Village of Unsettled Yearnings

Book excerpt: Concensus and dissent, persistence and rapid change were at the heart of Yarrow's rich cultural life. These tensions, especially the inevitability of assimilation, walked hand in hand with the young pioneer settlers born in Russia and the next generation born in Canada. There was no possibility that the new generation would be absorbed into a Russian colony ethos or would move elsewhere in order to perpetuate it. Those who grew up in the early years of this community cannot go home again save in memory; the memories of a way of life and its webs of relationships and their meanings will probably die with that generation or those just a few years younger. "Village of Unsettled Yearnings" harnesses these memories to the surviving records and gives words to them.