#BookReview-‘Trillium’ by M.L Holton

About the book …
Releasing January 2019, provocative Golden Horseshoe artist and author, MLHOLTON, (Margaret Lindsay Holton), tackles timely issues under the guise of a hybrid historical novel. This epic family saga spans 250 years, from the 1750s to 2001, and follows three very distinct families as they arrive, strive and survive in the Niagara wine-making region of Ontario.

An award-winning writer of two other ‘Canadian manners’ novels, ‘Economic Sex’ (1985, Coach House Press) and ‘The Gilded Beaver’ (1999, Acorn Press Canada), MLHolton has created a cast of characters who overtly, and covertly, shape outcomes for unborn generations beneath a  memorable sweep of local history.

As example, the novel includes unsavory aspects of WW2 when Italian-Canadians both fought at the European front but were incarcerated across Ontario. Nuanced yet deliberate, this epic tale also invites contemplation of our changing social habits in the last century as a result of manufacturing innovation. When automobiles, TVs and ‘the pill’ became household commodities, they irrevocably altered how we socially interact.

This is ML Holton’s third novel and is ambitious in scope, time frame and execution.

Taking place across 3 centuries, it tracks 3 families from the 1800’s to the 21st century, beginning with Tom Hartford winning a piece of land as a reward for fighting the French for control of Canada, specifically Quebec. He plants peach trees on the land, but more than this, he plants an empire that grows and expands as the country of Canada does. The theme of running water and time is framed by the orchard and Niagara Falls as emblems and symbols of societal change,.

The attitudes towards immigrants and native people as the family paradoxically fractures their realtionship with the land, whilst farming it, is subtly told, as are the expectations of grandeur, acquisition of wealth and the establishment of a dynasty.

The two World Wars cause great sea changes in the lives of the characters ,the support of Mussolini is hard to stomach but there is a stark contrast between the expectations of Canadians as under British Rule versus their national identity .

Again Niagara is a physical and metaphorical boundary and links the identities of the book’s narrators as the King and Queen visit the Falls Station in 1939, another landmark which creates such division at the start of World War 2 . The propaganda makes war seem an exotic and exciting prospect as the young men we have watched since babyhood feel the need to go to support Europe in the war . Their main point of reference are Laurell and Hardy movies and there is a massively growing sense of worry about their safety in what they see as a trip they expect to return from-

‘Hundreds of eager young men boarded the waiting trains in mid July. Families of the rich Protestants and the poor Catholics jostled together on the platform. Parents slipped their sons extra cash, paper-wrapped food parcels, freshly-knit woolen socks, pocket-size St. James Bibles and small parish-blessed wooden crucifixes. Warm hugs and teary farewells marked the start of their sons new adventures.’

The planting of roots, nourished by water and then spreading across the world creates a sense of belonging , place and time .ML Holton deftly juggles the home and away narratives as she interlinks the war with those left behind.

The families which have been tracked from the first Tom Hartford onwards, represents the Irish, Italian and Canadian,their descendants intertwine and experience very different forms of life from farming success, punishment,internment, from an enjoyment of largesse in the proliferative 1960’s,expanding to  the carefree 70’s and then on into the ruthless 80’s, the go getting era of matching expectation with reality.

Finally, the reader lands in the new millennium where paradigms shift, priorities alter and we begin, again, with a new land to sow ideas, concepts and watch them take root and grow in our descendants.

It could have been a novel which lacks depth because of the huge number of years it covers, however, ML Holton brings nuance  to this social, political and personal character study. It’s a really good read I would definitely recommend

About the author…

Long an active artist of the Golden Horseshoe region, Holton’s main studio is on the glacial sand bar at the western tip of Lake Ontario that links Hamilton and Burlington.

Twitter @TRILLIUMnovel

Links-

https://mlholton-author.weebly.com/press-release.html

https://amzn.to/2q0iEeL

https://authorsinterviews.wordpress.com/2018/10/28/here-is-my-interview-with-m-l-holton/