Bernice Morgan is another one of those writers from Newfoundland that have done so much to bring a picture of life on the Rock to the rest of the world. This book and the previous one, Random Passage, tell the story of a small group who settled in a remote outport along the Newfoundland coast. CBC produced a mini-series based on these books in 2000.

Thank goodness that Morgan provided a genealogical tree at the front of the book because it would have been impossible to keep track of who was a descendant of whom without it. There were only a few original settlers, mostly Andrews and Vincents, but as children grew and intermarried and a few newcomers showed up the settlement increased. Mary Bundle, the main protagonist of Waiting for Time, was one of the newcomers. Mary and her sister, Tessa, were orphans from England who came to Newfoundland as indentured servants. Tessa died from being whipped for a crime she didn't commit and Mary ran away with Tim Toop, a boy she knew from home. Mary became pregnant and gave birth to a daughter, Fannie, but Tim did not want to be burdened with a wife and child. He arranged for Mary to be taken on as a cook aboard a ship that was visiting the outports in the spring. Mary and Fannie jumped ship in Cape Random and Mary lived there for the rest of her life.

Mary's story is bracketed by the story of Lav Andrews, a marine biologist who was the daughter of one of the Cape Random descendants. Lav's mother and father met in England during WWII and her mother was shipped as a war bride to Newfoundland toward the end of the war. When she found out that her husband was missing, presumed dead, Lav's mother moved to Ottawa where she raised Lav. Lav got a position with Fisheries and Oceans and she was sent to St. John's to produce a paper about the cod stocks. Lav had never met her Newfoundland relatives but she managed to track down some descendants of Mary Bundle.

The modern story about Lav covers the time just before and after the cod moratorium and shows how devastating (and probably avoidable) that was on the Newfoundland economy. That is juxtaposed with the abundance of the fishery during Mary Bundle's lifetime. It's a sad reminder of how people have destroyed nature's bounty. ( )

Waiting for Time picks up on the descendents of the 19th century Cape Random, Newfoundland families (Random Passage) living in urbanized cultures of the late 20th century. It takes the story to the collapse of the Newfoundland Fishery in 1992 with snippets of life after the collapse. In keeping with the differences between the 19th and 20th centuries, Waiting for Time focuses more on the psychological landscape whereas Random Passage focuses on the physical landscape.

They are both beautiful works of art and testimonies to the resilience of humankind. Zinnie may believe that the world would be just fine without people, but these people prove that humans can be as resilient as the land they occupy.

I hope Bernice Morgan will give us a third book delving more deeply into the politics and drama of the collapse and miraculous rebuilding of Newfoundland these past twenty years. It occurred to me after reading Waiting for Time that Newfoundlanders can serve as a model, especially to the United States, of survival and recovery in the wake of the collapse of the US economic infrastructure with the subprime mortgage debacle.

Both books are entertaining, educational and enlightening. ( )

This book continues the journey of one woman trying to find her roots and intertwines it with the story of another trying to put some down. Back and forth between the early settling of Newfoundland and modern day, this book is a portrait of loss, ancestry, and the overwhelming human need to belong.

Unfortunately, however, this sequel just isn't as good as the first book. It somehow lacks the poignancy and bittersweet flavour of [Random Passage] and left me feeling rather disappointed. That said, I would still be interested in a third installment, were the author to write one. ( )

After reading and loving "Random Passage" I was anxious to read this book. Unfortunately, like a bad movie sequel, it fails to capture the intrigue of the start of the story. In particular, the author uses a subplot of this book to delve into the present - I found myself particularly annoyed by that story line. Not worth reading and truly disappointing. ( )