Brilliant!MacLeod's writing style is so distinctive, I found myself frequently marveling at a turn of phrase or a metaphor or simile that so aptly described what he was trying to say. Having just returned from a trip to Cape Breton, I found the book especially worth reading. I only wish I had read it before I went to gain a better understanding of the people and their history.This book is all about the characters, with no salient plot to propel it. Yet it's never sleepy; I read it in just three or four days.Very happy I read it, MacLeod's only novel, and I look forward to reading his short stories as well. Not a book I would have picked up on my own, but that is why I'm in a book club.I really enjoyed this meandering tale about a Scottish clan family--removed geographically from their ancestral home, but still connected by the family lore. It was fascinating to see the different paths the two brothers Alexander and Calum take. I'm used to assessing an individual's life on his own merits and accomplishments, but in this story the clan is more important than any one person. Calum's life by itself adds up to even less than I first suspected from his introduction as an aging alcoholic, but viewed in context of what he does for his clan, he becomes a very different person.
What do You think about No Great Mischief (2011)?
My first Alistair MacLeod and definitely not my last! Such beautiful and economic use of language...
—Lillian
Bleak but beautiful, like all Atlantic Canadian fiction.
—bibi
Alistair MacLeod will never disappoint me.
—YonYonson
