Testimonies and Secrets

Mennel, Robert M. Testimonies & Secrets: The Story of a Nova Scotia Family, 1844-1977. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013.


This is the story of the of the Crouse and Eikle families of Lunenberg, Nova Scotia over more than a century as revealed through family documents and other records. The author did a great deal of research on the families, and it is well-documented for the most part. I was excited about the genealogical story, but the direction that the author took in telling the story of one family member left me wishing that I had not read this title. Furthermore, I found this book difficult to read because of the formatting problems with the e-galley which I received from the publisher through NetGalley. I find it difficult to believe that an academic press accepted the work of an author who failed to capitalize proper nouns, words beginning sentences, etc. I'm not sure why those things were not present in this work. There were other formatting issues in the book as well. It made me distrust the quotes I was reading simply because I didn't know if the finished product would properly transcribe direct wording and the like. The genealogical charts that were supposed to be near the end of the book were also missing from the e-galley. As mentioned, this was received as an advance e-galley by the publisher through NetGalley with the expectation that a review would be written.