- Paperback: 243 pages
- Publisher: Macfarlane Walter & Ross; illustrated edition edition (Jan 1 1997)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1551990202
- ISBN-13: 978-1551990200
- Product Dimensions: 22.4 x 14.4 x 2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 358 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #294,618 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
"What a gem!"
–Quill & Quire
From the Hardcover edition.
–Quill & Quire
From the Hardcover edition.
Product Description
Winner of the Ottawa Citizen Award for Non-Fiction
Winner of the Canadian Authors Association Lela Common Award for Non-Fiction
Shortlisted for the Edna Staebler Award for Creative Nonfiction
Where is here? That question, Northrop Frye believed, was the key to Canadian identity, the secret of our collective psyche.
For Phil Jenkins, "here" is a single acre of land on LeBreton Flats in the nation’s capital, Ottawa. In this strikingly inventive book, he stakes that acre and recounts the story of its life. He rides a glass elevator up from the earth’s core, describing the geological strata he passes through before reaching the surface. He watches the land submerge beneath salt water that rises as high as the tallest Ottawa skyscraper, a place where 10,000 years ago beluga whales cavorted. He climbs a pine tree and sees Samuel de Champlain paddle up the Ottawa River, intent on converting the native Algonquins and claiming the acre for France. He walks down Duke Street in the early nineteen hundreds and reports on the desolate acre of today, studying its endangered flora, fauna and future.
The acre was part of the land expropriated by the National Capital Commission in the 1960s. Buildings were bulldozed, lives transplanted, and a huge government complex was envisioned. The Pope held a mass on the site in 1984, but to this day nothing has been built. The acre may eventually be included in a native land settlement; for the moment it serves as home to a group of street kids and as an overnight parking lot for tour buses.
An Acre of Time is about the way land becomes territory, territory becomes property, and property becomes real estate. It’s about the process by which man alters the place he inhabits. By taking a single acre of Canada and examining it in unexpected ways, Jenkins has produced a highly original celebration of place, a book at once eclectic, invaluable, and unique.
From the Hardcover edition.
Winner of the Canadian Authors Association Lela Common Award for Non-Fiction
Shortlisted for the Edna Staebler Award for Creative Nonfiction
Where is here? That question, Northrop Frye believed, was the key to Canadian identity, the secret of our collective psyche.
For Phil Jenkins, "here" is a single acre of land on LeBreton Flats in the nation’s capital, Ottawa. In this strikingly inventive book, he stakes that acre and recounts the story of its life. He rides a glass elevator up from the earth’s core, describing the geological strata he passes through before reaching the surface. He watches the land submerge beneath salt water that rises as high as the tallest Ottawa skyscraper, a place where 10,000 years ago beluga whales cavorted. He climbs a pine tree and sees Samuel de Champlain paddle up the Ottawa River, intent on converting the native Algonquins and claiming the acre for France. He walks down Duke Street in the early nineteen hundreds and reports on the desolate acre of today, studying its endangered flora, fauna and future.
The acre was part of the land expropriated by the National Capital Commission in the 1960s. Buildings were bulldozed, lives transplanted, and a huge government complex was envisioned. The Pope held a mass on the site in 1984, but to this day nothing has been built. The acre may eventually be included in a native land settlement; for the moment it serves as home to a group of street kids and as an overnight parking lot for tour buses.
An Acre of Time is about the way land becomes territory, territory becomes property, and property becomes real estate. It’s about the process by which man alters the place he inhabits. By taking a single acre of Canada and examining it in unexpected ways, Jenkins has produced a highly original celebration of place, a book at once eclectic, invaluable, and unique.
From the Hardcover edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
History of a significant acre in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada,
By A Customer
This review is from: An Acre of Time: The Enduring Value of Place (Paperback)
Jenkins has extensively researched the history of an acre of land in LeBreton flats near the centre of Ottawa. He begins with the geological formation of the area: the layers of rocks and sediments that were formed. He then discusses the natives that inhabited the land and their first interactions with the explorers of Canada (Champlain) etc. The land is then surveyed and settled. Jenkins shines with his stories of the people that lived there in the '40s and 50's. Then in the late 50's the land was expropriated for government office complexes that were never built and other than for a brief flurry of activity when the Pope came to Ottawa and gave a mass it has stood almost empty since.Do the natives still have a claim on the land? A pleasant read for Ottawa Valley residents and a must read and must have for historians of the area. It would make an excellent history textbook for high schools - makes history come alive. Bernie Geiger, Ottawa
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review) 2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
History of a significant acre in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: An Acre of Time: The Enduring Value of Place (Paperback)
Jenkins has extensively researched the history of an acre of land in LeBreton flats near the centre of Ottawa. He begins with the geological formation of the area: the layers of rocks and sediments that were formed. He then discusses the natives that inhabited the land and their first interactions with the explorers of Canada (Champlain) etc. The land is then surveyed and settled. Jenkins shines with his stories of the people that lived there in the '40s and 50's. Then in the late 50's the land was expropriated for government office complexes that were never built and other than for a brief flurry of activity when the Pope came to Ottawa and gave a mass it has stood almost empty since.Do the natives still have a claim on the land? A pleasant read for Ottawa Valley residents and a must read and must have for historians of the area. It would make an excellent history textbook for high schools - makes history come alive. Bernie Geiger, Ottawa |
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