There, workers take part in exhausting, dangerous work. In the meantime, in Toronto, Commissioner Harris presides over the construction of the Bloor Street Viaduct. The sight excites Patrick’s imagination but he feels too shy to join them and walks back home, amazed by this magical scene. One night, Patrick steps out of the house and, attracted by specks of light, discovers the foreign loggers skating and laughing on the frozen river while carrying burning cattails. In his free time, Patrick enjoys solitary, nighttime activities such as reading a geography book and observing the shapes and colors of moths. Patrick accompanies his father on his dynamiting expeditions, helping him by diving into the freezing river to set dynamite onto jammed logs. After Hazen experiments with dynamite, he becomes part of the logging process himself, working as a dynamiter for companies in charge of taking logs down the river. In the winter, anonymous groups of foreign loggers come to Patrick’s town to cut down trees, and Patrick observes them from afar. Patrick grows up in Eastern Ontario, where he helps his taciturn father, Hazen Lewis, with manual labor on various farms.
Even if he were to tell her that there is a castle outside, she would have to believe him, because they are driving through the countryside in darkness, and she has no way of looking out to see for herself.
The girl is inclined to trust Patrick’s version of the story. The novel opens as Patrick is driving with a young girl-whom the reader later discovers is Hana-toward Marmora, Ontario, and Patrick recounts his memories out loud. Through fragmented stories and evocative memories, In the Skin of a Lion recounts the story of its protagonist, Patrick Lewis, and his experiences as a member of the Canadian working class.
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