Alistair MacLeod Dies 77

Hello Gentle Reader

The Canadian short story writer, and novelist, Alistair MacLeod has recently passed away at the age of seventy-seven. MacLeod is one of those quintessential Canadian authors. Though he like Jacques Poulin, and Nobel Laureate in Literature Alice Munro, often flew under the radar; or were overshadowed more well-known Canadian authors like Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje; MacLeod had found his niche in writing, and in the Canadian literary scene. Much like Huron County was to Alice Munro; so was Cape Breton to Macleod. Though MacLeod taught English and creative writing for forty years, at the University of Windsor; he had always returned to his cabin in Cape Breton every summer – which faced Prince Edward Island; and it was there that he did his writing. MacLeod often chronicled the lives of those that lived in Cape Breton; and for his only novel “No Great Mischief,” won the Impac Literary Dublin award and the Trillium Book Award.

MacLeod was born in the prairies of Canada – Saskatchewan to be exact; not as exotic as it sounds; at the age of ten MacLeod, moved with his family to Nova Scotia. It is at Dunvegan, Inverness County, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, that a love affair of the landscape was born, and the literary love affair with the culture and the people was formed. To discuss MacLeod in his literary obsessions, and emotional attachments; one had best quote Irene Guilford:

“Alistair MacLeod's birthplace is Canadian, his emotional heartland is Cape Breton, his heritage Scottish, but his writing is of the world.”

I may not have read any of MacLeod’s books, but his writing is something, that many Canadians read, and often admit: he gets what it means to write about a place that is exemplary: ‘Canadian.’ How such a small part of a vast country reflects, the greater whole, only comes to showcase, the literary provinciality of Canadian Literature – and how it communicates with itself throughout its fragmented nature. That is what makes MacLeod a great writer, and a literary champion of this country.

Rest In Peace Alistair MacLeod.

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