|
/Glyphs-and-Gallows.gif "Glyphs and Gallows")
Add To Cart
View Cart
Glyphs and Gallows by Peter Johnson, published by Heritage House, 1999 (254 pp., SC, $18.95).
Everyone loves a mystery, and it's a mystery that forms the central core of this richly-detailed investigation into the rock art of Clo-oose and the colonial history of the West Coast.
Johnson tells his tale using a mixture of personal narrative (as he searches for and tries to decipher the true meaning of Clo-oose's sailing ship glyphs), historical account (gleaned from what must have been extensive research), photographs and drawings. Anchoring what is an ambitious, sweeping examination of coastal B.C. history is the riveting, tragic tale of the wreck of the John Bright and the events and personalities surrounding it. The popular press of the day helped drum up the theory that the ship's company survived the wreck only to be murdered by West Coast aboriginals (and indeed two Hesquiat villagers were hung for their supposed role in the affair). But Johnson presents a compelling argument that in fact nobody survived the wreck, and that the case against the aboriginals was a fabrication, a tapestry woven from the commercial and personal ambitions of a sealing skipper, the political goals of an influential publisher and the unspoken fears of an ill-informed public.
Johnson, who is an English teacher by day, moves the story along with lively writing. Still, the sheer volume of information he weaves into the book rules this one out for light bedtime reading.
|
Home 
