But faced with the dangerous elements of this new land, Harry relies more than ever on being accepted. You might think one of the few benefits such a new life would involve is the freedom to live as one wants to in relative solitude. Practically overnight Harry goes from being an established person in society to a place where “he was an unregarded nothing.” It must take a lot of strength of character for someone who has lived a pampered existence to move to a new country and learn the physically arduous existence of farming.
Here the story is set rapidly in motion as this vulnerable individual must forge a new life for himself. Under the pretence of seeking his own fortune, Harry sets out for a rural area of Canada where pioneers are offered the chance of securing free land if they inhabit and farm it for three years. Harry believes he can negotiate his way around the scrutiny of the public to satisfy his needs, but when the truth about his actions is uncovered he’s strongly pressured into defecting from his comfortable life or face the social and legal ramifications of exposure. Gale movingly writes about the way both Harry and Winifred have desires which they’ve had to suppress due to social pressures. Things go along companionably for some time, but soon buried passions come to the surface. But through his gregarious younger brother he meets a woman named Winifred who seems like a natural match that he can marry and settle down with. He’s a naturally shy man who suffers from an occasional stutter. He has a life of leisure as he subsists solely on the proceeds of his inheritance after his father’s early death. Harry Cane is a young man living at the turn of twentieth century London. Nowhere have the dilemmas which trouble his character felt more immediately real than in this new dramatic and intimate novel.
What I’ve always found so mesmerizing about Gale’s writing is how close he makes me feel to his central characters so that their struggles feel entwined with my own. In “A Place Called Winter” Gale fictionally recreates a heart-wrenching tale of tenacity in the face of the unknown using this very personal tale from his family’s history as inspiration. This is exactly the position author Patrick Gale’s great grandfather found himself in when, under the threat of disgrace he was pressured into leaving his family and comfortable life as a gentleman in the UK to start anew as a pioneer farmer in rural Canada. How would you cope if you were suddenly cast out from your home, family and everything that’s familiar to start a new life from scratch in the wilderness? It’s a terrifying prospect for anyone.
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