In Depth

Books

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery (Oxford University Press, 1997 and Children's Classics, 1998) is a children's book for all time and lovely evocation of life on Prince Edward Island. Lucy Maud Montgomery's fictional, ever-sunny Anne is the island's most famous export, hands-down; her cycle of novels about the adopted red-haired girl remain enormously popular worldwide, both thanks to her delineation of island characters and Anne's irrepressible optimism. It's less well known that there is an entire series of Anne books; Anne of Green Gables only takes Anne's life through age 16. In future installments, Montgomery took her to a school principal job, and through a marriage and childbearing. Montgomery was prolific beyond the Anne cycle, as well, writing a series of spinoff novels about the lives of other townspeople in Anne's fictional town of Avonlea; Chronicles of Avonlea and Further Chronicles of Avonlea are probably best known. She also authored a number of other books and short stories set on the island, not involving Anne at all, though none of these has achieved anywhere near the lasting fame of the Anne stories -- works like Jane of Lantern Hill, Mistress Pat, and Along the Shore.

If you can locate it, the edition of Anne of Green Gables by Oxford University Press is annotated with plenty of biographical material, excerpts from the author's girlhood journals, colloquial explanations of cookery, directions to locations featured in the book, and the like -- it is perhaps a better choice for adult readers and travelers. The Children's Classic edition is a simple hardcover version of the classic.

No book with adult themes set in the maritime provinces is more famous than The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx (Scribner, 1993). Proulx won both a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award for her second novel, the tale of a crushed down-and-out New Yorker who moves to the Rock and takes up a job penning articles for a shipping newspaper in the land of his forebears -- a position which puts him in intersection with some of the more fascinating characters on (or even just passing through) the island. He must also battle the demons left him by his former wife. Yet somehow he begins to rebuild a life of dignity, hope, and purpose. Though often criticized for its overblown style, there's no denying this novel does capture the combination of isolation and peculiar perkiness and quirkiness of the Newfie.

In The Bird Artist by Howard Norman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1994, and Picador, 1998), Norman continues the tradition of Vermont-linked authors (such as E. Annie Proulx, above) heading north and finding literary gold in the Maritimes. This book, about a remote Newfoundland fishing village, was a finalist for the National Book Award, and rightly so. It spins the yarn of a local artist with a tremendous gift for drawing birds who has committed a murder, and seeks some sort of redemption for that through his drawings and a marriage arranged by his parents. His true love, Margaret, is a hoot -- a hard-drinking, sexually aware woman -- and yet touching, as are many of the assembled minor characters, from the village reverend on down. A heartfelt novel.

Norman was not just a one-trick wonder. His novel The Museum Guard (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1994, and Picador, 1999) is set in a fictional Halifax art museum, where a downbeat guard's female companion becomes obsessed with a Dutch painting. While not Norman's finest work, the stories of the guard's upbringing, his lady's obsession, and their dreary lives tell much about the often-claustrophobic and hard-bitten lives of Maritimers.

Norman turned to nonfiction for My Famous Evening (National Geographic, 2004), recounting both his own personal travels and correspondences in Nova Scotia and sometimes-seemingly-unreal stories of Nova Scotians and the folk tales of the province.

Recently reissued, A Whale for the Killing by Farley Mowat (Stackpole Books, 2005) is a true story that became a touchstone for animal rights activists. The famed biologist and activist tells the tale of a huge whale stranded in a Newfoundland cove in the 1970s, and a group of locals bent on killing it; Mowat becomes the whale's protector, but ultimately fails. It is interesting for the clash of ideals between local fisherfolk and an environmentalist from the "outside" (Mowat is from Ontario and Saskatchewan originally). Not a pretty look at the Maritimes, but a slice of life nonetheless.

In The Boat Who Wouldn't Float by Mowat (Little, Brown & Co., 1970, and Starfire, 1984), Mowat turned to humor for a change, and the resulting book (now reissued) turns out to be surprisingly raucous and side-splitting at times. Mowat purchases a used schooner in Newfoundland, but it doesn't hold water well, and there are serious doubts he'll ever get out of port. His subsequent misadventures and cruises amongst the ports of Newfoundland and beyond are wonderful fodder. Reading it, you learn about Screech (a famously powerful Newfie liquor) and much else; it's clear Mowat holds great affection for the Newfies, even as he skewers them and himself.

