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Road Ends
On a perfect August morning in 1967, above a river just outside a small town in the north of Canada, a young man meets his death. And so begins the unravelling of his best friend Tom's already precarious family. Eighteen months on, and the town of Struan is in the grip of winter. Still reeling from his friend's death, Tom has dropped out and spends his days driving a snow plough. His mother has yet another new baby and is nesting upstairs, increasingly lost in her own world. His father, Edward, retreats to his study and his diaries, unable to cope with his growing, unruly family. There are so many brothers in the house that Tom has almost lost count, but Adam, who is only four, somehow can't be ignored. Their one sister - capable, dependable, formidable Megan - who used to run the show, has escaped to London and is finally living her own life. But then come disturbing letters from home. In this masterful, enthralling, and tender novel, which takes us from the silver rush in Northern Ontario in the early 1900s to London in the 60s, Mary Lawson gently reveals the intricacies and anguish of family life, the push and pull of responsibility and individual desire, the way we can face tragedy and, in time, hope to start again.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published November 12, 2013
249 people are currently reading
6291 people want to read
About the author
Mary Lawson
12 books1,084 followersMary Lawson (born 1946) is a Canadian novelist.
Born in southwestern Ontario, she spent her childhood in Blackwell, Ontario (located between Sarnia and Brights Grove) 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 Ontario, has two grown up sons and now lives in Kingston-Upon-Thames, Surrey. Her three novels to date, both published by Knopf Canada were set in Northern Ontario.
Born in southwestern Ontario, she spent her childhood in Blackwell, Ontario (located between Sarnia and Brights Grove) 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 Ontario, has two grown up sons and now lives in Kingston-Upon-Thames, Surrey. Her three novels to date, both published by Knopf Canada were set in Northern Ontario.
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February 26, 2023
This was my first Mary Lawson book, and I was not disappointed. I love dark and depressing fiction, and this mostly fit that bill (I could have used an unhappier ending but oh well).
We follow a dysfunctional Canadian family living in a small town on the outskirts of society in the far north of Ontario. The story is told through 3 family members, the absentee father, Edward, who would rather read a book than deal with his family (we can all understand that lol), the depressed brother, Tom, who can't seem to get his life back on track, and our heroine, (surrogate mother, housekeeper, cook, etc) Meg, who leaves the family to fall apart and heads to England in search of her own life.
The story was fast-paced and kept me interested to the end. The characters were likable and relatable. Overall it was a very depressing and highly enjoyable read. Well done miss Lawson.
We follow a dysfunctional Canadian family living in a small town on the outskirts of society in the far north of Ontario. The story is told through 3 family members, the absentee father, Edward, who would rather read a book than deal with his family (we can all understand that lol), the depressed brother, Tom, who can't seem to get his life back on track, and our heroine, (surrogate mother, housekeeper, cook, etc) Meg, who leaves the family to fall apart and heads to England in search of her own life.
The story was fast-paced and kept me interested to the end. The characters were likable and relatable. Overall it was a very depressing and highly enjoyable read. Well done miss Lawson.
July 22, 2019
Very few writers can evoke the kind of atmosphere and emotions that Mary Lawson generates in this novel. Sparsely descriptive, we experience the locations in this novel directly through the senses, thoughts, and feelings of the characters.
This is a haunting novel, with the visitations of ‘ghosts’ of past, present, and future descending on various characters and culminating in each of them catching a glimpse of light that will lead them onward.
In less expert hands, this period of three years in the life of the Cartwright family could easily tip over into melodrama. Instead, guided by Mary Lawson’s skillful command of her art, this story arouses little sparks of recognition and waves of empathy and understanding.
To be clear, the ‘ghosts’ I mentioned have nothing to do with the supernatural – unless we can classify our own emotions under duress, dabbed with shame, flecked with bewilderment, and spattered with tiny layers of ‘what-if’s’ – into a slot labelled supernatural.
Reading this novel was such a moving experience for me because it touches on how we can so easily become snagged in unresolved regret and remorse from the past and how it can affect our present and future – particularly if we also indulge in unhealthy doses of “what-if”.
Although not cloaked in an aura of happy-ever-after, the ending of this novel is perfect from my perspective. I know there will be challenges and many more learning opportunities ahead for this family. And rightly so, for such is life and living. However, the gift I came away with was the knowledge that they could now move forward into the next chapters of their lives carrying far less weight.
This is a haunting novel, with the visitations of ‘ghosts’ of past, present, and future descending on various characters and culminating in each of them catching a glimpse of light that will lead them onward.
In less expert hands, this period of three years in the life of the Cartwright family could easily tip over into melodrama. Instead, guided by Mary Lawson’s skillful command of her art, this story arouses little sparks of recognition and waves of empathy and understanding.
To be clear, the ‘ghosts’ I mentioned have nothing to do with the supernatural – unless we can classify our own emotions under duress, dabbed with shame, flecked with bewilderment, and spattered with tiny layers of ‘what-if’s’ – into a slot labelled supernatural.
Reading this novel was such a moving experience for me because it touches on how we can so easily become snagged in unresolved regret and remorse from the past and how it can affect our present and future – particularly if we also indulge in unhealthy doses of “what-if”.
Although not cloaked in an aura of happy-ever-after, the ending of this novel is perfect from my perspective. I know there will be challenges and many more learning opportunities ahead for this family. And rightly so, for such is life and living. However, the gift I came away with was the knowledge that they could now move forward into the next chapters of their lives carrying far less weight.
May 4, 2014
4 ½ stars Lawson’s one of my favorites, she nails the typical Canadian novel – unsentimental, bit bleak, full of soul searching dysfunctional people coping as best they can, a rural setting taking centre stage. Her third novel and they’re all pretty great, a Lawson quote "I am in love with that landscape" - it shows...
"Everything monochrome, shades of white and grey. Snake fences tacking their way down the edges of the fields, every rung neatly capped with snow. Dark, snow-laden trees beyond the fields. Sky a flat and endless grey. All around him snow stretched pure and clean and untouched apart from the path of the snowplough, a scar across a perfect face."
With a spare style and complex characters she weaves a story that grips, love it for the same reason I love Southern lit. - snowbillies instead of hillbillies, the isolation of Canada's frozen north in lieu of steamy bayous. "The thermometer read 30 below zero. It was so still out there, so silent, it was as if the air itself was frozen. You felt it might crack at any moment and shower down around you in infinitesimal slivers of ice."
Told through 3 voices, Edward the father, eldest son Tom & only daughter Megan – guilt is the binding theme. Tom’s over his best friend’s suicide, Edward’s over marrying the wrong woman, Megan’s over leaving home and abandoning her little brothers to a mother who loses interest in them once they’ve outgrown the cuddly baby stage and a father locked away with his books and his regrets. A love / hate relationship with The Great White North, eloquently expressed by Tom’s experiences driving that snow-plough - a job he chooses to maintain a distance from people and pain.
Other than Megan who’s great and Adam, a stoic little soul who’s a heartbreaker they’re an unlikable bunch. Still, suspect you’ll warm up to them by books end.
