intricate without being detailed, sprawling and yet stark. It is a difficult ride to describe ... somewhat like 100 Years of Solitude set in Newfoundland!

I really enjoyed being transported to this untamed place peopled with a strange collection of characters. Not a book where you developed empathy for the characters but one where the narrative was a passing parade of their lives and times. And what a harsh, bleak life that was! And what times...more

like · see review

Jun 24, 2012 Jen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: canada

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

like · see review

Jun 22, 2012 Jeff rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is my Amazon review:

There are those who enjoy books with undeveloped characters, major plot threads picked up and dropped, hypocritical religionists with no contrasting genuine heroism and morality, bleak setting, and ultimately pointless story, but I am not one of these people. If the book itself doesn't take its own story seriously (did Judah really come from a whale? Did they really harvest all that squid?), then why on earth should we readers? When I read the reviews of this book, I tho...more

3 likes · like · see review

Mar 22, 2012 Dana Stabenow rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club

I come from a small coastal fishing community, so a lot of the themes in this novel resonated pretty strongly. Isolation, insulation, privation, these are memes shared by all remote communities who sell what they catch, wind up eating it if they can't sell it, and starve if they don't catch anything. And they always yearn after the plenty of fishing seasons past:

They spoke of the days of plenty with a wistful exaggeration, as if it was an ancient time they knew only through stories generations o...more I come from a small coastal fishing community, so a lot of the themes in this novel resonated pretty strongly. Isolation, insulation, privation, these are memes shared by all remote communities who sell what they catch, wind up eating it if they can't sell it, and starve if they don't catch anything. And they always yearn after the plenty of fishing seasons past:

They spoke of the days of plenty with a wistful exaggeration, as if it was an ancient time they knew only through stories generations old. My Jesus, the cod, the cod, the cod, that Crusade army of the North Atlantic, that irresistible undersea current of flesh, there was fish in galore one time. Boats run aground on a school swarming so thick beneath them a man could walk upon the very water but for fear of losing his shoes to the indiscriminate appetite of the fish.

The cod has largely moved on at the beginning of this story, and then myth moves in in the person of Judah called the Great White, a man cast up from the belly of a whale. Mute, the mark of the devil on him in the paleness of his skin and the rank fish smell of his person, he has nevertheless the gift for finding the fish, and does so, bringing prosperity and plenty, at least for a while. There are mermaids and ghosts, too, and I would argue that the very landscape itself is at least in part very nearly fantastical in its appearance and its sense of self. Further, you don't really know what decade or even what century it is until halfway through the book. This is a place existing out of time, and in every time.

Of course, as time passes in the lives of the characters, bit by bit the magic goes away. I was at first put off by the novel's ending because it seemed just too neat. But I've been thinking it over since, and really, don't all myths end where they begin? Doesn't the snake always eat its own tail?

Some grad student should write his or her master's thesis on a comparison of Michael Crummey's Galore and Isabel Allende's The House of the Spirits. And then let me read it.

(less)

3 likes · like · see review

Sep 11, 2011 Ben rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

On a sentence by sentence level, Galore is very well written, the plot is full of interesting twists, strange and uncanny moments that somehow feel both plausible and magical - a spin on Jonah, a sex-obsessed ghost, a magical tree, a mechanical dolphin - good stuff. The characters are solid, but at times they are also intentionally flatten - as though they do exist but on a Sunday school felt-board or within a rather droll Biblical/steam punk role playing game. Setting-wise, Galore is a regional...more

2 likes · like · see review

May 30, 2011 Sarah rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My Maternal Grandmother was born and raised on Bonne Bay in Woody Point. This is a very special place, extremely dear to my heart, which should be a testament to this beautiful and wild island's powers since I've only been privileged enough to visit there twice. Hence, my interest in this book, and I hate to say it, but it just wasn't for me.

I'm very glad to see that so many have enjoyed a Newfie writer. Truly. However, if this had been my one and only exposure to the island and it's people, I m...more My Maternal Grandmother was born and raised on Bonne Bay in Woody Point. This is a very special place, extremely dear to my heart, which should be a testament to this beautiful and wild island's powers since I've only been privileged enough to visit there twice. Hence, my interest in this book, and I hate to say it, but it just wasn't for me.

I'm very glad to see that so many have enjoyed a Newfie writer. Truly. However, if this had been my one and only exposure to the island and it's people, I might come away with a VERY unfavorable impression. Many people in fact don't take the time to dig harder and not let one sole source, experience, or person guide them.

