River Thieves

by Michael Crummey

2001 Giller Prize Nominee
2002 Amazon.com/Books in Canada First Novel Award Shortlist: In River Thieves, his first novel, poet and short-story writer Michael Crummey reaches far into Newfoundland's past to tell one of the colony's most tragic stories: the extermination of the Beothuk people. Through the lives and reminiscences of some of the colony's most prominent European residents--David Buchan, a naval explorer and idealist who attempts to bring the isolated Beothuks into productive contact with the British Empire; John Peyton Jr., the obedient son of a relentlessly patriarchal local trader; Cassie Jure, John Peyton Sr.'s literate, aloof housekeeper; and Joseph Reilly, a transported Irish thief and a genuinely decent trapper--Crummey recounts a halfhearted attempt, foiled by the colony's petty tensions, to save the Beothuks.

River Thieves is an oddly meandering novel, and this is its greatest appeal. Rather than offering a grisly, guilt-ridden adventure story that rushes from its suitably portentous beginning to its inevitably sombre end, Crummey works with a meandering sort of history, one that has to go over the same events a few times before they begin to give up their secrets, temporarily leaving his readers as disoriented as his benighted characters. The book's real heart--the Beothuks--never becomes fully articulate; the Beothuks remain buried on the shore, or encamped among the snows of Red Indian Lake. Anyone who wants this kind of story to come equipped with heroes and, perhaps, even answers, should turn to Rudy Wiebe, but Crummey's labyrinthine approach has its own distinct appeal. --Jack Illingworth

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Canada, Historical, Book Club, Canadian Literature, Literary Fiction

432 pages, Paperback

First published September 11, 2001

About the author

Born in Buchans, Newfoundland, Crummey grew up there and in Wabush, Labrador, where he moved with his family in the late 1970s. He went to university with no idea what to do with his life and, to make matters worse, started writing poems in his first year. Just before graduating with a BA in English he won the Gregory Power Poetry Award. First prize was three hundred dollars (big bucks back in 1987) and it gave him the mistaken impression there was money to be made in poetry.

He published a slender collection of poems called Arguments with Gravity in 1996, followed two years later by Hard Light. 1998 also saw the publication of a collection of short stories, Flesh and Blood, and Crummey's nomination for the Journey Prize.

Crummey's debut novel, River Thieves (2001) was a Canadian bestseller, winning the Thomas Head Raddall Award and the Winterset Award for Excellence in Newfoundland Writing. It was also shortlisted for the Giller Prize, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, the Books in Canada First Novel Award, and the IMPAC Award. His second novel, The Wreckage (2005), was nominated for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and longlisted for the 2007 IMPAC Award.

Galore was published in Canada in 2009. A national bestseller, it was the winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book (Canada & Caribbean), the Canadian Authors' Association Fiction Prize and was shortlisted for the Governor-General's Award for fiction.

He lives in St. John's, Newfoundland with his wife and three step-kids.

Reviews

[Debbie W. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why I chose to read this book:
1. GR friend, Linda J.'s review caught my eye:
2. last year, I read Canadian author Michael Crummey's book The Innocents and found this debut novel in a thrift store; and,
3. April 2024 is my "Aqueous Titles" Month!

Praises:
1. a "heavy" character-driven read focusing on relations between British settlers and the now-extinct Beothuk people in early 19th-century Newfoundland, Canada. I found the characters to be unlikable, but highly believable;
2. I had my suspicions regarding the questionable deaths of two "Red Indians" as I followed the characters through this colony's bleak and atmospheric weather and terrain;
3. Crummey makes excellent use of inference by showing, not telling;
4. I appreciated how the title made a significant link between England's River Thames and Newfoundland's River of Exploits;
5. the inclusion of a map of 1839 Newfoundland with a close-up of the northeast coast was helpful; and,
6. the ending was perfectly realistic.

Niggles:
1. I often had difficulty comprehending directions taken by these characters on various expeditions in relation to the enclosed map;
2. I was expecting a larger focus on the Beothuk;
3. at one point, the author referred to a pack weighing "85 kilograms". Nope! Newfoundland was a British colony back then, so the characters would have used "pounds" and not the metric system; and,
4. my largest niggle was how the story's timelines would frequently change, often from paragraph to paragraph, leading me to try to figure out who was who and what the heck was going on!

