Book Talk-Newfoundland's Crummey examines resettlement angst

By Bernard Vaughan NEW YORK, May 7 (Reuters) - Author Michael Crummey has often explored the rich cultural landscape of his native Newfoundland in his work, which includes poetry, short stories and novels. In his latest novel, "Sweetland," an eccentric island population that depends on a rapidly disappearing fishing industry for its livelihood accepts government packages to resettle on the mainland. But Moses Sweetland, whose ancestors settled the island generations earlier, refuses, threatening to scuttle the offers. Crummey, 49, spoke to Reuters about the book and its themes: Q: How did this story come about? A: Six or seven years ago, I started working with Adventure Canada. They do small ship cruises to out-of-the-way destinations ... On those trips we visited places that were resettled 30 or 40 years ago when the government wiped 300 communities off the map, moving people to more central locations to rationalize the delivery of social services. But we also went into communities that are being forced to consider resettling themselves today because the ongoing cod moratorium has taken away their only economic mainstay. I started thinking that the one person in the community who is holding up everyone else might be an interesting story. Q: Why did you want to explore dealing with mental problems in a rural setting? A: In a small community it's impossible to hide from other people's idiosyncrasies. One of the things I've always noticed about rural Newfoundland, where people didn't have access to psychiatrists or mental hospitals, people were forced to deal with one another's problems. I don't want to be stupidly nostalgic about it, but for most people, I think that rather than being ignored by the people around them or pushed into an institution, the fact they were made a part of the community actually served people better than what you might see in a city today. Q: Why does the novel keep flashing back to Sweetland's rescue of shipwrecked Sri Lankans years earlier? A: It's based on a true story, a fisherman in the 1980s who came upon over 100 Sri Lankans in the ocean. For me they're a metaphor for the people on Sweetland and for humanity itself. We're all adrift with no sense of where we are or if anyone is looking for us. Q: You're also an accomplished poet. How do you decide what to concentrate on? A: Up until recently, if I was working on a novel, I wrote no poetry. (Editing by G Crosse)