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The Macken Charm
It is the summer of 1956, and although Rusty Macken is eager to leave rural Vancouver Island – and his family – for university, the events of Glory’s funeral will not make it easy. Over the course of a single day, the rambunctious Macken clan gathers at the site of the burned-down seaside hotel that was once the family base to mourn and remember the glamorous city girl who married the wildest Macken of all but never quite adapted to their country ways. By the time the sun comes up on the following day, Rusty may have participated in something of a miracle. At the very least, he will have been forced to confront the uneasy secrets of his own heart. Compassionate, hilarious, and wise, The Macken Charm brilliantly captures the joys, the frustrations, and the rich human drama of family life.
- GenresCanada
296 pages, Paperback
First published September 9, 1995
22 people want to read
About the author
Jack Hodgins
35 books21 followersNovelist and short story writer Jack Hodgins lives on Vancouver Island where until recently he taught fiction writing at the University of Victoria. Raised in the small rural community of Merville in the Comox Valley, he graduated with a B.Ed from the University of British Columbia, and taught high school in Nanaimo between 1961 and 1981. He was a Visiting Professor at the University of Ottawa between 1981 and 1983. Between 1983 and 2002 he taught in the Department of Writing at the University of Victoria, and was a full professor at the time of his retiring. He occasionally conducts fiction-writing workshops, including an annual workshop in Mallorca, Spain. He and his wife Dianne, a former teacher, live in Cadboro Bay within easy visiting distance of their three adult children and their grandchildren.
Jack Hodgins's fiction has won the Governor General's Award, the President's Medal from the University of Western Ontario, the Gibson's First Novel Award, the Eaton's B.C. Book Award, the Commonwealth Literature Prize (regional), the CNIB Torgi award, the Canada-Australia Prize, the Drummer General's Award, and the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, and has twice been long-listed for the IMPAC/Dublin award. He is the 2006 recipient of the Terasen Lifetime Achievement Award "for an outstanding literary career in British Columbia" and the "Lieutenant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence."
His books include: Spit Delaney's Island (stories), The Invention of the World (novel), The Resurrection of Joseph Bourne (novel), The Barclay Family Theatre (stories), Left Behind in Squabble Bay (children's novel), The Honorary Patron (novel), Innocent Cities (novel), Over Forty in Broken Hill (travel), A Passion for Narrative (a guide to writing fiction), The Macken Charm, (novel), Broken Ground (novel), Distance (novel), and Damage Done by the Storm (stories). Short stories and articles have been published in several magazines in Canada, France, Australia, and the US.
Jack Hodgins has given readings or talks at international literary festivals and other events in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, and the US. Some of the short stories have been televised or adapted for radio and the stage. A few of the stories and novels have been translated into other languages, including Dutch, Hungarian, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Russian, Italian, Polish, and Norwegian. In 1985 a film of the story "The Concert Stages of Europe," directed by Giles Walker, was produced by Atlantis Films and the National Film Board of Canada. In 2001 the Victoria Conversatory of Music produced a commissioned opera Eyes on the Mountain by composer Christopher Donason, based upon three of Hodgins's short stories intertwined. A screenplay based upon the title character in Spit Delaney's Island has been optioned by a Vancouver film maker.
A number of scholars in Canada and Europe have published critical studies on his work. He has been the subject of a National Film Board film, Jack Hodgins' Island, and a book, Jack Hodgins and His Work, by David Jeffrey. In 1996, Oolichan Press published a collection of essays on his work, titled On Coasts of Eternity, edited by J. R. (Tim) Struthers. A book of essays on Hodgins's work, edited by Annika Hannan, has been published by Guernica Press, Toronto. His manuscripts, papers, letters and other materials are held in the literary manuscripts archives at the National Library of Canada
In 1990, as part of its 75th anniversary celebration, the University of British Columbia's Alumni Society included him amongst the "75 most distinguished graduates" to be honoured with a plaque. In June of 1995, the University of B.C. awarded him an honorary D.Litt for - according to the UBC Chronicle - bringing "renown to the university and the province as one of Canada's finest fiction writers and as an innovative stylist and distinguished academic." In the spring of 1998 he recei
Jack Hodgins's fiction has won the Governor General's Award, the President's Medal from the University of Western Ontario, the Gibson's First Novel Award, the Eaton's B.C. Book Award, the Commonwealth Literature Prize (regional), the CNIB Torgi award, the Canada-Australia Prize, the Drummer General's Award, and the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, and has twice been long-listed for the IMPAC/Dublin award. He is the 2006 recipient of the Terasen Lifetime Achievement Award "for an outstanding literary career in British Columbia" and the "Lieutenant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence."