Overall Thoughts:
Initially, I was ready to give this book 2 or 3 stars, because it took me such a long time to read as I struggled with the first half, trying to make sense of the characters and fractured timelines. Midway through; however, it started to come together, with a mystery that kept me riveted.

As in his book The Innocents, Crummey isn't adverse to depicting graphic scenes of sex or violence, so consider yourself warned.

A unique look into historical fiction from Canada! Personally, I preferred this one over his book The Innocents. If interested, hang in there! I promise, it does get better.

[Joy D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in Newfoundland, 1811-1820, this book is a fictionalized version of real events. John Peyton, Sr., John Peyton, Jr., and tutor Cassie Jure live together near the north shore where they make a living by fishing and trapping. Captain David Buchan is a British naval officer who attempts to encourage trade and end hostilities between the settlers and the Beothuk. The book features two expeditions to the Beothuk, each of which ends in violence. The Peytons bring back a Beothuk woman, whom they call Mary. Buchan investigates the second expedition to determine if a crime was committed. Cassie teaches Mary rudimentary English. Mary provides information to Buchan about the violence that preceded her abduction.

Crummey has a knack for vividly describing the rugged wilderness. “The coves and stark headlands, the sprawling stands of spruce so deeply green they are almost black. The mountain alder, the tuckamore and deer moss. The lakes and ponds of the interior as delicately interconnected as the organs of an animal’s body, the rivers bleeding from their old wounds along the coast into the sea.”

He brings back a time and place when a diverse group of settlers coexisted with the Beothuk, just before they were extinguished as a people. The relationships among the characters are well-crafted. John Sr. is portrayed as hostile to the Beothuk, while his son is compassionate. Buchan zealously enforces British law. Cassie is a survivor of a difficult upbringing.

The book portrays the conflicts between the settlers and native people. I particularly appreciated the way Crummey combined the historical story with adversarial tensions among the protagonists. It is a story of misunderstandings, miscommunications, cultural differences, and loss of a way of life.

[Heather(Gibby) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael Crummey draws a very rich portrayal of a little known struggle in history between the early settlers in newfoundland and the Beothuk Indians who were driven to extinction by being cut off from their resources and way of life. The characters are portrays as multilayered flawed individuals faced with difficult choices to make in order to survive in a harsh landscape.

The story moves back and forth in time to reveal more and more details on a pivotal event which has a profound effect on all involved both directly and indirectly in it.

Michael Crummey is truly a Canadian gem.

[Krista · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the eyes of the British Crown at the time, the island of Newfoundland wasn't considered a proper colony, but a sort of floating fishing station and training ground for naval recruits, a country that existed only during the summer months. Most of the planters and fishermen returned to England for the winter, as did the governor himself.

River Thieves is a fictional imagining of a real historic time that author Michael Crummey populated with real people (those on the side whose stories have survived anyway) and it reads like a history lesson, an adventure tale, and a finely wrought piece of ironic literature -- no matter how well-intentioned the players involved, the reader can see the noose tightening and the inevitability of a tragic outcome. I was fighting against myself reading this book: wanting to keep reading to see what would happen and desperately wanting to put this book down and turn my mind to something else.

In the early 1800s -- with Newfoundland sparsely populated outside of St. John's and the indigenous Beothuk driven into the inhospitable interior of the island -- Governor Duckworth and his representative, British naval officer James Buchan, were determined to establish a friendly relationship with the "Red Indians" (so named for the ochre that they rubbed onto their bodies and belongings). Buchan travelled to the northeast shore -- where there resided colonists who had had sightings of the Beothuk -- and he encouraged several of these men to join his expedition to make contact. Buchan's ultimate goal was to convince one of the Natives to return with him, learn English, and become an interpreter between the two peoples; even if "convincing" meant "kidnapping". The expedition goes wrong and Governor Duckworth calls an end to the efforts.

