book data
1,475 ratings,
3.74
average rating, 269 reviews
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published
January 2003
(first published 2002)
by Dial Press Trade Paperback
binding
Paperback, 304 pages
literary awards
Books in Canada First Novel Award, McKitterick Prize.
isbn
0385337639
(isbn13: 9780385337632)
description
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...more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 1,990)
All ratings
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5 stars (277)
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4 stars (656)
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3 stars (429)
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2 stars (98)
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1 star (11)
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avg 3.74
editions: all | this edition
editions: all | this edition
Read in January, 2008
It's hard for me to say why I liked this book so much. I'd heard a lot of great things about it and, to be honest, that always leaves me skeptical. And the book club thing has the same effect. I'm not one for what I consider poor me stories and I was always on the verge of wondering if this was going to end up just another one of those.
It didn't. Not in my eyes, anyway.
I quite liked Kate, the protagonist, and I found her refreshingly strong throughout. The story told of h...more
It didn't. Not in my eyes, anyway.
I quite liked Kate, the protagonist, and I found her refreshingly strong throughout. The story told of h...more
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Read in June, 2004
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 ...more
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Read in March, 2009
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 s...more
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 s...more
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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 ...more
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Read in February, 2009
recommended to Poiema by:
http://ukrakovianki.blogspot.com/recommends it for: Wendell Berry, Mitford book fans
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 concl...more
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 concl...more
Read in November, 2007
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....
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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Read in March, 2009
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 ...more
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 ...more
Read in June, 2009
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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Read in May, 2009
You don’t have to have grown up in small town Ontario, Canada to appreciate Mary Lawson’s Crow Lake. But if you did, as I did, you’ll likely see reflections of your childhood in the story and recognize some iconic small town figures in the cast of characters.
Crow Lake is a vivid and sensitive portrayal of family love, sibling hero worship and the sometimes painful process of outgrowing our childhood illusions. Mary Lawson is a gifted storyteller in the old style but with a mod...more
Crow Lake is a vivid and sensitive portrayal of family love, sibling hero worship and the sometimes painful process of outgrowing our childhood illusions. Mary Lawson is a gifted storyteller in the old style but with a mod...more
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Ann recommended this. Very good. short and fast read but insightful. Picture of life in Northern Ontario about 30 years ago, but bringing storyup to present time. Characters are compelling, and seemed real to me. Betty
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Read in May, 2009
I have mixed feelings about this book. I loved the main message: that our expectations for another person's life don't really matter; how the person feels about his/her own life is what's important.
The story is about four northern Canadian children who were orphaned when their parents died in a car crash. The older brothers raise the younger sisters and, in the process, see their lives go in different directions than they'd planned. The main character was hard to empathize with, thou...more
The story is about four northern Canadian children who were orphaned when their parents died in a car crash. The older brothers raise the younger sisters and, in the process, see their lives go in different directions than they'd planned. The main character was hard to empathize with, thou...more
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Read in January, 2006
I read this a few years ago and picked it up at the library to refresh my memory. I was thinking it was OK when I read it. It had a lot of promise and was highly praised, but has turned out to be mostly forgettable. I liked the characters and wanted to journey with them. But the only one I could remember in any detail was Bo. Even halfway into a second read of the book, I had no idea where it was headed, while other books I read around the same time are vivid in my memory. I'm not sure what that...more
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Read in January, 2008
I enjoyed this book. The author seemed to understand how our parents shape us, not only when we are young, but throughout our lives.
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Read in April, 2009
Crow Lake is the story of families and tragedies, and how the way we react to and view the tragedies is often more central to our lives than the tragedies themselves. I found the characters in the book to be well rounded and real---I could see Mrs. Stanovich, laughed at Bo's antics, and revered Matt like the main character Kate did. But it was Kate herself that I liked most. Her stoicism and the walls she put up around her emotions seemed familiar to me, and the way emotion slipped in like wat...more
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Read in March, 2009
Always a little skeptical of the flashback as a story-telling device, I very much like the way it works here. The narrator is clearly struggling to come to terms with her past and the back and forth transitions are well executed. In a world where the prevailing opinion is that talking always helps, it was nice to meet a narrator steeped in silence but not brooding about it--not feeling or coming to feel that full, unadulterated disclosure to be a necessary or even desirable feature of a loving...more
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Read in January, 2009
This book began well, and ended well, and was very disappointing in the middle.
It is framed nicely by starting with lore of a great grandmother whose love of learning was so excessive that she built a book stand on her spinning wheel thing so that she could study as she delved into manual labor, which led her to sewing on the sabbath. As such, the tension between physical labors and labors of the mind and the ultimate divinity of purpose is passed down to all of her generations and so per...more
It is framed nicely by starting with lore of a great grandmother whose love of learning was so excessive that she built a book stand on her spinning wheel thing so that she could study as she delved into manual labor, which led her to sewing on the sabbath. As such, the tension between physical labors and labors of the mind and the ultimate divinity of purpose is passed down to all of her generations and so per...more
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Read in January, 2009
A quiet, beautiful, moving novel set in a remote small town in northern Canada. It's hard to describe how wonderful this book is - you really should read it! Wonderful descriptions of nature/landscape. The main character, Kate, is in her twenties as she narrates the novel, looking back at and coming to terms with her past. Her parents died in a car crash when Kate was young, and she and her baby sister were raised by their older brothers. Plenty of tragedy but also hope and beauty.
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Read in December, 2008
I read the first few chapters of this gripping book, and went way past my bedtime. Can't wait to get back to it. I picked it up from the library without knowing anything about it and already am hoping the author is prolific!
I finished this book in three days. That's some kind of post-children record for me. I can't remember the last time I devoured a book like this. I already got her next book from the library, but I'm so darn tired from staying up late three nights in a row tha...more
I finished this book in three days. That's some kind of post-children record for me. I can't remember the last time I devoured a book like this. I already got her next book from the library, but I'm so darn tired from staying up late three nights in a row tha...more
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I seem to be giving all my books 3 or 4 stars. What can I say? I read books I like. This book takes place in Canada and I loved the way everything about it felt cold and isolated. It's about a tragedy that takes place in a family and the consequences of that tragedy, short term and long term. It was meaningful to me because of the lesson the main character learned in the end. Good characters. May seem long at times, drawn out, but I think it is valuable to create the mood and lessons of ...more
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Read in May, 2007
I've probably had this book sitting around for about 3 years and finally picked it up to read. I wish I had taken so long as I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and will be looking for more novels by Mary Lawson.
From back cover:
"Set in the rough-hewn heart of the Canadian Shield, CROW LAKE brings us into the fold of the Morrisons, a family bound close by unexpected loss. Young Kate Morrison worships her elder brother Matt, whose passionate interest in the natural world i...more
From back cover:
"Set in the rough-hewn heart of the Canadian Shield, CROW LAKE brings us into the fold of the Morrisons, a family bound close by unexpected loss. Young Kate Morrison worships her elder brother Matt, whose passionate interest in the natural world i...more
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