The Navigator of New York by Wayne Johnston

July 8, 2004

Location: Joanne’s home
Members: Virginia, Françoise, Louise, Carmen, Margaret, Joanne, Bea, Marvel, Wilma, Gisela 

The menu for the evening was scruptious Thai food and appetizers ordered from a local restaurant. Joanne also brought out a fantastic black forest cake that she had made during her cooking course. A candle was placed in the centre of the cake and a chorus of Happy Birthday was tunefully sung to Marvel (moi!) .

Wilma started the discussion of the book. She commented on the hardship of living in Newfoundland at that time and also about the popularity of polar expeditions in the 1900’s. She was fascinated to see the perseverance of the explorers, it was like a maniac obsession. They would pack up and leave their families for extended periods of time. In Perry’s case it was his profession. It seems that even today there is controversy over who actual reached the pole first.

In general discussion it was determined that:
The book was not a page turner, however the topic was indeed very interesting
Perhaps the story could have been compressed (told in a number of less pages)
It was great to read about the Newfoundland experience and to watch New York City develop
The exploring part was fascinating, preparing for an expedition and hearing about the adventure and how the natives were involved in the trek
The secrecy aspect was getting hard to take, kept waiting for some huge intrigue to be revealed
It is wonderful to expand our reading experience to include this type of book, it would not have been one many would have chosen to read if it wasn’t for the book club
Cook was full of himself and was very controlling
The description of the places that they travelled was great
The relationship that Devlin had with his Aunt, his Uncle, with Cook and his wife were well documented and interesting.
He wrote a very wonderful book (which could have been shorter) and most of the group are interested in reading his other novel based on Joey Smallwood called The Colony of Unrequited Dreams
It was great to read a Canadian novel set in the Maritimes.

Respectfully submitted by: Marvel on August 3, 2004