To Bespeak a Monument

To begin By the Ghost Light, R. H. Thomson writes, “You who are reading this should know that your family stories are probably more interesting than the ones I will tell here.” This second-person address is a sincere attempt at involving the reader as Thomson journeys through his family’s history in the First and Second World Wars.

Detailed stories about one’s relatives can bore outsiders, so the actor known for his roles in Road to Avonlea, Anne with an E, and Chloe takes great care to avoid solipsism and navel-gazing. Building on a play he wrote more than twenty years ago, The Lost Boys: Letters from the Sons in Two Acts, 1914–1923, Thomson takes an approach that’s reverent but matter-of-fact as he reconstructs and reimagines the lives of his family members through their correspondence and travels.