The Incognito Reporter and the On-to-Ottawa Trek
Reporters and Historical Events
During the Great Depression, a young journalist covers ambitious protest efforts in the detailed historical novel The Incognito Reporter and the On-to-Ottawa Trek.
Michael Dupuis’s revealing historical novel The Incognito Reporter and the On-to-Ottawa Trek is about labor unrest during the Great Depression in Canada.
Centering the 1935 On-to-Ottawa protests, in which workers from Western Canada rode the rails toward the Canadian capital to protest low pay and harsh conditions at work camps, this exciting story centers clashes with police officers leading up to an infamous riot. All is seen through the perspective of a twenty-two-year-old reporter, Mark, who goes undercover as a disheveled, destitute striker, surreptitiously making notes in his diary.
The historical facts are afforded depth, breadth, and texture through Mark’s perspective, though he is also a somewhat didactic narrator at times. He conveys the anxiety of riding a barreling freight car over rivers, the discomfort of sleeping on the cold, hard ground with a rucksack for a pillow, and the suffocating smokiness of riding in a coal-fired train through a five-mile tunnel. Through him, the taste of stew eaten from an old washtub bin is made palpable. Less immediate but also informative are his discussions of underlying economic conditions, the prevailing attitudes of the era, and the hardships faced by thousands of trekkers. His storytelling is brisk for the most part but is also bogged down in places with unnecessary details, as of the process of waking up, drawn-out formalities, and exact breakfast menus. Where mundane details appear, the book’s pacing drags.
Further, people’s conversations are too expository throughout the book. For instance, the strikers lay out their plans, and Mark and his editor discuss whether the strikers will succeed; elsewhere, Mark recounts a full inventory of issues with the work camps during an interview with a union leader. Unnatural flourishes in these exchanges, such as identifying the prime minister by his full name and nickname, requests to explain common slang, and recapitulations of background information, compromise the novel’s realism, as does the fact that characters often speak at unnatural length and with stilted formality. Still, in their actions, the cast is well humanized. Hand-drawn illustrations complement the story; they have the feel of a graphic novel, and they appear alongside helpful maps of the expanse that the trekkers traveled.
An informative historical novel, The Incognito Reporter and the On-to-Ottawa Trek dramatizes Great Depression workers’ protests.
Reviewed by
Joseph S. Pete
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
