“February” by Lisa Moore. Finished this yesterday. Moore is a popular and well regarded Newfoundland literary writer. I’ve read her previous novel, “Alligator”, and a few short stories. I liked “Alligator” quite a bit.
“February” is about the life experience of a Newfoundland woman whose husband is killed in the 1982 “Ocean Ranger” disaster. It’s about widowhood, motherhood, love, marriage, and raising children. It’s very solidly planted in in a specific time and place: St. John’s, from the 1970s to 2009. The book deals with the sinking of the "Ocean Ranger" and its impact on Newfoundland. But, again, it is mainly concerned with the feelings and experience of Helen, the bereaved central character -- not just the effects of the loss of her husband on the oil rig, but her whole adult experience, as wife, mother, widow etc. This focus inclines me to call the novel a “woman’s book”. Not my usual thing, but I think it’s very well written, full of arresting and interesting observation and images. I enjoyed it.
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