Crow Lake: FROM THE BOOKER PRIZE LONGLISTED AUTHOR OF A TOWN CALLED SOLACE

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I came across it on Goodreads. Written by a Canadian author (that I haven't read before) only added to my desire of placing it on my WTR list; and, Crow Lake, Lawson’s first book, was published when she was 55. The manuscript was rejected for four years before she landed an agent and a publisher. Before that, she wrote what she described as formulaic short stories for women’s magazines. Plot Synopsis What it boils down to, I guess, is sibling rivalry, that plus the anxiety, uncertainty and grief which both boys had to deal with at the time. The Canadian Encyclopedia, s.v. "Crow Lake," by Tom Hawthorn, Accessed October 31, 2023, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/crow-lake

I really liked this book. I love Kate’s voice, as a child and as an adult. Every character is sufficiently developed that I felt as though I knew them well and that I would immediately recognize them if I ever met any of them. I thought the family relationships and the psychology of each character were presented in an authentic and believable way. The writing is lovely too. No complaints about any of the above.Sibling relationships. In both, the girl feels the strongest attachment to one of the older brothers, and the departure of one of them into the big world becomes the cause of a painful discord of fraternal-sisterly relations.

Hawthorn, Tom. "Crow Lake." The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. Article published March 09, 2020; Last Edited March 09, 2020. Miss Vernon’s stories about the history of Crow Lake suggest that some patterns can never be broken. How is this true and/or false for the Pyes and Morrisons? The Other Side of the Bridge was deservedly longlisted for the Man Booker prize. It is Mary Lawson's second novel: her first, Crow Lake, was memorable for its spare, effective style and its powerful storytelling. This new book revisits the same territory in northern Ontario - the lake features, and the town doctor becomes a central figure - and is, if anything, even more arresting. She has a remarkable gift for conjuring up place and people in a handful of words, a few lines of dialogue. Struan is a remote town set amid wilderness and farming land, with a sawmill, "a sorry bunch of stores lined up along a dusty main street", the Hudson's Bay Company, Post Office, bank, restaurant, bar, hotel. The population is involved in farming or employed at the sawmill and the local mine. There is also the Ojibway reserve, with its own self-contained community. Loved seeing the varied and multiply story-lines through the eyes of Kate as a young person (especially the trips to the pond with Matt) and then with Daniel as she tried to explain her family to him and then her reunion with Luke, Matt, Bo and her nephew's birthday party and discovering her brother's long-held secrets.The Crow Lake community opened its arms wide to the Morrison children after their parents were killed. How does this generosity conflict with the community’s collective reaction to Laurie Pye’s disappearance? Why is this?

I hesitate to share this, but since I've published articles half-assedly alluding to it ( Me and My Electra Complex and The Truth about the Making of The Trouble with the Truth), I don't know why I should be embarrassed; but I am. This was true – fact not fiction – though I still have no idea why I suddenly thought of it. My mother had mentioned our great grandmother often when we were children, but that was a long time ago and I hadn’t given her a thought for years. Almost - for there is also Jake. But reviewing good manners now require silence; suffice it to say that Jake re-appears, driving a red and cream Cadillac; the separate strands of this elegantly constructed story are pulled together, and it rolls unstoppably towards both its denouement and its bitter end. Tragedy abounds in the novel, but such is its humanity and its wisdom that the effect is not dismaying, but somehow reassuring. Appalling things happen, and are done, but in the last resort ordinary decency somehow wins out. This is a fine book - an enthralling read, both straightforward and wonderfully intricate. I look forward to Lawson's next. Q. What do you think lies behind the anger and resentment between the two brothers, Matt and Luke, which results in violence? Priority of education. Baby Kia attends school exactly one day in her life, which does not prevent her from becoming a popular author of books about swamp fauna in the future, while the heroes of "Crow Lake" see learning as the key to solving most problems and for them schooling is a real daily work.I do have one criticism. Lawson is very heavy handed with her foreshadowing. On a few occasions irritation pulled me out of the narrative thinking, "Enough, already!" Some judicious editing could have easily corrected this flaw. Amid the complication, the arguing, and the desperation among them all, love is present: it is clear and pervasive and strong, and nothing short of miraculous. While this poor child is swallowed by fear, she loves her brothers. And they love her. Grief is a lifelong plague- but the love she has for her family is continually extricating her from it, even into adulthood. Its a fascinating look at time. It is fascinating to see what she carries with her- because its all the right stuff. A remarkable novel, utterly gripping...I read it at a single sitting, then I read it again, just for the pleasure of it' Joanne Harris, bestselling author of Chocolat This sacrifice leads to much tension between the brothers. Both work intermittently for a neighbouring family, the Pyes, who for several generations have suffered from fierce conflicts between fathers and sons. In the final crisis, Matt, after winning his scholarships, discovers that he has made the meek and distressed daughter of the Pye household, Marie, pregnant; she also reveals that her father, Calvin Pye, has killed her brother, who was thought to have run away from home as several other Pye sons had done. Calvin Pye kills himself, and Matt has to give up his plans for education to marry Marie.