From the Bookshelf of CanLit Challenge…

No Great Mischief

Alistair MacLeod

Discussion: CanLit Challenge 1968-2000

Discussion leader: Ibis3

Why we're reading this: Book #9. This book won one of the most prestigious (and the most lucrative) literary awards in the world,…more
[close] Book #9. This book won one of the most prestigious (and the most lucrative) literary awards in the world, The International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, in 2001. It prompted the Globe and Mail to declare "MacLeod is MacLeod, the greatest living Canadian writer and one of the most distinguished writers in the world. No Great Mischief is *the* book of the year--and of this decade. It is a once-in-a-lifetime masterpiece."

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CanLit Challenge 1968-2000

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last updated Mar 03, 2013 03:12PM

Flames Across the Border: 1813-1814 by Pierre Berton, #61
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last updated Mar 03, 2013 03:02PM

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What Members Thought

Dec 15, 2010 Mrsgaskell rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: bookcrossing, canadiana, own, 9-star

This poignant novel beautifully depicts the history of a clan from the Scottish Highlands who settled on Cape Breton Island in 1779. Family stories and legends spanning over two hundred years are revisited by descendant Alexander MacDonald as he visits his alcoholic oldest brother Calum and reminisces with his twin sister Catriona. Alexander has prospered as an orthodontist, far removed from the mining and logging traditions of his family. He and his sister miss the close ties to family and thei ...more

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May 16, 2014 John Hanson rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: my-hardcovers, my-softcovers, top-ten

This is a 283 page modern short story heavy in image and theme. Its tension is internal and ephemeral, fleeting and sparse, but it does pull you through with enough force to make waves. It is full of repetition, aphorism, and fine, literary writing. Sometimes it feels a bit manufactured, but it still reads well.

The story is highly thematic and all seemingly rooted in the statement "all of us are better when we are loved." AM revolves his conflict [plot] around family [clan] love making you a bet ...more

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Sep 07, 2009 Brent rated it liked it

Shelves: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, can-lit

A deeply affecting book.

But a friend of mine, a poet of some note and a compulsive satirist, would probably slot this book in with the Canadian "tree" genre.

One cannot deny MacLeod's tenderness for the human condition, and for those who continue to find themselves oppressed, 250 years after Culloden.

Yet, when in school, I was confronted a few times by up-and-coming Canadian writers who were of a cultural heritage other than Anglo-Scottish -- they insisted that the Canadian canon can still be do ...more

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