Cons: The ending is abrupt and a tad too neat. The relief of some humour wouldn’t have hurt. Some might find it overly melodramatic – Fair enough, but I didn’t.
Megan on The Catcher in the Rye “Holden Caulfield the hero’s name was. She didn’t like him very much. He went on and on about everyone being phony, a wallower, she decided.”
"Everything monochrome, shades of white and grey. Snake fences tacking their way down the edges of the fields, every rung neatly capped with snow. Dark, snow-laden trees beyond the fields. Sky a flat and endless grey. All around him snow stretched pure and clean and untouched apart from the path of the snowplough, a scar across a perfect face."
With a spare style and complex characters she weaves a story that grips, love it for the same reason I love Southern lit. - snowbillies instead of hillbillies, the isolation of Canada's frozen north in lieu of steamy bayous. "The thermometer read 30 below zero. It was so still out there, so silent, it was as if the air itself was frozen. You felt it might crack at any moment and shower down around you in infinitesimal slivers of ice."
Told through 3 voices, Edward the father, eldest son Tom & only daughter Megan – guilt is the binding theme. Tom’s over his best friend’s suicide, Edward’s over marrying the wrong woman, Megan’s over leaving home and abandoning her little brothers to a mother who loses interest in them once they’ve outgrown the cuddly baby stage and a father locked away with his books and his regrets. A love / hate relationship with The Great White North, eloquently expressed by Tom’s experiences driving that snow-plough - a job he chooses to maintain a distance from people and pain.
Other than Megan who’s great and Adam, a stoic little soul who’s a heartbreaker they’re an unlikable bunch. Still, suspect you’ll warm up to them by books end.
Cons: The ending is abrupt and a tad too neat. The relief of some humour wouldn’t have hurt. Some might find it overly melodramatic – Fair enough, but I didn’t.
Megan on The Catcher in the Rye “Holden Caulfield the hero’s name was. She didn’t like him very much. He went on and on about everyone being phony, a wallower, she decided.”
May 7, 2014
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the opportunity to read this book.
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I wanted to read this book because Crow Lake was one of those books where the author takes you so completely to the place where the story lies and lets you climb inside the heads of her characters. I was not disappointed in Mary Lawson's latest novel.
In a small town in Canada we find a family in trouble. These sad, broken people are seriously falling apart. Emily, the mother seems not quite in tune with anything or anyone except her new born babies. Edward, the father eats dinner alone in his study and ignores what is happening in his home. The daughter Megan, the glue that holds this dysfunctional family together leaves for London to have a life of her own and the family falls apart before our eyes.
The book is comprised of alternating chapters starting with Megan as she is preparing to leave for London. Then next Edward, her father- trying to escape his past with an abusive father, immerses himself in books about cities of the world and laments his lost dream to travel the world . He appears to have nothing but disdain for his children. He closes his study door and shuts out his family. Tom, Megan's older brother in his narrative, also seems oblivious to what is happening in his family. He is trying to cope with the grief of losing a friend , whose death he feels responsible for and he too, shuts out what is happening in the house. In the meantime, his younger brothers run wild and the youngest, four year old Adam goes hungry and dirty.
The writing is clear and detailed and you are there in that cold . You are inside the heads of these three characters and you don't always like who they are. I was frustrated and pretty disgusted with Edward who didn’t see the household problem as his responsibility and with Tom, maybe a little less. He at least tried some of the time with little Adam. I found their chapters particularly difficult to read . Megan is a much more sympathetic character and I hoped that her journey would help her find her place.
This story is about the loss of dreams that have slipped away when life got in the way. It is about family ties and one’s sense of responsibility. It is about how grief and guilt can take away your humanity. However, in spite of their flaws, there are glimpses of humanity. I wanted it to end differently, but it really couldn’t have ended any other way.
Highly recommended – 4 stars.
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I wanted to read this book because Crow Lake was one of those books where the author takes you so completely to the place where the story lies and lets you climb inside the heads of her characters. I was not disappointed in Mary Lawson's latest novel.
In a small town in Canada we find a family in trouble. These sad, broken people are seriously falling apart. Emily, the mother seems not quite in tune with anything or anyone except her new born babies. Edward, the father eats dinner alone in his study and ignores what is happening in his home. The daughter Megan, the glue that holds this dysfunctional family together leaves for London to have a life of her own and the family falls apart before our eyes.
The book is comprised of alternating chapters starting with Megan as she is preparing to leave for London. Then next Edward, her father- trying to escape his past with an abusive father, immerses himself in books about cities of the world and laments his lost dream to travel the world . He appears to have nothing but disdain for his children. He closes his study door and shuts out his family. Tom, Megan's older brother in his narrative, also seems oblivious to what is happening in his family. He is trying to cope with the grief of losing a friend , whose death he feels responsible for and he too, shuts out what is happening in the house. In the meantime, his younger brothers run wild and the youngest, four year old Adam goes hungry and dirty.
The writing is clear and detailed and you are there in that cold . You are inside the heads of these three characters and you don't always like who they are. I was frustrated and pretty disgusted with Edward who didn’t see the household problem as his responsibility and with Tom, maybe a little less. He at least tried some of the time with little Adam. I found their chapters particularly difficult to read . Megan is a much more sympathetic character and I hoped that her journey would help her find her place.
This story is about the loss of dreams that have slipped away when life got in the way. It is about family ties and one’s sense of responsibility. It is about how grief and guilt can take away your humanity. However, in spite of their flaws, there are glimpses of humanity. I wanted it to end differently, but it really couldn’t have ended any other way.
Highly recommended – 4 stars.
April 3, 2024
Mary Lawson's Road Ends is a brilliantly layered novel about sacrifice, family relationships, and the weight of our responsibility to those we love.
Using the frozen Canadian winter landscape as a metaphor for how each of her protagonists is stuck, Lawson shows the inability of Tom to move forward, of Edward to involve himself in his family's life, and of Meg to assert her independence. She tells the story in chapters rotating the POV between these 3.
Lawson moves back and forth in time between 1966 and the present day of the story 1969. Meg, the oldest daughter, with 6 brothers under her dominion is the linchpin of the Cartwright family. He oldest brother is finishing his aeronautical degree, the twins enlist and leave home, and Adam is now 4 and able to do more for himself. At 21, Meg decides her mother should be able to cope with the domestic side of things with some weekly help so she heads to London to start life anew. A year later, Tom, the oldest brother, moves back home reeling from the suicide of a close friend. Edward, their father, has removed himself so completely from family life that he doesn't see that the cupboards are literally bare and that there is something seriously wrong with his wife. Wrapped into this obliviousness is his desire to distance himself from the likelihood of becoming like his father--a weak, explosive, and sometimes violent alcoholic.
Lawson tenderly portrays these characters with their flaws and struggles. Anyone who has ever grappled with doing the right thing for a family member will relate to them. How does one balance one's own needs with those of the family? And what is the right distance to put between yourself and your family?
