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language: Gaelic
country: UK
year: 1993
form: novel
genre(s): historical
dates read: 5.8.23
Calum MacMhaoilein’s Na Fìobhaich is a short novel published in 1993 as part of Acair’s ambiguously young adult series — I’m looking forward to reading some of the others, particularly Iain Crichton Smith’s post-apocalyptic Turas tro Shaoghal Falamh, but this one was pretty much a miss.
there were characters in the book, but they barely matter; the only character whose POV is presented through medium-close narration is Brian, the astronomer’s son whose age I’m not sure is ever specified but which I’d peg as around 12-13, probably. there are a few chapters from Brian’s POV, but most of the book is in a pretty distant third person that moves between the astronomer, whose name I definitely remember (jk I do remember, it’s Micheál, and I definitely also know his surname; in my defense, he is almost exclusively referred to as “an réaltóir”); the…other scientist, Máirtín Mac Con Midhe; and the pilot, Seán Ó Maolchatha. Seán has Flash Gordon vibes, but really the stars of the show are Máirtín, Micheál, and Brian — Seán is mostly there to provide color commentary, which I kind of like as a narrative choice.
I mean, it’s fine — the prose is brisk but not particularly inspired, the ending is a bit abrupt but otherwise the plot is...fine. the whole concept is wild: it follows two young men, I-think-anachronistically implicitly Gaelic-speaking, who sign up with the Gentleman Adventurers of Fife in their effort to establish a plantation in Lewis under the authority of James VI. they quickly realize that something is amiss: not only were they lied to about how “productive” the land they were going to be granted would be, but also, while they grant that it may have the king’s legal approval, they don’t believe it’s just.
this doesn’t, however, stop Alasdair from setting himself — and, ultimately, his household, after he marries a local woman — in a house (and so presumably on land) whose inhabitants were cleared. the book sort of glosses over this and ultimately says he got land from his wife’s family, but he was living and farming before they were married. despite the lip-service to anticolonialism, then, it becomes a weird story of colonial reconciliation: Alasdair’s wife is the sister of a man he wounded in battle but with whom he has subsequently reconciled, on the grounds that they were both simply doing their duty. what!
there’s also this bizarre little passage where MacMhaoilein has to sort of twist himself in knots to justify rebellion against the crown:
Feumar aideachadh gun robh teaghlach Ruairidh MhicLeòid nan daoine ceannairceach [!!!], ach cha robh iad mòran, ma bha iad càil idir, na bu cheannairciche na bha a’ mhòr chuid de chinn-feadhna na Gaidhealtachd aig an àm seo. Chan urrainn dhuinn cus coire a chur orra airson an ceannairc an aghaidh an riaghaltais, oir is ann glè shuarach a dhèilig an riaghaltas riutha fhèin, ach b’ e càil bu mhiosa mun deidhinn cho deiseil ’s a bha iad gu bhith a’ buaireadh nam measg fhèin.
this is followed by a several-page account of internal power struggles among the MacLeods, and the result is, like, “well, it was bad to steal their land, but maybe the MacLeods were actually uncivilized rebels who needed to learn their place.” just a very weird vibe!
moods: informative