Canada – Erin of the Hills

There was immediate silence as though cold water had been poured on a roaring flame.
Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart

After having devoured our gratefully-received evening meal and enjoying a good night’s sleep at the strangest accommodation of our trip, Dad and I headed out bright and early for the third-and-final leg of our France At War tour.

If I think back, I’m pretty sure we spent most of the 4 hour drive attempting some semblance of conversation while mentally preparing ourselves for what we knew was to come.

Having seen our fair share of military memorials and graves by this point, we were fairly certain this last stretch was destined to be the most emotional of all. I mean, we were culminating the whole thing with a Remembrance Day ceremony at Vimy Ridge. As far as World War history goes, as a Canadian, it doesn’t get much more emotionally poignant than that.

I think I was putting so much mental effort into preparing myself for the wave of despair I knew to expect at Vimy that I neglected to spare a thought for our next step: Dieppe.

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Disclaimer

The author of this book is my father. However, my review reflects my honest opinion of the book!

I read this book very very quickly. As someone who had fallen out of the reading habit for years before recommitting to it at the beginning of this year, I was surprised at how fast I devoured this book.

As Gurski writes, it is a practitioner’s look at the history of terrorism in Canada (including Canadians who committed acts of terror abroad) and it therefore reads almost more as a memoir of a life in counter-terrorism than a straight non-fiction history – which is a good thing.

Though not all of the experiences detailed were his own, Gurski adds interesting commentary to each of the anecdotes he includes. Upon finishing this book, I can honestly say I have a much better understanding of the impact terrorism has had on Canada over the last 160 years. More importantly, Gurski successfully emphasizes that when we talk about terrorism in Canada, we are not only referring to the Islamist variety (though this, of course, has been a main focus of counter-terrorism efforts since 9/11).

The writing is uncomplicated and fast-paced thus avoiding the trap of becoming a dry retelling of historical events. Though there were a few small editing errors and some possibly unnecessarily long quotes from his earlier books (which are also excellent), overall this was an interesting and engaging look at how Canada has not escaped the global terrorism scourge.

Highly recommend if you’re at all interested in the topic.

Tag: Canada

Cold Water on a Roaring Flame

Book Review: The Peaceable Kingdom?

Disclaimer

Final Rating

Have you read this book? Or do you have any other terrorism-related books to recommend? If so, let me know in the comments below!