I loved this beautiful story and was sad to see it end.

I loved this epic family saga set in Northern Ontario, the story of four siblings orphaned by a tragic accident. Told by the third child, Kate, it would make an excellent film.

"Crow Lake" follows the tale of four orphaned children in the face of tragedy and how they grew up. Or at least the events in the first year after the death of both their parents. The narrator of the story is the third in line, Katie. The book and narrator kept hinting at a big turning point for one of the siblings, Matt. In the end, I didn't really find it to be a big deal.

Perskaičiau per keletą prisėdimų. Greičiausiai dėl įdomaus siužeto ir veikėjų gyvenimų. Atrodo, kad visas dėmesys krypsta į įvykusią tragediją, o nepastebimai nujaučiama dar didesnė, kuri visai arti.

Siužetas sukasi aplink jauną merginą, kuri prisimena savo vaikystę ir sunkius sprendimus, su kuriais jos šeima turėjo susidurti po tėvų mirties. Ji atskleidžia sudėtingus santykius su savo broliais ir seserimi, ir kaip šie ryšiai formuoja jų gyvenimus. Šeimos palaikymas ir nepalaikymas gyvenimo sprendimuose tampa vienu iš svarbiausių asmenybės formavimosi aspektų. Galima justi, kaip atsakomybė ir meilė šeimoje gali būti tiek parama, tiek našta.

Rašytojos stilius pasižymi subtiliu jausmingumu ir giliu psichologiniu personažų analizavimu.

This is Mary Lawson's debut novel about life around Struan, a fictional town in northern Ontario. This book introduces us to a family who shows up peripherally in a later novel.
I liked the story, about a family of four siblings who lose their parents prematurely in a car accident. Luke and Matt are in their late teens, about to start their own lives, when they find themselves the caregivers of their younger sisters, Kate age 8 and Bo age 2. The book moves back and forth between that time 20 years ago and the present. Kate is now a university lecturer in natural sciences, having left Struan and rarely gone back. The other 3 siblings stayed behind and made lives for themselves in their hometown. Kate has serious emotional issues that are testing her strength and sense of wellbeing. She's invited back to Struan for her nephew's high school graduation and the past comes back to torment her in a big way.
I struggled with Kate. I didn't relate well to her alienation from her family. She repeatedly says as an adult that she resents Matt for wasting his life but fails to see how much he gave to her. Luke made huge sacrifices as well, giving up a chance at college to raise his siblings, but Kate fixates on Matt and seems to punish him for his choices, even though he seems content. I wanted to tell Kate to just get off his back.
Altogether, I really liked this book. I've read three novels by Mary Lawson in the last two months, and love her writing. I can't wait to read more from her.

Luin suomennoksen, jota ei Goodreadsista (vielä) löydy. Lawson kirjoittaa uskomattoman laadukkaasti. Booker-palkintoehdokkuudet ymmärtää hyvin. Puolivälin jälkeen romaaniin upposi ja antautui taitavan kertojan vietäväksi. Pidän siitä, kun romaani asettelee itsensä ja juonensa huolellisesti, jotta lukijan on helppo saapua sen loppuun. Ymmärtää kirkkaasti ja selvästi sen, mitä kirjailjia on halunnut sanoa.

I’ve meant to read more by Lawson ever since I reviewed her latest book, Road Ends, for Nudge in May 2015. All three of her novels draw on the same fictional setting: Struan, Ontario. Lawson grew up in a similar Canadian farming community before moving to England in the late 1960s. After an invitation arrives for her nephew’s birthday party, narrator Kate Morrison looks 20 years into the past to remember the climactic events of the year that she was seven. When she and her siblings were suddenly orphaned, her teenage brothers, Luke and Matt, had to cobble together local employment that allowed them to look after their little sisters at home. With the help of relatives and neighbors, they kept their family of four together. All along, though, their lives were becoming increasingly entwined with those of the Pyes, a troubled local farming family.

Matt inspired Kate’s love of pond life – she’s now an assistant professor of invertebrate ecology – but never got to go to college himself. Theirs was a family that prized schooling above all else (legend has it that Great-Grandmother installed a book rest on her spinning wheel so she could read while her hands were busy*) and eschewed emotion. “It was the Eleventh Commandment,” Kate recalls: “Thou Shalt Not Emote.”

This is a slow burner for sure, but it’s a winning picture of a family that stuck together despite the odds, as well as an appeal to recognize that emotional intelligence is just as important as book learning. The novel reminded me a lot of Surfacing by Margaret Atwood and The Girls by Lori Lansens, and I’d also recommend it to readers of Elizabeth Hay and Jane Urquhart.

*Delightfully, this detail was autobiographical for Lawson.


Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.

I loved this really beautiful, haunting story. All of the characters were well developed, and the relationships were realistic. It is narrated by Kate, who alternated between her seven-year-old self and her adult self. At 7 she was suddenly orphaned and was raised by her older brothers, with the help of the generous but poor community. She is paralyzed with anxiety and fear that year, as any child would be, who had suddenly lost her parents. The adult Kate is intelligent and educated, but ashamed, I think, because her success came on the shoulders of her brothers-or so she thinks. This is a story about survival, forgiveness, and family bonds. Really, really lovely.

And I want to add one thing. Just because our lives do not—almost ever—turn out the way we map out, it does NOT mean that our lives are inferior. Life itself, it seems to me, is a long (hopefully) series of events, with some events planned, and some that fate has cast us. It is less about WHAT happens, and MORE about how we cope and adapt and embrace the unexpected. That is the bit of advice I would give to these lovely, dear siblings in this story.

I was totally captivated and enthralled the entire four hours and two minutes it took me to devour CROW LAKE. This is my first book my Mary Lawson; it will certainly not be my last.

Jumping back and forth between past and present -- a format that I love -- we meet siblings Luke, Matt, Kate, and little Bo. They live in near wilderness in Ontario with their parents. Little do they realize that their lives are about to be turned upside down. And it is....horribly so. The story revolves around the brothers and sisters, their neighbors, their determination to be together, their hard work, love, loyalty. There are plenty of twists and turns and surprises.

Lawson is a superb writer. Her words knock right into your heart, soul, brain, emotions. The characters are reliable, real, and down-to-earth. Situations are exciting and at times shocking, yet down home and true.

I loved this book; so many of my friends have recommended it to me. I was so sorry to have it come to an end but am glad I have all the other Lawson books to read.

I can highly recommend this book to YOU.

My second book by this amazing Canadian writer. Not quite up to 'A Town Called Solace', but an excellent read. Once again mostly taking place in Northern Ontario in a remote community. Our narrator, Kate, is the third child with two older brothers and a younger sister. After their parents are tragically killed in a car accident early on, the rest of the story is about this unique family and their struggle to survive and stay together. And about education as Kate's Great Grandmother envisioned.

I loved the family aspect, especially Ms Lawson's portrayal of Kate's little sister Bo, who was a toddler when her parents died. The scenes with her are the best and most alive. In her afterward, Ms Lawson says she was actually based on her real life younger sister, with her permission of course.

Beautifully written, especially the characters, but it the end it lacked something to make it great. One of the more disappointing lines in the book was as follows:

'Underneath, the old snow lay heavily, like the flesh of a fat old woman.'

Lawson, Mary. Crow Lake (p. 172). Random House. Kindle Edition.

‘Crow Lake’ is a very satisfying, slowly evolving story about the impact of tragedy, circumstance, and misguided expectations on family dynamics. In one household, four orphaned children - the Morrisons - ages 19, 17, 7 and 1, live in a remote Canadian community, doing the best they can to stay together and survive as a nuclear family. They don’t want to be separated. In a neighboring household, the Pye children try to endure the multi-generational legacy of abuse by the father. They just want to escape. The story primarily centers around one devastating year in the lives of these two families. Kate Morrison, the third-born Morrison child, narrates this tale twenty years later. As she spins out her childhood memories of the Morrisons and the Pyes and the community and citizens of Crow Lake, she also grapples with her present - her inability to commit to a relationship, her guilt over her success, and the uncomfortable disconnect between her and her beloved brother Matt.

This is not a difficult read but it’s no lightweight. There are many layers to this novel, and Mary Lawson keeps you turning the pages with just the right amount of foreshadowing, tension and emotion. Her descriptions of the flora and fauna of the Canadian countryside are magnificent, and she will leave you with lasting images of baby “Bo” (short for Elizabeth) Morrison and big brother Matt. Recommended to anyone who enjoys a literary family saga filled with mostly innocent, scarred people who face tough decisions and try so hard to make things work out. This novel really struck a chord with me, and I was not quite ready for it to end. But fortunately, this excellent author has two more books for me to read.

“There’s no end to how far back you can go, of course, when you’re trying to figure out where something started.”
~ Katherine “Kate” Morrison

A wonderful family saga that is filled with heart and endurance. Set mostly in the early days of settling the northern area of Ontario, a small village and its people come to life with vividness and love.

Thank you to AngelaM for first introducing me to this author. Please read her excellent review as it is perfect – and exactly the kind of writing that will appeal to most of our book friends.