Johnston’s rich narrative is presented in three forms: Joe Smallwood’s own detailed recall of his life is punctuated by excerpts from the “Journal” of Shelagh Fielding, his lifelong friend and enemy (and, in an odd way, lover), a feisty independent newspaper columnist, and also by snippets from her hilarious “Condensed History of Newfoundland,” a mock-heroic and episodic chronicle that provides sardonic undercurrent to Smallwood’s candid account of his checkered career. The story is the generously imagined fictional biography of a real historical figure, Joseph Smallwood, the self-styled “Father of Confederation” who shepherded the former British dominion into full union with Canada in 1949. The subject of this immensely satisfying neo-Victorian (its Canadian author’s fifth novel and first to appear here) is the province of Newfoundland, whose complex political history is incarnated in memorable human form.
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