Sweeping, masterful story delivered
FIRST SNOW, LAST LIGHT BY WAYNE JOHNSTON RANDOM HOUSE/KNOPF 492 PAGES $34.95
Ned Vatcher is a phenomenally successful businessman; in fact his Newfoundland concerns of groceries, radio stations and TV networks constitute something of an empire. Find something people want, and package and market it as something people need, is his mantra.
Fit and fast, he was such a good athlete he attended Boston College on a sports scholarship. He’s handsome, an extremely eligible bachelor. And he is completely haunted by a devastating and inexplicable event that happened one November day in his childhood.
Ned had came home from school to find the house locked and empty. HIS parents, Megan and Edgar, were gone, and so was his father’s car, a wellmaintained Brougham. The mystery of this has dominated and arguably eroded Ned’s life.
“First Snow, Last Light” is an accomplished, sweeping novel covering several decades, primarily from the 1930s into the 1960s, between the corruption of the Squires’s administration to the opportunities and affluences of post-wwii. The story is seen from several perspectives, experienced in different points of view, and told in different voices. It’s seamlessly linked in with Johnston’s previous novels of that same place and period, St. John’s and Newfoundland in its pre-depression to post-confederation, era and especially to “The Custodian of Paradise” (which is mentioned in an aside as an existing publication). Sheilagh Fielding is a major character here, and so well worth another literary encounter. It is genuinely nice to meet her again:
“At his invitation, I interviewed Sir Richard, who said he wanted the Newfoundland people to know that he could not afford to have a black cloud hanging over the skeletons in his closet while waiting for the other shoe to drop (so reads one of her ‘Field Day’ columns).”
Fielding’s inclusion ties the novel to an already rich and textured world. Johnston has now built his alternative, beguiling St. John’s, its architecture solid and believable, allowing more characters and personalities to emerge from its front rooms and back alleys.
As “Colony Of Unrequited Dreams” was centred on a historical, through fictionalized, Smallwood, Vatcher is inspired by mogul Geoff Stirling, in terms of glamour, financial acumen, and occasionally far-fetched beliefs. Though Stirling’s parents did not disappear, and Vatcher does not involve himself much in the Confederation debates, unlike Stirling, who cofounded the Economic Union Party, advocating for closer ties with the United States, Vatcher, like Stirling, prospers from the energy and economy this all generates. But Vatcher’s mind never really leaves his parents. He never stops trying to find out what happened to them — to find them. There’s no real separation between this past and any potential future. He will pursue every possible clue and trace.
His Father, Edgar, grew up on the Brow. Most children from that neighbourhood were unburdened by high expectations. Edgar’s family itself contained so many reprobates the Constabulary was nicknamed “Vatcher Catchers.” But Edgar was smart, and good enough in track and field to attract the eye of Jesuit coach Father Duggan. Duggan arranged for Edgar to attend St. Bon’s, where he thrived, even becoming a Rhodes Scholar in 1919.
In London he meets, and beds, Megan (née Chidley). But they don’t marry. Edgar returns to St. John’s and when Megan finds out she is pregnant she follows, and there they wed. Ned was their only child.
Megan isolates herself in their Circular Road home, openly grieving for her lost city of London. She continually campaigns for a reprieve, a return. But Edgar has a position of importance and influence. He works for Sir Richard Squires, and is privy to all that passes through the Colonial Building. Edgar is an educated and capable confidant, and he is also adept in the woods, hunting, or in a dory, fishing cod, skills that Squires also employs to impress visitors. That’s not easy to step away from, even if Edgar was ready to sever all family connections.
The Vatchers, including his vaguely threatening brother Cyril, and Cyril’s not at all vaguely alluring wife Kay, visit on Boxing Day. But not Edgar’s parents. Reg Vatcher and Nan Finn rarely leave their “Flag House,” painted pink, white and green. Reg has been determined deaf and dumb since his son, Phonse, was lost in a fishing accident. Cagged off on the daybed, he is brought to mass, where he delivers handwritten confessions to the priest, which he hides afterwards, Nan ransacking the house for them. She is convinced that Reg can hear and speak as well as anyone, and his years of sham are a cover for shame of what really happened that day on the water.
It’s one mystery at the core of many. And one love at the heart of many. All peeled in layers as delicate and savoury as those of an onion. Johnston was never a slouch when it came to telling a story. But now he is a master.