"It was the distance between herself and home that bothered her. . . . she could see herself here in five years' time. In ten. Her family going on its way without her. Thinking of her less and less, as she would probably think of them less and less. . . . The emptiness inside her gradually filling with other things, other people. The word 'home' taking on a different meaning, so that when she went back to visit she would no longer belong there. She would no longer be the person she would have been if she'd stayed."
Lawson also points to inner growth. We all do things we aren't proud of, and we'll never know the full consequences of our actions. Would things have truly been different if we'd taken another course of action?
"You're never going to know . . . You're going to have to live with that. There's nothing you can do but face it, and accept it. That's all. Just let it be."
Megan, Tom, and Edward are at crisis points in their lives. Lawson weaves the threads of her story together in a complex and satisfying pattern. And while there are tragedies, Lawson leaves room for the light.
Lawson's prose shimmers; it is descriptive, yet economical and perfectly pairs with the story she is telling.
An added bonus is a brief mention of Arthur Dunn and the small roles that Bo and Luke Morrison play in this drama. I enjoy the appearance of these characters from her previous works.
Publication 2013
Using the frozen Canadian winter landscape as a metaphor for how each of her protagonists is stuck, Lawson shows the inability of Tom to move forward, of Edward to involve himself in his family's life, and of Meg to assert her independence. She tells the story in chapters rotating the POV between these 3.
Lawson moves back and forth in time between 1966 and the present day of the story 1969. Meg, the oldest daughter, with 6 brothers under her dominion is the linchpin of the Cartwright family. He oldest brother is finishing his aeronautical degree, the twins enlist and leave home, and Adam is now 4 and able to do more for himself. At 21, Meg decides her mother should be able to cope with the domestic side of things with some weekly help so she heads to London to start life anew. A year later, Tom, the oldest brother, moves back home reeling from the suicide of a close friend. Edward, their father, has removed himself so completely from family life that he doesn't see that the cupboards are literally bare and that there is something seriously wrong with his wife. Wrapped into this obliviousness is his desire to distance himself from the likelihood of becoming like his father--a weak, explosive, and sometimes violent alcoholic.
Lawson tenderly portrays these characters with their flaws and struggles. Anyone who has ever grappled with doing the right thing for a family member will relate to them. How does one balance one's own needs with those of the family? And what is the right distance to put between yourself and your family?
"It was the distance between herself and home that bothered her. . . . she could see herself here in five years' time. In ten. Her family going on its way without her. Thinking of her less and less, as she would probably think of them less and less. . . . The emptiness inside her gradually filling with other things, other people. The word 'home' taking on a different meaning, so that when she went back to visit she would no longer belong there. She would no longer be the person she would have been if she'd stayed."
Lawson also points to inner growth. We all do things we aren't proud of, and we'll never know the full consequences of our actions. Would things have truly been different if we'd taken another course of action?
"You're never going to know . . . You're going to have to live with that. There's nothing you can do but face it, and accept it. That's all. Just let it be."
Megan, Tom, and Edward are at crisis points in their lives. Lawson weaves the threads of her story together in a complex and satisfying pattern. And while there are tragedies, Lawson leaves room for the light.
Lawson's prose shimmers; it is descriptive, yet economical and perfectly pairs with the story she is telling.
An added bonus is a brief mention of Arthur Dunn and the small roles that Bo and Luke Morrison play in this drama. I enjoy the appearance of these characters from her previous works.
Publication 2013
January 11, 2022
Mary Lawson has wowed me again in this, her third book and my third book of hers. It's very hard for an author to make each book a work of art, just ask any writer who has written a second novel after the first is well received. Yet Mary Lawson seems to do it effortlessly, combining imperfect, flawed characters making difficult choices with a harsh northern Ontarian setting.
Why is it so hard to do the right thing? How do you live with yourself if you don't, or can't? That seems to be a theme in her fiction, and certainly in this book. You can read the basic plot in the GR description, so I'll just tell you that the three characters whose point of view is shared with us made my heart hurt. And little 4 year old Adam ripped it out of my chest.
"There is a law of nature--or at any rate of human nature--that says you should never, ever, allow yourself to think for a single minute that things are finally getting better because Fate just won't be able to resist cutting you off at the knees."
"The dreams of the young. They are particularly tragic, it seems to me, because they are based on the assumption that you control your own destiny."
Lest you think this is a depressing book, I assure you it is not. Despite the two quotes above, the beautiful thing here is that the characters keep trying. Not just to make their own way through the world, but to help each other as well. There are a lot of good people out there just trying to keep their heads above water, mentally as well as physically.
I was surprised and happy to see Luke and Bo Morrison from Crow Lake make a reappearance here as peripheral characters. I love it when an author does that.
I'll share one more quote before I go, simply because it made me laugh. The father is talking to the sheriff about some trouble his boys have gotten into. "Your sons are young and they're male and that means they're stupid, it doesn't mean they're criminals." I think the female sex could be included in that remark too.
Why is it so hard to do the right thing? How do you live with yourself if you don't, or can't? That seems to be a theme in her fiction, and certainly in this book. You can read the basic plot in the GR description, so I'll just tell you that the three characters whose point of view is shared with us made my heart hurt. And little 4 year old Adam ripped it out of my chest.
"There is a law of nature--or at any rate of human nature--that says you should never, ever, allow yourself to think for a single minute that things are finally getting better because Fate just won't be able to resist cutting you off at the knees."
"The dreams of the young. They are particularly tragic, it seems to me, because they are based on the assumption that you control your own destiny."
Lest you think this is a depressing book, I assure you it is not. Despite the two quotes above, the beautiful thing here is that the characters keep trying. Not just to make their own way through the world, but to help each other as well. There are a lot of good people out there just trying to keep their heads above water, mentally as well as physically.
I was surprised and happy to see Luke and Bo Morrison from Crow Lake make a reappearance here as peripheral characters. I love it when an author does that.
I'll share one more quote before I go, simply because it made me laugh. The father is talking to the sheriff about some trouble his boys have gotten into. "Your sons are young and they're male and that means they're stupid, it doesn't mean they're criminals." I think the female sex could be included in that remark too.
January 9, 2024
This is Mary Lawson's third novel and the fourth of hers I have read. This was one of the saddest and most depressing novels I have ever read, certainly of hers. A totally dysfunctional family only held together by Meg, the only girl with seven brothers (minus one who died young, and of course the disappearing second youngest who vanishes once the new baby is born for some reason).
Beautifully written as all her books are, the description of the cold North of Ontario as vivid as ever, the town of Struan is located just down the road from Crow Lake. But being the only fully functional person keeping a family together takes its toll, so Meghan takes off for London to meet a friend, see the world and leave her family behind, which is not as easy to do as she thought or hoped.
Not a pleasant read, but amazing nonetheless. 3.5 stars.
Beautifully written as all her books are, the description of the cold North of Ontario as vivid as ever, the town of Struan is located just down the road from Crow Lake. But being the only fully functional person keeping a family together takes its toll, so Meghan takes off for London to meet a friend, see the world and leave her family behind, which is not as easy to do as she thought or hoped.
