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Aug 15, 2018CReadsBooksSometimes rated this title 2.5 out of 5 stars
Best you have a strong stomach as you read this gruesome tale of whaling in the Davis Strait. While the depictions of working-class life in the North-East is unflinchingly accurate and well-researched, I was deeply frustrated with the depictions of Inuit. McGuire's work has been compared to Joseph Conrad and I am inclined to agree, both use Indigenous peoples a literary devices rather than taking the time to learn about the culture in any nuanced way. I had hoped for better considering how well depicted whaling life was. Chinua Achebe in his iconic critique of Conrad worte: "Conrad saw and condemned the evil of imperial exploitation but was strangely unaware of the racism on which it sharpened its iron tooth. But the victims of racist slander who for centuries have had to live with the inhumanity it makes them heir to have always known better than any casual visitor even when he comes loaded with the gifts of a Conrad. " Too bad McGuire doesn't even take the time to frame the colonial foundations of whaling in the Canadian North.