by Wayne Johnston
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Product Description
A mystery and a love story spanning five decades, The Colony of Unrequited Dreams is an epic portrait of passion and ambition, set against the beautiful, brutal landscape of Newfoundland. In this widely acclaimed novel, Johnston has created two of the most memorable characters in recent fiction: Joey Smallwood, who claws his way up from poverty to become New Foundland's first premier; and Sheilagh Fielding, who renounces her father's wealth to become a popular columnist and writer, a gifted satirist who casts a haunting shadow on Smallwood's life and career.
The two meet as children at school and grow to realize that their lives are irreversibly intertwined, bound together by a secret they don't know they share. Smallwood, always on the make, torn between love of country and fear of failure, is as reluctant to trust the private truths of his heart as his rival and savior, Fielding--brilliant, hard-drinking, and unconventionally sexy. Their story ranges from small-town Newfoundland to New York City, from the harrowing ice floes of the seal hunt to the lavish drawing rooms of colonial governors, and combines erudition, comedy, and unflagging narrative brio in a manner reminiscent of John Irving and Charles Dickens. A tragicomic elegy for the "colony of unrequited dreams" that is Newfoundland, Wayne Johnston's masterful tribute to a people and a place establishes him as a novelist who is as profound as he is funny, with an impeccable sense of the intersection where private lives and history collide.
Amazon.com Review
In 1949, Joseph Smallwood became the first premier of the newly federated Canadian province of Newfoundland. Predictably, and almost immediately, his name retreated to the footnotes of history. And yet, as Wayne Johnston makes plain in his epic and affectionate fifth novel, The Colony of Unrequited Dreams, Smallwood's life was endearingly emblematic, an instance of an extraordinary man emerging at a propitious moment. The particular charm of Johnston's book, however, lies not merely in unveiling a career that so seamlessly coincided with the burgeoning self-consciousness of Newfoundland itself, but in exposing a simple truth--namely, that history is no more than the accretion of lived lives. Born into debilitating poverty, Smallwood is sustained by a bottomless faith in his own industry. His unabashed ambition is to "rise not from rags to riches, but from obscurity to world renown." To this end, he undertakes tasks both sublime and baffling--walking 700 miles along a Newfoundland railroad line in a self-martyring union drive; narrating a homespun radio spot; and endlessly irritating and ingratiating himself with the Newfoundland political machine. His opaque and constant incitement is an unconsummated love for his childhood friend, Sheilagh Fielding. Headstrong and dissolute, she weaves in and out of Smallwood's life like a salaried goad, alternately frustrating and illuminating his ambitions. Smallwood is harried as well by Newfoundland's subtle gravity, a sense that he can never escape the tug of his native land, since his only certainty is the island itself--that "massive assertion of land, sea's end, the outer limit of all the water in the world, a great, looming, sky-obliterating chunk of rock." The Colony of Unrequited Dreams bogs down after a time in its detailing of Smallwood's many political intrigues and in the lingering matter of a mysterious letter supposedly written by Fielding. However, when he speculates on the secret motives of his peers, or when he reveals his own hyperbolic fantasies and grandiose hopes--matters no one would ever confess aloud--the novel is both apt and amiable. Best of all is to watch Smallwood's inevitable progress toward a practical cynicism. It seems nothing less than miraculous that his countless disappointments pave the way for his ascension, that his private travails ultimately align with the land he loves. This is history resuscitated. --Ben Guterson
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Wayne Johnston Rocks!, 2007-07-31
Another masterful story by author Wayne Johnston, the best story teller I have read in a long time. The story flows from beginning to end as his characters take you along with them through Newfoundland. Any lover of a good yarn will love this tale.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 People in History, 2007-07-01
The book combines a fascinating account of the political development of Newfoundland, seen through three sets of eyes, those of Smallwood, Fielding and Prowse, with the single-minded dedication of Smallwood to "make something of himself". That he does so to the exclusion of all personal social matters seems not to belittle him as a person, as his goal includes the betterment of the people of Newfoundland. The descriptions of the life and poverty in Newfoundland in the early years, along with the exploitation of the island by almost everyone, is extremely interesting, but it is s little tragic that his single-mindedness of purpose precludes him from, possibly, realizing great joy and fulfillment in his personal relationships. A most interesting and readable book.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
WOW!, 2006-06-04
I never expected that this "fictionalized" history of Joe Smallwood's life, a story of how New Foundland would come into Canadian Confederation would be a PAGE TURNER. The love story between the train wreck of a character, Fielding, and Smallwood is simply amazing.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Fictional brilliant of a man trapped by his own history, 2005-03-14
In 1949 the British colony of Newfoundland and Labrador entered Confederation to become the youngest province in the Dominion of Canada. The man responsible for the political move was Joey Smallwood. Smallwood was a curious figure from the start. A man convinced of his own history and somewhat of a Canadian with a Napoleon complex. Too bad for Smallwood that the island of Newfoundland had not the resources nor he the access to build an empire. However, The Colony of Unrequited Dreams, is a sweeping fictional tale based on an actual person. Spanning 50 years in the life of a consuming ambition, this book seeks to explain the strange and odd policies that emerged from the very first premier of Newfoundland. Smallwood had desired to be Prime Minister of Great Britian but settled for his own inaugural leadership role. Today he is as much a part of the province as Churchill still is to Britain.
The Colony of Unrequited Dreams is about a man, a vision, a political hunger without a core compass, and a love that remains forever just a wish. The female Fielding character is an imaginative stresser for Joey through the years, but she embodies the heart of his dreams that are sabotaged by his own inner ghosts and frustrations.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Character, not history, 2005-03-05
I completely disagree with,"it is goodbook if you want to learn something about the history of Newfoundland, but I don't think it offers much in the way of portraying the subtle interactions of human manners." The characters are what got me, not the history of Newfoundland. The tension, stark realizations of loss, lack of care time has for life, and the sadness of the characters mirror the barren grey landscape. The fact that Fielding and Small cannot find fulfillment in each other in real life, but that they crave it much to their own chagrin, is one of the testaments to what we hope versus what can be. Thoughtful, stark, and haunting.
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