(no subject)
Feb. 5th, 2007 09:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kamomilI'm reading Colony of Unrequited Dreams. It's good, Wayne Johnston is a good writer.
Unfortunately my mom knows him, or knows someone who knows him, and also he's written a book about where she's from - Baltimore's Mansions - so much of what I know about his books is about all the "inaccuracies" in them. I was truly not sure what section in Chapters to look for Colony of Unrequited Dreams in, it turned out to be in Fiction. Oh wait, on Amazon, Baltimore's Mansions is listed as a memoir, to add to the confusion.
It's weird to have so much written about what is basically a small town, that happens to have a lot of my history in it, history that I largely have no idea about - what I do know is blended with a lot of folklore-like anecdotes that I have heard over the years from my mom. It was weird to go there last summer, and see people who were related to the people in my mom's stories about the place.
(Of course, small towns being what they are, I could see potential new anecdotes happening before my eyes, as we drove around, and as she talked about the goings-on)
Anyways for me, I don't think I'll end up learning more about Newfoundland by reading these books, as much as it'll be adding to the big stew of fact, fiction, memory, and memorable people that exists in my head about the place. I'll be reading closely, yet taking it with a grain of salt.
Unfortunately my mom knows him, or knows someone who knows him, and also he's written a book about where she's from - Baltimore's Mansions - so much of what I know about his books is about all the "inaccuracies" in them. I was truly not sure what section in Chapters to look for Colony of Unrequited Dreams in, it turned out to be in Fiction. Oh wait, on Amazon, Baltimore's Mansions is listed as a memoir, to add to the confusion.
It's weird to have so much written about what is basically a small town, that happens to have a lot of my history in it, history that I largely have no idea about - what I do know is blended with a lot of folklore-like anecdotes that I have heard over the years from my mom. It was weird to go there last summer, and see people who were related to the people in my mom's stories about the place.
(Of course, small towns being what they are, I could see potential new anecdotes happening before my eyes, as we drove around, and as she talked about the goings-on)
Anyways for me, I don't think I'll end up learning more about Newfoundland by reading these books, as much as it'll be adding to the big stew of fact, fiction, memory, and memorable people that exists in my head about the place. I'll be reading closely, yet taking it with a grain of salt.