For myself, there were few likeable characters, but to be fair each character was extremely human. They had their own desires, temperaments, and a fair share of dirty laundry. I think the crudeness and outright vulgarity of the dialogue was a bit overdone sometimes (dialogue is a pet peeve of mine, I hate reading a story based in Scotland with the "brogue" written in, I would much rather imagine it, thanks). I think otherwise, it was very easy to find myself with the Mummers in so and so's house, or be trying to walk along with said character through a snowbank on a full moon night. So very well done there. Also, how the book was edited and presented (without quotations for each piece of dialogue) was a slight turn off.

There were quite a few people to keep straight, and a few family trees to try to keep in mind. The story seemed to bounce around quite a lot, back and forth through time, or from person to person or family to family, which made it slightly confusing, quite frankly. I'm very sad to say that whatever point Mr. Crummey was trying to put out there completely eluded me. Was it perhaps the sad end of the Divine family? The crude, harsh, insanity of island life? Happiness for the characters seemed like such a fleeting thing, no one ever seemed to get it, or hold it for long if they did.

Still, putting a book out into the world is a very special thing. An effort to be applauded, and I'm glad so many have enjoyed this book. And I hope you DO try it if you want to read something a bit different. It wasn't quite my cuppa, but I'm sure it could be enjoyable for many others.(less)

2 likes · like · see review

Apr 07, 2011 Jennifer rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical, literature

I read the ARC of this for an online reading group site, and it was not a novel I probably would have picked up on my own. It was hard for me to get into at first - there are some fantastical elements I had to deal with, and the fact that the author does not set his dialogue apart with quotation marks is a bit disconcerting. However, once I got into the story, I found it a fascinating read.

The tone (especially the interweaving of reality and fantasy) was done well, and I did like the inclusion o...more

2 likes · like · see review

Jan 22, 2011 Felice rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Galore is a swallow you whole kind of novel. Speaking of which when the story begins the townspeople of Paradise Deep pull a man out of a whale. I have to suspect that even in the great whaling times of the early 19th century you just didn't see that every day. The whale has beached itself on the shore of this remote village in Newfoundland. When it dies the citizens come together to butcher the whale and gather the blubber for lamp oil. Then just like Uncle Jed's bubblin' crude out from the wha...more Galore is a swallow you whole kind of novel. Speaking of which when the story begins the townspeople of Paradise Deep pull a man out of a whale. I have to suspect that even in the great whaling times of the early 19th century you just didn't see that every day. The whale has beached itself on the shore of this remote village in Newfoundland. When it dies the citizens come together to butcher the whale and gather the blubber for lamp oil. Then just like Uncle Jed's bubblin' crude out from the whale comes an all white dude. True story or so the folklore of Paradise Deep goes. The next hundred years in Paradise Deep are filled with the flux of public opinion, the curse of Judah (The whale man who unsurprisingly never loses his fish smell.) and the savior Judah, blood feuds, ill-fated love affairs, the moneyed of the town verses the hand to mouth, opera singers, paternity questions, alcoholics, scrimshaw, a witch/healer and the kind of legends and characters that come from a very creative writer building a larger than life history.

Galore is a perfect name for this novel by Michael Crummey. It's a word I associate with the word lavish and Galore is a lavish novel. There is a lavish amount of characters, story lines, fish and Newfoundland brought to you in 100% lavish writing. Many writers strive to create a entire community with it's own natural folklore, but who succeeds? In recent memory I'd have to say We The Drowned and Galore both do and...no one else.

If your favorite novels are slim studies of the interior life of characters who have a crisis the level of a hangnail then by all means skip Galore. Only read Galore if you adore terrific writing, invention, unique characters and lots of storytelling. --Oh yeah and historical fiction that doesn't mention a single Tudor, Borgia or Kennedy.

Some others have liked Galore as well: Winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book, Caribbean & Canada and the Canadian Authors Association Literary Award; Finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, the Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Book Award, and the Winterset Award.

