No Great Mischief

“Sometimes it is hard to choose or not to choose those things which bother us at the most inappropriate of times.” 

This quote appears in the opening chapter, as Alex remembers his Grandma’s horror upon seeing fresh tomatoes wasted. It speaks to the poverty in which she grew up, highlighting the tension between the modern world and the past. This will become a key theme of the novel, as Alex tries to reconcile the nostalgia for a past world with the relative success he has enjoyed in the present. Incidents such as this—and his encounter with Calum—reveal that not everyone is able to operate so successfully in the modern world. The things which Alex’s Grandma chooses to bother her are things which Alex (or the rest of society) do not think twice about. Perhaps as a result of this, Alex spends a great deal of time thinking about the plight of the fruit pickers who work on farms across Canada, relating their struggles to those of his family.

“‘He was,’ he said, composing himself and after a thoughtful moment, ‘crying for his history. He had left his country and lost his wife and spoke a foreign language. He had left as a husband and arrived as a widower and a grandfather, and he was responsible for all those people clustered around him. He was,’ he said, looking up to the sky, ‘like the goose who points the V, and he temporarily wavered and lost his courage.’” 

The story of Calum Ruadh travelling from Scotland to Canada sets the tone for the events in the part. It is the formative event for Alex’s family, the journey against which they define all journeys. For Alex’s ancestor, it is a tough trip. He loses a wife and finds himself in a strange new world.