Charming until the end (literally). . .

books:


	• Crow Lake (Today Show Book Club #7) Mary Lawson Dial Press Trade Paperback, 2003 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 120 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Charming until the end (literally). . .

Crow Lake was yet another one of those books that I had bought years ago, only to have it sit on my shelf, constantly getting passed over in favor of other choices. I have to say that if I'd known how involved I'd become in reading it, I probably would have picked it up much sooner.

Upon finishing Crow Lake a couple days ago, I admittedly have some mixed emotions. I read this book in just over a week and constantly felt excited to get back on the train for the chance to read further. However, I must say that while I liked this book a lot, I did not love it. And I'm afraid that comes down to my disappointment with the way the book ended. If you asked me during the first four parts of the book what I thought of it, I would have said it was an incredibly story. But the last two parts did not sit well with me. I was bored, almost disinterested, which seemed nearly impossible for me to understand because just a day or two before I was literally excited with longing to get back to this book. Without question, there was definitely a distinct point in my reading where I crossed a line and couldn't get back the enthusiasm I had once had.

What makes me perplexed is that I'm not really sure what exactly threw me off about the last parts of the book. I know that adult Kate was not my favorite character; I certainly liked her much more as a little kid and a growing girl. Perhaps the late domination in the book of her as a grown-up, with her questioning her teaching at the university and her relationship with Daniel, was too much for me. I liked her better in the context of her family and on the ponds of Crow Lake. I just didn't feel invested in that part of her life which might explain my eventual lack of emotion when the ending did occur. Although the story seemed somewhat lacking in an ending, to be honest. And it wasn't that the ending was forced. You could see that the details of the secret family tragedy were something the author was aiming at from the beginning and throughout. But still, it didn't feel like the proper ending. And I wish I could say what would have made it better, but I am afraid I'm just not sure.

Overall, I give Mary Lawson a good deal of credit for writing a book on a topic that I, quite truthfully, couldn't care less about, and still make it seem interesting and, dare I say, even slightly romanticized. The trips to the pond that Matt and Kate took while growing up were incredibly sweet and their shared interest in studying pond life was equally touching. Personally, I am not a fan of the outdoors and certainly blanked out many times during my environmental science class in college, but she created a world that even I seemed to want to be a part of, horrible tragedy aside, at least through the first hundred plus pages of the novel. For that credit is definitely due. I love Canada, but my visits have only consisted of the city of Toronto, and therefore the utter wilderness of Crow Lake holds a great deal of mystery for me and I felt it was a perfect setting for this book.

Lastly I must mention that in the early parts of the book, besides the relationships among the siblings in the family, their responses to the family tragedy, and their trips to the pond, that my favorite parts of the book were those that involved the character of young Bo. Bo was an incredibly realistic character as a baby - full of honesty and full of life. Those scenes with Bo by the water or dialogues as she learned nursery rhymes were adorable. When Bo grew up, she lost some of her charm, but that's not entirely unexpected. As it turns out, the novel itself sort of did the same thing.

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book review

I thought this was a great first novel. I recomended it to two friends and both of them loved the book.

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INSIGHT INTO FATE'S OBSTACLE COURSE

Crow Lake is reminiscent of books like "A Northern Light" and "Atonement". We follow the story of the books narrator, Kate Morrison, from age 7 to age 29. The untimely accidental death of her parents finds Kate and her siblings, Matt and Luke (the two older brothers) and Bo (her 1 ½ year old sister) facing choices and challenging decisions that alters each of their lives forever.

Lawson utilizes her writing talent to capture not only the plight of Morrison family but to surround them with an assortment of friends, family and neighbors equiped with noble hearts and curious idiosyncrasies.

I did have a problem with the "adult Kate" who came across as self-absorbed and unforgiving. It seems that for all her knowledge and formal education she has never been able to grow out of her adolescent mental image of Matt and as a result is left with unresolved feelings of guilt and a self imposed emotional isolation.

Crow Lake serves as a warning to us all of the potentially destructive nature of hero-worship and challenges us to examine our definition of success and how we measure it. 3 1/2 STARS

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Rich with family history

This is the best book I've read in recent months. From the perspective of Kate, the third child, it tells the story of her family and, to a lesser but equally compelling degree, the neighboring family in this tiny Canadian community.

Lawson's plot is tight; she develops the characters very well, and ties each of their stories back to things in the past, namely their great grandmother and her desire to have her children educated. There's a constant idealism for the next generation to do better, and the climax of
the story is when Kate goes to her nephew's 18th birthday party, and tries to decide what to bring as a present as he goes off trying to "do better" for the next generation.

There is some tremendous sadness in the book, especially in the beginning, but don't let that stop you from going forward. In a way, Crow Lake reminds me of Jane Smiley's "A Thousand Acres"; both are about farming families, relationships among siblings, connection to the land.

I recommend this if your looking for a story with depth or just a great, engrossing, rich book to read.

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Rich & Subtle Journey into Childhood

Most the other reviewers have mentioned the significants pluses of this novel, so all I can add is that this was not a book that I wanted to read, but that I needed to read. One is so immediately absorbed into the story that it is impossible to go one with life's daily tasks when the book is at hand. I finished it in two sittings and quickly looked to see if Ms. Lawson had written anything else. If you are seeking a beautifully exact tale of a remarkable, yet unremarkable family trying to rise about tragedy, Crow Lake will dazzle you.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

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, Crow Lake is a quiet tour de force that will catapult Mary Lawson to the forefront of fiction writers today.

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