Not a pleasant read, but amazing nonetheless. 3.5 stars.
July 8, 2014
For the first part of this book, I found myself shaking my head, trying to direct character's actions ands begging some of them to please open their eyes. Then I realized Lawson had hooked me again, made the characters so realistic that I felt like I knew them and could offer them advice. Families, large families, all families at times so incredibly complicated.
My impatience lessened somewhat, in the second half, as we are taken further into their backstories. My sympathy remained with little Adam, only four, and the inability of the adults in his family to notice and take care of him. Sympathized with Megan, the only girl in a
family with many boys, and her efforts, after years of taking care of them all, to forge a life for herself. When does ones own needs trump duty and responsibility? How does one get over the past and come to terms with the present and take charge of their own future? These are some of the questions the characters in this novel must solve.
Lawson has the amazing ability of taking the reader fully into a time and place, in the case a made up town, Straun in Northern, Canada. The snow, the coldness all serve to highlight the neglect going on within a family that to all outward appearances is considered a fine one. Uncovering the layers that make up the many different people in this family, the reader gets acquainted with all of them. Lawson's characterizations are superb. She takes us fully into very scene, every anguish and at the ends finds a resolution that makes sense.
I highly recommend this wonderful, heartfelt story.
ARC from publisher.
My impatience lessened somewhat, in the second half, as we are taken further into their backstories. My sympathy remained with little Adam, only four, and the inability of the adults in his family to notice and take care of him. Sympathized with Megan, the only girl in a
family with many boys, and her efforts, after years of taking care of them all, to forge a life for herself. When does ones own needs trump duty and responsibility? How does one get over the past and come to terms with the present and take charge of their own future? These are some of the questions the characters in this novel must solve.
Lawson has the amazing ability of taking the reader fully into a time and place, in the case a made up town, Straun in Northern, Canada. The snow, the coldness all serve to highlight the neglect going on within a family that to all outward appearances is considered a fine one. Uncovering the layers that make up the many different people in this family, the reader gets acquainted with all of them. Lawson's characterizations are superb. She takes us fully into very scene, every anguish and at the ends finds a resolution that makes sense.
I highly recommend this wonderful, heartfelt story.
ARC from publisher.
August 7, 2022
A beautiful novel ….
….my 4th go-around with — a very favorite Canadian author!
Mary Lawson is sooooo gifted —- soooo wonderful!
I’m ALWAYS drawn into her stories—enmeshed with her characters—the family dynamics—deeply felt trials and tribulations —
and the remoteness of the Ontario small towns.
I had mixed feelings about the ending in this book — one of those type endings where I understood it so we’ll — yet my heart ached —
EVERY SINGLE BOOK BY MARY DAWSON feels sooooo REAL TO ME!!!!
Heartbreaking human stories….
I highly recommend this book and every book I’ve read by Mary Lawson…
……..where her characters are genuine and their responses authentic.
….my 4th go-around with — a very favorite Canadian author!
Mary Lawson is sooooo gifted —- soooo wonderful!
I’m ALWAYS drawn into her stories—enmeshed with her characters—the family dynamics—deeply felt trials and tribulations —
and the remoteness of the Ontario small towns.
I had mixed feelings about the ending in this book — one of those type endings where I understood it so we’ll — yet my heart ached —
EVERY SINGLE BOOK BY MARY DAWSON feels sooooo REAL TO ME!!!!
Heartbreaking human stories….
I highly recommend this book and every book I’ve read by Mary Lawson…
……..where her characters are genuine and their responses authentic.
August 16, 2014
***3.5 Stars*** This very enjoyable story is narrated by 3 different members of the Cartwright family…all beautifully drawn but flawed characters. Edward, the father of 8 children, is a remote and reluctantly married figure constantly isolated in his study in order to disassociate from his family. Tom, the eldest son, abandoned his dreams of becoming an aeronautical engineer after the suicide death of his best friend and he now runs the town’s snowplow. And finally there’s Meg, the only daughter and the glue that held this family together. She struggles with her role as the family caretaker and eventually escapes to England to make a life of her own.
Upon Meg’s departure, the family (already in trouble) and the household begin to completely unravel. The author skillfully depicts their failure to cope with the absence of Meg as well as the family’s efforts to come to terms with their many heartbreaks, demons and damaged personal relationships. I did puzzle over the behavior of the mother, Emily. She did not seem to be as fully realized as the others in the story and remained an enigma for me even in the end.
I rated this novel ½ star below Crow Lake because that book was still too fresh on my mind to avoid making comparisons. Both novels are set in northern Ontario and depict large and struggling families. Even so, I was so enamored with the Morrison family from Crow Lake that the Cartwright family paled somewhat by comparison. I did enjoy the reappearance of Luke and Bo Morrison from that story. Since Kate and Matt were the main characters in Crow Lake, I was delighted to see these two siblings more fleshed out and tied into this book.
I received a free copy of this book for an honest review through the Goodreads giveaway.
Upon Meg’s departure, the family (already in trouble) and the household begin to completely unravel. The author skillfully depicts their failure to cope with the absence of Meg as well as the family’s efforts to come to terms with their many heartbreaks, demons and damaged personal relationships. I did puzzle over the behavior of the mother, Emily. She did not seem to be as fully realized as the others in the story and remained an enigma for me even in the end.
I rated this novel ½ star below Crow Lake because that book was still too fresh on my mind to avoid making comparisons. Both novels are set in northern Ontario and depict large and struggling families. Even so, I was so enamored with the Morrison family from Crow Lake that the Cartwright family paled somewhat by comparison. I did enjoy the reappearance of Luke and Bo Morrison from that story. Since Kate and Matt were the main characters in Crow Lake, I was delighted to see these two siblings more fleshed out and tied into this book.
I received a free copy of this book for an honest review through the Goodreads giveaway.
July 5, 2014
The setting is the tiny fictional town of Straun, Ontario. It is the dead of winter, and there is something amiss in the Cartwright household. Although Mother and Father and grown son are on the premises, there is not a responsible adult between the three of them. After years of efficiently managing the home and mothering her seven brothers, big sister Megan has finally left and moved to London to start her own life. Things fall to pieces in her absence.
'Some of the most important decisions in life are made when we are too young to have any idea of the consequences.' Truer words were never spoken. It is profoundly evidenced in the marriage of Edward and Emily Cartwright. This is the story of the fallout of a family without a leader and it is heartbreaking and disturbing. I like bleak tales, and this one has it to the letter.
This is my first outing with this author. Anyone who can write characters this vividly is someone I want to read again. This was a First-reads giveaway, thank you. A compelling read.
'Some of the most important decisions in life are made when we are too young to have any idea of the consequences.' Truer words were never spoken. It is profoundly evidenced in the marriage of Edward and Emily Cartwright. This is the story of the fallout of a family without a leader and it is heartbreaking and disturbing. I like bleak tales, and this one has it to the letter.
