Curse of the Narrows Book

I have some issues with the book but I have to say that MacDonald has crafted a tidy account of what has to be the biggest disaster in Canadian history. Without belaboring the obvious and summarizing the book, I will merely state that she starts at the beginning and carries on to way past the end of the disaster...and what a disaster! More than 2000 killed and 6000 wounded in the largest man-made explosion to predate the atom bomb.

There is much that is gruesome in these pages, and no end of heartbreak for the doomed people of Halifax, but there is also much that is uplifting in the way that volunteers poured in unbidden to help rebuild broken lives and shattered dwellings. Our neighbours to the south had a train on the way before they could even ascertain the extent of the carnage! Volunteers, medications, clothing and building materials proffered unbidden from the generous people of the United States. Bear in mind that communications to the city were pretty much obliterated by the explosion, and the relief party couldn't even get a response to their inquiries about whether help was needed...they sent it anyway. MacDonald details the steps taken by these volunteers and gives them their due in this thoroughly researched and nicely written account.

There is some sloppiness in the account, and it's hard to say who to blame it on. Surely the publisher hires someone to proofread the publication. On page 35 MacDonald identifies the BEF as the British Empire Force when for over a century now everyone else has been calling it the British Expeditionary Force. And in the first sentence of Appendix B she starts: "On November 21, 1917, nine days after Armistice was declared..." So, was that Armistice in 1918 not the real deal, or what? In another page she refers to Prime Minister Borden as Premier Borden, a definite demotion for that illustrious gent. But the one passage that had me scratching my head the most was this one that starts on page 71:

"Constant Upham, the grocer who alerted the fire department to the fire, was also killed instantly. The back of his handsome grocery and supply store was ripped off its frame. Upham's body was never found. Most people assumed it washed out to sea."

Now, I ask you, how do you get "killed instantly" from someone whose body was never found? Maybe he died an agonizing and lingering death being nibbled by sardines in the Bay of Fundy. Maybe he lost his memory and ended his days as a missionary in the jungles of Ecuador. We just don't know! In the absence of a body or witnesses, we have a disappearance, not an instant death.

There are other minor errors, probably typos, that should have been picked up, but I don't want to be niggling here. The book is equipped with photographs, kinda, if you don't mind their being small and printed on the same coarse paper as the text. I like my photos full size on glossy, if you please!

In brief, a good book with lots of further reading sources in the Sources, and the Appendices make for some good reading as well.