For historical background, try to find Part of the Main by Peter Neary and Patrick O'Flaherty (Breakwater Books, 1983). In it, two of the maritime provinces' most prolific historians lay out the history of Newfoundland and Labrador in interesting prose. It was published by a local St. John's publisher; the book is improved by the inclusion of several hundred photographs.

For a look at where the economy of the region is headed lately, Lament for an Ocean by Michael Harris (McClelland & Stewart, 1998) is a fine nonfiction work documenting the shockingly sudden decline of the maritime fisheries -- and the consequences both for Newfoundland's way of life and its already-imperiled economy.

Films

Many films have been made in the Maritimes, but precious few have been made about them.

Johnny Belinda (1948) is one. The film takes place on Cape Breton Island, starring lovely Jane Wyman in a surprisingly sensitive performance as a deaf-mute woman who is sexually assaulted and then turns on her attacker. She won an Oscar for the role.

The Shipping News (2001) is an uneven but evocative picture with a stellar cast, based on the novel by E. Annie Proulx. The film was shot in Newfoundland -- a condition of Proulx's sale of the screen rights, it's said -- and these visuals alone make the film an excellent watch. Kevin Spacey is the news writer Quoyle (he seems to have gained a little weight for the role) and Cate Blanchett is his abusive wife.

Music

Music in the maritime provinces is generally a Celtic-inflected folk, or else a pop music greatly influenced by that sound.

Nova Scotia native Sarah McLachlan is the exception; she has made it bigger around the globe than anyone else from eastern Canada, thanks to a continuing stream of haunting, minor-key pop classics. Among her studio albums, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy (Arista Records, 1994) features the single "Possession" and was her first breakout hit. Surfacing (BMG, 1997) features "Sweet Surrender" and "Building a Mystery." The live record Mirrorball (Arista Records, 1999) recaps much of McLachlan's best work in a tight live setting, adding the often-heard but little-recorded gem "I Will Remember You."

Among the more folksy bands making headway, the Newfoundland band Great Big Sea have been the standard-bearers of modern Celtic music around the Maritimes for awhile now, graduating from bar band to genuine folk influence in the best tradition of the Chieftains and the like. Of their output, I like Turn (Sire/Rhino, 2000) most; tunes such as "Boston and St. John's" speak closely to life in an isolated, seafaring place.

In my humble opinion, the Rankins -- a family group from little Mabou, on Cape Breton Island -- were sorely underappreciated outside of eastern Canada while they were still together. The band broke up in the late 1990s, and one of its members was subsequently killed in a tragic auto accident on a twisting Cape Breton road; on this magical record, though, their folk roots and chops come together with contemporary production (in the style of Enya or Clannad) in a way that stands the test of time. Although a bit overproduced, there's no denying the mournful power of Jimmy Rankin's ballads, the infectious drive of the late John Morris Rankin's fiddle, and the lovely sweet harmonies of sisters Cookie, Raylene, and Heather. Among their oeuvre, North Country (Angel Records, 1995) is the most fitting legacy to these local kids who made good.

Cape Breton fiddler Natalie MacMaster is probably Canada's finest, drawing very favorable comparisons to American Alison Krauss. A Compilation (Rounder, 1998) serves as a nice introduction to her lightning-yet-subtle style. On Blueprint (Rounder, 2003), she is joined by American musicians working the same general vein, such as Bela Fleck and Sam Bush.

Finally, any serious discussion of Maritime music must not omit Hank Snow. More than a decade before there was a Bob Dylan, and around the same time Hank Williams Sr. was shooting to prominence, there came Snow, too: born in the small Nova Scotia fishing town of Liverpool (near Lunenburg), a rambling, yodeling ranger of a crooner who made a mark on Nashville and legions of folk and country musicians to come. He's a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and was a Grand Ole Opry staple for years. The Essential Hank Snow (RCA, 1997) includes his still-classic "I'm Movin' On," which he wrote, as well as 19 other cuts.