This is my first outing with this author. Anyone who can write characters this vividly is someone I want to read again. This was a First-reads giveaway, thank you. A compelling read.
October 24, 2017
3.5 stars. I so wanted to love this book but somehow it just didn`t touch me like her previous 2 books. It was all there, but I just felt like I was on the fringes of the story and didn`t really feel a connection to the characters. I still love Mary Lawson`s writing and will definitely continue to read whatever else she writes, but for me this was a disappointment.
March 30, 2014
Road Ends by Mary Larson is set in Struan a fictional town in the North of Canada and revels the story of the intricacies and anguish of family life and how we face tragedy and the pull of responsibilities of family life.
I liked this novel but couldn't help wishing that I had read the author's first novel called Crow Lake and while Road Ends is a standalone novel there was references in the story that probably made more sense if you had read the first novel by this author. I have been told that there is a great sense of time and place from her first novel and wonderful descriptions of Canada.
The writing is strong and I love reading books set in Canada and I liked the descriptions of Canada in the grip of Winter and I loved reading about the dysfunctional Cartwright family. The story is told from three of the family's prospectives and the chapters flow between several years of these characters lives.
I would have liked a little more drama in the story which would have spiced up the novel but its a nice easy read and I may read her first two novels as they have got great reviews.
I liked this novel but couldn't help wishing that I had read the author's first novel called Crow Lake and while Road Ends is a standalone novel there was references in the story that probably made more sense if you had read the first novel by this author. I have been told that there is a great sense of time and place from her first novel and wonderful descriptions of Canada.
The writing is strong and I love reading books set in Canada and I liked the descriptions of Canada in the grip of Winter and I loved reading about the dysfunctional Cartwright family. The story is told from three of the family's prospectives and the chapters flow between several years of these characters lives.
I would have liked a little more drama in the story which would have spiced up the novel but its a nice easy read and I may read her first two novels as they have got great reviews.
March 1, 2023
This book is set within the snowy backdrop of a Canadian winter and London in the swinging sixties.
The Cartwright family are a large notable family in the small town, the father is a manager of the town’s only bank. As yet another baby is born, the structure of the family starts to crumble. The father shut in his study oblivious to the chaos, the mother obsessively watching over the newborn, the oldest son Tom, struggling to help and to hold his life together after a friend’s death. Meanwhile, the daughter, Megan, tries to find a life in London, away from the ties and demands of this large family.
This is heart wrenching at times but the characters felt feel to me and I genuinely felt pulled along by the story.
The author vividly captures the feel of a small town, the snowstorms and sense of isolation. Beautifully written.
I’m am also very please to find out Lawson has written two other books 👍.
The Cartwright family are a large notable family in the small town, the father is a manager of the town’s only bank. As yet another baby is born, the structure of the family starts to crumble. The father shut in his study oblivious to the chaos, the mother obsessively watching over the newborn, the oldest son Tom, struggling to help and to hold his life together after a friend’s death. Meanwhile, the daughter, Megan, tries to find a life in London, away from the ties and demands of this large family.
This is heart wrenching at times but the characters felt feel to me and I genuinely felt pulled along by the story.
The author vividly captures the feel of a small town, the snowstorms and sense of isolation. Beautifully written.
I’m am also very please to find out Lawson has written two other books 👍.
July 14, 2014
This is an amazing novel. I don't know how Mary Lawson's work passed me by. Her writing is so textured, her characters so developed, and the plot so poignant. I read this book in one day, staying up half the night to finish it. It is that good.
The novel is written in three voices: Megan, Tom, and Edward. Megan is the only daughter in a family of eight sons who live in northern Ontario in a small town called Struan. Megan's mother is barely functional and she lives solely to have more children. She loses herself in infants, ignoring the children once they pass the infancy stage. The house is in disarray except for Megan, who keeps things functioning. Megan, however, has decided to leave Struan and go to London. She is tired of keeping house and watching children. She wants a life for herself. Once she leaves, the house will fall to pieces.
Tom is Megan's older brother. He is in a state of despair and angst. His best friend, Robert, has committed suicide and Tom, who had his sights set on becoming an aeronautical engineer, is now living at home and running a snow plow. He does his best to isolate himself and keep away from other people. He is unable to converse and is stuck in the depression and pain of wishing he had done something to stop Robert from taking his life.
Edward is the father of the household. A bank manager by trade, he is very successful at work. However, at home, he hides in his office and does nothing to help the household or tend to his children. Sometimes he finds himself angry at his sons and this scares him as it reminds him of his abusive father. Edward's life is deeply repressed. He comes from a horribly abusive background with a raging alcoholic as a father and has learned nothing about parenting. He also is not in love with his wife. He married her impulsively and now feels stuck in a life that does not feel like his own.
Megan finds a great job in England and puts her organizing skills to work. However, she often worries about her family back home. As time passes, she feels more and more alienated from them, while at the same time wishing she were closer. She vows never to return to Straun.
Told during a three year period, this novel goes back and forth in time in the different voices of the three main characters. Each of them is scared, stuck in a life that they feel is not meant for them. The only one who has any hope of successfully thriving is Megan.
This is a book to be treasured and re-read. The writing is excellent, I never wanted to put it down, and it is literary fiction at its best. I am sure to get Mary Lawson's other books and read them as soon as I can.
The novel is written in three voices: Megan, Tom, and Edward. Megan is the only daughter in a family of eight sons who live in northern Ontario in a small town called Struan. Megan's mother is barely functional and she lives solely to have more children. She loses herself in infants, ignoring the children once they pass the infancy stage. The house is in disarray except for Megan, who keeps things functioning. Megan, however, has decided to leave Struan and go to London. She is tired of keeping house and watching children. She wants a life for herself. Once she leaves, the house will fall to pieces.
Tom is Megan's older brother. He is in a state of despair and angst. His best friend, Robert, has committed suicide and Tom, who had his sights set on becoming an aeronautical engineer, is now living at home and running a snow plow. He does his best to isolate himself and keep away from other people. He is unable to converse and is stuck in the depression and pain of wishing he had done something to stop Robert from taking his life.
Edward is the father of the household. A bank manager by trade, he is very successful at work. However, at home, he hides in his office and does nothing to help the household or tend to his children. Sometimes he finds himself angry at his sons and this scares him as it reminds him of his abusive father. Edward's life is deeply repressed. He comes from a horribly abusive background with a raging alcoholic as a father and has learned nothing about parenting. He also is not in love with his wife. He married her impulsively and now feels stuck in a life that does not feel like his own.
Megan finds a great job in England and puts her organizing skills to work. However, she often worries about her family back home. As time passes, she feels more and more alienated from them, while at the same time wishing she were closer. She vows never to return to Straun.
Told during a three year period, this novel goes back and forth in time in the different voices of the three main characters. Each of them is scared, stuck in a life that they feel is not meant for them. The only one who has any hope of successfully thriving is Megan.
This is a book to be treasured and re-read. The writing is excellent, I never wanted to put it down, and it is literary fiction at its best. I am sure to get Mary Lawson's other books and read them as soon as I can.
