Iambics of Newfoundland: Notes from an Unknown Shore

"Well-known nature writer Finch (The Cape Itself) presents his impressions of Canada's most remote island, drawing a detailed portrait of a harsh but beautiful world and the hardscrabble people who populate it. And a quirky world it is: Newfoundlanders have a language all their own, wherein everyone is addressed as 'boy' and towns have names like 'Squid Tickle'; visitors are 'almost invariably treated with hospitality, though still referred to as a stranger,' and even 'if a stranger takes up residence in a village, he is a CFA, or come from away'; one Newfoundland town is still a departement of France, and its residents use the language, food and money of the home country while driving about on John Deere tractors rescued from a 1950s ship wreck; Fifty-five lighthouses line the shores of Newfoundland, more than any other North American province or state, fitting for a people whose lives and dreams are driven by fishing. While Finch's skill at capturing the flora, fauna and landscape of a given area is unparalleled, his writerly skill is at its sharpest capturing Newfoundland's children, parents, fishermen and 'strangers,' and his blossoming friendships with them, that sets his book apart from other fish-out-of-water travelogues. Though far from a traditional guide, anyone curious about 'the unknown shore' will find this an exacting, delightful tour." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"For nearly a decade, nature writer and commentator Robert Finch traveled through Newfoundland, a landscape some consider as forbidding as Mt. McKinley. 'The Iambics of Newfoundland' (the title refers to a hitchhiker's insistence that Finch had to get the rhythm of the place to understand it) is a series of his essays about the region, a collection of impressions as well as narratives about wildlife,... Washington Post Book Review (read the entire Washington Post review) people and language.

Finch clearly relishes the evocative Newfoundland vernacular. Ice, he writes, 'could be buckly, black, taut, tished, loose, slatchy, slob, way, and young. It could spawn, calve, and have a weather edge.' He uses this rich vocabulary to enhance his cadenced prose as he describes the revelatory beauty of the province's birds, flowers and landscapes. He chronicles going hunting with locals, exploring the changing towns and driving partygoers out to replenish their beer. He is disappointed when he visits a lighthouse keeper who spends the evening surfing satellite television channels and astonished when the man tells Finch a poignant story of loss. Newfoundland plays with Finch's sense of time, history and human rapport. 'I felt,' he writes, 'as if I were plummeting through overlapping and telescoped layers and stages of connection, toward something still unseen and unfelt.'

Eliza McGraw is a writer living in Washington, D.C.

" Reviewed by lan Coopermanlan Coopermanlan Coopermanlan CoopermanJonathan YardleyJon MeachamSimon Sebag MontefioreStephen AmidonGary KristEliza McGrawEliza McGrawEliza McGraw, Washington Post Book World (Copyright 2006 Washington Post Book World Service/Washington Post Writers Group)
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Beloved Nature Writer Robert Finch spent the greater part of a decade traveling around the island of Newfoundland, at "the edge of North America." In these evocative sketches, stories, and essays, he explores the people, geography, and wildlife of a remote and lovely, but often dangerously inhospitable place. Between the icy cliffs and the Atlantic Ocean, the lush valleys and barren drifts, he collects intimate stories of birds and moose and foxes--and of the people who share their space. He evokes a landscape of raw beauty in detailed essays that ebb and flow as we make the journey with him, straining to hear the waves. But while Newfoundland may be a place of unparalleled beauty, its citizens face serious economic hardships, with the fishing industry withered and very little industry to replace it. Finch often steps aside, allowing the Newfoundlanders' to tell their stories in their own voices, and allows us to her the cadence and movement of individuals and their tales. A wide array of characters--fishermen, hunters, and hitchhikers, newcomers and oldtimers--bring to life an island tucked between provinces, languages, and cultures, a land of ancient hardship and stirring beauty.