(less)

4 likes · like · see review

Oct 09, 2010 Geetha rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I had read “River Thieves” by Canadian author Michael Crummey a few years ago which book I loved. “Galore” tops even that. “Galore” is set in 1800s Newfoundland – remote, isolated, stark and rugged Newfoundlad, with wild, treacherous weather, among a community that depends on the ocean for its living. The story is multi-generational, set in the community of Paradise Deep. The pages are filled with very interesting characters as the story swings between the real and the magical. The prose is flaw...more

like · see review

Sep 17, 2009 Debbie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Michael Crummey was born & raised in Newfoundland, lives there still, and has set all of his meticulously researched novels & collections of short stories thus far in this beautiful, windswept, and harshly-demanding Canadian province.

is set in the outport villages of Paradise Deep and The Gut, joined by the Tolt Road over the headland between them, in an undefined period that covers most of the nineteenth century and the first few years of the twentieth. The novel chronicles the lives of...more

2 likes · like · see review

Jul 04, 2012 Susan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Having grown up in California, for me visiting Newfoundland was a journey to another world, with its isolation and extremes of climate as well as the history of its European settlement that goes back to the Vikings. I found the island a highly evocative place that aroused my curiosity about what life must have been like in a place at once so beautiful and so inhospitable. This book provides an impressively detailed description of life in a remote coastal town of the island for five generations....more

like · see review

Jun 27, 2012 Riley Dawson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I spent a long time deliberating over whether to give this book 3 or 4 stars- the fact that I'd be willing to read it again tipped my hand. A lot of people are saying Crummey's writing is reminiscent of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and I certainly agree with that. The book is focused on character development and constitutes a study of a small town over decades and generations, similar to 100 Years of Solitude.

Some people may not like the addition of fantastic elements (mermaids, men born out of whale...more

like · see review

May 06, 2011 Trisha rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Trisha by: Nicole of Linus's Blanket

The story is huge, spanning over 200 years and encompassing multiple (6?) generations. The character list goes on and on; figuring out who was who and who did what to whom and when and why and to what effect certainly kept me engrossed - and mildly frustrated - with the story.

Michael Crummey's epic family saga, Galore, brims over with richness; from the distinct characters to the unusual events to the unique setting, the story is a sharp juxtaposition of harsh frontier and magical realism. While...more The story is huge, spanning over 200 years and encompassing multiple (6?) generations. The character list goes on and on; figuring out who was who and who did what to whom and when and why and to what effect certainly kept me engrossed - and mildly frustrated - with the story.

Michael Crummey's epic family saga, Galore, brims over with richness; from the distinct characters to the unusual events to the unique setting, the story is a sharp juxtaposition of harsh frontier and magical realism. While the scope and depth create an epic feel, from time to time, I did find myself wishing things would move along.

At its most basic, this is the story of the Sellers and the Devines, two rival families in a fishing village in Newfoundland. The interpersonal and public relationships between the two families, formed by their respective patriarch and monarch, focus the plot; however, the cast of characters and the plot lines go far beyond these two families.

The story is not chronological. Actually, there were many times while reading I found myself curious as to the when. The only explanation I can give for the out-of-order relating of events, the giant gaps of time, and the weaving back and forth through time, is that you find out what you need to know when you need to know it. This doesn't exactly make reading the novel very comfortable (or easy for that matter) but it certainly does make reading interesting.

My only real complaint is that I felt things a bit too mellow from time to time. Without a central, driving conflict, the action lacked a cause and effect intensity, and I found it easy to put the book aside for long periods of time. When I did pick it up, I could read for hours, but there was no real sense of urgency, no feeling of "what will happen next?" to encourage me to get to the end.

Most of the story deals with reality, everyday, if not exactly universally typical, events and people; however, there is a mystical air flowing throughout - a man emerging from the belly of a whale, witchy women, ghosts, superstition, and curses. The tinge of 'magical realism' colors the story just enough for a bit of the mystical, and this mystical quality really impressed me in its contradiction to the typically barren, always harsh, environment in which the story takes place.

When I think of fantasy, of magic, I think of lush forests and golden-tinged palaces, not a desolate and impotent landscape. The combination created a melancholy, esoteric tone and feel which I reveled in. So despite my occasional wish for a bit more purpose and action, I overall enjoyed the novel, and find it one to be savored if not devoured.
(less)

1 like · like · see review

Jun 09, 2011 Emily rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: ebooks, fiction, newfoundland

Galore combines history and folktales with a bit of magical realism to tell the fantastic and cryptic stories of several generations in a fictionalized Newfoundland outport called Paradise Deep. I loved how this book created a sense of tradition all around the eruptions of the weird. The characters were great. The dialogue was perfect. The writing was beautiful.

I am working on a genealogical/family history project tracing Newfoundland ancestors, and I felt like the specific issues I see there s...more

like · see review

Aug 09, 2011 Jenny rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: ebooks, cold-weather-islands, read2011, location-canada

This novel has a lot of elements that pretty much guarantee an enjoyable read for me - a bleak, cold-weather island setting; embedded superstitions and magical realism; religious conflict; quirky characters... this is my "type." Readers who enjoyed The Shipping News or Ahab's Wife: Or, The Star-gazer would probably enjoy this.

