Tip of the Iceberg

Growing up in remote central Canada, Larry O'Connor was spellbound by the country farther north -- the unknowable white expanses, the harsh lives of its indigenous peoples and animals, and the exploits of its legendary explorers. A memoir of self-discovery, 'Tip of the Iceberg' samples the history and lore of the frozen wastes as it reveals a young man's journey across his family's past. O'Connor is the kind of child the Eskimos might have left to the elements: undersized, frail, an outsider. Yet he is wilful, driven to lift the pall that emanates from his father to blanket the entire family. Underlying the physical coldness of place is an emotional chill. O'Connor's father is a stern, secretive man, barely knowable to his son, misunderstood by those around him. While father and son are poles apart in their temperament, O'Connor senses the traces of a hidden, softer man in his father, a man who retreats to a locked box of memorabilia in the middle of the night. O'Connor pushes on in his quest. O'Connor's spare and elegant prose conveys the heartbreaking weight of the unspoken and unseen: relatives who never call or visit, photographs locked in a cedar chest, forgotten obituaries in back issues of the local newspaper. In eerie counterpoint, O'Connor mixes fact and fable about narwhals, the midnight sun, and the elusive Northwest Passage with details of the two lives -- the maturing son and distant father. At the same time O'Connor ponders the spirit-killing ethos of his working-class town: Do your duty and mind your business, no showing off and no complaining. The effect is cumulative, subtle, and inexorable. Tip of the Iceberg is a remarkable story, perfectly modulated by O'Connor's exquisite style and infused with the kind of deep humanity that comes from understanding and forgiveness.

About the Author :
Larry O'Connor is an editor for The Wall Street Journal. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Review :
"This is the story of a young boy growing up with a father who loves him but can't talk to him. The author, a Wall Street Journal editor, grew up in a small town in central Canada. The weather was cold, and so was his father, a quiet, serious man of few words who never spoke about his family. O'Connor weaves into his gentle memoir stories about Eskimo life and about the great arctic explorers Franklin and Shackleton. Like those men, O'Connor, too, is an explorer, journeying deep into his father's past. What emerges is a loving portrait of a boy, his family, and life in a cold Canadian town. It's about dreams and memories and secrets than can't stay secret forever."