The Badger Riot / The Badger Confession
In 1959, an isolated Newfoundland town, Badger, is the scene of a violent labor confrontation, which leads to the death of an Officer of the Constabulary. This unsolved crime leaves an indelible mark, not only upon the name of the town, but upon the lives of its citizens.
The author has undertaken an ambitious project, introducing her readers to a large cast of characters and the dramas of their lives, as well as making a record of a profound social change. Some of her characters are ordinary loggers, hoping to secure a better wage and reasonable living conditions at the camps, others—small cogs in the corporation’s big wheel—find themselves in opposition. There are love stories, family stories and friendship stories, stories of religious and racial prejudice and of childhood pain. A strong sense of place is created by the use of dialect as well as evocative descriptions of the natural grandeur of the area and its native past. The tension generated by a long strike is well-crafted, and when their newly formed union is abruptly decertified—an unforeseen betrayal by a well-liked politician—the reader is as stunned and dismayed as the strikers. The first book, The Badger Riot, ends with the explosion of violence which leads to the death of a Constabulary Officer, an unsolved murder. After the tragedy, Badger will never be the same.
The second book, The Badger Confession, carries on with favorite characters who are still unraveling tangled relationships. Occasionally, the ripples caused by memories of the Riot will disturb their unexceptional lives. The children who witnessed the action from the top of a snow bank grow and form families of their own. Industries disappear and occupations change. Old habits die hard as do the old prejudices—things about race and religion. The 1960s comes in. We learn at last how the riot was fomented by management and who among the strikers was paid to play management spy and provocateur—who may even have been the undiscovered killer.
Overall, I enjoyed these books, although I was sometimes jarred by viewpoint shifts and occasional awkward construction. The striker’s story—in these modern union busting times—the hardships endured by the loggers, the power-hungry role of politicians and their collusion with the corporation to create the violence—is a highly pertinent theme. These novels have plenty to hold many interests, and will appeal to readers who stories of the trials of folks who might be anyone’s neighbors.