Northern Light
By Roy MacGregor
(Tansley Reads Rating: 34%)
Ice Breaker
What are your experiences of Algonquin
Park?
Questions:
1. Were you previously
familiar with the mystery of Thomson’s death? Were you surprised by anything in this story?
2. The book is dedicated to Winnie,
and the author says that it is his attempt to bring out the tragedy in her
life. Was he successful? Do you feel sympathy for her?
3. Was there really a
pregnancy? If not, why did Winnie and her mother leave town?
4. Was there a concerted
cover-up of true events or was it a simple matter of varying points of view,
and perhaps one or two (guilty?) people lying? Do you believe the story that
eventually came out about the way it happened? (What about Annie Fraser’s story if the letter she read for Tom to get
a suit)
5. The Thomson family resisted investigations. What did they fear? (Were they canny business people who figured
a mystery was great for the value of the art? What about George’s behaviour anyway?)
6. Why do you think there’s so
little agreement about how many of Thomson’s sketches (i.e. very small
paintings on wood) survived? Shouldn’t they all have turned up sometime in the
last 100 years? Do you have one in your attic?
7. Were you convinced that the
skeleton in the park is really Thomson? Should DNA testing be done? Should the
casket in Leith be disinterred?
8. Do you think Thomson’s art
has stood the test of time? Do you see Northern Ontario in his paintings? Do
they seem realistic or stylized/abstract? (In the book it mentions that he painted
exactly what he saw. Is it what you see?)
9. Has Thomson’s vision of
Canada influenced our perception of this country?
10. Did McGregor’s family
connection and personal recollections add to or detract from the story?
11. Would it have been better
unfolded in strict chronological order?
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