Isobel Gunn

by Audrey Thomas

Isobel Gunn, Audrey Thomas's eighth novel, is the heart-rending tale of a poor Orkney woman who tries to escape her tragic family circumstances by disguising herself as a man and running away to work for the Hudson's Bay Company in northern Canada. Her deception is uncovered when she gives birth to a son. Quickly deported back to Orkney, Isobel dies over half a century later still awaiting her son's return. Like many of Thomas's fictions, this work revolves around lost children, in this case more explicitly than in most. A number of them surface in this novel, not least a remote descendant of Isobel's, killed in the battle of Scapa Flow just near her final resting place. Such coincidences provide little consolation for the book's characters, including Magnus Inkster, the clergyman narrator, who finds his faith coming unstuck as he contemplates Isobel's misfortunes and begins to doubt the author-like schemes of his god. Isobel Gunn is a more seamless, less self-conscious narrative than much of Thomas's work. Having her male narrator tell his own tale allows her to withdraw from the distanced, meta-critical voice familiar to readers of her other books. The commentary is still there, but subtler and more nuanced, which should help Isobel Gunn garner Thomas a wider audience and the recognition she deserves. --Robyn Gillam

Genres: Historical Fiction, Canadian Literature, Canada

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Audrey Grace Thomas, née Callahan, novelist and short story writer (b at Binghamton, NY 17 Nov 1935). Audrey Thomas was educated at Smith College, Mass, and St Andrews University, Scotland, and then taught in England for a year. In 1959 she moved to Canada and in 1963 earned an MA at the University of British Columbia. From 1964 to 1966 she lived in Ghana, but eventually settled on Galiano Island. She has published more than 15 novels and short story collections, more than 20 radio plays, several broadcast on CBC Radio, and numerous travel articles, some of which featured in Air Canada's in-flight magazine.

Thomas' writing has been described as feminine; her forte is the minutiae of women's lives, and she has claimed to strive "to demonstrate the terrible gap between men and women" and "to give women a sense of their bodies." Her style is characterized by word play; she emphasizes puns, etymologies, euphemisms, words within words, and pointing to the inherent possibilities, ironies and ambiguities of language. This close attention to language highlights the act of writing itself, and the possibilities and impossibilities of communication in human relationships. Her writing is also rich with literary allusion, from Shakespeare to Conrad, and from the Bible to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Audrey Thomas is a multi-award winning author. She has been recognized provincially, winning the Ethel Wilson Prize three times (for Intertidal Life, 1985, Wild Blue Yonder, 1991 and Coming Down from Wa, 1996). She has twice been nominated for the Governor General's Award (1984 and 1985), and has been internationally recognized with the Canada-Scotland Writer's Literary fellowship (1984-6) and the Canada-Australia Literary Prize (1989). In 1987 she won the Marian Engel Award, awarded annually to a female Canadian author for her contribution to Canadian literature. In 2003 Audrey Thomas won the Terasen Lifetime Achievement Award.

(from http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.co...)

Reviews

[Philippa Dowding · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is such an interesting story. Based loosely on the real life of Hudson's Bay Company man, John Fubbister, who arrives in Moose Factory in 1806 to work in the fur trade for three years ... until "he" gives birth to a healthy baby boy in 1807! Isobel Gunn had been living as a man in one of the most inhospitable places on earth, masquerading as HBC man John Fubbister, for almost two years until she had a child by co-worker John Scarth. How fascinating (and a bit of a surprise for Alexander Henry who found Isobel/John in the throes of labour on his hearth!).

I liked this book, it was really moving and quite beautifully written in places. It seems very real, since Thomas brings the wasteland of James Bay, Moose Factory, Fort Albany, and the woods of 19th century Canada to life pretty well. You get to know the inner workings of the HBC from its earliest days, and the book is full of weird facts and strange truths about frontier life in James Bay, native life and trade, and lots about the humble beaver. The Scottish Orkney Islands play a big part too, as does the sea. Obviously a great deal of work went into the historical research.

