![]() We want her to find peace and a degree of happiness. That she is so hard-pressed so much of the time increases reader sympathy. Maggie knows nothing of this - she knows only that her father has disappeared without a trace since his last communication with her from Laos.Įxcept for the brief Laotian interludes, the story belongs to Maggie, and one of the reasons why the novel is successful is that McGill makes of this protagonist a completely credible and engaging heroine. Maggie’s father, Gordon, is a Catholic lay missionary in war-torn Laos, and we catch glimpses of him fleeing with a Laotian man, Yia Pao, and his infant son, from ruthless drug runners. A sinister, third-world, tropical landscape does figure in the background of the novel, however. McGill conveys something of the flavour of a Paul Theroux novel to this tale, though the main setting is no sinister, third-world, tropical landscape but the genteel tourism and winery district of Niagara-on-the-Lake. Article contentĮyebrows are raised when Fletcher hires a seasonal worker from Jamaica named George Ray to help harvest the cherries - an arrangement little better than slavery, according to Dmitri, though Ray turns out to be a pillar of sanity and industriousness compared to the commune dwellers. ![]() ![]() This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. ![]() Manage Print Subscription / Tax Receipt. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |