Crow Lake (Today Show Book Club #7)
by Mary Lawson
List Price:
Our Price: $3.00
You Save: $12.00 (80%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Mary LawsonEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-01-13
ISBN: 0385337639
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Dial Press Trade Paperback
Book Reviews of Crow Lake (Today Show Book Club #7)
Book Review: Quiet But Brilliant Novel About Family
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the story of Katie Morrison, a zoology professor from Toronto. Told in alternating chapters of past and present, it reveals her life growing up in rural Crow Lake in the wild terrain of Ontario. When Katie was 8 years old, her parents were killed in an automobile accident, leaving her alone with her older brothers, Luke and Matt and her baby sister, Bo. Relatives had gotten together to figure out what to do with the kids. Because money was tight, no one was able to take all 4 kids together. Luke, the oldest, was supposed to leave for teacher's college in the fall. Matt was going to have to leave high school to help on an Uncle's farm. And the girls were to go live with another relative. But Luke would have none of that talk. There was no way he was going to let them be separated, and made the decision to stay home from college to take care of the girls, and find a job. Because Matt was the exceptionally brilliant student, he needed to finish high school so he could go to college himself.
The story mainly centers on Katie's hero worship of her brother, Matt. It is his influence that has made Katie the person she is today. Starting with their trips to the lake to watch the water creatures, Matt is reason that Katie becomes so interested zoology. Matt is still stinging from Luke's self-sacrifice of giving up college for him, but decides he will do so well in school, he will get a great job and send all the kids to college himself (with a little help from Katie). But somehow, things never go as one plans, do they?
Their neighbors, the Pyes, have a family history rich with abuse, that spills over into the Morrison's lives. Both Matt and Luke work the farm for Mr. Pye, who spends his days terrorizing his own children, Laurie and Marie. The intertwining relationships with Pyes causes a chain of events that even further changes the lives of the 4 Morrison siblings.
This book is a slow, family drama. But not slow in a bad way. Lawson tells a beautiful story about the meaning of family. The rich detail of life in Crow Lake paints a picture that is easy to see. She creates a cast of characters that you grow to love. The events of the past have made Katie the quiet, reserved person she is today. It affects her relationship with Daniel, the man in her life who is so anxious to know about her past, and yet is kept hopelessly in the dark. It is the story of jealousy and resentments that build over time. But it is also the story of love and family, loss and healing. It is truly a beautiful story, at times so heartbreaking, it makes you ache. I highly recommend this wonderful book to anyone who has ever questioned their place in life. And really, isn't that all of us??
Summary of Crow Lake (Today Show Book Club #7)
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.
Canadian writer Mary Lawson's debut novel is a beautifully crafted and shimmering tale of love, death, and redemption. The story, narrated by 26-year-old Kate Morrison, is set in the eponymous Crow Lake, an isolated rural community where time has stood still. The reader dives in and out of a year's worth of Kate's childhood memories--when she was 7 and her parents were killed in an automobile accident that left Kate, her younger sister Bo, and two older brothers, Matt and Luke, orphaned. When Kate, the successful zoologist and professor who is accustomed to dissecting everything through a microscope, receives an invitation to Matt's son's 18th birthday party, she must suddenly analyze her own relationship and come to terms with her past before she forsakes a future with the man she loves. Kate is still in turmoil over the events of that fateful summer and winter 20 years ago when the tragedy of another local family, the Pyes, spilled over into their lives with earth-shattering consequences. But does the tragedy really lie in the past or the present? Lawson's narrative flows effortlessly in ever-increasing circles, swirling impressions in the reader's mind until form takes shape and the reader is left to reflect on the whole. Crow Lake is a wonderful achievement that will ripple in and out of the reader's consciousness long after the last page is turned. --Nicola Perry, Amazon.co.uk
Literary Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Literary Books
Island (Perennial Classics)by Aldous Huxley
Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Published: 2002-07-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops:
Angelsby Marian Keyes
William Morrow; Published: 2002-05-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.44
Price in other shops:
A Tree Grows in Brooklynby Betty Smith
Harper; Published: 2001-11-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.85
Price in other shops:
The Devil and Miss Prym: A Novel of Temptationby Paulo Coelho
Harper; Published: 2006-07-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.50
Price in other shops:
Boonville: A Novelby Robert Mailer Anderson
Harper Perennial; Published: 2003-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
Carameloby Sandra Cisneros
HarperAudio; Published: 2002-10-01; Audio Cassette; Book
Best price: $4.60
Price in other shops:
Headhunterby Timothy Findley
PERENNIAL PUBLICATIONS; Paperback; Book
The Crimson Petal And The Whiteby Michel Faber
Harcourt, Inc./Harvest; Published: 2003; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.50
Great Expectationsby Charles Dickens
Macmillan Pub Co; Published: 1979-06; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops:
This Side of Paradiseby Fitzgerald
Scribner Paper Fiction; Published: 1988-09-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.95
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Drowning Ruth: A Novel (Oprah's Book Club)by Christina Schwarz
Ballantine Books; Published: 2001-07-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.50
Price in other shops:
The Other Side of the Bridgeby Mary Lawson
The Dial Press; Published: 2006-10-26; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.50
Price in other shops:
A Lesson Before Dying (Oprah's Book Club)by Ernest J. Gaines
Vintage; Published: 1994-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.44
Price in other shops:
Mudboundby Hillary Jordan
Algonquin Books; Published: 2009-03-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.17
Price in other shops:
The Tiger's Wife: A Novelby Téa Obreht
Random House Trade Paperbacks; Published: 2011-11-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.02
Price in other shops:
Cane River (Oprah's Book Club)by Lalita Tademy
Warner Books; Published: 2005-02-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.09
Price in other shops:
In Leah's Wakeby Terri Giuliano Long
CreateSpace; Published: 2010-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.65
Price in other shops:
While I Was Gone (Oprah's Book Club)by Sue Miller
Ballantine Books; Published: 1999-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.95
Price in other shops:
Whistling In the Darkby Lesley Kagen
NAL Trade; Published: 2007-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.98
Price in other shops:
The Other Side of the Bridgeby Mary Lawson
Dial Press Trade Paperback; Published: 2007-08-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.17
Price in other shops: