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Alistair MacLeod's short stories know everything about your heart. Each of the stories in The Lost Salt Gift of Blood will enter your chest to beat alongside that startled red engine of your life: sometimes as a healing doctor, sometimes as a terrifying predator. All of the stories are set on the ruggedly beautiful island of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, a place where heart and home are often in conflict. Nurtured by a landscape rich in serenity and wisdom but poor in economic opportunity, MacLeod's characters are at once unique to that mountainous isle and universal in their reluctant migrations. In "The Boat," for example--surely one of the finest stories in the language--an only son watches his numerous sisters, "the daughters of the room and of the house," work and eventually abandon the house in which they were born for educations and romances in distant cities. Torn between the schoolbooks his mother pointedly disparages and his father's ailing health, the son denies his father's own wishes and quits school to "remain with him as long as he lives and ... fish the seas together." The father's calm protests end with the chilling warning, "I hope you will remember what you have said."
This time depicting the arduous, life-threatening occupation of mining rather than fishing, "The Vastness of the Dark" similarly combines tenderness and tragedy across a generational divide. Each story is pitch-perfect, with an evolving, patient tone that unfailingly offers the right phrase or observation at the right time. Contested only by Alice Munro as the finest Canadian short story writer, Alistair MacLeod offers the rare combination of a craft so polished it is transparent and an emotional intelligence that is both hard-fought and -won and quietly detached. --Darryl Whetter
Review
“A collection all admirers of short fiction will want to own.”
–Joyce Carol Oates
–Joyce Carol Oates
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A heart warming celebration of life in the face of adversity,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Lost Salt Gift of Blood (Mass Market Paperback)
On the surface 'The Lost Salt Gift of Blood' appears preoccupied with tragedy and death. However, read a little deeper and one finds it to be very life affirming. The themes of family, traditions, relationships, death, isolation and endurance echo throughout the short stories. The thematic parallels are skillfully woven into the fabric of the novel, highlighting that indeed, no one story can stand alone. It is worth reading!
5.0 out of 5 stars
enlightening reading,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Lost Salt Gift of Blood (Mass Market Paperback)
Written with great care, precision and meaning. You must read between the lines to get the most out of the book. Although all the stories revolve around death, grief, and pain, the focus on the life of the characters, rites of passage, and relationships is truly inspiring. I really enjoyed this book.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Masterful Short-Storytelling,
By Steve Bond (London, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Lost Salt Gift of Blood (Mass Market Paperback)
MacLeod's short stories are the best I have ever read, and I write that as someone who doesn't usually like short stories. He manages to compress more emotion into one of these tales than the most writers can manage in a whole novel. Utterly wonderful.
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