I liked this book for many reasons. It has humor. It covers widely varied topics, all of which I found interesting. Sibling rivalry. Parents’ attachments to their children…. and let’s admit it, we do not respond identically to each child. How do we / should we choose what we want to do with our lives? I mean what job we ultimately choose. Do we choose, or is it fate that decides for us? Are we destined for a certain occupation, given our particular personality? And what is the value of a job? Must we all be academics? The book is set in Canada during WW2, this too was interesting! stars — All the metaphors I kept thinking up to describe this evoked some variation of "warmth" - ironic for a novel set in the chilly wilderness of Northern Ontario. A warm piece of homemade pie you wish could last at least another dozen bites. The warmth of a hug from a special friend that neither one of you wants to pull away from too soon. A warm, cozy fire around which local legends are told. author Mary Lawson excels at writing realistic fiction! When four siblings are suddenly left orphaned, her slow-burn story shows how these children coped, and how their community rallied around them; Janni Visman's Sex Education takes one strand of Accidents and makes a whole novel of it, showing two girls, Maddy and Selina, from pre-school best-friendship through adolescence, mutual young singlehood and maturity, at least in the case of Maddy. Selina couldn't exactly be said to be mature, though she is the one determined, in the most cutting way, to do everything first.

Crow Lake Summary and Study Guide | SuperSummary Crow Lake Summary and Study Guide | SuperSummary

The Crow Lake community opened its arms wide to the Morrison children after their parents were killed. How does this generosity conflict with the community’s collective reaction to Laurie Pye’s disappearance? Why is this? 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. I’m afraid I’m going to sound like a broken record when I say how much I really LOVE this book. Recently I’ve had a good run with a few books that are absolutely terrific….I really liked this book. I love Kate’s voice, as a child and as an adult. Every character is sufficiently developed that I felt as though I knew them well and that I would immediately recognize them if I ever met any of them. I thought the family relationships and the psychology of each character were presented in an authentic and believable way. The writing is lovely too. No complaints about any of the above.

Crow Lake by Mary Lawson - January Magazine Reviews | Crow Lake by Mary Lawson - January Magazine

The whole of the spectacular Accidents in the Home - rich, lush and intricate as an Oriental rug - is poised on an excruciating tension about what matters in life: the 'real small accidental things' that alter it, as the tiniest mutations in cells can do, or 'the shimmering yielding fabric of opportunity and love'.She loved the new baby...but her love seemed to consists mainly of an agonized anxiety. Arthur would see her looking at Jake with an expression almost of despair, as if she expected him to vanish at any moment." It was like a drink of cool water in the desert and being eaten alive by army ants, both at the same time." Intensity of feeling is not beyond her at all, but merely deeply repressed, a survival mechanism for coping with massive grief (but also a living out of the Morrison family edict: "Thou Shalt Not Emote"). This repression and its steep, life-sapping cost is familiar to so many of us who grew up with families where tightlipped reserve was the norm.