I did get a bit bogged down in the discussion of the fisherman's union, although surely that was timely in the period this is set. That and a frustration with how the secon...more

1 like · like · see review

Jul 27, 2011 Heather rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In the small Newfoundland island town of Paradise Deep a strange occurrence has turned the town upside down. It seems a huge whale has beached itself on the shore, and due to the fishing town’s recent hardships, the residents soon begin to divvy up the carcass for food and fuel. But when the widow Devine begins to cut through the animals stomach, she and the other onlookers are surprised to see a man tumble out. He’s a strange man indeed, with his white hair and skin, and he seems to be mute as...more In the small Newfoundland island town of Paradise Deep a strange occurrence has turned the town upside down. It seems a huge whale has beached itself on the shore, and due to the fishing town’s recent hardships, the residents soon begin to divvy up the carcass for food and fuel. But when the widow Devine begins to cut through the animals stomach, she and the other onlookers are surprised to see a man tumble out. He’s a strange man indeed, with his white hair and skin, and he seems to be mute as well. He also stinks of dead fish, and it’s a smell destined to never go away. So begins the magical and dense saga of a town that’s unlike any you’ll ever experience. Love and hate, passions and feuds, birth and death, they’re all encompassed in this winding and rich tale of a town lost in the middle of the ocean, a town that society forgot. As Crummey follows the handful of families on the island over a span of a hundred years or more, we share in their heartbreaks and sorrows, their triumphs and defeats. In this magnificent and unusual tale, the magic of Paradise Deep and its inhabitants is cleverly meted out with an eye for the fantastical, wonderful and strange.

This was a hard book to summarize; not because it was confusing but because there was just so much going on that it would have been impossible to even hint at all the plot permutations and narrative twists. I found that although I tried to sit down and read this one straight through, it was almost impossible to do so because of the book’s density and the abundance of genealogical information. This isn’t to say that I didn’t enjoy the book, because I did. I thought there was a great use of magical realism that didn’t end up stretching into absurdity and that all the various components of the town’s saga were captivating and engaging. Though it took me awhile to rip through this one, I was very pleased with both the journey and the destination.

Part of what I loved about this book was Crummey’s ability to be playful and at times crass. It was obvious that although there was a lot of gravity in this story, the author didn’t take himself or his characters too seriously; in turn, I was rewarded with a great sense of the joviality of Paradise Deep’s residents. There were some heartbreaking moments as well, and the balance between gravity and humor was one that was well played within this tale. The more I read, the deeper I fell into the spell of the story and the more intimately I began to understand the characters and their motivations. There was a great give and take here, a seesawing between the details of the town’s growth and the characters’ interplay with one another that was mingled with just a touch of the magical realism that I so enjoy.

I think it’s a feat to manage such a sprawling novel the way that Crummey did. The book wasn’t astronomically large, but seemed to encompass so much time in a succinct and elegant way. From the moment the strange man is disgorged from the whale’s belly, Crummey is off and running with his history of Paradise Deep and his eccentric cast of characters, who are always doing something surprising and counter-intuitive. I also really enjoyed Crummey’s character creation because it was extremely layered for a book of this scope and size. Most of the characters were given a lot of development and substance, which is impressive considering that there were probably over two dozen characters in play. But what’s also impressive is that Galore didn’t feel overpopulated at all. While there were times when I had to check the family tree in the front of the book, each character managed to be singular and richly defined.

When I finally got to the last page, I fully realized the magic that Crummey had managed with this book. His story went from engaging and intriguing to ephemeral and awe-inspiring. It was an ending that I had started to guess at, but the implications it created made me rethink the whole story. And when I started to look back, I saw that those missing puzzle pieces had been there all along, just waiting for a savvy reader to pick them up and fit them all together. I can’t say I knew this all along though, and had to wait for that final page for the wheels to begin churning in my brain. In some ways, this book reminded me of A Hundred Years of Solitude, with its scope and intention feeling very similar. It also reminded me that when magical realism is done right, it can be just…well, magical.

