Michael Crummey
Sweetland by Michael Crummey explores a crusty old man’s attempt to cling to a dying way of life on the abandoned island he calls home.
In the sparsely populated fictional island of Sweetland, located just south of Newfoundland, its handful of villagers agree to accept the government’s resettlement package of $100,000 cash for each inhabitant. The government’s condition is all must agree to leave the island or the deal falls through. Pressure mounts on the lone holdout, 69-year-old Moses Sweetland. Named after his family, the island has been Sweetland’s home for most of his life. He refuses to give up on it, fighting a lone battle for its survival.
Although he is a cantankerous old man, Moses Sweetland plays the role of caretaker for many of the island’s quirky inhabitants. He knows each one’s history, life, loves, and losses. He is generous and can always be counted on to lend a hand, whether it is to deliver a baby calf, share his catch of fish, or help bury their dead. His dialogue is peppered with sarcasm, but his generosity of spirit shines under a curmudgeonly veneer. This is especially apparent in his dealings with his niece’s autistic son, Jesse, with whom he shares a strong bond. When a tragic accident takes Jesse’s life, Moses announces he is ready to accept the government’s offer. But this is all a ruse since he has no intention of leaving the island he loves. He fakes his own death and hides, watching from a distance as the community leaves the island on the last ferry. He leads a Robinson Crusoe existence with only a scraggly dog to keep him company.
Crummey details Sweetland’s daily activities to survive. He raids empty homes and cabins for firewood and food. He sets animal traps. He endures blistering storms. He listens to his radio for company. His mind wanders to the past, flashing back to pivotal events in his life. And he is besieged by ghosts of his past. Slowly but surely, Sweetland begins the inexorable decline in physical strength and mental acuity. He hallucinates. Alone on the island, he questions whether the people he sees and converses with are real, figments of his imagination, or ghosts. The ending, intentionally ambiguous, leaves open to interpretation Sweetland’s ultimate fate.
Crummey’s technique keeps the reader guessing what is real and what is imaginary. Sweetland’s conversations disorient the reader because one is never quite sure if he is having a flashback or hallucinating. Similarly, the border separating the dead from the living is a foggy blur. While he is alive, Jesse never tires of relating conversations he has with Sweetland’s deceased brother, Hollis; and alone on the island, Sweetland witnesses a ghostly parade of deceased villagers.
In this well-crafted novel, Crummey immerses the reader in Sweetland’s experience so that we feel his loneliness, isolation, and bereavement at the loss of community and a way of life. His is a eulogy for the way things used to be. No matter how obstinately or heroically Sweetland clings to the past or tries to relive it, there is no going back. He eventually realizes it is not place that makes a home. It is the community inhabiting it. And in the absence of one’s community, place loses its significance and will never again be home.