The Road To Terra Nova

THE ROAD TO TERRA NOVA BY VAN NEWELL - I DON'T DO BOOK REVIEWS

Back in my newspaper days, I refused to do advertising photographs, cover the Board of Education meetings, and write book reviews. Much

of this was based on boredom, and the fact I fall asleep quickly and awkwardly when confronted by projects I'm not interested in doing. I'd take

the book gladly, and either add it to my own library or I'd give it away to someone who would write a review. Back in those less than halcyon

days working for the advertising manager, moreso than the publisher, we were asked to write reviews of special events, theatre productions,

concerts, businesses and new books. It was assumed however, that you would never, ever write a negative review of anything or anyone that

might represent future ad revenue.
Of course there was freedom of the press. Management had the freedom to ask us to write as they pleased. As editor I was able to block

advertising from having anything to do with actual news copy, and I handed my resignation in every other week to re-inforce this aspect of our

news responsibility. The writing staff, to get around the "good times were had by all" reporting, management found preferable and ad-

generating, we got real good at burying sarcasm and hidden meaning. So instead of bestowing great honor on a business or theatre review, we'd

just out-write what management could comprehend. The inquiring public, appreciating what we were doing, applauded us for our honesty, and

the nice way of making a negative review seem so darn positive. We called it the "Paul Rimstead" approach. As our mentor, the well known

Toronto Sun columnist had a mischevious and cunning way of building in an undercurrent of opinion, that would kick someone in the arse at

the same time as editorially patting them on the back. He was a brilliant wordsmith as far as we were concerned, and we got away with it for

years.
When local author and musician, homesteader and left-over beatnik, Van Newel, asked me to edit through his latest manuscript, I told him

bluntly, from the get-go, that I would be brutally honest, so if he had a low threshold for criticism, he should find an agreeable, "I don't want to

hurt your feelings," editor, who puts kindness above all else. Being kind is an important human attribute but not in the editorial swing of things.
Well, I was only partially brutal and he was only a little bit offended at all the edit marks, which made his copy look like a Harold Town

painting, or on some pages, like Jackson Pollock spilled his whole paint can in one spot. Yet I found something admirable and worthwile in the

expense of ink.....for him and myself. His was an honest and unapologetic half-biography, of a twenty year gig on the farmstead he and his

family have called "Terra Nova," in the ballywick of Bodenville......pretty much the modern day Uffington, in east Bracebridge, Ontario. As a

non-homesteader, who always wanted to be one, I appreciate his family's way of life deep in the hinterland, and I confess to allowing Van to

live his survivor lifestyle, so I don't have to raise a single callous, or fetch even one chunk of wood for the stove. I don't have to worry about the

well going dry, the chickens having an off-month, the crops failing, the bear eating me, or the brutal winter freezing me stiff on the outhouse

pine. I will settle happily for reading and re-reading Van's country journal, while enjoying the comforts of the urban lifestlyle.
Van and I have some interesting parallels.....beginning with our earliest aspirations. We both went ot York University, we both drank hard

and lived large, we both applied to Black Creek Pioneer Village, in Toronto, (he worked there; I quit when they asked me to tote water all the

live long day). We both had degrees that in some way brushed on history and writing, and as it turns out we both had political aspirations; Van

running in the city, and I took two shots at local council in Bracebridge. We both like antiques. His are of the useful kind. Mine sit in my

collection and look pretty. Van writes about Terra Nova, and I write about Birch Hollow and The Bog. Van has a Robinson Caruso type of

lifestyle. Mine is Thoreauesque. I wish to be at Waldon Pond as long as my family brings me frequent and abundant treats, so that I can more

pleasantly survive the outdoor experience. We are both filled to over-flowing with ego-mania but show me a writer who doesn't share this trait.

And my boys, Andrew and Robert perform in his band, The Bodenville Flyers. We're both stubborn bastards and we don't like being told what

to do, when to do it, or that we should stop writing altogether because we suck. We soldier on regardless of our critics. We've got a few things

in common. We're both going to perish, as the odds-makers will tell you, frozen in time over our keyboards, looking for that last adjective or

parting statement, that will tell everyone we lived our lives to the fullest.....and wrote with every molecule of heart and soul.
When Van asked me if I'd be interested in writing the introduction to his book, I thought it would be another case of writing something cute

and positive, in order to flog product. So like the editorial hatchet-job on the manuscript, I wrote an intro that has an undertow attached, that

doesn't perpetuate any kindness to an extreme. I was able to write an honest, no-holds barred review / intro of his homesteading tome and he

agreed to it! I thought he might try to diminish it somehow by adding a footnote or something more subtle, referring to my middle age editorial

flatulence, as the reason for my mutilating criticism. When I got a copy, hot off the press, this past week, I was astonished to find that Van had

the decency to let an intro, as written, go without footnote or explanatory this or that. While admittedly he didn't take all of my suggestions for

editorial improvement, he at least adopted the most important changes.......of drawing in actuality of homesteading, his and family's many

incredible experiences, as the preamble to his little fictional entries he's well known for, having been published for years in the local press

under the familiar heading, "Off The Beaten Path."
I don't do book reviews. It doesn't mean I won't read and cast an opinion now and again, about a book I've enjoyed. Van is a good writer and

the epilogue, for me, reveals the writer I knew he was. It is well composed, and it's what I strongly suggest he embraces if there is another book

in the works. The Road to Terra Nova is both an interesting book, and an adventure story about a modern day homestead family. It is honest

and trustworthy, as any mix of fiction and fact can be, but there is no selling-here. It is not a recruitment book. You don't have to feel that by

reading it, you must join a hinterland cult. Van has a way of spinning a story that I like. And so will you.
You can get a copy of this softcover edition at Andrew Currie's Music and Collectibles, on Muskoka Road, in Gravenhurst, in the old

Muskoka Theatre building across from the Gravenhurst Opera House.
Thanks Van for allowing me this opportunity to be a part of publishing history.......I actually wrote a book review and I sort of liked it!