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ABOUT THE BOOK
In 1779, driven from his home in the Scottish Highlands, Calum MacDonald set sail, bound for the New World of Nova Scotia. After a dangerous crossing, he settled his family in Cape Breton until they became a separate clan, noted for their red hair, black eyes and fierce loyalty.
Two hundred years later, Alexander MacDonald tells the story of his family and of his coming of age in the same unforgiving landscape: of the accident on the ice that left him an orphan, of the summer spent with his wild older brothers that ended in murder, and of his eldest brother, a dying alcoholic.
Haunting and elegiac, this is a novel about blood and history, of ordinary people whose lives are shaped by the inescapable scars of the past.
‘One of the great undiscovered writers
of our time’
Michael Ondaatje
‘The
novel is close to being a masterpiece…
its harsh and melancholy music stays
with you for days afterwards…
[No Great Mischief] is simply breathtaking
in its emotional range’
Colm TóibÍn
‘Alistair MacLeod is a wonderfully
talented writer’
Margaret Atwood
 ABOUT
THE AUTHOR
Alistair MacLeod was born in North Battleford, Saskatchewan
in 1936. At the age of ten he returned with his family to their farm in Cape
Breton, Novia Scotia. After leaving high school he became a teacher. Deciding to
further his education, he attended St Francis Xavier University, graduating in
1960 with a BA and B.Ed. He went on to receive his MA and completed his PhD in
1968.
A specialist in nineteenth-century British literature,
MacLeod taught English for three years at the University of Indiana before
accepting a post at the University of Windsor, Ontario as a professor of English
and creative writing. He and his family return to Cape Breton every year, where
he spends part of his time writing.
STARTING POINTS FOR YOUR DISCUSSION
amazon.co.uk September 2000
In many ways you have written a Canadian novel. Do you imagine that Canadians
might read the novel differently to readers elsewhere?
I think in the UK the novel would perhaps appeal strongly to people of Scottish
ancestry because it deals partially with events in Scotland. But I think that
what makes the novel so popular throughout the world is that it seems to deal
with families, with unity, maybe with special loyalties, and we all know that
as we become more homogenised and globalised.
Before this you published two volumes of short stories. How was the experience
of writing a novel different? And did you feel some kind of need to write a
novel?
I think that the obvious difference – or the difference that I felt – was that
the short story, in athletic terms, is like a 100-yard dash. You can try to
be intense for a while and then you are done. And I thought of writing a novel
as a marathon that would go on and on and on. I like to have a quality of intensity
in my writing and I was able to achieve this pretty well, I think, in the short
stories. When I tried for the novel I wasn’t sure that I could be this intense
for 26 miles as opposed to 100 yards. I wrote the novel because I thought I
needed a bigger canvas, because I wanted to deal with more characters, more
complex ideas, and I did not think I could do it in 10 or 20 pages.
STARTING POINTS FOR YOUR DISCUSSION
- The characters in No Great Mischief speak in various languages (including
French, Gaelic and English). How does the novel explore the relationship between
language and memory?
- Alexander is told many stories by his grandparents. How do ideas of myth
and storytelling function in the novel? To what extent is No Great Mischief
part of an oral tradition?
- Clann Chalum Ruaidh finds its roots in exile. Do you think that the younger
characters feel any less exiled than their ancestors? How does the novel resolve
the tensions between feelings of exile and feelings of belonging?
- Is it fair to say that No Great Mischief, with its loggers, miners,
and desperate male characters, is a very masculine novel? Does it alienate
the female reader? How well developed are MacLeod’s female characters?
- Discuss the relationship between history and loyalty that is explored in
the novel.
- The novel deals with themes of family and tribal identity. Is there any
room for the individual in the landscape of No Great Mischief?
OTHER BOOKS BY ALISTAIR MACLEOD
The Lost Salt
Gift of Blood
As Birds Bring Forth the Sun
Island: collected stories
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING
The Shipping News ~ E. Annie Proulx
Cape Breton Road ~ D.R. MacDonald
Bettany’s Book ~ Thomas Keneally
Fugitive Pieces ~ Anne Michaels
Mercy Among the Children ~ David Adams Richards
ADDITIONAL ONLINE RESOURCES
View the website feature.
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