October 23, 2015
Mary Lawson’s third novel focuses on the Cartwright family: parents and eight children. It is narrated from three perspectives: Edward, the father; Tom, the eldest son; and Megan, the only daughter. Edward, the town’s bank manager, hides in his study reading about cities he dreams of visiting and ignoring the family that is disintegrating around him. Tom, in the depths of a guilt-ridden depression because of the death of a friend, has abandoned his career as an aeronautical engineer and seeks only solitude. Megan, after looking after the family for 15 years, escapes to England.
Each of the three protagonists has a conflict between duty and dreams. Edward is in a marriage which has brought him children he did not want; he wants to see the world but has to remain an armchair traveler. Unfortunately, because he isolates himself in his study, his children flounder, especially since his wife/their mother is increasingly unfocused and forgetful. Tom had dreams but an unexpected death derails him and now he wants only peace which becomes more difficult to find in the chaos that overtakes the family. Megan wants to start her own life after years of taking responsibility for the family and succeeds in making her way in London, but her family is never far from her thoughts. It is a conflict experienced by many: wanting, because of love and a sense of duty, to do the right thing and wanting, with a great sense of guilt, to escape the sacrifices required by that love and duty: “How are you supposed to stop loving someone you love” (231)? One of the characters comments, “Love was not an idea; you couldn’t choose to get it or not get it any more than you could choose to catch or not catch flu” (268).
One of the strengths of the novel is characterization. All of the protagonists are flawed. At times they become oblivious to the needs of others because they are driven by concerns of their own. For Megan, “leaving home, living her own life, that mattered” (16). For Tom, peace is paramount: “This was exactly what he’d been afraid of, the way one thing led to another, the way you got sucked into things, the way your painstakingly, designed routine . . . all in solitude, solitude above all, could be shot to hell and you’d be in it up to your neck, you’d have no control over anything, there’d be no end to it, no peace, and he couldn’t handle it, he just couldn’t handle it” (43 – 44). Edward retreats to his study and its books because he wants to broaden his “very narrow life” (192).
Nonetheless, none of the three is totally heartless. Megan may seem selfish at times, but she looked after her family for 15 years - even her father acknowledges, “’I dare say you’ve earned [your freedom]’” (16) – and her family is never far from her mind. Tom wants no one “making any demands on him” (151), but he is unable to disregard the distress of his brother Adam. Even the self-absorbed Edward is humanized when the reader comes to understand that he has struggles of his own and that he is capable of compassion and forgiveness. This detailed and realistic portrayal of characters cannot but draw in the reader.
I live in the part of northeastern Ontario in which Lawson has set all her novels, and I can attest to the fact that her descriptions are accurate. A review in the National Post stated it perfectly: “[Lawson] can justifiably lay claim to an oeuvre as well as a personal geography. If the part of Ontario west of Toronto is [Alice] Munro country, then the area northwest of New Liskeard and Cobalt — where her fictional towns of Struan and Crow Lake are roughly located — may well end up being dubbed Lawson Country” (http://arts.nationalpost.com/2013/11/...).
As the title Road Ends suggests, a sadness permeates the book and, indeed, more than one character faces grief and loss, but that does not mean there is no hope offered. Again, more than one character comes to realize that one road may end but there is another that can be taken.
I loved Lawson previous books, Crow Lake and The Other Side of the Bridge, and I loved this one as well. I found myself totally enthralled. It is a beautifully written story of duty, sacrifice and family love which will remain with the reader for a long time.
Please check out my reader's blog (http://schatjesshelves.blogspot.ca/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski).
Each of the three protagonists has a conflict between duty and dreams. Edward is in a marriage which has brought him children he did not want; he wants to see the world but has to remain an armchair traveler. Unfortunately, because he isolates himself in his study, his children flounder, especially since his wife/their mother is increasingly unfocused and forgetful. Tom had dreams but an unexpected death derails him and now he wants only peace which becomes more difficult to find in the chaos that overtakes the family. Megan wants to start her own life after years of taking responsibility for the family and succeeds in making her way in London, but her family is never far from her thoughts. It is a conflict experienced by many: wanting, because of love and a sense of duty, to do the right thing and wanting, with a great sense of guilt, to escape the sacrifices required by that love and duty: “How are you supposed to stop loving someone you love” (231)? One of the characters comments, “Love was not an idea; you couldn’t choose to get it or not get it any more than you could choose to catch or not catch flu” (268).
One of the strengths of the novel is characterization. All of the protagonists are flawed. At times they become oblivious to the needs of others because they are driven by concerns of their own. For Megan, “leaving home, living her own life, that mattered” (16). For Tom, peace is paramount: “This was exactly what he’d been afraid of, the way one thing led to another, the way you got sucked into things, the way your painstakingly, designed routine . . . all in solitude, solitude above all, could be shot to hell and you’d be in it up to your neck, you’d have no control over anything, there’d be no end to it, no peace, and he couldn’t handle it, he just couldn’t handle it” (43 – 44). Edward retreats to his study and its books because he wants to broaden his “very narrow life” (192).
Nonetheless, none of the three is totally heartless. Megan may seem selfish at times, but she looked after her family for 15 years - even her father acknowledges, “’I dare say you’ve earned [your freedom]’” (16) – and her family is never far from her mind. Tom wants no one “making any demands on him” (151), but he is unable to disregard the distress of his brother Adam. Even the self-absorbed Edward is humanized when the reader comes to understand that he has struggles of his own and that he is capable of compassion and forgiveness. This detailed and realistic portrayal of characters cannot but draw in the reader.
I live in the part of northeastern Ontario in which Lawson has set all her novels, and I can attest to the fact that her descriptions are accurate. A review in the National Post stated it perfectly: “[Lawson] can justifiably lay claim to an oeuvre as well as a personal geography. If the part of Ontario west of Toronto is [Alice] Munro country, then the area northwest of New Liskeard and Cobalt — where her fictional towns of Struan and Crow Lake are roughly located — may well end up being dubbed Lawson Country” (http://arts.nationalpost.com/2013/11/...).
As the title Road Ends suggests, a sadness permeates the book and, indeed, more than one character faces grief and loss, but that does not mean there is no hope offered. Again, more than one character comes to realize that one road may end but there is another that can be taken.
I loved Lawson previous books, Crow Lake and The Other Side of the Bridge, and I loved this one as well. I found myself totally enthralled. It is a beautifully written story of duty, sacrifice and family love which will remain with the reader for a long time.
Please check out my reader's blog (http://schatjesshelves.blogspot.ca/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski).
July 29, 2014
I want to give this book more stars, because the author is clearly talented and I would like to read more of her work before judging her completely. However, this particular book enraged me.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
I spent a very large part of the time it took to read this book angry at the lack of depth given to the female characters, and the fact that their very purpose in the storylines seems solely to add drama and fill the empty bits of the male characters' POV chapters.
I find it odd that the author spends very little time examining Emily's bizarre lack of parenting skills and then tidily sums it up in the end to early onset dementia...but that would not explain why she behaved the same way with each of her other newborns.
