An Innocent in Newfoundland: Even More Curious Rambles and Singular Encounters

In An Innocent in Ireland (1995) and An Innocent in Scotland (1999), poet and traveller David McFadden let the spirit of the country – and his own interests – guide his rambles. He has now done the same in Newfoundland.

Zigzagging across the province in his rented car, he charts an erratic course, admiring lawn sculpture (in his opinion a new local art), visiting fellow poets and publishers, wandering at dusk among the Viking mounds at L’Anse aux Meadows, rooming with a Salvation Army family in a distant outport (and discovering a family tragedy), hanging on in a stiff wind to watch birds nesting on a cliff face, and enjoying the social life in countless bars and restaurants.

It soon becomes clear that McFadden’s love of a good chat is shared widely by the people he meets in Newfoundland and he is wise enough to let them tell their own stories. For, as ever, his interest is in the heart of a place – and not just its scenery.

Alert, somewhat eccentric, always ready to amuse and be amused, David McFadden is an ideal travelling companion.

Canadian author and poet McFadden offers another account in his series of bemused journeys that follow an erratic course and record interesting conversations with the quirky characters he meets along the way. This one takes him east from his Toronto home to the Atlantic Ocean and the island of Newfoundland, where he finds lawn ornaments, fellow poets, Viking mounds, and many bars. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

David W. McFadden has published over twenty books of poetry and prose, including Gypsy Guitar, nominated for a Governor General’s Award in 1987 and The Art of Darkness, nominated for a Governor General’s Award in 1984. He lives in Toronto.