Review of Mr. Jones by Margaret Sweatman

Mr. Jones

Canadian Emmett Jones flew bombers in World War 11 as a very young man, and survived. He married, had a child and now he works as a civil servant for External Affairs in Ottawa. He becomes caught up in the rampant paranoia about communists and the Soviet Union, fuelled by the activities in the United States. The RCMP want to investigate him because of his earlier association with a known communist in Canada. This is fuelled by the American FBI and leads to some uncomfortable investigations.

The reader sees him as a sympathetic figure, caught up in something beyond his experience. And then, more than half way through the book one realizes that maybe the RCMP had reason to be suspicious which came as a shock to this reader, at least.

I enjoyed Mr. Jones because it evoked the 1950s and 1960s which I could relate to. It reminded me of a time when yes, paranoia was rampant, but at the same time life was easier. Politicians and parliament were accessible and were not surrounded by a phalanx of security personnel. You might even meet them on the street or in the grocery store.

However, it also points out a rather unsettling fact: that the United States put pressure on the Canadian government to comply with their witch hunt and investigate Canadian citizens. I had always had the idea that we were not involved but this does not appear to be the case, at least according to this book.

The book is an interesting amalgam of fictional characters and real people. Lester B. Pearson, John Diefenbaker and Herbert Norman who died mysteriously while serving in the Cairo office of External Affairs are all mentioned or make an appearance in the book.

I think this would make a great book for discussion at Wordfest. I would like to know more about the author’s interest in the time period – in a time when information about individuals was not so accessible as it is today.

Reviewed by Hilary Munro

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