[.ca] Cape Breton Road (ISBN 0385259115)

Amazon.ca:
Cape Breton Road, D.R. MacDonald's first novel after a long and distinguished career as a short-story writer, follows Innis Corbett, a young delinquent born into a Highlander community in Cape Breton but whisked away at a young age to Watertown, Massachusetts. Soon after, Innis's father dies when hit by a car, driving his mother to alcohol and the company of other men. As he reaches his teens, Innis turns to smoking marijuana and stealing cars with his best friend Ned. Caught at the latter, Innis suddenly finds himself deported to his unfamiliar native country, sent "home" to live in a small community in Cape Breton with his uncle, Starr. Innis's sensation of being trapped in this foreign place called "home" is palpable throughout the novel. He is young, out of sorts, and desperately looking for an escape. His plan is to plant some marijuana seeds, wait till they bloom, and then sell his crop for enough cash to move out West, but his life becomes complicated when Starr brings home Claire, a former flight attendant, causing much sexual tension in their household. Outside of Innis's observations and growth, little happens in this coming-of-age story, but MacDonald eloquently captures the young man's inner landscape and the outer landscape of Cape Breton, where family history is indelible in the land and the potential for violence lurks behind the next tree. --Leah Eichler

cape breton gold:
be careful of this fiction. a triangle of woods and water and obsessions. cadillac dreams and hemlock nightmares. where does the end begin and the living end? the last chapter is an amazing drive through the last minutes of an innocent lost. there is more here than meets the sea.

A tragedy worth reading:
This was a well-written tragedy. I compare it to a Shakespeare tragedy. I didn't like the ending but it wasn't that I didn't like what the author wrote. I kept hoping Innis would make better choices. It was that hope that kept me reading to the end. And, of course, the author's wonderful descriptions of Nova Scotia's people, woods, water, events also kept me reading with great enjoyment. So even though I didn't like the ending, I loved the book.

A real disappointment:
Deported to Cape Breton to live with his mean-spirited uncle, Innis might leave his pot-smoking, weed-growing, car-stealing days behind him as he comes to appreciate hard work and simpler ways. But no, he becomes obsessed with his uncle's girlfriend, and there is no redemption for any of them, three losers to the end. Meanwhile, some very interesting characters are left undeveloped. The writing is very good, both in setting the scenes and developing tension, but ultimatly, this is just not a good story and is a slow read. Want to sample Cape Breton life? Try Alister MacLeod's Island

cheated:
I gave this book three stars for one reason. It had a very unsatisfactory ending. I felt cheated. The conclusion was not an ending in the real sense. It left several questions unanswered. The most important ones being the fate of the protagonist and his uncle. The author either ran out of interest, or made the beginners error of letting the reader come up with his own ending. The book and characters was so very vivid and beautifully drawn that you could literally breathe the air and atmosphere. Then we are left high and dry. This writer is no amateur. He is brilliant. I loved this book. And because I did, because I cared about the characters, i wish he had done a better job on the conclusion. Still and all, I intend to read his other books. I guess that is the real test.

Poor ending killed it for me:
I found this to be a decent story up to the end. Would Innis get off Cape Breton? What would come of the love triangle between him, his uncle and his uncle's girlfriend. The ending did not answer these and left me disappointed.