Ms. Mills-Milde characters are interpreted through and by their respective skills: Ena a careful, experienced baker, Hugh the hard-working, tough farmer, Jamie, who is especially fond of animals and Hugh’s wife Sarah who doesn’t want to just be a farmer’s wife; she wants to paint, and to do it well.
Here is a scene in which Ena is working in her kitchen:
Cloistered in the kitchen, Ena makes brown bread, her hands in the mix, the texture of the dough like velvet. The dough is pliant, stretchable, sure signs that it will resurrect, and she is careful to use just the heel of her hand to knead it. After touch, it is smell that guides her, her nose in the bowl, the scent of the yeast registering in a place deep behind her eyes. It looks right, pale but living.After the bread is risen and moulded and baked, taste will be the last test – a confirmation of what she already knows.
As Sarah shows Ena one of her paintings, Ms. Mills-Milde displays not only Sarah’s skills as a painter but Ena’s unique reaction to the painting’s bold colours:
Craig [Sarah’s art instructor] puts the small canvas on the easel and Ena is immediately overtaken with recognition. The colour is what hits her first, vivid, colliding shades: darks that hold deep veins of reds and lashings of greys. There are brown and barren trees, twisted wire. Although there are no people in it, there is panic in the picture. A feeling of being held in a storm. Ena thinks of Jamie’s letters [from the front] his brief and measured descriptions of the war, the horrible things he sees and does.
“It’s too much, Ena, I know. It’s overblown. It’s how I think of it – what’s going on over there.”
Ena looks at Sarah. “Can I see another?” She is greedy for more – the burst of feeling that comes as she is taken to the heart of things without words or explanations.
There are many such revealing passages in The Land’s Long Reach that induce the reader to be “greedy for more”: more of these beautifully constructed sentences in order to know the book’s characters, including their feelings and the reason for their actions. This book is also timeless in that it could have been easily written 20, 30 or 40 years ago. I might have been studying it in high school English class instead of Margaret Laurence’s The Stone Angel.
I was pleased to discover that Ms. Mills-Milde was not a “one book wonder.” Indeed, I was anxious to see if she would soon write another novel after After Drowning and I am delighted that The Land’s Long Reach turned out to be such a very good read. Her technique, attention to detail and careful pacing put me in mind of Carol Bruneau. That’s the highest compliment I can give. The story builds to a tragic climax that I didn’t see coming. However, it ends in an especially pleasing way.
The Land’s Long Reach goes on my 2018 longlist for a “The Very Best!” Book Award for Fiction. Also makes an exceptional choice for a “Summer Read.”
September 9th, 2018: The Land’s Long Reach has been awarded as a “Notable Achievement” in the “The Very Best!” Book Award category for Fiction!
The Land’s Long Reach by Valerie Mills-Milde
Inanna Publications
*Please note if you choose to purchase this book through Amazon using the link below I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thanks!
James M. Fisher is the owner and editor-in-chief of The Miramichi Reader. He began TMR in 2015, realizing that there was a genuine need for more book reviews of Canadian literature. It has since become Canada’s best-regarded source for the finest in new literary releases. James has been interviewed about TMR on CBC Radio and other media sites. James works as a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Technologist and lives in Miramichi, New Brunswick with his wife Diane and their tabby cat Eddie.
This does sound like something I’d like! Our library system doesn’t have either of her books – I’ll have to suggest them for purchase.