Additionally, why even bother including women in Tom's storyline if they exist solely to annoy him, be viewed as basically worthless stupid sluts as is the case with the girl who is supposed to be cleaning the house, or be there as ornamentation and something to look at?
Megan's storyline is just horrendous. She doesn't pursue any opportunities because she has been relied on by her adult parents to run their household in their stead. She finally escapes, makes a life she loves, only to come home and settle and take on the parenting of her siblings with very little development of her feelings or discussion in the of the sacrifice she's making. Why can't the two adult men in the home take care of the housework and the children? Why is Tom calling his sister back from her life, rather than trying to figure out how to properly help his family, which as an adult he is more than capable of? Or talking to his father and telling him to wake up and take care of the children he carelessly fathered with a woman he married but doesn't love or care enough for to notice that she has dementia? Because newsflash: not wanting kids but then willingly fathering nine of them doesn't give you the right to force your daughter to do it. Why does the author even take the time to show us that the father is somewhat aware and guilty about the state of his household, but then never take the opportunity to develop the character and make him grow up?
It's utterly misogynistic in my opinion that the three generations of females in this book give up their happiness in service to the males and it is never even truly questioned.
I also feel that none of the stories in this book were ever even remotely satisfyingly resolved and it is driving me crazy.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
I spent a very large part of the time it took to read this book angry at the lack of depth given to the female characters, and the fact that their very purpose in the storylines seems solely to add drama and fill the empty bits of the male characters' POV chapters.
I find it odd that the author spends very little time examining Emily's bizarre lack of parenting skills and then tidily sums it up in the end to early onset dementia...but that would not explain why she behaved the same way with each of her other newborns.
Additionally, why even bother including women in Tom's storyline if they exist solely to annoy him, be viewed as basically worthless stupid sluts as is the case with the girl who is supposed to be cleaning the house, or be there as ornamentation and something to look at?
Megan's storyline is just horrendous. She doesn't pursue any opportunities because she has been relied on by her adult parents to run their household in their stead. She finally escapes, makes a life she loves, only to come home and settle and take on the parenting of her siblings with very little development of her feelings or discussion in the of the sacrifice she's making. Why can't the two adult men in the home take care of the housework and the children? Why is Tom calling his sister back from her life, rather than trying to figure out how to properly help his family, which as an adult he is more than capable of? Or talking to his father and telling him to wake up and take care of the children he carelessly fathered with a woman he married but doesn't love or care enough for to notice that she has dementia? Because newsflash: not wanting kids but then willingly fathering nine of them doesn't give you the right to force your daughter to do it. Why does the author even take the time to show us that the father is somewhat aware and guilty about the state of his household, but then never take the opportunity to develop the character and make him grow up?
It's utterly misogynistic in my opinion that the three generations of females in this book give up their happiness in service to the males and it is never even truly questioned.
I also feel that none of the stories in this book were ever even remotely satisfyingly resolved and it is driving me crazy.
February 25, 2021
(Nearly 4.5) Contrasting rural Canada and London in the 1960s, Lawson’s third novel is a powerful story about how people deal with a way of life ending. She creates a perfect balance between her two plot strands, and the evocation of both locations is flawless, perhaps because they have autobiographical worth for her – she grew up on a farm in Ontario but moved to England in 1968. One remarkable thing about the novel is how she traces every decision back to a traumatic event in a character’s past.
The vision of London in the Swinging Sixties is reminiscent of Nick Hornby’s Funny Girl, but the novel as a whole is more like the works of Marilynne Robinson and Anne Tyler – a quiet, deceptively simple story about the threads of ambition and affection that run through families. I’m eager to read Lawson’s other novels, especially Crow Lake.
The vision of London in the Swinging Sixties is reminiscent of Nick Hornby’s Funny Girl, but the novel as a whole is more like the works of Marilynne Robinson and Anne Tyler – a quiet, deceptively simple story about the threads of ambition and affection that run through families. I’m eager to read Lawson’s other novels, especially Crow Lake.
March 26, 2020
WOW. Not only have I discovered a new favorite, 5-star book, but I now have another 'go-to' author in Mary Lawson. Fantastic writing, great family drama, and a realistic Canadian setting are just a few of the things that made this one great. I KNOW that I have found one of those rare novels that I'll read + re-read again + again over time; one I'm glad to have a physical copy of that will live on my shelf at home, cherished.--Jen from Quebec :0)
September 20, 2014
Megan Cartwright leaves her parents and numerous brothers (I lost count) to find a new life in England. Her new life isn't at all what she expected, at least not until opportunity knocks. Her family is not the same without her amazing organizational skills, and they soon realize that the mother of the clan basically just wants to have and care for babies. Mother is steadily slipping away--absolutely gaga over babies and clueless about everything else. The oldest, Tom, has already slipped off mentally following a tragedy in his life for which he blames himself. He is the only one paying any attention, though, to the huggable little four year old Adam after Megan's departure. The father cannot cope with all these kids he never wanted in the first place. And in Canada's frozen North, it just snows and snows and snows. Had I read this during our own recent winter from hell, I probably would have thrown it against the wall.
It's a rather depressing situation, but certainly does have its redeeming qualities. For one, the writing flows effortlessly. The family is well drawn, plus Lawson throws in some of the good people from her book, Crows Lake. By the end things do look up for most family members, and it's an enjoyable read.
It's a rather depressing situation, but certainly does have its redeeming qualities. For one, the writing flows effortlessly. The family is well drawn, plus Lawson throws in some of the good people from her book, Crows Lake. By the end things do look up for most family members, and it's an enjoyable read.
April 9, 2021
Love Mary Lawson’s writing. This one takes you to an emotive place where you want the best for the characters, but you just know it’s not going to happen for them all.... 4.5⭐️
September 1, 2022
I do like Mary Lawson's writing! For those who haven't come across her think cold north of Canada and deep insights into family lives. This one is not my favourite of her books but it was still an excellent read. The story is written from three perspectives. Meghan who is the daughter of the family and who looks after everyone else while her mother has yet another child. Tom the eldest son who's best friend committed suicide and is still trying to come to terms with it. The third voice is Edward's the father. The local bank manager who has no real interest in his growing family or so it seems. Indeed looking back I think that Edward's story was the most powerful in many ways as well as being the most complex and I enjoyed it. I also loved Meg's story too. Excellent writing from an excellent writer.
March 23, 2019
Loved this book. A cozy, easy to read, flowing story about a large family living through the harsh winters in Northern Ontario. Based almost entirely in the late 1960's it primarily focuses on 3 members of the family, the Father (written in 1st person) the eldest Brother (3rd person) and eldest (only) Sister (also 3rd person).
Mary Lawson does an incredibly smooth job of telling the story while bouncing around through the characters perspectives.
Part of the story skips over to England, but this does not distract from its cozyness. A wonderful winter read.
Mary Lawson does an incredibly smooth job of telling the story while bouncing around through the characters perspectives.