But ... outside of the careful historical stuff and the fact that Isobel Gunn was a woman among men, most of the story itself and the rest of the characters, are fictional. Which is a pity, in a way. I would have liked to know more about the real Isobel Gunn, but I suppose there was probably very little written about her in her lifetime, and she was illiterate so couldn't write her own story. It seems that Thomas also alters some of the key facts we did know to be true about Isobel Gunn (her son stays with her in reality for instance) which strikes me as odd: why change the truth?

Still, if you like historical fiction, and you're at all interested in one writer's imaginings of what one woman's life masquerading as a man might have been like on the frontier of the Canadian fur trade ... it's a good read. If this sounds interesting, you might also want to read "The Orenda" by Joseph Boyden. Here's my review of that book: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[LibraryCin · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Isobel Gunn was a woman who grew up on the Orkney Islands (Scotland) in the late 1700s/early 1800s, but decided to disguise herself as a man in 1806 to get to Rupert's Land (part of what is now Canada). She worked as a man for over a year before giving birth to a son and being found out. Not much is known about the real Isobel Gunn.

This wasn't quite what I expected, as it was not told from Isobel's point of view. It was told from the point of view of a minister in Rupert's Land, a minister who also grew up in Orkney, and had met Isobel a couple of times when she was a little girl (although she didn't remember him). So, it initially took me a little bit to realize this and that the book wouldn't switch to Isobel's point of view. Once I finally gave in to that, it got a little more interesting for me in the second half of the book. Overall, it was good, just not quite what I expected.

[Susan Chow-Dukhan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Story concept was good. The author's portrayal of the main character as a caring, determined survivor makes the reader sympathetic to what Isobel has gone through, and hopes for a happy ending.
I would have preferred that the story be told in chronological order. I found the first half of the book a little confusing, because it referred to characters that we hadn't encountered yet. At one point, I skimmed through the earlier chapters again, to no avail, looking for a character that had been named in two different parts of the book, only to find out that the character is not introduced until near the end of the book. I enjoyed the second half of the book, after I was able to figure out who each character was, and the sequence of events.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing story of a woman who worked for The Hudson's Bay Company as a man, until she was discovered. This was a chapter of Canadian history of which I was unaware until I happened upon this book.

[Rebecca Nagrodski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Historical fiction at it's very, very best
The main plot in itself is fantastic - but the other elements (spiritual questions; sidebars with other characters) make it simply beautiful

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellently compassionate book about Isobel Dunn, a famous Orkney Islander making her way in the world.

[Luce Cronin · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a very interesting story! The author has rendered a piece of Scottish and Canadian history into an engaging novel!

[Mallee Stanley · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Orkney islanders think Isobel Gunn is crazy when she races to meet each ship docked in the harbour asking about James. Only Magnus remembers how heroic Isobel was twenty years earlier when she disguised herself as a man and sailed to Rupert’s Land back in the 1800s to work in the harsh Canadian wilderness.

Equally as good is Thomas’ Tatty Coram, a minor character from one of Dickens’ novels whom she weaves into the life of Dickens himself.

For more of my 5 out of 5 reviews visit https://readandwrite.blog/malleestanley/

[Diana Sandberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent, though dreadfully sad. I was relieved somewhat, if somewhat irrationally, to look up Isobel Gunn online and find the details of her life diverged from this story at a crucial point. I say irrationally because the reality of the story lies in the heartache depicted, not the correlation to history. If the real Isobel Gunn did not live these events, others have, piecemeal perhaps, and it is the recognition of that that makes the story so sad.

[Catherine · Rating 2 out of 5]

The narration of this book was confusing, it jumped around too much and so lost any suspense. Sometimes I couldn't figure out who was talking or where the narrator was.
Last part seemed emotionally manipulative, it was too sad.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Supposedly based on a true story, it's a good CanLit story. The odd hole in the plot, but overall quite good.