Broken Man on a Halifax Pier

Many thanks to NetGalley and Dundurn Press for this wonderful ARC, which kept me enthralled throughout. Novels of romance, strained relationships and family dysfunction seldom interest me. This was a pleasant surprise! I neglected everything else and was riveted to the book which I read in a single day. The places were vividly described. It is set in Halifax and a remote fishing village on the east coast of Nova Scotia. I am from Nova Scotia, but think the story would appeal to readers anywhere. The characters have some flaws, but even those who seem unsympathetic at first, show traits of kindness as we get to know them. The people spring to life on the pages and the dialogue was witty, heartfelt and realistic.

The book deals with two people finding love while in their 50s. Charles stands early one morning alone on a Halifax pier. He feels he has wasted his life. He is in despair and broke. He lives alone in a dilapidated bachelor apartment, has lost his job as a reporter for a Halifax newspaper which ended when the paper closed down. He squandered his life savings mistakingly thinking he was helping the son of his former boss do charity work abroad. He has been unable to finish a novel he was writing. He has had short term relationships with women but always walked away fearing commitment.

While contemplating his many failures, he meets a lovely woman about his age, and they start up a conversation. She had been an actress in Canadian films but did not make it in Hollywood, and now lives comfortably on a trust fund. On the spur of the moment, they decide on a road trip to the fishing village where he grew up. He left home decades before to study journalism and has never looked back. The trip is not without troubles but is the beginning of an intense love story.

The story deals with the joy of finding love later in life, building new friendships and becoming part of a community. It also contains much heartache, loss, sadness, and bad luck, but also the possibility of new beginnings. Themes of commitment during tragedy and health issues, secrets, reconciliation and forgiveness are addressed. So much happened which I had not anticipated, and the pace never slowed down. A very enjoyable, emotional and memorable book.

Strangers in the early morning fog, cross paths on a Halifax pier. Charles Howard, fifty-five, a journalist for a newspaper, lost his job when the publication folded. His idealism and attempt to be a do-gooder caused him to lose his life savings. "I was deep in a ...dark, endless, self-pitying reverie...then she walked up to me." Ramona Danforth, a "two-bit" actor, "...got real good at holding a cup of coffee or a beer in the air while delivering [her] lines." Ramona took penniless Charles out for breakfast. "I like a man with no money and loads of time on his hands."

Charles and Ramona decided to go on a pilgrimage, a drive to his hometown. Stewart Harbor was a rural fishing village populated by rugged individuals. Charles thought it would be "too depressing to go all the way down to the shore to revisit the little fishing shack all that remained of [his] past." The fishing shack was cottage-like and weather beaten. When Charles opened the padlock, "the door swung inward and a tidal wave of memory swept over [him]...[I] stepped forward into my past."

Why was Ramona willing to spend days of "rural coastal domesticity...a woman who once kissed Tom Hanks[?]" Ramona had a trust fund and a Lexus, a mysterious woman who took frequent business trips to Halifax. Both Charles and Ramona admitted to bouts of loneliness. "How far would this go? Who would be first to draw the line...to stop whatever was starting?"

As Charles and Ramona slowly opened-up to each other, the reader learns of tragedy, health issues, family issues and unimaginable loss. Ramona was there when he "looked like [he] needed kissing." Charles followed in kind. Both were unable to form lasting relationships. Whether in it for the short or long haul, enormous strength, determination and resilience would be needed to "weather the storms" and "hurdles" gathering in their lives.

"Broken Man on a Halifax Pier" by Lesley Choyce was fantastic. As a reader, I experienced a plethora of emotions and was thoroughly invested in the lives of the occupants of Stewart Harbor, Nova Scotia. I highly recommend this novel of literary fiction.

Thank you Dundurn Press and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review "Broken Man on a Halifax Pier."