Barometer Rising [Mass Market Paperback]

"Barometer Rising" takes place in Halifax, Nova Scotia during 1917. The war in Europe continues to grind away, chewing up young men from around the world in its trenches and no man's lands. Nearly every passing day sees troopships exiting Halifax harbor bound for the bloodbath, and nearly every day they pass supply and munitions ships entering the port on their way to and from Europe. The city is full of foreign sailors and soldiers from every point of the compass. The war is a big deal, and since Canada serves as Britain's whipping boy, Halifax provides a safe harbor beyond the reach of German U-boats. But disaster lurks in the waters off Halifax: a munitions ship loaded with 500,000 pounds of trinitrotoluol sails into the harbor and collides with another ship. The resulting explosion is nearly nuclear in its destructiveness. Thousands die as major sections of the city explode and burn. The author shrewdly sets up his novel in countdown form, beginning on the Sunday before the explosion and ending the tale the following Monday, a few days after the disaster. MacLennan makes this Nova Scotian city the major character in his book, showing the reader the wartime changes while allowing us to take an occasional glimpse behind the curtain to see the way the city was before the war.

A cast of characters parades through the streets of Halifax for our perusal. The Wain family is central to the story. There is Penelope "Penny" Wain, a brilliant woman who designs boats for the war effort while withstanding the barbs from jealous male co-workers. Her father, Colonel Wain, is an old pro-English patriarch who cannot stand the fact that he remains in Halifax while the war rages in Europe. He wishes to return to battle and seek some glory, but his first tour of duty ended in disaster. For this disgrace, Wain blames his nephew Neil Macrae. Now Neil roams the streets of Halifax, seeking redemption for a tragedy on the fields of Europe. The reemergence of Neil places Major Angus Murray in a moral quandary; he realizes the return of Wain's nephew will upset his plans for the future. The reader must decide for themselves if the choices the characters make are the correct ones.

An afterword (the Canadians are polite; they do not put spoilers at the beginning of the book as we do in the United States) written by Alistair MacLeod provides some personal anecdotes about the explosion, followed by a critique of the story. To MacLeod, the story deftly reveals the big town/small town differences between some of the characters, between those born and raised in Halifax versus those who hail from Cape Breton. For me, the most interesting theme of the book was MacLennan's political views about Canada and its relationship to the United States and England. To the author, Canada will emerge from the war as the keystone of the world, a bridge between barbaric Europe lost in its destructive wars and the emerging power of the United States. He deplores the second-class status of Canada, its relegation as second fiddle to the United Kingdom. Several times throughout the story, the characters step back from their activities and wax philosophic about the position of Canada and Nova Scotia in relation to the rest of the world. To call MacLennan a Canadian nationalist would not be too extreme of a statement.

I did not know what to expect from this book when I opened its covers. I do like Canadian literature, so that is never a problem. "Barometer Rising" is only 219 pages long, so it is necessary that the author grabs you fast and makes you care about his creation. He succeeds in spades because he brings his characters to life through carefully crafted scenes of introspection, clinical descriptions of the city, and the dramatic countdown to the explosion. The reader cares about what happens to these people, and hopes that the author will bring everything to a tidy resolution in the end. For a quick read that is hugely entertaining and leaves you hungry for more, seek out this book.