Book Review: The Purchase by Linda Spalding

Why do we have such a fondness for the past when it is so damn horrible? That is one of my thoughts on reading The Purchase by Linda Spalding.

Spalding has crafted a wonderful read with this book. There is great attention to historical detail and the story is truly mesmerizing, yet the past of this story is a dark and unforgiving place indeed.

The story begins in 1798 when Daniel Dickinson and his young family are exiled from their Quaker community in Pennsylvania. Daniel's wife has died and he has married their fifteen year old servant, which doesn't go over too well with the leaders of the community. He moves his young family to Virginia with hopes  for a new life and an attempt to master his pride. Despite his hard work, humanity and compassion, he struggles with what seems to be a never ending set of failures.

The book's title comes from an incident early in the story, when Daniel accidentally, though purposefully, breaks with his Quaker tradition and faith, and buys a young slave boy. As the story unfolds, his eldest daughter Mary claims more of the narrative, her life becoming entwined with a slave woman.

Recalling Cormac McCarthy's The Road, there is much darkness, brutality and tragedy in this story. However, unlike McCarthy's spartan writing style, Spalding's prose is rich and full, biblical and lyrical. While hard to put down, this is not a comfortable book to read; there is a sense of recognition that forces the reader to note, not only the injustice of the past, but with great unease, the injustice of the present.

Rich, raw and powerful in its exploration of faith, family, loss and freedom, The Purchase is a terrific book and not to be missed.

Published in September 2012 by McClelland & Stewart, The Purchase was the 2012 winner of the Governor General's Literary Awards for Fiction.

las Malvinas ~ The Falklands ~ always good for diverting attention

In Argentina every child learns that those islands off the Atlantic coast are called las Malvinas and not The Falklands. They learn that these islands belong to Argentina and that the United Kingdom stole the islands during a war of aggression in the early 1980s.

April 2 is a public holiday in Argentina: Dia de los Caides en la Guerra de las Malivinas, a day to pay tribute to their fallen soldiers in a war that started on the same day in 1982. It began with a simple military occupation and ended 74 days later with over 900 dead (649 Argentines, 255 British and 3 islanders).

The disaster of the war led to massive demonstrations against the military throughout Argentina and ultimately hastened the junta's downfall and a return to democracy in 1983.

Throughout the country there are monuments to the fallen Argentine heroes of the war, and plaques in public buildings and shopping centres alike. Street art often addresses the Malvinas too, usually in highly patriotic fashion.

The issue of the Malvinas often comes up in the politics of Argentina. The nationalism invoked is seen by some as a diversion from more important issues facing the country. Lately President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has been trumpeting the Malvinas line, including asking the new Pope for some sort of holy intervention.



While Argentine citizens would probably agree the islands do belong to Argentina, nobody would charge off to another war, or expend energy of any kind to get the islands back. There are more important issues facing this country. Including the rate of inflation.


This morning what is called here the blue dollar, or the black market price for the American dollar, hit 8.75 pesos. When we arrived in early January it was about 6 pesos to the dollar. The official government exchange rate is just over 5 pesos to the US dollar, as it has been since January. As Argentina's inflation rate increases and the savings of its ordinary citizens disappear, the Malvinas rhetoric only seems to increase too, with or without holy intervention.

CFK and Pope Francis photo from AFP/Getty

Our favourite coffee shop ~ Esquina Sinclair

At the corner of our street is a coffee shop. For some reason it doesn't have a sign, nor much of any indication that it is a coffee shop. But this cafe is a favourite for many of our neighbours, and for us too.

Its corner location is also a drop-off for garbage from all the apartments in the area. Garbage in Buenos Aires is another topic altogether, but as you can see, garbage is already collecting.








On our very first morning in Buenos Aires we went to Esquina Sinclair for coffee. It became an almost daily ritual. Fresh facturas, great coffee, friendly smiles. It was our place. Cafe solo for me, cafe macchiato for Sherry, y dos medialunas por favor.

When we first started going to our coffee shop, the weather was hot; ideally we found seating outside and in the shade. By the time we were getting ready to leave BA, autumn had arrived and sadly, on our last day we moved inside for our last cafe in Buenos Aires.




Tamara and Johanna were with us when we stumbled through our first ordering process, now famous by the line I ended up using, "Why don't you just bring us what you want to bring us." We improved over time and our friends at Esquina Sinclair were always gracious.

Great coffee. Great people.

We will miss our coffee shop.