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Aug 14, 2018zipread rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
If someone had told me what sort of book Johnston written I would probably have pushed it away, rejected. Bad enough that it would be a Can-lit book but worse, it's about Newfoundland, a place I have never been to and with which, most absurdly, I would not be able to identify. And yet, this novel, perhaps sliding into the category of "chick lit" because it dare show emotion, put a lump in your throat and cause you to tear up, at least a little' in places. Colony is also a tragedy, a tragedy of misunderstanding, of secrets kept and secrets told. At the same time that it engages your emotions it also paints the pictures of the island; although the book is not a biography there's Joe Smallwood, the runt of a man, self conscious forever of his class, his education and, perhaps most importantly, his slight build; there are the seal-fishermen huddled together, frozen, knowing their rescue will come too late; and Smallwood, walking the the tracks of the railroad from end to end in the depths of a frozen winter signing up men to the union. There is the hunger; the shabbiness; y\the sharing of what little people have with the stranger. I'm glad no one told me what this book was about; I'm glad it gave me the chance to read a very good novel.