The Pied Piper of Dipper Creek by Thomas H. Raddall, winner of the GG in 1943, is the first interlibrary loan I've gotten in a really long time. I was feeling the itch to get a book from elsewhere, just because it's fun to see where books come from when an interlibrary loan. This one didn't come from that far at all, Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, WA. (just about an hour away), but the interesting thing is PLU is where Hilary Clinton spoke when she came to the Seattle area, so that's why I'm familiar with the school, the only reason why I'm familiar with the school. The book was in crappy shape, binding was totally shot, and the last few pages kept falling out every time I opened the thing. Oh well. Another interesting tidbit is John Buchan, aka Lord Tweedsmuir, the first Governor General of Canada, absolutely loved this book. John Buchan himself was an author, of The Thirty-Nine Steps(a novel), which later became the basis for a film by Alfred Hitchcock.
All this to say that Lord Tweedsmuir is supposed to be a pretty good judge of writing abilities. He didn't make a bad choice with Raddall's book. It's a collection of short stories, which focuses predominantly on the people and countryside of rural Nova Scotia. Like with many of the short story collections I have read thus far, there are good stories and "meh" stories in this collection, but it wasn't an unenjoyable read. I particularly liked the title story, about a guy who is so obsessed with the Scottish Prime Minister of England coming to Nova Scotia having an awesome bagpipe performance to welcome him that he resurrects the bagpipes himself(even though he's not that great at it)and ends up doing a bagpipe version of The Pied Piper of Hamelin with the children at the local school. It is funny and witty and makes you smile a lot. "North" was the story I liked the least, it was about travelling in the arctic circle and the exposure that one doctor had with the Inuit up there. It was okay, but it just wasn't that exciting. "The Taming of Mordecai Mimms" was great. It was all about a guy who decides to play nature-man, in a very destructive non-caring kind of way. He hurts trees by cutting away all their bark, shoots animals for pure sport just to leave them there with no respect for their lives. He's basically a huge dumb-ass, who is the thorn in the side of the local park ranger. Well, the ranger goes away for the day and Mordecai goes deer hunting, leaving his son in the canoe they used to get to this remote place, and ends up getting lost in the dark and scaring himself shitless. It's really harrowing for him, but it's definitely KARMA. The park ranger ends up saving his ass, and Mordecai moves to the city.:) "The Courtship of Jupe M'Quayle" was also a good story, about a guy who for 25 years has been unhappily single, searching and searching for a "help-mate", or a wife. He finally lands a woman, he thinks, through wooing her with chocolate and sweets and then the town, in their desire to welcome this new bride(who mind you has lived in the backwoods of rural Nova Scotia all her life, in a lot of respects as untamed as a wild animal), scares the bride off. It is then that Jupe realizes(Jupiter is his real name)that he's gotten along this far without, he's really going to be okay, and won't push his new wife into marriage..."Lady Lands Leviathan" was also good about a man who is searching and searching for the biggest tuna to catch(he is a sport fisherman), so that he can keep up his social status and live off of people's parties and attentions, and in the end, it is his wife, who only fishes to be with him, who catches the big one. Also very good. There are only 12 stories in this collection, but each is pretty long. It's a different look at a small province, a rural province, a province that has daily interaction with Natives and Scottish heritage. I wonder if I'm the only person in this country to have read this book this year????