Each Man's Son (Hugh MacLennan)

When I closed the back cover of Each Man's Son I felt a little sad. I have now read all of Hugh MacLennan's novels. I will never again open a new one and discover his prose for the first time. There are, of course, essay collections that I can read, but essays are not novels. Now I can only re-explore the ground that I have already tread upon. 

Each Man's Son was originally published in 1951 and is MacLennan's fourth novel. Set primarily in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, the story focuses on Mollie MacNeil and her son Alan. At the opening of the novel Mollie has been waiting four years for her husband Archie, a prize fighter who has abandoned her and gone to the United States, to return. 

Mollie's loyalty to her absent husband is complicated by the attention of Louis Camire, a Frenchman who chose to stay on the island after a ship-wreak, and by the attention that the local Doctor, Daniel Ainslie shows to her son Alan. 

Archie's eventual return to Nova Scotia results in a violent confrontation, which drastically and permanently alters the lives of those closet to Mollie MacNeil. 

Although Each Man's Son is by no means MacLennan's best novel, it is not bad. I gave it three stars of goodreads. I liked it. In comparison, I've given all six of MacLennan's other novels five stars. This one didn't blow me away. 

When I read Two Solitudes and The Precipice I frequently found myself stopping to read passages aloud to myself, to underline, or to just take in the beauty and significance of MacLennan's prose. With Each Man's Son there wasn't a single moment when I did this. It was a good story. I enjoyed it, but it wasn't amazing.