A decade later, after more skirmishes between the Beothuk and the settlers, Buchan returns under the orders of a new governor, and this time, he learns of the hidden histories of attacks and reprisals, crimes and outrages, prejudices and outright murder. As Buchan once again leads a group into the frozen wilds of the interior, it's unclear whether or not there are any Beothuk left to contact. Humanising this grand sweep of events, River Thieves is fleshed out with a fascinating array of characters, each with their own private histories, expertly unveiled. As the reader learns of each character's hidden motivations, it becomes easier to spot the villains, but no easier to prevent the Beothuk's fate.

We have taken the tragedy of an entire race of people, Mr. Peyton, and cheapened it with our own sordid little melodrama.

I was fascinated by this concept: I have no idea if Duckworth and Buchan's intentions were really this altruistic -- find a way to communicate with the Beothuk, even if it means taking and educating one of them against his will -- but without a method of communicating, the cycle of misunderstandings, theft, reprisal, ambushes, and "recompense" would never end, and ultimately, it didn't matter who started the cycle: it was inevitable who would come out on top. But were the British overlords really more compassionate towards the Beothuk than they were everywhere else on the continent? As Crummey outlines his research at the end, I'll have to take his word for it unless I decide to go to original sources myself.

Crummey expertly captured the minutia of the era -- in both the domestic and political spheres -- with an especial focus on the work of the men; the fishing, trapping, hunting, and dressing of meat and furs. He also has a real talent for writing women characters and the lives and labours of both Cassie and Annie Boss were totally believable. The history of this time was very interesting with the British government's stance on Newfoundland being influenced by the recent Revolutionary War in America, the shifting relationship with the French during and after the Napoleonic wars, and the hierarchy of prejudices among the colonists themselves: the British brought with them their firm class system with which to judge each other, but they all looked down their noses at Irish Catholics and Natives, while the Mi'kmaq who settled on Newfoundland with the French felt superior to the Beothuk (and as for Buchan, every time he was confronted with English atrocities, he was pleased to point out that he was Scottish).

Capturing a long gone time and place with a prose style that is as spare and lovely as Newfoundland itself, Crummey's first novel is an engaging and worthwhile read.

The sun had fallen below the ceiling of grey cloud, illuminating the enormous stretch of ice, and the snow on the branches of spruce terraced on the valley's hills burned gold all around them. It was like walking into a cathedral lit with candles and the group stood there exhausted and breathing heavily, leaning on walking sticks and bent forward to balance the weight of their packs, all with the worn look of awe of a group of pilgrims.

[Ian M. Pyatt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely brilliant!

Loved the characters, dialogue, setting, plot(s), battle descriptions (disturbing as they were), life in the very early days and brutal of Newfoundland. The potential court case was interesting and the ending of who killed which 2 two Indians was a surprise.

I saw Mr. Crummey at a Wordfest event in October 2019 when he was promoting his book The Innocents and he is a great story teller. If you get the chance to see him in-person or on a Zoom type situation, I would do so.

[Elizabeth (Alaska) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is definitely fiction, but apparently based on an actual event. The epigraph:

Various versions of this event have appeared from time to time in our histories and other publications, but as numerous discrepancies characterise these accounts, I prefer to give the story as I had it from the lips of the late John Peyton, J.P. of Twillingate, himself the actual captor of the Beothuk woman. —James P. Howley, The Beothuks or Red Indians, published 1915

The events take place from about 1810 through 1820 in Newfoundland. Nearly all of it takes place in winter, when the rivers and lakes are frozen. It is hard to imagine a harsher life.

Expectation accompanied the actual captor of the Beothuk woman and I felt an undercurrent of tension in the pages leading up to the capture - more than halfway. I need to state, however, that the tension is so much in the mind of the reader, that everything on the actual page is life pretty much as the characters would be expected to live it. There is no expectation on their part that anything unusual will happen in their near future.

We are given both a sense of time and a sense of place. He looked overhead at the oncoming weather. Where the black banks of cloud met and overlapped there were brilliant red and gold seams of light burning through, the colours as vivid as molten lava. I was too caught up in the story to do much underlining, but I used the dictionary more often than usual. At the beginning of chapters, Crummey gives us a Newfoundland Dictionary definition of some words or phrases. I looked up others. The old man slathered his gandies with molasses and recounted the pleasure of yet another night of uninterrupted slumber. What are gandies? A Google search tells me it is fried dough or bread, cut in about the size of a hamburger patty; usually buttered and with molasses.

