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Crow Lake

3.78 of 5 stars 3.78 · rating details · 6,443 ratings · 836 reviews

For use in schools and libraries only. In the rural farm country of northern Ontario, the lives of two families--the farming Pye family, and zoologist Kate Morrison and her three brothers--are brought together and torn apart by misunderstanding, resentment, family love, and tragedy.

Hardcover, 293 pages

Published January 1st 2003 by Turtleback Books (first published 2002)

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Dec 15, 2012 Judy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novel, small-town-character-driven, bookgroup

January 5, 2012
4.5 This is a beautiful, rich novel marbled with huge swaths of sadness, set in a town in the open spaces of northern Ontario. It is so simple, and yet so richly layered, that I have trouble describing it: it's about a family, as well as some other families in their small town. There is a traumatic event - really a number of them. The families go on. The narrator, a member of the central family, is looking back at these events, which are interwoven with scenes from the present. My...more

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Jan 20, 2008 Jeanette rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: canada, all-fiction

This is very cleanly written, so it's a fast read. Just a good simple story about 4 children who lose their parents in a car accident and the struggles they go through to stay together as a family. The narrator looks back on how the choices each of them made altered their own lives as well as the lives of their siblings.
I've been reading a lot of emotionally wrenching stuff lately, so this was a nice calm read for a change!
I liked her second novel (The Other Side of the Bridge) a little better...more

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Jul 18, 2007 Kelly rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: booksreadin2004

I chose this book for our June book club. It was a “Today Show” book choice. Told from the perspective of 27 year old Kate, the story is one of sadness (her parents died in a car crash 20 years earlier), forgiveness, guilt and growth. I enjoyed the story and especially the flaws that Kate has as a character and person. As a reader it was rewarding to witness her evolution as a character throughout the narrative. Our book club had some good discussion and most (though not all) liked the book. Mos...more

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Sep 19, 2011 Luis rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

Me derrumbo ante a la vez cruel y enternecedora historia de cómo unos niños deciden valerse por sí mismos ante la pérdida de sus padres. De cómo la ingenuidad de mantener la unidad debe hacer frente a las mil penurias que implica su aislada situación, y sin permitir que los sentimientos de unidad dejen de primar ante todo.
Una pregunta importante "¿Seremos capaces de hacerlo solos?"" y una enseñanza vital como respuesta.
Lleno de entusiasmo, constituye para mí otra de las lecturas que jamás olvida...more

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Mar 27, 2009 Amanda rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: other-fiction

Book #26 of 2009
Back to the serious side of things I guess... I've been chewing on this book for a couple of days now, never being really invested in it to make a big to finishing it, certainly not devouring it like the last five books or so. I'm not even really sure how I feel about it. Its almost anticlimatic in a way. The whole book builds up to this supposedly huge catastrophe, which isn't really a catastrophe at all, but a decision moving life one way instead of another. But the supposed ca...more

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Feb 03, 2009 Lisa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

First novels are tough. Many haven't mastered the art of "show, don't tell" in their story-telling. Mary Lawson does a beautiful job of getting you to feel the emotions of the characters and their varying reactions to the tragedy that occurs near the beginning of the book. This is especially hard, since the setting is a small farming community where you are not supposed to show your emotions. You are supposed to be stoic in face of anything and everything, although stoicism can easily lead to fe...more

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Jan 04, 2013 Lukie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

7-year old Kate's rural Ontario family is a strict Protestant one where emotional displays are unseemly, hard work and education highly valued. Her two, much older, brothers do not get along. It is the younger one, Matt, who regularly takes Kate to the nearby ponds to observe and learn about the creatures there, sparking a passionate interest that leads to her profession, later, as scientist. But it is both brothers, when their parents are suddenly killed, who work hard and sacrifice much to hol...more

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Sep 22, 2012 John Baker rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Mary Lawson was fifty-five when this, her first novel, was published. Born in Canada and having lived in the UK for a long time, she chose to set the novel in a fictionalised part of North Ontario.

I have an image of myself lying awake, staring at the darkness. I kept trying to sleep and sleep would not come and time would not pass. I knew that Luke and Matt were awake too but for some reason I was afraid to talk to them, so the night went on for ever.

Other things seemed to happen over and over b

...more Mary Lawson was fifty-five when this, her first novel, was published. Born in Canada and having lived in the UK for a long time, she chose to set the novel in a fictionalised part of North Ontario.

I have an image of myself lying awake, staring at the darkness. I kept trying to sleep and sleep would not come and time would not pass. I knew that Luke and Matt were awake too but for some reason I was afraid to talk to them, so the night went on for ever.

Other things seemed to happen over and over but I’m not sure, looking back, if that was only in my mind. I can still see Luke standing at the front door, holding Bo in one arm and with his free hand accepting a large covered dish from someone. I know that happened, but in my memory he spent practically the whole of the first few days in that pose. Though that could have been true – every wife, every mother, every maiden aunt in the community must have set her lips and started cooking as soon as she heard the news. Potato salad figured largely. And cooked hams. Also nourishing stews, though it was far too hot to eat them. Every time you went out the front door you tripped over a quart basket of peas or a vat of stewed rhubarb.

And Luke holding Bo. Did he really carry her for every waking moment of those first days? Because that’s how I remember it. I suppose she was affected by the atmosphere in the house and was missing our mother and cried if he put her down.

And myself clinging to Matt. I held on to his hand or his sleeve or the pocket of his jeans, anything that I could get hold of. I was seven, I should have been beyond such behaviour. But I couldn’t help myself. I remember him gently disengaging my fingers when he needed to go to the toilet, saying, ‘Just wait, Katie. Just give me a minute.’ And myself standing at the closed bathroom door, asking, ‘Have you finished yet?’ with a shaking voice.

I cannot imagine what those first days must have been like for Luke and Matt, the funeral arrangements and the phone-calls, the visits of neighbours and the kindly meant offers of help, the practicalities of looking after Bo and me. The confusion and anxiety, to say nothing of the grief. And of course, nothing was said of the grief. We were our parents’ children, after all.

The four orphans grow up before our eyes. We live with them through their trials and their victories, and witness the inordinate length of time it takes at least one of them to overcome the tragedy of their childhood.

The language is gratifying and, all in all, the novel is accomplished and extremely well managed. But it is not as accomplished as Mary Lawson’s second attempt, The Other Side of the Bridge.

I was not totally convinced of the motivation of the narrator, which detracted somewhat from my involvement and engagement with the ongoing narrative. But there is much to like here, and, for a first novel, it is a shimmering achievement.(less)

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Aug 17, 2012 Saara rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I picked up this novel from the small shelf dedicated to BookCrossing books near Humus, the café in the Humanities Dept. of my uni. There were no expectations involved; the back cover included the usual praise and the synopsis did not waken any special interest. I just thought it might be worth a try.

Crow Lake is deserving of every praise printed on its covers. I am not kidding. I was hooked pretty much from the start, and had I had the chance to do so, I probably would have devoured it in one d...more

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Jul 25, 2012 Sonya rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book has been sitting on my shelf, unread, for many years. I wish I'd left it there. While this is Mary Lawson's first book, my sympathy is limited. She offers no depth to her characters. You develop no bonds with anyone in the book. It has a poorly assembled storyline which is supposed to develop into an emotional epiphany for the flat protagonist "Kate"; however, by the end of the book, Kate has learned almost nothing about herself and, what she has "learned", was not picked up by her aft...more This book has been sitting on my shelf, unread, for many years. I wish I'd left it there. While this is Mary Lawson's first book, my sympathy is limited. She offers no depth to her characters. You develop no bonds with anyone in the book. It has a poorly assembled storyline which is supposed to develop into an emotional epiphany for the flat protagonist "Kate"; however, by the end of the book, Kate has learned almost nothing about herself and, what she has "learned", was not picked up by her after years of emotional self-probing, but laid out plainly for her in speeches by other characters in the story. She refuses to accept that they might be right and, thus, nothing has changed for her by the end of the story, which Lawson sloppily wraps up in the last few pages.

While some of the characters in the book are interesting, none display more than one defining feature. You grow to dislike the protagonist almost immediately and her little sister "Bo" is nothing but a ball of anger intended to make the protagonist appear less annoying. While the storyline had hope, originally, the author is clearly unskilled and unfit to develop it into something meaningful. She repeats herself on obvious points about the protagonist's fear of emotional bonding and she makes a passing reference to the Luke's possible homosexuality in a side comment that is never mentioned again. Too bad, since he's one of the characters I actually liked.

I did appreciate the author's description of life for farming families in early northern Ontario. It made me want to re-read some Robertson Davies. However, if a story of hard life for Canadian pioneering families in the early 1900s is what you seek, pick up some Margaret Laurence or Robertson Davies to read it done well. This book is considered "Canadian Lit" because it takes place in northern Ontario and the author was born here and probably still has her Canadian passport tucked away in a shoebox with some other trinkets from her childhood. Mary Lawson has clearly not been to northern Ontario since she was a child and has no real memory of it except for insects and water; she wrote the book in Britain where she has lived since she was a teenager.(less)

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Feb 03, 2011 Eniko rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I liked this book very much for a number of reasons.
First, because the minute I started reading it, I identified with the writing style. The sentence structures, the choice of words, everything about it seemed so familiar. I felt like this was a book I could have written. Secondly, right from the get-go I was really intrigued. I am a sucker for the "Little did we know..." way of drawing the reader in. This was very well done in this novel. Throughout the story, I could never guess just what wou...more

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Oct 18, 2010 Agatha rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

four children (19, 17, 7, and 2) are orphaned when their parents are in a tragic car accident, but the children pull together and the older two sons raise the younger two girls. I very much enjoyed the depiction of family life and it felt very familiar to me to read of a large family where the oldest children pulled a large share of the child-rearing and all had to pull together to "make it" and stay together. The second son and the 7-year-old girl have a particularly close relationship over a s...more

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Jan 22, 2010 Mary Reinert rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Mary by: George Ann Fisher

After their parents were killed in an accident, Luke and Matt take on the responsibility of raising their two younger sisters, Kate and Bo. Set in the remote areas of Canada, where everyone knows everyone else yet secrets may be kept for years, expressing emotion is difficult and as hard as the frozen winters of Crow Lake. Raised to believe that getting an education is the most important goal, Kate, the narrator of the book, must come to grips with the fact that one can learn to live happily in...more

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Jan 12, 2010 Jacquelynn Luben rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I chose Crow Lake as ‘a good read’ rather than for any intellectual reason.

I don’t like stream of consciousness books, so what I liked about Crow Lake was the structure, which seemed carefully planned. There are two stories being told. One takes place in the present, but that’s fairly thin. The important story is that of Kate and her family when they were young. It’s told in a flashback form and we know at the very beginning that Kate is 27 at the time of writing. I like her descriptions of the...more I chose Crow Lake as ‘a good read’ rather than for any intellectual reason.

I don’t like stream of consciousness books, so what I liked about Crow Lake was the structure, which seemed carefully planned. There are two stories being told. One takes place in the present, but that’s fairly thin. The important story is that of Kate and her family when they were young. It’s told in a flashback form and we know at the very beginning that Kate is 27 at the time of writing. I like her descriptions of the family, which are amusing, particularly those of Bo, and which perhaps draw on the author’s own experience of family life – she also comes from a family of four – two brothers and a younger sister, and admits that she has modelled Bo on her little sister.

The story of the family contains some dramatic incidents – the sudden death of the parents; the legacy of abuse passed from father to son in the Pye family, the deaths of the Pye father and son. But apart from those events, there is a restful quality to much of the prose, in particular, the description, and you feel drawn into the struggle of the young family trying to survive, and want them to succeed.

I liked Crow Lake because I felt empathy with all the members of the family, in rather the same way as the family described in To Kill a Mockingbird. The two brothers behave badly sometimes, but there is no doubt that they and the dead parents and Aunt Annie are good people. Having said that, I read in a review that Kate, the adult, seems rather cold, and I agree that is the case. But she had to be, from the point of view of the plot that takes place in the present.

I also like the way small clues are inserted to tempt you on, although I think the denouement isn’t as strong as it could be. I don’t altogether believe in this problem that Kate has with her brother’s so-called ‘failure’, but I’m prepared to suspend disbelief because of the enjoyable journey there.

When I came to the first mention of the Pye family, I was reminded of the children’s book, Anne of Green Gables, in which the Pyes are the black sheep of the small community. I wondered if the author was influenced, perhaps unconsciously by the Anne books, since they also took place in a part of Canada – P.E. Island. There are sometimes similarities in the sort of folksy, gossipy style, particularly when the old lady, Miss Vernon, relates the tale of the Pyes.

Having come to that conclusion, I decided to look up Mary Lawson on line. I found that she was actually a cousin of L.M. Montgomery, the author of Anne of Green Gables. So either there was a shared talent, or Mary Lawson was indeed influenced by L.M. Montgomery’s writing.

I did feel that the end faded out a little, but perhaps that’s just me, wanting the story to finish on a more dramatic note.

(less)

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Oct 21, 2009 Lori rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Crow Lake is an interesting novel on many levels. It has beautiful descriptions of the land in northern Ontario, a tragedy that occurs in the beginning of the novel, obstacles to overcome by family members and a dire mystery that is alluded to from early on. What is it then that disappoints me? I guess for me, I never became involved with the central character Kate. She is unemotional, detached and academic. She resists facing her past, by refusing to become involved in her current relationships...more

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Jul 24, 2009 Jane Siviski rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It's a strange thing that I came across this book. I found it wedged into the back of a shelf downstairs. It seems I read it at the perfect time. It came to me in the midst of serious, physical grief, the kind where your body is taken over by sadness and is simply a vessel for your shaking and sobbing and wailing. Oh the wailing. You will wail. And not in the Wayne's World sense. Its the kind of thing that you can't let anyone else listen to, because what the wailing is is the pain leaving your...more It's a strange thing that I came across this book. I found it wedged into the back of a shelf downstairs. It seems I read it at the perfect time. It came to me in the midst of serious, physical grief, the kind where your body is taken over by sadness and is simply a vessel for your shaking and sobbing and wailing. Oh the wailing. You will wail. And not in the Wayne's World sense. Its the kind of thing that you can't let anyone else listen to, because what the wailing is is the pain leaving your body. That pain, floating about untethered, can do serious injury. That's why you do it alone.

So the same day I'm holding my cousin's 14 hour old baby in my arms, and the knowledge that my own mother won't be there when I hold my children in my arms for the first time- or any time- comes searing through my blood, I find this book.

Kate's parents are both killed in a car crash when she is seven years old, on a day that had begun like any other. As an adult, Kate returns to the year following her parents death, when, to prevent the family from being broken apart more, Luke, the oldest, then 19, decides to raise Matt, 17, Kate ,7, and Bo, 1, on his own.

Perhaps it is hardest for Kate. Losing both parents at seven years old. Such a vulnerable age. Her fear is palpable. If one of her brothers is late coming home, she is certain, until she sees his face, that he is dead too. It's heartbreaking. When you think about it, how often do you get a window into a grieving seven year-old? Though the book is fiction, it has the vividness of an autobiography.

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.

