Earlier this week I finished reading “The Republic of Nothing” by Lesley Choyce. It was the winner of the Dartmouth Book Award in 1995.
Thanks to Amazon.Com, here is a description of the story:
A small Canadian island declares its independence to the world and benign anarchy reigns. A god-like ocean deposits many a thing, yet it also takes away. The 1960’s blaze off shore and draw the island’s inhabitants into politics, the Vietnam War, and the peace movement. Sound impossible? Not on Whalebone Island, AKA the Republic of Nothing. Where else can a dead circus elephant, a long-dead Viking, the discovery of uranium, a raven-haired castaway who may be psychic, an anarchist turned politician, and refugees fleeing from the United States all be part of everyday life? Where else is eccentricity embraced with such open arms?
… Lesley Choyce’s novel about resilience, independence, and anarchy comes alive, leading readers to discover once again that everything is nothing and nothing is everything.
Choyce was born and raised in New Jersey, attended Rutgers and two other American universities, then moved to Nova Scotia in 1979. I found out about this book from reading Neil Peart’s “Ghost Rider”. It was one of the books that Peart read during his traveling, and the title is what caught my eye. After reading the above description, I searched out a copy, eventually getting one through BookMooch.
As one might think, this book is somewhat political in nature. However, in some respects it is even about the politics of relationships that we deal with everyday. Also, about breaking away from the norm, whether politically within one’s country, or within one’s family.
Even with some of the book being expected, it actually turned out to be much different then I thought. It still was an interesting tale. I was surprised at the main character, Ian, and especially at his father Everett. They both go through changes during the time of the story, which starts very early in Ian’s life, from the time he can first remember, to his early twenties which was near the end of the Vietnam War.
Lesley Choyce
But these surprises, these events and actions that I didn’t expect, it what made the book interesting. The characters didn’t do things that seemed out of line, but were more effected by what was happening around them and having to deal with as best they could, even getting caught up in somethings that one would wonder why after. (Haven’t we all had those times?)
Choyce’s choice of words (sorry for the bad pun, or whatever it would be called), were quite good. His prose was a nice combination of poetry and descriptions one would find common from someone who seems to be on a totally different metaphysical plane then the rest of us, and just general conversation and descriptions that the average Joe would speak. It blended very well between characters and events.
At the end, the book left me mixed though. There was a desire to have more of what I had hoped for, but thankful for how the story did turn out, leaving me a bit surprised.
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