Those who need mostly plot may not appreciate this. The strength of the novel is in the characterizations, again I say the sense of place, and also the writing style. The writing isn't necessarily beautiful, but the way the words are put together makes it seem to say more than just the words might otherwise convey. Sometimes the silence between the characters was palpable, other times a facial expression was clear and conveyed much.

I'm sorry I let this languish on my shelves so long. I added it to my Kindle holding nearly 4 years ago to the day. On the other hand, sometimes a book happens precisely when one is ready to read it. Perhaps that is the case with this. There were a few places where I wanted Crummey to just get on with it. This is 5-stars, but with that thought in mind, only just so.

[Susan Oleksiw · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the early 1800s the territory that will become Newfoundland is still populated by Beothuk, Micmac, and various Europeans engaged in hunting, trapping and fishing. The British governor hopes to establish cordial relations with the Beothuk, also called Red Indians for the red ochre they used to paint their bodies. Responding to his call to bring back a Beothuk who will learn English and serve as an intermediary, John Peyton and a band of men find a camp and capture a Beothuk woman, setting in motion a series of tragic encounters between the Indians and the Europeans.

John Peyton joins his father, John Senior, on one of his regular trips to Newfoundland from England when he is only a boy of fourteen. He never returns to England and learns instead the life of a trapper and fisherman, working his father’s extensive holdings in the new land. He works with trappers who have participated in Indian wars and taken opportunities for wanton cruelty, who have married Indians and moved to the interior, who have trapped alone among both tribes for decades, or who have lived in the growing port of St. John’s, surviving fires and famine. They live hard lives of deprivation, violence, and physically exhausting work with little reward.

Cassie Jura leaves St. John’s to tend house for John Senior and tutor young John Peyton. A woman who knows the outdoors as well as any man, Cassie is also erudite and stoic. With her trunk of books, she teaches the young boy about Shakespeare and the larger world, but tells nothing of herself. She knows little about John Senior except that he lets her live her life while he traps and hunts. When John Peyton brings home a Beothuk woman named Mary, it becomes Cassie’s job to teach her English.

This is a stunning tale of life in the 1800s in an unforgiving land among hardened settlers. The characters are superbly drawn. The women are especially well developed—Cassie, Annie Boss, and Mary, among others. I couldn’t get enough of Annie Boss, a Micmac woman married to Reilly, an Irish trapper. The prejudices and fears and hatred cut across every nationality, religion, race, occupation, challenging the men and women at every step. The book is a joy to read. Crummy holds the reader with every sentence, urging the reader to take time with each thought, each turn of phrase or incident. Highly recommended.

[Shane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous story about a vanishing ( or already vanished breed?) of Indians in Newfoundland. The characters are strong and memorable, the terrain rough and unforgiving - a great place to situate a story.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Crummey's first novel concerns colonization as well as the sin that comes along with that. At times the prose draws you in, though sometimes the female characters feel a bit flat.

[Olga Kowalska (WielkiBuk) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review coming soon. :)

[Chłopaki Czytają · Rating 3 out of 5]

Czuć, że to debiut, ale debiut bardzo obiecujący. Emocjonalna, trudna opowieść o pierwotnych mieszkańcach Nowej Fundlandii, i o tym jak zostali zniszczeni przez białych kolonizatorów. Smutne.

[Deborah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crummy's first novel is set in Newfoundland in 1810, when Captain David Buchan arrives with orders from the English king to make contact with Beothuk, also known as the Red Indians because of the ochre they smear on their skins. The local settlers are less than enthusiastic; the Beothuk are reclusive, they claim, moving about with the seasons, and the evidence of their presence is usually in the form of stolen goods or killings. Nevertheless, John Peyton agrees to recruit a few of his fellow trappers and take the marines north. Peyton's father, known as John Senior, warns that the journey will be futile and perhaps even tragic. It ends when two marines are brutally slaughtered.