His books include: Spit Delaney's Island (stories), The Invention of the World (novel), The Resurrection of Joseph Bourne (novel), The Barclay Family Theatre (stories), Left Behind in Squabble Bay (children's novel), The Honorary Patron (novel), Innocent Cities (novel), Over Forty in Broken Hill (travel), A Passion for Narrative (a guide to writing fiction), The Macken Charm, (novel), Broken Ground (novel), Distance (novel), and Damage Done by the Storm (stories). Short stories and articles have been published in several magazines in Canada, France, Australia, and the US.
Jack Hodgins has given readings or talks at international literary festivals and other events in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, and the US. Some of the short stories have been televised or adapted for radio and the stage. A few of the stories and novels have been translated into other languages, including Dutch, Hungarian, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Russian, Italian, Polish, and Norwegian. In 1985 a film of the story "The Concert Stages of Europe," directed by Giles Walker, was produced by Atlantis Films and the National Film Board of Canada. In 2001 the Victoria Conversatory of Music produced a commissioned opera Eyes on the Mountain by composer Christopher Donason, based upon three of Hodgins's short stories intertwined. A screenplay based upon the title character in Spit Delaney's Island has been optioned by a Vancouver film maker.
A number of scholars in Canada and Europe have published critical studies on his work. He has been the subject of a National Film Board film, Jack Hodgins' Island, and a book, Jack Hodgins and His Work, by David Jeffrey. In 1996, Oolichan Press published a collection of essays on his work, titled On Coasts of Eternity, edited by J. R. (Tim) Struthers. A book of essays on Hodgins's work, edited by Annika Hannan, has been published by Guernica Press, Toronto. His manuscripts, papers, letters and other materials are held in the literary manuscripts archives at the National Library of Canada
In 1990, as part of its 75th anniversary celebration, the University of British Columbia's Alumni Society included him amongst the "75 most distinguished graduates" to be honoured with a plaque. In June of 1995, the University of B.C. awarded him an honorary D.Litt for - according to the UBC Chronicle - bringing "renown to the university and the province as one of Canada's finest fiction writers and as an innovative stylist and distinguished academic." In the spring of 1998 he recei
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
October 31, 2022
For the majority of this book, I was thinking it was two stars. I wasn't really enjoying it, but it was an easy enough read. But then with about twenty or thirty pages left and wanting to return it to the library, I tried to finish the book very quickly. That's when I realized how much I disliked it.
There is not much plot. A woman dies - apparently by suicide - and her obnoxious wastrel of a husband's family talks a lot. That's about it. Nothing really happens, none of the characters are that compelling, we are introduced to a whole whack of family members, who all seem to more-or-less talk with the same voice. This was not worth the time it took to read, and I found myself angry at the end because I could have been reading something actually good. It's basically empty calories - I took nothing away from it.
There is not much plot. A woman dies - apparently by suicide - and her obnoxious wastrel of a husband's family talks a lot. That's about it. Nothing really happens, none of the characters are that compelling, we are introduced to a whole whack of family members, who all seem to more-or-less talk with the same voice. This was not worth the time it took to read, and I found myself angry at the end because I could have been reading something actually good. It's basically empty calories - I took nothing away from it.
August 24, 2022
This book reminds me in many ways of a classic also set in the Pacific Northwest, albeit on the American side of the border, that being Ken Kesey's magnificent Sometimes A Great Notion. No, this novel is not as daring or as sweeping as that Oregon family saga, but it has a lot of the same elements: the rebel clan hanging together, the struggle between the "strong" and "weak" brothers, the land and the elements conspiring to defeat any merely human efforts at mastery, the suicide of a key female character. Where Hodgins's novel actually outdoes Kesey's, apropos of that last named element, is that he has multiple important female characters, and they do more than simply provide relief for the male protagonists. In the end though, this is Toby and Rusty's story more than any other characters'. There is much here to like: the evocation of the Vancouver Island flora, fauna, and climate is spot-on, there is humor in abundance in the give-and-take of the smart-aleck Macken clan, and there is a celebration of high spirits not often to be found in serious literature. On the downside I found the Amish-like erection of the hotel and the scene of Toby on the glacier to stretch the bonds of credulity to the snapping point. A really good short novel.
