2001年--没有大的恶作剧

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2001 – No Great Mischief
Author: Alistair MacLeod
Winner of the 2001 Award
2001 Shortlist     2001 Longlist
Judges: Amit Chaudhuri, Fred D’Aguiar, Buchi Emecheta, Colum McCann, Meadbh McGuckian, Non-voting Chair, Allen Weinstein
About the Book
This is a story of families, and of the ties that bind us to them. It is also a story of exile and of the ties that bind us, generations later, to the land from which our ancestors came. In 1779 Calum MacDonald set sail from the Highlands of Scotland with his extensive family, and the loyal family dog that swam out to join them. It was a long, hard voyage below decks – he left Scotland a husband and father and arrived in Canada a widower and a grandfather – and the early years in Cape Breton were not easy. But the family settled in “the land of trees” and grew and spread until it became almost a separate Nova Scotia clan, red-haired and dark-eyed, with its own story.

It is the 1980s by the time our narrator, Alexander MacDonald, tells the story of his family. Raised by their grandparents, he and his twin sister have done well and left home. He is an orthodontist in Ontario, his sister a prosperous oilman’s wife in Calgary. Together they marvel at how the family story intersects with history: with Culloden, where the clans died, and with the 1759 battle at Quebec won by the English General Wolfe with the help of the Highlanders whom he once recommended as soldiers because it was ” no great mischief if they fall.” Part of the MacDonald family is still at risk: Alexander’s older brothers are specialist shaft miners, in demand around the world from South Africa to Peru for their dangerous skills.

When our narrator graduates from university in 1968 they are at work at Elliot Lake in the uranium mines, where a misunderstanding with a French-Canadian crew leads to an accident. Fresh from university, with a soft white-collar job awaiting him, out of loyalty Alexander feels obliged to join the family mining crew. And in that long hot summer in the bush, although they share fiddle tunes and the same clannish culture, the tension between the Cape Breton men and the French Canadians continues to mount.

The music of the Cape Breton rings throughout this book, by turns joyful and sad but always haunting. Written in a hypnotic, stately prose where every word is perfectly placed, ‘No Great Mischief’ has the same haunting effect, and shows why the master craftsman took more than ten years to write it. This is a magnificent new novel from a writer about to become a household word.

About the Author
Alistair MacLeod was born in North Battleford, Saskatchewan, in 1936 and raised among an extended family in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. He still spends his summers in Inverness County, writing in a clifftop cabin looking west towards Prince Edward Island. In his early years, to finance his education he worked as a logger, a miner, and a fisherman, and writes vividly and sympathetically about such work.

During the winter months Dr. MacLeod is a professor of English at the University of Windsor Ontario. His early studies were at the Nova Scotia Teachers College, St. Francis Xavier, the University of New Brunswick, and Notre Dame, where he took his Ph. D. He has also taught creative writing at the University of Indiana. Working alongside W.O. Mitchell, he was an inspiring teacher to generations of writers at the Banff Centre. Alistair MacLeod has given lectures and readings from his work in many cities in Canada and around the world. He and his wife, Anita, have six children: they live in Windsor.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Author       
Alistair MacLeod

Country       
CA

Nominating Library       
Canada, Ottawa, Ottawa Public Library

Publisher       
Canada, McClelland & Stewart

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2001年--没有大的恶作剧
作者。阿利斯泰尔-麦克劳德
2001年的获奖者
2001年入围名单 2001年长名单
评审员。Amit Chaudhuri, Fred D'Aguiar, Buchi Emecheta, Colum McCann, Meadbh McGuckian, 无投票权主席Allen Weinstein
关于这本书
这是一个关于家庭的故事，以及将我们与家庭联系在一起的纽带。这也是一个关于流亡的故事，以及将我们几代人与我们的祖先所来自的土地联系起来的纽带。1779年，卡勒姆-麦克唐纳带着他庞大的家庭和游出来与他们会合的忠诚的家犬从苏格兰高地起航。这是一次漫长而艰难的航行--他离开苏格兰时是丈夫和父亲，到达加拿大时是鳏夫和祖父--在布雷顿角的最初几年并不容易。但这个家庭在 "树木之乡 "定居下来，并不断发展壮大，直到它几乎成为一个独立的新斯科舍省氏族，红头发、黑眼睛，有自己的故事。

当我们的叙述者亚历山大-麦克唐纳讲述他家的故事时，已经是20世纪80年代了。在祖父母的抚养下，他和他的双胞胎妹妹表现良好，离开了家。他是安大略省的一名牙齿矫正师，他的妹妹是卡尔加里的一名富裕的石油工人的妻子。他们一起惊叹于家族故事与历史的交集：与卡洛登（Culloden）的交集，在那里，各部族都死了，还有1759年的魁北克战役，英国将军沃尔夫在高地人的帮助下取得了胜利，他曾推荐这些人当兵，因为 "如果他们倒下，也没有什么大麻烦。" 麦克唐纳家族的一部分人仍然处于危险之中。亚历山大的哥哥们是专业的井下矿工，从南非到秘鲁，全世界都需要他们的危险技能。

当我们的叙述者于1968年大学毕业时，他们正在艾略特湖的铀矿工作，在那里，与一个法裔加拿大人的误解导致了一场事故。刚从大学毕业，等待他的是一份柔软的白领工作，出于忠诚，亚历山大觉得自己有义务加入这个家庭的采矿团队。在丛林中那个漫长而炎热的夏天，虽然他们共享小提琴曲和相同的宗族文化，但布雷顿角人和法裔加拿大人之间的紧张关系不断加剧。

布列塔尼角人的音乐响彻全书，时而欢快，时而悲伤，但总是令人心神不宁。无大碍》以一种催眠式的、庄重的散文写成，每一个字都是完美的，具有同样的萦绕效果，并显示了为什么这位巨匠花了十多年的时间来写它。这是一位即将成为家喻户晓的作家的一部宏伟的新小说。

关于作者
阿利斯泰尔-麦克劳德1936年出生于萨斯喀彻温省的北巴特尔福德，在新斯科舍省布雷顿角的一个大家庭中长大。他仍然在因弗内斯县度过他的夏天，在一个悬崖边的小屋里写作，向西看向爱德华王子岛。早年，为了资助他的教育，他当过伐木工人、矿工和渔民，并生动而富有同情心地写了这些工作。

在冬季，麦克劳德博士是安大略省温莎大学的英语教授。他的早期学习是在新斯科舍省师范学院、圣弗朗西斯-泽维尔、新不伦瑞克大学和圣母大学，并在那里获得博士学位。他与W.O. Mitchell一起工作，是班夫中心几代作家的启蒙老师。阿利斯泰尔-麦克劳德曾在加拿大和世界各地的许多城市举办讲座和阅读他的作品。他和他的妻子安妮塔有六个孩子：他们住在温莎。

其他信息
作者       
阿利斯泰尔-麦克劳德

国家       
CA

提名图书馆       
加拿大, 渥太华, 渥太华公共图书馆

出版商       
加拿大, McClelland & Stewart

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