But Buchan returns a few years later with orders not only to establish relations with the Beothuk but to find out the truth behind an incident that left two Indian men dead on an icy lake. The truth unravels slowly, thwarted by lies, rivalries, secrets, and loyalties. Crummy's tale, set against the unforgiving winter landscape, is a study of human survival, its violence, passion, and revenge. At the heart of it all are the conflicts and loyalties within the Peyton household, among the father, his son, and and Cassie, an independent woman brought home years earlier by John Senior as a teacher, a housekeeper, and possibly a lover. The main characters are complex, forced by circumstances to trust one another despite their basic distrust. Buchan's arrival sets the stage for secrets of the past to start unraveling.

Crummy brings this eerie, melancholy world to life, particularly through his brilliant descriptions of the hostile Newfoundland landscape. His cast of characters, in addition to those mentioned above, are intriguing and original. There's Joseph Reilly, branded and expatriated as a boy for picking pockets, and his Christian Mikmuk wife, Annie Boss, the local healer and midwife. Richmond and Taylor, rough trappers who have known one another since childhood. Mary, a young Beothuk woman kidnapped by John Peyton in an act of government-sanctioned reparation for stolen goods. Governor Hamilton, the ineffective overseer of the colony. And many lesser but still significant characters, some long dead yet still wielding influence over the settlers.

This is the second novel by Michael Crummy that I have read and enjoyed, and I look forward to catching up with the rest.

[Jay Warner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michael Crummey hails from Nova Scotia, where the book is set, so its no wonder he can describe in such intimate detail the little rivers and creeks, necks and beaches, hills, and valleys. I found myself totally immersed in the world that was St. John in the early 1800s, the lives of the trappers and the interference of the English. Crummey brought the time period to life in ways I could never get from a history book. He also takes a very daring approach to historical fiction in his depictin of the Red Indians and the MicMacs, given that our current "political correctness" sometimes causes us to whitewash the way that Native Americans were thought of, and treated. This is a nice contrast to Louise Erdrich's books which are from the viewpoint of the native. Crummey's book is from the viewpoint of the trapper. There are also graphic descriptions of trapping practices including setting traps, coming upon a frightened animal who has tried to chew its way out of a leg trap, slaughter, and skinning. These sections of the book are not for the squeamish. If you have any interest in early pre-nation settlement of Canada, you will love this book as much as I do.

[Joanna Slow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Od dawna chciałam sięgnąć po Crummeya. Aż wreszcie zdobyłam ebooka dzięki pakietowi BigBook festival na Bookrage! I to jest to! Mam kolejnego autora do dodania do ulubionych. Pozornie wszystko nie dla mnie. Historia dziejąca sie na Nowej Funlandii ponad 200 lat temu. Męskie klimaty, polowania, brutalne opisy polowań na zwierzęta i ludzi :-(. Fabuła rozwijająca sie powoli, niewiele zwrotów akcji, a nie mogłam sie oderwać gdy juz zanurzyłam sie w klimacie. Historie kolejnych postaci przedstawiane bez chronologii, ale tak by czytelnik bez problemu składał je sobie w całość. Brak ludzi dobrych, brak ludzi złych, za to barwne, pełne postaci przedstawione bez grama lukru czy ckliwości. Pióro przedstawiające zdarzenia prosto, a zarazem poetycko bez kropli sentymentalizmu. Ta książka to przykład tego co kocham w literaturze. Juz nie mogę doczekać się zanurzenia w kolejnych powieściach autora. Ale i wydawnictwa Wiatr od Morza, które zdaje się fantastycznie wynajdywać perełki (właśnie czytam zachwycające "Wakacje" Middeltona i czuje ze to znowu będzie strzał w dziesiątkę!). No i wracam do papieru bo wydawnictwo nie wydaje ebooków :-)

[Irene · Rating 4 out of 5]

I LOVED Michael Crummy's second novel, The Wreckage. I had River Thieves for months before starting it, for fear of being disappointed. I wasn't ready until Galore was published. As it turns out, I was disappointed, which is not to say River Thieves is not a very good book. It's just very different from The Wreckage. It is Michael Crummy's first novel. What disappointed me was that I had to really work to get into the book, unlike the Wreckage which had me hooked right from the beginning. That said, it is a very interesting novel, which takes place in the early 1800's in Newfoundland. Based on actual events, it concerns interactions between native indians, British settlers and Naval officials. It's set on the northeast coast, where the settlers fish in summer and trap in winter. The Navy is hoping to establish friendly relations between the two groups, both of whom depend on the same resources for their survival. Michael Crummy is a Newfoundlander and the dialogue between characters is rich in colloquialisms. It is an interesting window into a different time and place.

