The Custodian of Paradise

When I came to this book on my nightstand and read the blurb, I couldn't imagine why I had bought it in the first place. When you read descriptions of the plot, it seems, at best, dull. But the writing is wonderful. And the details, and sense of place, are fantastic. I couldn't put this book down, and you won't be able to either. Excellent.

Johnston's excellent Colony of Unrequited Dreams featured Joey Smallwood with Sheilagh Fielding as a strong secondary presence. This novel reverses that order--it features Sheilagh Fielding with Joey Smallwood more in the background. This is not a book that you can hurry through-- think of a cup of very hot, very rich coffee--you have to sip it and savor it slowly. The writing is superb--rich prose with a wonderful sense of time and place. Sheilagh Fielding, for reasons unclear at first, takes up residence on an island off Newfoundland's south coast--in an abandoned fishing village. There's very little of the present--perhaps 90% of the story is retrospective--a looking back at the events in her life. At six feet three and sharp-tongued (to put it mildly) she has not made many friends (other than Smallwood). But she has a mysterious "provider" who has kept an eye on her. The provider's role slowly unfolds--and much of what Sheilagh (and the reader) thought they knew about her (Sheilagh's) life gets turned around. In a way, this reminds me of Robert Goddard's novels (qv) where the past gets unravelled many years later--but in this case (unlike Goddard's books) Sheilagh starts learning about the provider when she's 16, and at age 44 (when the novel opens) she has been learning bits and pieces since she was 16. For me, the process was like slowly and carefully taking the many layers of wrappings off a very delicate object. Johnston has written another wonderful book--this doesn't have the historical sweep of Colony--but it's layered and rich, and not to be missed.

I have to admit, Wayne Johnston could write about anything and I'd gladly read it, and the fact that critics have compared him to Dickens is no surprise to me. I would, without hesitation, say he is the greatest novelist of our time. His words are like a warm sea that I could float in all day, and the continuity between this book and The Colony is perfect. Sheilagh Fielding is my favorite character of all time, and when I first heard Mr. Johnston was devoting an entire novel to her, I thought it was too good to be true. And it was definitely worth the wait. There could have been no better followup to The Colony, and The Guardian may even be a greater book, if that is possible. My hat is definitely off to Mr. Johnston, a true genius in our midst.