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A review by davidb71
Crow Lake by Mary Lawson
5.0
I thought this was terrific. It's subtle and understated, but at the same time - for me anyway - it's extraordinarily powerful. I love the characters here, the setting, the shifting dynamics between the characters. It's painful and beautiful, occasionally funny. Most of all, I found it wise - I find Mary Lawson such a wise writer. She writes human beings so well, explores subtleties of character and relationships with a keen eye and penetrating insight.
I found this a very moving story. If I have a slight caveat, I did occasionally find the constant time jumps a little detrimental to the momentum of the story - but this might say more about me than the book. The protagonist of the novel is a woman called Kate, and in the 'present day' of the novel she's a twenty-something academic. But the bulk of the novel is set during the year she was eight-years-old, and her life with her three siblings following their parents' death in a car accident. But there are also chapters that fill in some history of the area where they live and the other families that live there - somewhat confusingly these were relayed to Kate when she was a teenager helping out an elderly neighbour with gardening. So we have adult Kate, eight-year-old Kate, teenaged Kate, and we have the stories of Kate's family history and neighbouring families' histories going back to the first settlers around the Crow Lake area. I could, in the earlier stages of the novel, feel like I was being pulled all over the place. But the thing is, this is all brilliant stuff - I just kept itching to get back back to the main narrative, and the book's momentum could feel a little stop/start.
But this is really a minor quibble for me - and really it might be a silly one, because really the structure of the book is quite brilliant. I think the frustration I felt was more to do with my impatience rather than a failing of the book.
Where this book came alive for me was in the latter stages. The way this story developed totally subverted my expectations, and I found the way this story ended - and the point that Kate arrived at - to be so profoundly moving and wise and clever that I was utterly blown away by it. I thought it was beautiful, in the best possible way. It elevated the whole novel for me, and it went from being a book that I liked quite a lot to becoming one that I absolutely loved.
I found this a very moving story. If I have a slight caveat, I did occasionally find the constant time jumps a little detrimental to the momentum of the story - but this might say more about me than the book. The protagonist of the novel is a woman called Kate, and in the 'present day' of the novel she's a twenty-something academic. But the bulk of the novel is set during the year she was eight-years-old, and her life with her three siblings following their parents' death in a car accident. But there are also chapters that fill in some history of the area where they live and the other families that live there - somewhat confusingly these were relayed to Kate when she was a teenager helping out an elderly neighbour with gardening. So we have adult Kate, eight-year-old Kate, teenaged Kate, and we have the stories of Kate's family history and neighbouring families' histories going back to the first settlers around the Crow Lake area. I could, in the earlier stages of the novel, feel like I was being pulled all over the place. But the thing is, this is all brilliant stuff - I just kept itching to get back back to the main narrative, and the book's momentum could feel a little stop/start.
But this is really a minor quibble for me - and really it might be a silly one, because really the structure of the book is quite brilliant. I think the frustration I felt was more to do with my impatience rather than a failing of the book.
Where this book came alive for me was in the latter stages. The way this story developed totally subverted my expectations, and I found the way this story ended - and the point that Kate arrived at - to be so profoundly moving and wise and clever that I was utterly blown away by it. I thought it was beautiful, in the best possible way. It elevated the whole novel for me, and it went from being a book that I liked quite a lot to becoming one that I absolutely loved.