[Mary Billinghurst · Rating 5 out of 5]

I reread this novel for a presentation I have volunteered to do at the library. Honestly, I rarely reread books anymore since I have so many new ones I want to get through, but I am very glad I picked up River Thieves again. It is very good.

I love Crummey's narrative technique in this book. He outlines the key event of the plot (the capture of a Beothuk woman) at the very beginning, and then he returns to this moment many times as the story develops. Each time, we learn more details. It is as if Crummey has drawn a colouring book which he fills in vividly during the course of his work. Crummey seamlessly moves back and forth through history as well, giving us the main characters' backstories, to help us know them better. The characters are very richly drawn as a result.

In this, his first novel, Crummey explores the history and the culture of his native province, Newfoundland, something he does again in his later books, The Wreckage and Galore. His common thematic foci of unrequited love and the struggle against nature are introduced here.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved how Crummey told this story, moving around in time to weave a plot with surprises. In the process, several characters became more nuanced, and my assumptions disproved. He also told the story with continual reminders to the senses of this Newfoundland world: the cold, the ice, the mud, the flickering candles at night, the annoyance of flies in the summer, the smell of the chamber pot. I feel very lucky to have read this book. Shortly after finishing his newer book Galore, I realized I had purchased this book from the library's discarded book sale. And now it on my favorites shelf, a story I will undoubtedly have in my mind when I think of Newfoundland, with Cassie a character I didn't quite understand but certainly cared about.

[Jack Beaton · Rating 3 out of 5]

A compelling story but sometimes I found the story line confusing. I couldn't always tell where events I was reading about were chronologically.

[Karolina Sosnowska · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://tanayahczyta.wordpress.com/20...

[Mary Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really love Michael Crummey's books, but man are they of tough lives.
This one is about the treatment of the "Red Indians" in the area and an incident that is being investigated about the murder of two of them. These books have taught me so much, in a fictional way, about the history of Newfoundland, the harshness of early life there and now that there were indigenous peoples there when Europeans started to colonize the area.
I'm glad for the education.

[Gaby · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me forever to get into this book, it’s probably just me, but al the jumps in time and POV was too confusing to be really invested in the story and the characters; still an interesting story based on sadly real life

[Brett Starr · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've loved the other two Michael Crummey novels I read "Sweetland" & "The Innocents". He has a great style of writing that really pulls you into the story's setting. This novel is no different, it's the author's first novel and definitely a great story about a time & place you're unlikely to ever hear about otherwise.

Highly recommended. Seek out good books & enjoy!

BJ

[Janis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another Michael Crummey book that I enjoyed. Interesting characters and a look at some of the history of the Beothuk inhabitants of Newfoundland held my interest throughout.

[Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gritty adventure.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

For some reason, I wasn't able to rate this on Goodreads. I would give it five stars. It was so well-written, I found that 24 hours after finishing it, I actually missed it -- wished I could pick it up again today and keep reading.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lush, brooding story-telling.
Perfect mid-winter read. Especially if you can be next to a roaring fire — because this is set on Newfoundland’s north-east coast in the early 1800s and everyone is cold. All the time.

[Ben Shore · Rating 2 out of 5]

Man I was disappointed in this book and it contains everything I usually enjoy. I love a good wilderness setting and the atmosphere is great but the characters I could not understand. Everyone has an air of mystery that I felt really didn't work and each interaction had layers to it, but in a way that made the story dragggg. I wasn't invested until about halfway which in my opinion is too little too late.

