Looking Back - Crow Lake

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

Crow Lake by Mary Lawson

Fiction

2002

Finished on March 5, 2002

Rating: 4.5/5 (Terrific!)

Publisher's Blurb:

Crow Lake is that rare find, a first novel so quietly assured, so emotionally pitch perfect, you know from the opening page that this is the real thing—a literary experience in which to lose yourself, by an author of immense talent. Here is a gorgeous, slow-burning story set in the rural “badlands” of northern Ontario, where heartbreak and hardship are mirrored in the landscape. For the farming Pye family, life is a Greek tragedy where the sins of the fathers are visited on the sons, and terrible events occur—offstage.

Centerstage are the Morrisons, whose tragedy looks more immediate if less brutal, but is, in reality, insidious and divisive. Orphaned young, Kate Morrison was her older brother Matt’s protegee, her fascination for pond life fed by his passionate interest in the natural world. Now a zoologist, she can identify organisms under a microscope but seems blind to the state of her own emotional life. And she thinks she’s outgrown her siblings—Luke, Matt, and Bo—who were once her entire world.

In this universal drama of family love and misunderstandings, of resentments harbored and driven underground, Lawson ratchets up the tension with heartbreaking humor and consummate control, continually overturning one’s expectations right to the very end. Tragic, funny, unforgettable, this deceptively simple masterpiece about the perils of hero worship leapt to the top of the bestseller lists only days after being released in Canada and earned glowing reviews in The New York Times and The Globe and Mail, to name a few.

My Original Thoughts (2002):

Emotional. Drew me in from the very beginning. What a marvelous book. Great sense of place. Bo is a great character! Stubborn, willful two-year-old who provides humor to a grim story.

My Current Thoughts:

Since reading Crow Lake, I've gone on to read The Other Side of the Bridge and A Town Called Solace, both of which I enjoyed greatly. Reading my review of The Other Side of the Bridge, I notice that I mentioned that I read Crow Lake twice, something I'd forgotten I'd done, but I still want to read it again. I have not gotten around to reading Road Ends, so I'll make that a priorty before I go back to reread the others. Lawson is a gifted writer and I look forward to more of her stories. 

A Town Called Solace

A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson

Fiction

2021 Alfred A. Knopf Canada

Finished on August 26, 2020

Rating: 4.5/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Longlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize

New York Times bestselling author Mary Lawson, acclaimed for digging into the wilderness of the human heart, is back after almost a decade with a fresh and timely novel that is different in subject but just as emotional and atmospheric as her beloved earlier work.

A Town Called Solace--the brilliant and emotionally radiant new novel from Mary Lawson, her first in nearly a decade--opens on a family in crisis: rebellious teenager Rose been missing for weeks with no word, and Rose's younger sister, the feisty and fierce Clara, keeps a daily vigil at the living-room window, hoping for her sibling's return.

Enter thirtyish Liam Kane, newly divorced, newly unemployed, newly arrived in this small northern town, where he promptly moves into the house next door--watched suspiciously by astonished and dismayed Clara, whose elderly friend, Mrs. Orchard, owns that home. Around the time of Rose's disappearance, Mrs. Orchard was sent for a short stay in hospital, and Clara promised to keep an eye on the house and its remaining occupant, Mrs. Orchard's cat, Moses. As the novel unfolds, so does the mystery of what has transpired between Mrs Orchard and the newly arrived stranger.

Told through three distinct, compelling points of view--Clara's, Mrs. Orchard's, and Liam Kane's--the novel cuts back and forth among these unforgettable characters to uncover the layers of grief, remorse, and love that connect families, both the ones we're born into and the ones we choose. A Town Called Solace is a masterful, suspenseful and deeply humane novel by one of our great storytellers.

I can't stop thinking about this wonderful book! I loved the three main characters and came to care about each of them as they navigated their way through troubling times. Their dialogue and emotions are all believable and palpable, either making me laugh or touching my heart. As with her previous novels, Mary Lawson's fourth book is a quiet story; my favorite kind. The slow, unraveling of Mrs. Orchard and Liam's histories, as well as Clara's quirky, sensitive personality, held my interest from beginning to end and I was sorry when it came time to leave them.

There's a bit of a mystery to the story, but it's essentially a novel about trust, what makes a family, and the abiding love that grows between strangers. I've read a couple of books by Mary Lawson (Crow Lake and The Other Side of the Bridge) and after finishing A Town Called Solace, I'm thinking about rereading those earlier works. I was even tempted to start reading this one as soon as I finished, and may, at a later date, listen to the audiobook. Lawson (who is currently 76-years-old) is a terrific writer and I hope we don't have long to wait for her next novel.