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The Island Walkers Book Summary and Study Guide

Detailed plot synopsis reviews of The Island Walkers


The Island Walkers is a fast moving story of a typical baby boomer family set in post-WWII Southern Ontario. The Island Walkers follows a family of five through a year of turmoil both private and very public.
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Scarred by his time in the war in Europe, Alf, the patriarch of the family fiercey conceals his wartime terrors and his current struggles from the wife he brought back from the war with him. His children struggle with their own problems and like their father, conceal their pain and terror with determination. As Alf finds himself the unwilling focal point of a campaign to unionize the local textile mill he is in turn a hero, a failure and a target.

Bemrose describes the "closed door" that the children of WWII war veterans know so well.
The review of this Book prepared by Joanne Birtch




Joe Walker, a high-school senior, lives with his father, Alf, his mother, Margaret, his little bother, jamie and his sister Penny on an island between two rivers of the town, Attawan, dominated by Bannerman's, a huge textile mill. Above the island, high on a hill in the North End, a new girl, Anna Maccrimmon,visits the town , and Joe is immediately smitten. While Joe tries to understand and attract the inscrutable Anna, Alf struggles with two mid-life crises. The mill is about to be taken over by a conglomerate, and Malachi Doyle comes to Attawan to unionize the plant. Meanwhile Prince, the new manager, promises Alf a job as a foreman if he provides names of workers who sign up. Alf knows from past experience when he tried to organize the plant as a young man in 1947 that these workers will be fired if he informs on them.
   Will alf make foreman and betray his friends or work for the union? Will Joe interest the elusive Anna, a poet who loves an older man, who seems far above him?
The review of this Book prepared by B.J. Korson



Chapter Analysis of The Island Walkers

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Plot & Themes

Tone of book?    -   thoughtful Time/era of story    -   1960's-1970's Political/social activism    -   Yes Plotlet:    -   union leaders fighting for labor rights Life of a profession:    -   blue collar worker Is this an adult or child's book?    -   Adult or Young Adult Book Job/Profession/Status story    -   Yes Age group of kid(s) in story:    -   high school Loving/sexing?    -   girl chasing

Main Character

Gender    -   Male Profession/status:    -   blue collar Age:    -   40's-50's Ethnicity/Nationality    -   Canadian (Aboot!)

Setting

How much descriptions of surroundings?    -   8 () Small town?    -   Yes

Writing Style

Sex in book?    -   Yes What kind of sex:    -   descript of kissing    -   touching of anatomy    -   licking    -   actual description of hetero sex    -   Boob talk! Amount of dialog    -   roughly even amounts of descript and dialog

Books with storylines, themes & endings like The Island Walkers

John Bemrose Books Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).
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