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good historical fiction

[Gerry Burnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gerry B's Book Reviews - http://gerrycan.wordpress.com

My bio reads in part: Canada has a rich and colourful history that for the most part is waiting to be discovered, and River Thieves by Michael Crummey [Anchor Canada, 2009] is a case on point.

The Beothuk (pronounced “beo-thuk”) people of Newfoundland, a.k.a. “The Red Indians” because of the red ochre they smeared on their bodies, are truly one of the most fascinating and mysterious aspects of it. They are referred to as a “population isolate” because they developed their unique culture in total isolation, starting around 1 A.D. until—with the death of Shanawdithit (“Nancy April”) in1829—they were declared officially extinct.

Part of the extinction process was as a result of being retreated into areas that could not sustain them; European diseases (particularly tuberculoses) for which they had no immunity; and anecdotes of genocide in which they were hunted like wolves. Indeed, the extinction of such a shy, peaceful and unique people is a black mark in Canadian history.

All of this Michael Crummey has captured with remarkable insight, and a superb sense of time and place. His approach of fictionalizing historical events and persons (while not unique) is certainly affective in making them come to life in the context in which they existed, i.e. the rugged and austere wilderness of Newfoundland in the early nineteenth century.

British naval officer, James Buchan, [a real historical figure] is sent to the British Colony of Newfoundland to establish productive relations with the mysterious aboriginals. In order to accomplish this mission he recruits the help of the Peyton family—a sort of backwoods aristocracy led by the tough-minded John Peyton Sr., a ruthless Beothuk persecutor [yet another real individual and fact]. However, his son, John Jr., although dominated by his father, is also vested with a conscience and becomes Buchan’s ally.

Rounding off this complex household is Cassie Jure, the enigmatic housekeeper, who is surprisingly independent for a female servant of the 19th-century, but she nonetheless adds a feminine perspective to a dominant cast of men.

Crummey’s poetic style is a real boon here, for the setting is very much part of the story—both the harshness and austere beauty of its topography and climate. He has therefore woven it into tapestry as though it were one of the characters, emphasizing the hardy resilience of its occupants—like Joseph Reilly, a transported (“exiled”) Irish thief turned trapper. Likewise, his research and portrayal of 19th-century mores and terms gives it a solid credibility that invests the reader from beginning to end. For all these reasons, it is highly recommended. Five bees.

***

One of the historical events portrayed in this story is “The stealing of Demasduit (“Mary March”).

Demasduit was a Beothuk woman who is thought to have been about 23 years old when she was captured near Red Indian Lake in March 1819.

The governor of Newfoundland, although seeking to encourage trade and end hostilities between the Beothuk and the English, had approved an expedition led by captain David Buchan to recover a boat and other fishing gear which had been stolen by the Beothuk. A group from this expedition was led by John Peyton Jr. whose father John Peyton Sr. was a salmon fisherman known for his hostility towards the small tribe. On a raid, they killed Demasduit’s husband Nonosbawsut, then ran her down in the snow. She pleaded for her life, baring her breasts to show she was a nursing mother. They took Demasduit to Twillingate and Peyton earned a bounty on her. The baby died. Peyton was later appointed Justice of the Peace at Twillingate, Newfoundland.

The British called Demasduit Mary March after the month when she was taken. Later bringing her to St. John’s, Newfoundland, the colonial government wanted to give Desmaduit comfort and friendly treatment while she was with the English, hoping she might one day be a bridge between them and the Beothuk. Demasduit learned some English and taught the settlers about 200 words of Beothuk language. However, in January 1820 while making the trip back to Notre Dame Bay Demasduit died of tuberculosis before reaching her kin. Source: Wikipedia.

[Mary Jane Hele · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a fan of Michael Crummy's work and have wanted to read River Thieves for a while. Sadly I had difficulty following the moving back and forward in time with many of the accounts. I found myself going back and rereading parts of the story to get my bearings. The telling of memories of previous times occurred so suddenly that it was hard to separate the present from the past. All the same I did enjoy the book with the nuanced description of the characters, their emotions and character flaws and their complicated relationships to one another. You get such a strong feel for the harsh landscape and living conditions these people all lived in. You have a sense the Beothunk are already ghosts of the past before the telling of the tale.