Barnacle Love

By Anthony De Sa

This tale of two generations, spanning from the Azores to Toronto’s Portuguese community, is full of “immense emotional and truthful power” (Colm Tóibín, author of Brooklyn).
 
These “beautiful [and] profoundly moving” interlinked stories of a father and son explore the innocent dreams and bitter disappointments of the immigrant experience (Booklist, starred review).
 
Moving from a small Portuguese fishing village in the Azores Islands to the shores of Newfoundland, Barnacle Love then takes us into the dark alleys of Toronto’s Portuguese community in the 1970s. The first half of the story is told through the perspective of the father, Manuel Rebelo, who fled his homeland—and the crushing weight of his mother’s expectations—to build a future for himself in a new land. Manuel struggles to adjust, but fulfilling the promise of his adopted home is not as simple as he had hoped.
 
The tale transitions to the candid point of view of Manuel’s son, Antonio, who—along with his sister and mother—lives in the shadows cast by Manuel’s failures. With fantastic, sometimes magical details and passionate empathy, this is a haunting journey into the lives of a family and its secrets.
 
Hailed as “tender and raw, morbid and surprisingly gentle” by the Vancouver Sun, Barnacle Love was a finalist for Canada’s prestigious Giller Prize.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Aug 31, 2010
• ISBN: 9781616200251

Reviews for Barnacle Love

[bostonbibliophile · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Very middle-of-the-road immigrant story about a family's move from Portugal to Canada. The first part is told from the point of view of the father; then the son takes over. A nominee for Canada's Giller Prize, it's not terrible but not particularly compelling, either. Recommended for die-hard fans of immigration stories or novels about Canada.

[boomda181 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. I enjoyed looking into a family who is chasing a dream and the stress that falls on family members when the dream fails.

[ldvoorberg · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The story of Manuel, a Portuagese man who comes to Canada. The second half is narrated by his son. The story is told in short story/vignette form.

Rather a sad tale of a dream gone terribly wrong. Interesting that it has a similar concept as [book:The Boys in the Trees] another Giller finalist which was also told in vignettes. However, I like Boys in Trees better. Both start off going one way and then unexpected take a bad turn -- by which, I mean that things go badly for the central characters. Barnacle Love starts warm enough, possibly warmer than Boys in Trees, but grows colder, whereas Boys in Trees grows warmer and more personable.

Both books make immigration to Canada (Toronto, specifically, 60 or 70 yrs ago) seem like an awful ordeal.

[lucybrown_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Highly recommended. Especially recommended with fado playing in the background, a tumbler of vinho verde and a dish of olives. This book granted me something my own experience and my Grandmother's reticeince denied me, how it was to be Portuguese in a Portuguese neighborhood stateside. Like many immigrants of the first half of the 20th century my grandparent embraced America, and wanted their children to be All-American. Da Sa allowed me to tap into my grandparents' experience. Baranacle Love also made me miss my grandmother. One question after another came to me as I read.

[vivienner_3 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I gave up about 2/3 of the way through. It seemed like the story on each page was disconnected from any other page, going from a dreamlike state to bitter realism without describing the journey. The characters were not developed well, to the point where they seemed to have multiple personalities.

[polutropos_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Barnacle Love is totally telly, as in this wonderful piece of prose from the beginning. "Manuel vowed that somehow he would make it all better. Freedom would provide opportunities for his siblings. But first he would have to save himself." None of the characters are believable. The plotline is not only predictable but laughable. No suspense anywhere. Zero redeeming features. I began skimming after about three pages and still the hour or so spent with it would have been better spent petting the cat. A total disaster. Shortlisted for the Giller Prize. Zero stars from me.

[loosha_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Poignant stories of a Portugese family, immigrants to Canada. The collection reads much like a novel, giving the reader an insight into the relationships and saga of Manuel, his siblings, mother, wife, and children . In the first story, Manuel, a favoured child, leaves his Portugese home on a fishing ship bound for Canada. He is lost at sea, nearly drowned, and ultimately saved, then betrayed, by a fisherman and his hopeful daughter. In subsequent stories, Manuel takes a wife, has children, returns to his home country to bury his mother. She is a real work...some say a saint, but her children are glad to see the end of her. The second part of the book is written from the pov of Manuel’s son, dealing with his father’s disappointments and shameful alcoholism. “I love him for the man that he can be” is the son’s final summation. A book of complex emotions, crystal clear scenes, familiar uncomfortable themes.

[paradiseporch · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

If I hadn't already read de Sa's Kicking the Sky, I think I would have been more impressed by this novel in short stories. It's all about the Portuguese immigrant experience, beginning in Barnacle Love with a Portuguese fisherman washed up on the coast of Newfoundland. (That was actually the best story.) By the 1970s, his family is living in Toronto and still embarrassing the current crop of kids with "old-country" customs such as the annual pig-butchering. "It was an annual event—a matança—the killing. This was the kind of thing that embarrassed me; here we were in a big city with butcher shops throughout Kensington Market and yet the farmer mentality brought over from the Azores had continued. ".I believe De Sa writes from experience, but it's the same experience we read about in Kicking the Sky. It seemed derivative here.