The Crane by Monica Kidd

Reviewed by James M. Fisher

The Crane by Monica Kidd is a novel of dual citizenship, part USA, part Canadian. It is set in the late 1960s when the world witnessed the Vietnam War, Woodstock, the Moon Landing, and the assassinations of JFK, MLK, and RFK. Turbulent times in America, and from watching recent events, we may be seeing a similar bumpy road ahead.

The Crane gets underway with our protagonist, James Anderson, arriving on the Island of Newfoundland after travelling across the US by bus to Nova Scotia, then a ferry to Newfoundland. A train ride takes him into St. John’s with little to his name, a bruised eye, damaged eyeglasses and a small carved image of a crane.

James’ first order of business is to get his glasses fixed, then find lodging. Ms. Kidd gently reveals James’ past and why an American from Wyoming finds himself far away in a very different environment.

Without getting into spoiler territory, events in James’ family as well as the war has influenced his decision to avoid the draft and come to Canada. He could have gone to Toronto, where a fellow draft dodger lives, but he needs to fulfill a mission that his brother’s best friend Eric promised to do when he returned from the war. You may infer what occurs so that James finds himself in Eric’s place.

James never used that term, draft dodger. It made his throat constrict. There were worse, of course. Deserter. Coward. He paid little mind to any of it. It wasn’t his fight. He wasn’t out to change any minds and he didn’t want to have to speak on behalf of a government he didn’t support. And neither was he looking for sympathy. Most of the time be pretended he was from Toronto. As a genuine foreign place, it seemed to satisfy most people and ended the who’s-your-father conversations that only left people disappointed in him.

While it is true that The Crane is influenced by the spectre of death, and the grief of loss and leaving, I don’t consider The Crane a maudlin or sentimental read. In fact, James is an optimistic person (more so once he’s settled in St. John’s) and an opportunistic one who lands a job with a newspaper as a fact-checker. The interview:

“What makes you qualified for this job?”

Nothing. James knew that absolutely nothing qualified him for the job.

“I grew up in the country. I can smell shit from a thousand paces.”

An awkward moment passed before Toby let go an ear-splitting guffaw. The look of surprise on the boy’s innocent face made him smile wider.

“Okay. Just don’t cause me any trouble.”

Toby, his editor, sends James to Lewisporte to cover the towing and scuttling of the hulk of HMS Calypso. This gives James an opportunity to complete his real reason for coming to the island in the first place.

The Crane is a superb slow-to-medium speed read that, for a Boomer like me, covers a lot of ground of the times I grew up in. While James is no activist, he is against the war, and is disheartened by the direction his country is headed in. Once in Newfoundland, he finds that the war isn’t on the minds of the locals, they are more concerned about community, and the recent non-return of a fisherman from the sea. At this point in the story, The Crane is like a love letter for the people of Newfoundland: resilient, family and community centred, getting by with what life gives them.

A few great lines:

• James was just a trespasser, thinking about how the dead reign over the living, with their things unsaid, their eternal silent witness.

• Here the past reclined in a smoking jacket, pointing out where the flowers should go and asking for the evening paper and a bourbon. It watched him wherever he went.

• No one in the boarding house could have known the rush of emotions in James's chest as the American flag rose in the lunar glow. A thundering American engineering victory, to be sure, But twenty-five billion dollars could have done an awful lot of good in the US. Reversed some farm foreclosures. Paid for some college educations. And the same institutions that had achieved this because of Kennedy's desire to reach a place that was without “strife, prejudice or national conflict,” had also contentedly sent tens of thousands off to slaughter in a war that had nothing to do with them beyond some manufactured moral imperative. Winning the race to the moon would be America's absolution while it allowed ◦ generation of its young men to be decimated. To say nothing of the Vietnamese.

James, knowing he cannot return to his family and his old life, must decide if he is going to stay on the island or head west to Toronto, where his friend Phil is. Will the islanders accept this “come from away-er”?

The Crane is easily one of the best novels I’ve read thus far in 2025. Breakwater Books has produced a handsome vessel for Ms. Kidd’s endearing story as well. High quality paper, and a beautiful cover, make holding The Crane as pleasurable as reading it. Recommended.

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About the Author

Monica Kidd is a multidisciplinary writer and an award-winning journalist. The Crane, an intergenerational story of how a young Vietnam War evader is drawn to Newfoundland, is her third novel — and her first work of long fiction in almost 20 years. She is an MFA student at King’s College and also works as a physician. She lives in Calgary.

Book Details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Breakwater Books (Feb. 18 2025)

• Language ‏ : ‎ English

• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 232 pages

• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1778530435

• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1778530432