As a younger sister, as a victim of parental loss, as someone who is seeking to define herself as an adult in the face of grief, and as someone who has a family (albeit a broken one) I found this book to be enormously powerful, perhaps because it is so relevant. But the writing is simple and beautiful. It is a stunning portrait of familial love (we take its potency for granted.) The story is phenomenally complex but equally simple. Love simplifies things. By the end of the book I was struck dumb, totally overcome with one truth the story brought to light: No love is ordinary.

(less)

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Nov 14, 2009 Terry rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

My roommate means well but boy does she have bland taste in "literature" and yes I say "literature" with as much sarcasm as possible. Believe me I turn down more offerings of hers than I read, but I just feel obligated to choke one or two down every once in a while.

I wanted to like it, I did. I just didn't. It just didn't feel "new" to me. And I didn't find the writing style especially evocative. The narrator of the story speaks and thinks like a 50+-year-old, and I kept shaking my head to clea...more

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Feb 28, 2009 Poiema rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Wendell Berry, Mitford book fans

Recommended to Poiema by: http://ukrakovianki.blogspot.com/

I couldn't put this book down until I finished @ 3:30 a.m. It's been a while since I have done that but I'd have to say Crow Lake was worth it.

The narrator, Kate, is a 27 year old biologist with a very successful career. But that career does not fully satisfy her because she has loose ends to tidy up with her siblings. It's something that she would rather postpone indefinitely, but circumstances force her to sort through the emotional baggage. Her story builds to a satisfactory conclusion and sh...more

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Nov 29, 2007 Teresa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

a fabulous read, beautifully written with vivid characters. It's a short, easy read but I found myself very moved by the representation of the Morrison family. This novel is never overly sentimental or gushing - it's one which will stay with me for a long time and whose characters I will remember fondly - something which doesn't happen that often to me!

Since there isn't the option to give 4.5, I've given it 5, only because I'm probably too harsh at times....

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Mar 30, 2012 Kylie Funk Kramer rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

I would have given this book 5 stars if not for the ending. I didn't mind the ending, but I minded the pacing. It just stopped. The protagonist was supposed to have this earth-shattering epiphany, and she skims the surface of it, and then the author wraps it up and calls it a day. All within 5 pages. It was a let down.

That being said, I loved the story, the characters, and the conflict. I found the writing rich and rewarding as well as the unique setting of Northern Canada. I was especially take...more

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Apr 08, 2013 Sherri Keller rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book sucked me right in. I started reading it late last night, around 1:30 a.m., and put it down about an hour later, only because I knew I had to get some sleep so I wouldn't look/feel like an extra from The Walking Dead.

The story is narrated by Kate, who now an adult. She was raised in a small Northern Ontario town, the titular Crow Lake. Her parents were killed in a logging truck accident when she was 7 years old, and she and her siblings are dealing with the aftermath of that tragedy.

I...more

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Oct 27, 2010 Brent rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This novel is very much like consuming several empty calories: so much to read, not a lot to comprehend. This novel went on, and on, and on. I found a lot of the information given about Katie's past overly descriptive. Far too much irrelevant detail! I also found the book to be quite repetitive, I don't know how many times it was mentioned that the neighbors were dropping off meals. I don't know how many uncomfortable dinner table conversations there were. I don't know how many chapters were ded...more

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Jul 11, 2011 Linda rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Love it so far. Lawson is a great storyteller.

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Feb 07, 2011 Willy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, family-tragedy

I agree with some of the review that there was, at times, quite a bit of redundancy. I'm okay with that. I think the best of this book is that the author is able to capture the selfishness of children with honesty. Lawson does many things right in this book including showing how our beliefs make us act in ways that don't necessarily match the circumstance. I vacillate between giving this book five stars and three stars. If you come from a dysfunctional family (I guess most of us do) you may find...more

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Dec 25, 2012 Peter rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Crow Lake is a simply told story that encompasses self-sufficiency, sacrifice and survival. Like, Camilla Gibb’s Sweetness in the Belly, Mary Lawson’s novel is a joy to read and confirms that Canadian women novelists and short-story writers are first-rank anywhere on this planet….I hesitate to mention this back cover blurb of Crow Lake, but….”A Book of the Year, as chosen by the Globe 100, The New York Times and the Washington Post”….