October 11, 2017
This book is set on Vancouver Island in 1957, long before the inland Island highway of the recent years. Having lived in Courtney and then in Victoria on the Island, I found the descriptive writing flawless. If you ever have the opportunity to visit, I can guarantee that the writing is spot on. I loved the images and think the mid Island farms that the families mentioned in the book could be any farming family you might meet at your family reunion, except on the shores of beautiful Vancouver Island. I would highly recommend this book and look forward to reading other written by this author because I so readily visualized the scenery in the book to be vaguely around Rathtrevor Park to Nananimo and they are beautiful at any time of the year.
November 19, 2024
DNF. Lovely descriptive writing - I just waited for it to start, for plot to happen, for characters to evolve, but it just got tedious. And I couldn’t keep track of all the family members named, and who was alive and who wasn’t,….and then gave up. Too many books that keep me interested, engaged and wanting to know more.
November 13, 2019
Regional CanLit: unfortunately a fairly predictable storyline, one-dimensional characters and mundane prose... It might be saved if you had strong feelings for Vancouver Island, which is the book's real star.
August 31, 2024
This felt like the quintessential Canadian (read:CBC) novel. It was well written but a bit ramblywith not much of a point other than being "Canadian". Harsh? Maybe. But I *did* give it THREE stars. 😉
February 3, 2015
In Books like Spit Delaney's Island and The Invention of the World, Jack Hodgins has claimed Vancouver Island as his literary territory. Populated with larger-than-life characters – colourful loggers, rustic prophets, and powerful women – Hodgins' fictional universe is as distinct as Laurence's Manawaka or Richler's Montreal. So it's a pleasure – like revisiting an old neighbourhood – to stand on familiar ground again in his new novel, The Macken Charm.
Hodgins has dealt with the wacky Mackens before. In the present book, it's the summer of 1956 and Rusty Macken, the young narrator, is set to leave Vancouver Island for university. But first he must attend the funeral of Glory, the glamorous wife of Toby, his uncle and the unpredictable black sheep of the rustic Macken family. The novel uses this funeral and the resulting mourning, stretched out over almost 24 hours, to explore the comforts and restriction of living in a small rural community.
Hodgins's unnamed logging town is simultaneously nurturing and narrow-minded. The Macken family provides a safe retreat from the world, but it's also suspicious and resentful of outside success. When Rusty's relatives hear he's going to university (a first for their family), they affectionately attempt to mock his ambition. As one of his aunts says, "Next time we see this kid he won't talk to us, he'll be one of them goddamn city bohemians."
Although Hodgins clearly feels affection for his characters, contradictory family messages are the heart of the book. The central question is whether Rusty will pursue his dream of becoming a film director or simply become – as almost everyone expects – just another Macken logger.
Almost as a warning to Rusty, the book is littered with stories of failed dreamers. We're told about Mackens who try to escape, lose their nerve, then come running back to the family fold. The deceased Glory provided Rusty with access to the outside world – she's beautiful, educated and urbane. But she's considered an outsider by the Mackens, almost cruelly ignored and forced to find emotional companionship with near-strangers, her dreams shattered. Only one character escapes from the island: a misfit cousin who mysteriously disappears in his youth, and his absence (is he dead or alive?) haunts Rusty, and the reader, like a ghost.
Through the central conceit of Glory's funeral, it soon becomes clear that the Mackens find it difficult to express grief – or indeed, any emotion. We're meant to feel their pain through their actions. For instance, Toby, the grieving widower, tries to bum a church, lands himself in jail, nearly kills a relative, and ends up nearly frozen on top of a mountain. The other Mackens attempt to resurrect Glory through anecdotes, but find this insufficient so they end up creating a sort of shrine to her, a physical acknowledgment that they may not have appreciated her enough while she was among them.
Although written in flawless prose – word for word, Hodgins is one of the country's best writers – The Macken Charm is not without shortcomings. Characters are often caricatures, the narrative is interrupted by a confusing jumble of dialogue, and at times the symbolism lacks subtlety. Yes, the reader can accept that Rusty wants to be a filmmaker (and many of the scenes are imagined as film sequences), but do we have to be told he wants to be a polevaulter as well?
Though slightly flawed, the novel's effects are cumulative and lasting. Piece by piece, through snatches of conversations and bits of anecdotes, we begin to form a true picture of Glory, the most mysterious and tragic character. Although the book is told in a gentle, almost lyrical fashion, it's also something of a cautionary tale. Slowly, we begin to see the limitations, and subtle dangers, of the Macken charm.
Originally published In Books In Canada: http://www.booksincanada.com/article_...
