Irene Baird

I've read Irene Baird's three previous novels, and this one seemed to have the most conventional structure. The first part of the novel depicts life in Ottawa's civil service, and it was actually interesting to read about bureaucracy in action as it is such an unlikely subject. As I work in an office I enjoyed noting the differences in work culture between then and now. The lead character, George McKenna, a civil servant resisting his impending forced retirement, is well depicted but unlikeable. Part two of the book shifts back and forth from the Arctic and while reading about the Eskimos I kept thinking about residential schools. There is a passage where the Minister in charge remarks there is no evidence of Inuit culture in the classroom, but that's about it as far as reconciliation goes. While the novel had some positive aspects it is dated and not Baird's best work.… (meer)

I almost gave up early on this novel about a Canadian from Victoria, British Columbia, who joins the Royal Air Force in England, just prior to the onset of WWII. The novel exclusively consists of letters mostly sent by pilot Peter O'Halloran to his family and friends. I found the letters at first to be excessively cutesy and cloying. The novel does pick up in the second part when O'Halloran has finished his training and the war starts. I did begin to like the novel towards the end, as by that time I was used to the tone of the letters. Reading the novel was part of a project of reading all of Irene Baird's novels in preparation for a Wikipedia article, so I did finished it more out of a sense of duty rather than saftisfaction.… (meer)