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Mar 21, 2009 Jacki rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a story of a woman kind of coming to terms with her past. Her parents died when she was very young and she and her sister were raised by her brothers. She is looking back on this, about 20 or so years later and struggling with the idea of introducing her boyfriend to her family.

This is a simple story. It is written simply and beautifully. I loved every word. It is a short little thing and I couldn't help but wish that it was longer.

Part of what I loved was the descriptions of farm life a...more

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Jun 06, 2009 Ali rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is novel is also set mainly in a rural farming community, and concerns the Morrison family, and to a lesser degree that of their neighbours the Pye family. The Morrisons lives are changed for ever by the early tragic death of their parents, leaving the two eldest boys to make some tough decisions, and sacrifice their future's for their younger sisters. The story is narrated by Kate the third of the four orphaned kids. This is a novel about family, and our understanding of one another, it is...more

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Apr 01, 2011 Melee rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Crow Lake was the debut book of Mary Lawson with The Other Side of the Bridge following a few years later. I read The Other Side of the Bridge before Crow Lake and I am so glad I did. If I hadn't, I would have been sorely disappointed because Crow Lake would surely have set up high expectations. So, because I read it second I got to be pleasantly surprised instead!
It's not that I didn't like The Other Side of the Bridge but the story did very little for me and now I can't even remember the plot...more

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Jul 30, 2010 thewanderingjew rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Crow Lake, Mary Lawson
Unknowingly, I read the book twice. After I got a few pages in, I realized it, but my first reading was years ago and the book seemed so interesting that I continued on with it for the second time. I was not disappointed.
It is a tender tale which begins with the memories of a seven year child and progresses over the next twenty years. We watch as problems, arise and are resolved, often with unintended consequences. It is a tale about overcoming disaster, about not letting a...more

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Jan 07, 2010 Jinny rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-north-american, favorite-novels, 09-2010-reads

I loved everything about this book. It's set in places I've always wanted to be: on a farm, and at a university. Its narrator, though highly educated, is startlingly unseeing. But she loves, and she learns. What else do you need for a great story?

We hear all about the people, situations, and 'landscapes' that serve as the narrator's teachers.

Author Mary Lawson is by turns so thoughtful and very funny here. Characters are vividly drawn; the plot unfolds at just the right pace; and the simple an...more

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About Mary Lawson

Mary Lawson (born 1946) is a Canadian novelist.

Born in southwestern Ontario, she spent her childhood in Blackwell, Ontario and is a distant relative of L. M. Montgomery, author of Anne of Green Gables.

Lawson moved to England after graduating from McGill University with a psychology degree in 1968. She also married in England, has two grown up sons and now lives in Kingston-Upon-Thames, Surrey. Her...more

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Quotes from Crow Lake

“You see the suffering of children all the time nowadays. Wars and famines are played out before us in our living rooms, and almost every week there are pictures of children who have been through unimaginable loss and horror. Mostly they look very calm. You see them looking into the camera, directly at the lens, and knowing what they have been through you expect to see terror or grief in their eyes, yet so often there’s no visible emotion at all. They look so blank it would be easy to imagine that they weren’t feeling much.
And though I do not for a moment equate what I went through with the suffering of those children, I do remember feeling as they look. I remember Matt talking to me--- others as well, but mostly Matt--- and I remember the enormous effort required even to hear what he said. I was so swamped by unmanageable emotions that I couldn’t feel a thing. It was like being at the bottom of the sea.” — 6 people liked it

“We are all bumbling along,side by side, week in, week out, our paths similar in some ways and different in others, all apparently running parallel. But parallel lines never meet.” — 5 people liked it

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