Here are the final two in this series.
Each Man's Son is a novel set in Cape Breton in a coal mining community. It features a violent death near the end of the novel. The son's father, a failed boxer, kills his mother. The image of the coal cart underground evokes a coffin
The Return of Sphinx is a novel about a prominent Canadian politician whose career is destroyed when his son gets involved in the separatist movement in Quebec and is arrested for making a bomb. The revolt of youth against parental authority. The crushed smoking pipe seems like the right image to suggest this.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi37f6WO5007e2l92kwLTm_09iCU8zcoOMYnB1-6NUV8URlo07ngd0zQc7WqCkLAqOCpCKviHBKSVDh0cTf_Jryd3bXpnEY_GFkHz9iQpAiEcCbaS-a1qp_wIFXyByd_njgOQ7opUHQb7Q/s400/EachMansSon.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcn3csKrH4Z-4TqRaTPR_RQ3dhxvktsr-uAcGZLSeggVKu-LFlAUpvSWobcF8zVsI1q6CSgwn4_z8-YsqcVqMUxvNaw-iLAasgWjM6cZHcRUJvhtDzWCv1skRzxJy-48If7TfL6n55Xjg/s400/Sphinx.jpg)
I couldn't put my finger on why the image of the canoe viewed from above on the cover of
The Watch That End's the Night resonated so strongly for me. Then I realized that it reminded me of what was probably the seminal book of my childhood,
Paddle to the Sea. An indian boy carves a wooden canoe and leaves in on a mountain top in the spring. The book follows its journey to the sea.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgRXpCBwtNOZjDobwollVaoLLQVwT1grR-HgaT6X-4RibuybQohr8jI89XY093vlrtcWAutzLKyq41LuDRHRfTp1ojcA9oYbps8y2_MMG4qzLZvi4rnssxBB_kGYeWYvkNShB2kPy0kgU/s320/1941FirstEditionBookCover.jpg)