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A review by karenika
Broken Man on a Halifax Pier by Lesley Choyce
3.0
3.5 stars
"I realized there was no such thing as a life without consequences. Every little thing—or big thing—you do in life sends out ripples in the pond that keep getting wider and wider."
Reading this novel was an interesting journey. The two main characters meet on a Pier on a random night and end up having a meal together. The dialogue is unusual in that it's almost immediately witty and they are quoting literature/poetry at each other which was amusing and also annoying at the same time. The interesting part is that this doesn't really continue throughout the novel all that much.
The characters, Ramona and Charles, meet and immediately hit it off and then decide to do an impromptu drive to Charles' hometown which he hasn't been to in a long, long time. This starts off a chain of events that add complications to both of the characters' lives. The issues get serious very quickly and the two characters get enmeshed in each others' lives.
While the story was engaging and I kept wanting to read it, I did feel like the emotional intensity required to so heavily and fully invest into another person whom you just met (especially when in the context of some of these very serious issues) was not really clear in the story. It always felt a bit distant. We didn't get to see the depth in any of the characters and understand their motivation for continuing to get/stay engaged in each others complex lives.
Having said that, I really did enjoy the story and enjoyed some of the secondary characters like Jack and BethAnn and the story continued to be engaging and worthwhile. The writing was engaging and it was a great story about second chances, small towns, people looking out for each other.
With gratitude to netgalley and Dundurn for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.
"I realized there was no such thing as a life without consequences. Every little thing—or big thing—you do in life sends out ripples in the pond that keep getting wider and wider."
Reading this novel was an interesting journey. The two main characters meet on a Pier on a random night and end up having a meal together. The dialogue is unusual in that it's almost immediately witty and they are quoting literature/poetry at each other which was amusing and also annoying at the same time. The interesting part is that this doesn't really continue throughout the novel all that much.
The characters, Ramona and Charles, meet and immediately hit it off and then decide to do an impromptu drive to Charles' hometown which he hasn't been to in a long, long time. This starts off a chain of events that add complications to both of the characters' lives. The issues get serious very quickly and the two characters get enmeshed in each others' lives.
While the story was engaging and I kept wanting to read it, I did feel like the emotional intensity required to so heavily and fully invest into another person whom you just met (especially when in the context of some of these very serious issues) was not really clear in the story. It always felt a bit distant. We didn't get to see the depth in any of the characters and understand their motivation for continuing to get/stay engaged in each others complex lives.
Having said that, I really did enjoy the story and enjoyed some of the secondary characters like Jack and BethAnn and the story continued to be engaging and worthwhile. The writing was engaging and it was a great story about second chances, small towns, people looking out for each other.
With gratitude to netgalley and Dundurn for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.