Acadian Shorelines by Patrick d’Entremont
Reviewed by Ian Colford
In Acadian Shorelines, Patrick d’Entremont tells the uplifting, sometimes heartbreaking, but always entertaining tale of young Tommy Breau, who in the late 1960s is coming of age in a tiny French-speaking Nova Scotia fishing village called Glen River.
Tommy narrates his own story, which begins shortly after the arrival to the neighbourhood of beautiful Rébecca Décarie, a 14-year-old army brat from Montréal, with whom Tommy quickly becomes infatuated. Rébecca and her friend Tina join Tommy’s crew, a casual assemblage of youths of similar age which includes Billy, Eugene and Owen (known as “Earwax” for reasons that are explained later in the novel). Billy (a month older than Tommy) seeing that his friend is smitten, takes it upon himself to give Tommy advice from his older and wiser perspective on how to woo the lovely Rébecca and make her his girlfriend. But Tommy, lacking Billy’s head-first, devil-may-care confidence, waits too long to make his move, and Rébecca is claimed by Larry Corporon, a local lout a couple of years older than Tommy.
Tommy’s emotional attachment to Rébecca and their ongoing rapport as “friends” carries through the novel and is the source of great suspense with the “will they—won’t they?” question hovering over the narrative.
In Tommy Breau, by all accounts an unexceptional teenage boy, Patrick d’Entremont has created a hugely appealing protagonist whose daily life of ordinary anxieties, tragedies and triumphs—major and minor—mirror those of readers. He worries about learning to drive. He’s concerned that low marks in history and geography will spoil his chances of getting into college (and out of Glen River) but finds solace and inspiration in the study of literature. He loves sports, hockey in particular, and cheers for the Canadiens de Montréal, whom he watches faithfully on Hockey Night in Canada. He listens to broadcasts of baseball games coming from Boston.
An aspect of life on Nova Scotia’s southwest shore that d’Entremont seamlessly incorporates into the story is the influence of American culture on the community. In this remote corner of the province, where the Atlantic Ocean flows into the Bay of Fundy, strong radio signals from the New England states can overwhelm Canadian signals. This influence is felt most deeply in the realm of pop music: d’Entremont sprinkles the text with numerous references to the groups and hits of the era (1967-1971).
Like most teenagers growing up in a small town, where life is predictable to the point of tedium, Tommy and his gang dream of getting away. But with greater maturity comes reflection and self-awareness, and as the time of departure approaches, it’s then that they begin to appreciate what they’ll miss when they’re gone. And though he makes progress, leaving behind teenage hijinks and developing into a young man with ambition and a robust sense of responsibility, at the novel’s close Tommy still has plenty of questions about girls, Rébecca in particular, whom he finds fascinating, tantalizing, and eternally mysterious.
Tommy’s story is the stuff of real life, crowded with characters whose fates matter, and Acadian Shorelines is an assured work of fiction by a writer who knows his subject matter intimately. The novel is wise, funny, surprising and compassionate. An absolute delight.
About the Author
Patrick d’Entremont is a former newspaper and magazine columnist who now writes novels set in rural Nova Scotia, based on his childhood growing up in the 1960s. This is his first published novel. Patrick grew up in West Pubnico, a fishing community in the Acadian region founded in 1653, where descendants of the original families continue to live to this day. His coming-of-age stories reflect how growing up in this milieu shaped who he became as an adult, a reminiscing that he hopes resonates with many people, whether or not of Acadian descent. Patrick lives in Halifax with his wife, Cindy.
About the Reviewer
Ian Colford has published three novels and two collections of stories. Evidence was published in 2008 by Porcupine’s Quill and won the Margaret and John Savage First Book Award; Evidence was also shortlisted for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, the Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award and the ReLit Award. The Crimes of Hector Tomás followed in 2012. Published by Freehand Books of Calgary, it won Trade Book of the Year at the 2013 Alberta Book Publishing Awards. Perfect World was published by Freehand in 2016 and shortlisted in the book design category at the 2017 Alberta Book Publishing Awards. In 2019, A Dark House was published by Nimbus Publishing of Halifax and was shortlisted for the Alistair MacLeod Prize in Short Fiction at the Atlantic Book Awards and the Relit Award. In 2022 The Confessions of Joseph Blanchard won the Guernica Prize and was published by Guernica Editions in November 2023. Witness, a sequel to Evidence, will be published in 2026 by Galleon Books of Moncton, NB. He lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia. More info can be found at www.iancolford.com.
Book Details
Publisher : OC Publishing
Publication date : July 11 2026
Language : English
Print length : 350 pages
ISBN-10 : 1989833632
ISBN-13 : 978-1989833636