“The Scars Saudade Wrote” – a new book by Devin Meireles, reviewed by Humberto da Silva

Devin Meireles’ ‘The Scars Saudade Wrote’ may be among the last book you will read depicting from living memory the authentic Portuguese immigration …

“The Scars Saudade Wrote” – a new book by Devin Meireles, reviewed by Humberto da Silva

“Whistling Against the Wind” is a powerful story about the last days of man left behind on his Azorean farm, estranged from his family by his choices. “Between Dundas and Destiny” tells the story of a woman walking herself to a downtown Toronto the hospital for childbirth, so as to save taxi fare and avoid troubling her neighbours. “Brothers on Yonge Street” takes place on the sin strip where the Eaton Centre shopping, arcades, record shops and bars of which acted like a magnet to youth in the 1970s and 1980s. This story achingly depicts a coming of age through the pain a petty crime imposes on a family: an experience that marked the lives of so many of our youth. “The Weight of Blue,” one of the strongest stories in the collection, details a man wrestling with his alcoholism in his post office workplace. It is gritty and realistic in its depiction of what it takes for a functioning alcoholic to quickly becomes non-functioning.