"On a winter's day in Deptford, a village of 500 in Southern Ontario, Percy Boyd Staunton, a boy of about 11, throws a barrage of snowballs out of spite at his friend and rival Dunstan Ramsay, who is on his way home for dinner following an afternoon of sledding. The last snowball contains hidden in it a stone. Dunstan ducks the ball and it hits the young bride Mrs. Dempster, out on a walk with her husband, the Baptist minister. The pregnant Mrs Dempster gives birth prematurely; the baby, Paul, barely survives; and the woman becomes "simple" Dunstan Ramsay is wracked with guilt.
"The throw of a stone, literally and metaphorically, sets the novel in motion; a trilogy is born....It determines the life trajectories os two of the Deptford boys, Dunstan Ramsay and Paul Dempster, and it will return to demand a reckoning from the third, the privileged "Boy" Staunton"
Mrs. Dempster becomes a saint to Dunstan: he believes she raised his brother from the dead, he sees her face before him when he is injured in the war, and she saves the tramp in the pit from a life of crime. She is only ten years older, and Dunstan ends up caring for her for the rest of his life. Throughout his life - Dunstan writes this as a memoir to his headmaster at UCC- Dunstan meets many interesting characters: Blazon, the priest, Leisl, who is a form of the devil, Leola, Boy's first wife, Diana, the nurse who saves his life in England, but the two other boys, Boy and Paul, and Mrs. Dempster are the unifying characters.
I've been intending to read this trilogy, and after dipping unsuccessfully into about four different books, I settled on this one and became immersed in it immediately. Once more, it is well-written, beautifully crafted, the characters are interesting and varied, there are humorous parts, like the welcome-home parade in Deptford, and the opening of the novel is oustanding.
Now, I move along to the second in the trilogy!
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