Village Squire, 1979-05, Page 26The McGregors lifts our history off the pages
REVIEWED BY KEITH ROULSTON
The pity of it all is that Robert Laidlaw
did not discover his talent for writing
earlier in his life. The blessing is that he
did make the discovery in time to recapture
some of the living history of Western
Ontario before he died.
Mr. Laidlaw was in his seventies before
he began in earnest to put his thoughts and
memories down on paper. He had a talent
that was probably unnoticed to himself
through his one life, a talent that without
knowing it he passed on to his daughter
Alice Munro. It was through his closeness
with this outstanding writer and through
the encouragement that she gave him that
he started writing and submitted his first
stories to this magazine. From that time,
shortly after Village Squire was founded in
1973 until his death in 1976, he devoted as
much of his time as possible to writing.
The McGregors is a product of that time.
He had completed his second draft of the
slim novel just before his death and his
daughter finished the job of preparing it for
publication.
Mr. Laidlaw's purpose in the book, he
says, is to provide a partial history of the
area he knew well through one family. He
chooses The McGregors, a highland Scots
family who moved into the Queen's Bush
24 Village Squire, May 1979
area just north of the Huron -Bruce border.
There over several generations they follow
the pattern of life in the community,
clearing the land, building home and farm
buildings, becoming part of the new social
structure of schools, churches and quilting
bees, turning the raw bush into a more or
less civilized community.
The central character is Jim McGregor
who comes with his parents as a young boy
when they move in to settle. He grows up,
gets married, has children of his own and
finally dies after 70 full years. It covers the
history of the area from the 1850's to the
late 1920's and we see the pattern of life
change as small conveniences and luxuries
replace the barreness of the early years.
Had Robert Laidlaw discovered his
talent for writing earlier, or had he lived
longer to be able to have time to polish that
talent, this would have been a better book.
It was the biggest project he ever tackled
as a writer and its uneveness shows that
he wasn't really ready for it. Here and
there the quality of writing is as good as
some of his shorter pieces but there are
also weaknesses here that he didn't have
time to iron out. Some of his very special,
very subtle sense of humour comes
through, but not nearly enough.
The subject he has chosen covers such a
range that it could have taken at (east twice
the length to do it justice. Mr. Laidlaw's
writing has always been its strongest when
dealing with people and with moods. Too
much of this book is taken up with his
attempt to convey the day-to-day lifestyle
of the pioneer people for him to get deeper
into the people themselves. The book, for
instance, didn't really grab me until Mr.
Laidlaw got to the place of Jim's first
meeting with his future wife and the
courtship that followed. The people came
through here as well as the period they
lived in. After the marriage the humanity
of his central characters again got put aside
for a while until the courtship of their son
and his marriage brought it out again. And
the book shows real power at the end
where Jim is nearing death and facing it
with uncertainty. let alone because of the
earlier death of his wife, who meant
everything to him.
Yet although the humanity of the
characters is often missing. it is in a way
fitting because although there are English
and Irish involved too, the book is mostly
about the Highland Scots who settled that
area around Lucknow and Ripley. (The
book's central community is based on a
combination of Mr. Laidlaw's own
birthplace of Blyth and of Lucknow). The
books tells time and again of the inability of
the proud Scotsmen to even talk about the
word love within the family and the
sadness it brought because of the inability
to show emotion.
For this reader the book had a special
fascination not only because Robert
Laidlaw came to be a friend, but also
because the community he deals with is the
community I grew up in. The Scots of
Kinloss and Huron townships were my
neighbours and the ancestors of my
neighbours. Jim McGregor was called
Black Jim McGregor to distinguish him
from Curly Jim and Jim's Jim, and
Groundhog Jim and Cloudy Jim. Such
nicknames were still prominent in the area
in the mid -twentieth century. The same
resistence to emotion, the same pride that
made it next thing to a crime to take charity
yet the same neighbourliness that saw
neighbours work closely together, especial-
ly in time of need, these things were still
very much a part of the community.
While it's sad that Mr. Laidlaw didn't
live long enough to make this as good a
book as it could have been, it is still an
important part of our local literature. It will
keep alive an idea of who the people were
who settled this country, of the day-to-day
details of their lives, of their hardships and
their pleasures. In a day and age when
people feel hard used if they haven't yet
been able to accumulate a hot tub, a
video-tape recorder and a microwave oven
as well as take two vacations a year, this
perspective is badly needed.
THE MCGREGORS, A Novel of An Ontario
Pioneer Family: by Robert Laidlaw.
Macmillan of Canada. $12.95.