I’m going to have to jump on the bandwagon and join the other reviewers who thought this book was brilliant. It wasn’t what I had been expecting, and although I had read several reviews, the book was constantly surprising to me. Though I went into things with high expectations, Galore really delivered and inspired me to check out more of Crummey’s work. It was definitely a dense and chewy book, but one that I think a lot of readers would enjoy. I know it was an unexpected treat for me. This is a book I would definitely recommend.
(less)

like · see review

Apr 21, 2011 Steve rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novels

Galore is the kind of epic that swallows its reader whole: the Newfoundland of the novel is so vivid in its sights, sounds, and smells — even the unpleasant ones, like a character who carries the permanent reek of rotting fish — that I was engrossed to the point of forgetting the world I actually live in (perfect for the airports and airplanes where I read most of it). Michael Crummey's characters are also swallowed, by whales, by water and ice, by the forces of history local and global, and by...more

1 like · like · see review

Oct 09, 2009 Marcella rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

So wonderful
What's not to like about a book that opens with a man being cut from the belly of a beached whale on the coast of Newfoundland...and he revives...and ... (Random House review)
Sprawling and intimate, stark and fantastical, Galore is a novel about the power of stories to shape and sustain us.
An intricate family saga and love story spanning two centuries, Galore is a portrait of the improbable medieval world that was rural Newfoundland, a place almost too harrowing and extravagant to b...more

1 like · like · see review

Apr 16, 2011 Nathan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, read-2011, firstreads

When I entered to receive this book in firstreads, it was the kind of book I looked at and thought may be alright to read when I was in one of those I don't know what to read modes. I'm very happy I had the opportunity to read a book I may have otherwise missed out on.

Galore is the story of the Devine family in Newfoundland. The entire thing made me think of One Hundred Years of Solitude, only it was much more ... North American. Like the classic South American book, Galore tracks a family thro...more When I entered to receive this book in firstreads, it was the kind of book I looked at and thought may be alright to read when I was in one of those I don't know what to read modes. I'm very happy I had the opportunity to read a book I may have otherwise missed out on.

Galore is the story of the Devine family in Newfoundland. The entire thing made me think of One Hundred Years of Solitude, only it was much more ... North American. Like the classic South American book, Galore tracks a family through many generations. There are strong, almost eternal, characters who seem to dominate the family for decades on end, but in a much less magical type of way. There is a strong "Protestant work ethic" feel to the book, even if many of the characters are Catholic. The characters antagonists in the book aren't bad guys, in fact they're also very easy to relate to, at least to an American.

Newfoundland itself is almost a character. It is hostile and cruel at times, but at other times giving and bountiful. It's always in the background shaping the lives of every character much in the same way as the women in the story shape the lives on their men. Despite the fact the land is usually more cruel than kind, the characters love it like family and forgive its failings. Never speaking, but there all the same.

Galore well written and deserves the place it holds as literary. While easy to read and easy to follow, Crummey makes some writing decisions that are uncommon. There are no quotations in the book. When someone speaks it is preceded for followed by a "so and so said" or it is set of with a -- before the spoken words. Mixed with the occasional multi year jumps between paragraphs and the book as a dreamy, slightly fantastic feel. Mixed with the Anglican/Catholic/Methodist interactions the telling feeling maybe more religious or divine than fantastic.

All in all it was a great read and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys literature. The book is complex and deep, yet easy to read. The book is rife with symbols and literary device, but still reads like a page turner. My first firstread was more than I had hoped for. (less)

like · see review

May 17, 2012 Elizabeth-Anne rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read this partly on a whim and partly because I am fascinated by those people who live in locations that you would think no rational person would choose as their home. A remote coastal town in 19th Century Newfoundland would certainly seem to be one of those places, and Michael Crummey captures the harshness of life there in his rambling saga of family and community. His novel depicts the loves, conflicts, triumphs and tragedies (mostly the latter) of a sometimes bewildering number of characte...more

like · see review

Jun 16, 2011 Rachel Devenish rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I started reading Galore and I was carried off my own feet in my small apartment in Nepal, carried to a cold and difficult island off the east coast of Canada. Carried so effectively that it didn't matter whether or not I previously thought of Newfoundland as such a barren, unwelcoming place, what mattered was that I believed it. I believed that a man could be cut from a whale and smell of fish ever after, that he could pass the trait to his son, that he could be mute and white and magical. I be...more

3 likes · like · see review

title link	preview: Galore
avg rating	preview: Galore Goodreads rating: 3.70 (1774 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10769183-galore?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1356179535l/10769183.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10769183-galore?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Galore by Michael Crummey[/url]

Galore

Friend Reviews

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topic
Discuss This Book

combine
Other Editions (17)

Videos About This Book

Genres

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About Michael Crummey

Books by Michael Crummey

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website

Trivia About Galore

Quotes from Galore