Hodgins has dealt with the wacky Mackens before. In the present book, it's the summer of 1956 and Rusty Macken, the young narrator, is set to leave Vancouver Island for university. But first he must attend the funeral of Glory, the glamorous wife of Toby, his uncle and the unpredictable black sheep of the rustic Macken family. The novel uses this funeral and the resulting mourning, stretched out over almost 24 hours, to explore the comforts and restriction of living in a small rural community.
Hodgins's unnamed logging town is simultaneously nurturing and narrow-minded. The Macken family provides a safe retreat from the world, but it's also suspicious and resentful of outside success. When Rusty's relatives hear he's going to university (a first for their family), they affectionately attempt to mock his ambition. As one of his aunts says, "Next time we see this kid he won't talk to us, he'll be one of them goddamn city bohemians."
Although Hodgins clearly feels affection for his characters, contradictory family messages are the heart of the book. The central question is whether Rusty will pursue his dream of becoming a film director or simply become – as almost everyone expects – just another Macken logger.
Almost as a warning to Rusty, the book is littered with stories of failed dreamers. We're told about Mackens who try to escape, lose their nerve, then come running back to the family fold. The deceased Glory provided Rusty with access to the outside world – she's beautiful, educated and urbane. But she's considered an outsider by the Mackens, almost cruelly ignored and forced to find emotional companionship with near-strangers, her dreams shattered. Only one character escapes from the island: a misfit cousin who mysteriously disappears in his youth, and his absence (is he dead or alive?) haunts Rusty, and the reader, like a ghost.
Through the central conceit of Glory's funeral, it soon becomes clear that the Mackens find it difficult to express grief – or indeed, any emotion. We're meant to feel their pain through their actions. For instance, Toby, the grieving widower, tries to bum a church, lands himself in jail, nearly kills a relative, and ends up nearly frozen on top of a mountain. The other Mackens attempt to resurrect Glory through anecdotes, but find this insufficient so they end up creating a sort of shrine to her, a physical acknowledgment that they may not have appreciated her enough while she was among them.
Although written in flawless prose – word for word, Hodgins is one of the country's best writers – The Macken Charm is not without shortcomings. Characters are often caricatures, the narrative is interrupted by a confusing jumble of dialogue, and at times the symbolism lacks subtlety. Yes, the reader can accept that Rusty wants to be a filmmaker (and many of the scenes are imagined as film sequences), but do we have to be told he wants to be a polevaulter as well?
Though slightly flawed, the novel's effects are cumulative and lasting. Piece by piece, through snatches of conversations and bits of anecdotes, we begin to form a true picture of Glory, the most mysterious and tragic character. Although the book is told in a gentle, almost lyrical fashion, it's also something of a cautionary tale. Slowly, we begin to see the limitations, and subtle dangers, of the Macken charm.
Originally published In Books In Canada: http://www.booksincanada.com/article_...
May 31, 2016
Of the 3 Hodgins books I've read, I like this one the best. It would make a great movie. I did not come to this conclusion because of the narrator's view of the world through his broken Bell & Howell, but rather because of the scenes the author sets through the long day of the funeral. It doesn't hurt that the setting described by 17 year old Rusty are achingly gorgeous. Even though the Mackens describe themselves as clannish rubes with no appreciation of the finer things, they all stop what they are doing and gape with awe at the passing Orcas. This scene is the best in the book and highlights the seascape as a wonder and a delight and captures the Mackens in a special way. I will be on Vancouver Island this summer and can't wait to feel its charm.
March 23, 2009
I didn't like this book very much at all but again, a couple in our bookclub really liked it and in fact thought it was brilliant. I just didn't connect to the characters or the plot. It seemed to drag for me but what others liked was the foreshadowing and some of the characters.
January 17, 2011
I couldn't make it through Jack Hodgins' "Broken Ground" -- I found it completely turgid. But "The Macken Charm" is completely different: charming, joyous, and packed full of delightful & completely authentic characters.
December 22, 2013
I read this years ago. There is something about Hodgins books which seem vaguely ominous, or perhaps fuzzy in a folklore-ish way. Some people find that hard to break into, but it's worth holding on to the hands of these characters as they muddle their way through their stories: hijinks abound.
June 14, 2019
Quite tedious. Nothing out of the ordinary happens. Extraordinarily dull.
September 13, 2016
He's such a fine writer. He paints a vivid portrait of life in the wilds of Vancouver Island. He also captures the dynamics of life with a large, extended family.
October 4, 2016
I don't remember the story very well, as it's been a while since I read this one, and clearly it didn't make as big an impression on me as the other Jack Hodgins book I've read, Broken Ground.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews