The Closing Down of Summer (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Alistair MacLeod
- First Published: 1976
- Type of Plot: Regional, impressionistic
- Time of Work: The 1970's
- Setting: Cape Breton, Nova Scotia
- Principal Characters: An unnamed, aging miner
- Genres: Short fiction
- Subjects: 1970’s, Family or family life, North America or North Americans, Traveling or travelers, Tradition, Twentieth century, Communication, Manners or customs, Accidents, Death or dying, Canada or Canadians, Mines, miners, or mining, South Africa or South Africans, Time, Aging, Summer, Seasons
- Locales: Nova Scotia, Canada
The Story
“The Closing Down of Summer” is a first-person reminiscence of a veteran miner and crew foreman who contemplates the profound changes that have occurred in his profession and his life, relating the changes to larger cultural developments in the world.
The story opens in late August of an unusually warm summer in Cape Breton, home to the narrator and his crew mates, where they have been enjoying a brief holiday respite between assignments. Telegrams from the mining company head office in Toronto have been urgently summoning them to return and prepare for...
[The entire page is 1614 words long]
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