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On May 7, the ESPC Book Club met to discuss Some Great Thing, a novel by Canadian author Lawrence Hill.
Lawrence Hill’s debut novel covers a lot of ground: family relationships, growing up, racism, language tensions, politics, the role of the media, and the welfare system. Some Great Thing tells the story of how one young man, Mahatma, tries to find his place with family, community, and the world.
When we meet Mahatma at the beginning of the novel, he is an apathetic, unmotivated university graduate looking for work who takes a job at the Winnipeg Herald on somewhat of a whim. Mahatma seems to be just floating through life, but we learn early on that his father, Ben, has very high expectations. Ben had assembled a binder of stories about to teach his son about Black history, struggles to overcome oppression, Martin Luther King and Ghandi, but Mahatma didn’t care. Ben had struggled against racism and oppression as a railroad porter living in Winnipeg, and wanted to convey to his son the importance of hard work, dedication, and living life with purpose. Mahatma didn’t particularly care about that, either. “Go do some great thing”, his father had told him. Through describing Mahatma’s work as a journalist, the author portrays a fractured community, its many complex relationships, and Mahatma’s own struggle to come to terms with his father’s expectations.
The Book Club discussed the role of the railroad porter in Canadian society in the mid 1900s. Black railroad porters straddled a social divide of race and class. Through strong union efforts, Black porters were able to earn more money than most other Black men, and porters were well-respected by train passengers, yet they still faced racism, discrimination, and poverty. We discussed how Ben tries to share his life and occupation with his son, and how his high hopes for Mahatma influences their relationship. We speculated that, like many children of parents dedicated to a struggle, Mahatma expresses his individualism by disconnecting from his father’s struggle. Throughout the novel, however, Mahatma matures and begins to appreciate his father’s experiences. The Book Club discussed how the events in the book change Mahatma and Ben’s relationship.
Working for the Winnipeg Herald, Mahatma struggles to balance his own growing sense of responsibility to be a good journalist with the demands of his newsroom editor to deliver dramatic and at times unethical stories. The role of the media is one of the central themes of the novel, and the Book Club talked briefly about Mahatma’s conduct as a journalist, and the contrasting roles of Mahatma’s journalism and that of Yoyo, the Cameroonian journalist visiting Winnipeg.
It is because of the French-English tensions in Winnipeg that many of the book’s conflicts and incidents occur. The author presents a community that cannot come to terms with the reality of two languages – language incites riots, provokes violence, and maintains a sharp divide between those who speak English and those who speak French. The Book Club reflected on the different tone that language debates have today than they did in the 1980s; we also discussed the way in which media can fan the flames of linguistic hostilities – both in reality and in the novel.
Yet another key piece of Some Great Thing is the narrative of Jake Corbett, the welfare activist. Jake doggedly works to bring attention to an unfair deduction made to his monthly welfare cheque, dedicating his whole life to the task. The Book Club had a lot of questions about the role of the Jake-Corbett-story and what it represents in the novel. Is Jake’s specific complaint a realistic one? Why is he alone in his struggle – are there no anti-poverty groups in Winnipeg that would have been working alongside him? Does the author portray him as a crackpot or as a hero – and to what effect? Rather unrealistically, Jake goes on to become somewhat of a celebrity in social justice circles outside of Winnipeg, and travels abroad to speak about his cause – what was the author’s intention with this side narrative, and what does it say about how the author perceives poverty and injustice?
What do you think? Does the author do justice to all of the themes that he introduces in Some Great Thing? Is his treatment of racism, gender, language, politics and the media accurate or unfair? Are the characters in this book dynamic, or do they remain unchanged throughout the story? Do the relationships ring true, or do they fall flat? Although we weren’t able to come to agreement on these questions, we were able to agree that Some Great Thing presents a lot to talk about.
Our next pick is The Letter Opener, another debut novel by a Canadian writer, Kyo Maclear. It looks to be a fascinating read, and sure to be another great debate. I hope you’ll join us!
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Sunday, 05 February 2012 
