Book Reviews and Quotes
Crow Lake: "Crow Lake … is
a remarkable novel, utterly gripping and yet highly literate,
written in such a fresh, believable voice that I had to keep
reminding myself that this was fiction. I read it in a single
sitting (almost unheard of!), then I read it again, just
for the pleasure of it. I await her next work with eagerness
(and a little envy)."
—Joanne Harris,
author of Chocolat
Crow
Lake: "“I
didn’t read Crow Lake so much as I fell in love with
it. This is one beautiful book."
—David Macfarlane, author
of Summer Gone
Crow
Lake: "Within
days you'll see people reading Crow Lake in odd places
as they take quick breaks from the business of their lives.
You'll also hear people say 'I stayed up all night reading
this book by Mary Lawson.' Mary Lawson, Mary Lawson. Remember
the name."
—Terry Rigelhof, The Globe and Mail
Crow
Lake: "Lawson
delivers a potent combination of powerful character writing
and gorgeous description of the land. Her sense of pace
and timing is impeccable throughout, and she uses dangerous
winter weather brilliantly to increase the tension as
the family battles to survive. This is a vibrant, resonant
novel by a talented writer whose lyrical, evocative
writing invites comparisons to Rick Bass and Richard
Ford."
—Publishers Weekly
Crow
Lake: "Every
detail in this beautifully written novel rings true, the
characters so solid we almost feel their flesh. Bo must
be one of the most vividly realized infants in recent
literature. Lawson creates a community without ever
giving in to the Leacockian impulse to poke fun at small-town
ways, instead showing respect to lives shaped by hard
work and starved for physical comfort. The adult Kate's
alienation from Crow Lake is initially difficult to
accept, for everything in Kate's life, including her
career in science, reflects the values of her formative
years on the farm. Soon, though, her crippling guilt
becomes the mystery that draws the reader on. First-time
novelist Lawson was born in a small Ontario farming
community and moved to England in 1968. The time away
has given her vision a stunning clarity."
—Maureen Garvie, Quill and Quire starred review
Crow
Lake: "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 the
reader's consciousness long after the last page is turned."
—Amazon.co.uk
Crow
Lake: "Critics
are raving about…Crow Lake, a tightly plotted page-turner
about sibling love, murder, and invertebrate zoology in
rural Ontario, set in the 1950s and '60s."
—Judy Stoffman,
The Toronto Star
Crow
Lake: "Lawson
achieves a breathless anticipatory quality in her surprisingly
adept first novel, in which a child tells the story,
but tells it very well indeed."
—Danise Hoover, Booklist
Crow
Lake: "Crow
Lake mesmerizes. … Crow Lake may be one of the
loveliest novels you almost ever read."
—The Telegram
Crow
Lake: "Crow
Lake [is] superb, elegant…. Lawson is a brilliant storyteller;
she takes her time in laying the foundation of her tale
and layering on the complexities. She's also an elegant
stylist; her prose is lyrically thoughtful…. The depth,
honesty and feeling throughout are superbly wrought. Crow
Lake
is a wondrous thing - it's a new Canadian classic."
—The
Hamilton Spectator
Crow Lake: "The assurance with which Mary
Lawson handles both reflection and violence makes her a
writer to read and watch….. Peripheral
portraits are skillfully drawn. Pot-banging Bo, with her
minimal vocabulary of mostly shouted words, speaks to the
heart without a scrap of sentimentality. The combative Cranes,
unusual among fictional academics, are funny without being
ridiculous and square off over the tablecloth with intelligence
intact….
Most impressive are the nuanced and un-self-conscious zoological
metaphors that thread through the text."
—The New York
Times
Crow
Lake: "Beautifully
written, carefully balanced, Mary Lawson constructs a history
of sacrifice, emotional isolation and family love without
sounding a false note or a showy sentence."
—Elizabeth Buchan,
Daily Mail (UK)