Part of the story skips over to England, but this does not distract from its cozyness. A wonderful winter read.
April 16, 2016
This is a story about a whole family of people at the end of their roads—afraid of their own thoughts, mired in dysfunction, unable to communicate with each other or anybody else. Yet there's unexpected humor (imagine a Canadian Long Day's Journey into Night with laughs!). Lawson's creation of place—a fictional town in snow-blanketed Northern Ontario, Canada, and London, England, in the 1960s—is stunning and visceral. Chapters alternate between first person and third; the father of the family speaks for himself and the text is so good it could work as a theater monologue; some chapters are third-person narratives; yet there's never a bump in transitions; the changes are organic and they flow. All the members of this big family are in some sense aliens, and their understated psychology is deep and impeccable (Lawson is a psychologist). This is a book for anybody who has tried, longed to try but never done it, or believed they could run away from their dysfunctional background—only to discover that they carry it within.
I loved the writing, soaked it in, laughed, ached, and although I've never lived these events, they felt so familiar and intimate I almost can't write about them. I will read more of Mary Lawson's books and I thank Goodreader friends for telling me about her work.
I loved the writing, soaked it in, laughed, ached, and although I've never lived these events, they felt so familiar and intimate I almost can't write about them. I will read more of Mary Lawson's books and I thank Goodreader friends for telling me about her work.
November 3, 2024
First of all, before reviewing this wonderful 5 star book, I'm going to shed a few bitter tears as I've finished reading all four Mary Lawson books that exist! Sniffity sniff!
Every one of the books (Crow Lake, A Town Called Solace, The Other Side of the Bridge, and Road Ends) has been a treasure for many reasons! The characters alone are so deeply delved into that I almost became some of them in my mind. In addition, I've become a resident of fictional Struan, Ontario, Canada through these 4 books. I'm attached to its isolated beauty, the flora and fauna around its lake, and the traditional farming or logging lives of its inhabitants. I'm familiar with the struggles of each family member as they try to connect or separate from each other, held back by generational family trauma mostly related to angry/violent fathers. And I've become accustomed to the flowy, literary writing from this author. It's kind of spoiling me for the next book.
Plot-wise, two of the books are more of a slow boil, and the other two simmer along until they toss us right into the fire and burn us to a crisp. "Road Ends" is of the latter, however we do start the book with a terrible event forward in time and then criss-cross back and forth across time and into the points of view of three major characters: Tom, Meg and Edward, their father.
Tom is the eldest son of a large family whose mother keeps churning out babies and completely ignores any of her other children beyond babyhood. He is brilliant (a recurring theme with the author) and should be off working as an aeronautical engineer. (See Crow Lake where the elder brother is also brilliant in biology and is never able to study in his field.) However, a tragic event presented in the beginning of the book causes him to become detached from all other humans, turning into a recluse, and keeps him in his tiny town as a snowplow driver. He selects this job purposely to avoid human contact as much as possible.
Meg is the only girl in the family and becomes the de facto mom because someone has to take care of all the others. She is extremely burdened because her mom, as I've mentioned above, is baby obsessed. Furthermore, the dad Edward is another recluse who hides out in his study reading books about ancient Rome, etc. to avoid having to deal with his ever increasing family. Later in the book Meg makes an unexpected move which I'll leave to the reader to find out about WHEN, not if, you read "Road Ends".
All of the alternating POV chapters are in the 3rd person other than BIG SURPRISE...Edward, the dad! You'd think that Edward would be the least likely to be a good candidate for first person narrative because he is sooooo unsympathetic to all the rest of the family. Most of the time I just wanted to bop Edward over the head and scream at him "GO TALK TO YOUR FAMILY! YOUR CHILDREN NEEEEEEED YOU! STOP BEING SOOOOOO SELFISH!" However, by getting inside Edward's head, you're able to really find out why he is how he is. You realize that he's a victim of circumstances and other people just as his children are. It's absolutely brilliant how the author draws the reader into Edward's inner world and shares the roots of all the plot twists. You can tell by my overinvolvement with the book how enthralling it was.
Here are a few bits and pieces from the book to whet your appetite:
They passed mile upon mile of ugly blackened brick buildings, all jammed up against each other like rotting teeth...
It came to Tom suddenly that his mother didn't actually care for her children very much once they passed the baby stage. It was just babies she liked. Maybe that was why she kept having more.
My advice to you is to read one or all of these four Mary Lawson books. If you're only going to read one, maybe choose "Crow Lake" so you can be amazed at how a debut novel can be this perfect! But then go on to read them all like I did, so we can sit and snuffle together.
Every one of the books (Crow Lake, A Town Called Solace, The Other Side of the Bridge, and Road Ends) has been a treasure for many reasons! The characters alone are so deeply delved into that I almost became some of them in my mind. In addition, I've become a resident of fictional Struan, Ontario, Canada through these 4 books. I'm attached to its isolated beauty, the flora and fauna around its lake, and the traditional farming or logging lives of its inhabitants. I'm familiar with the struggles of each family member as they try to connect or separate from each other, held back by generational family trauma mostly related to angry/violent fathers. And I've become accustomed to the flowy, literary writing from this author. It's kind of spoiling me for the next book.
Plot-wise, two of the books are more of a slow boil, and the other two simmer along until they toss us right into the fire and burn us to a crisp. "Road Ends" is of the latter, however we do start the book with a terrible event forward in time and then criss-cross back and forth across time and into the points of view of three major characters: Tom, Meg and Edward, their father.
Tom is the eldest son of a large family whose mother keeps churning out babies and completely ignores any of her other children beyond babyhood. He is brilliant (a recurring theme with the author) and should be off working as an aeronautical engineer. (See Crow Lake where the elder brother is also brilliant in biology and is never able to study in his field.) However, a tragic event presented in the beginning of the book causes him to become detached from all other humans, turning into a recluse, and keeps him in his tiny town as a snowplow driver. He selects this job purposely to avoid human contact as much as possible.
Meg is the only girl in the family and becomes the de facto mom because someone has to take care of all the others. She is extremely burdened because her mom, as I've mentioned above, is baby obsessed. Furthermore, the dad Edward is another recluse who hides out in his study reading books about ancient Rome, etc. to avoid having to deal with his ever increasing family. Later in the book Meg makes an unexpected move which I'll leave to the reader to find out about WHEN, not if, you read "Road Ends".
All of the alternating POV chapters are in the 3rd person other than BIG SURPRISE...Edward, the dad! You'd think that Edward would be the least likely to be a good candidate for first person narrative because he is sooooo unsympathetic to all the rest of the family. Most of the time I just wanted to bop Edward over the head and scream at him "GO TALK TO YOUR FAMILY! YOUR CHILDREN NEEEEEEED YOU! STOP BEING SOOOOOO SELFISH!" However, by getting inside Edward's head, you're able to really find out why he is how he is. You realize that he's a victim of circumstances and other people just as his children are. It's absolutely brilliant how the author draws the reader into Edward's inner world and shares the roots of all the plot twists. You can tell by my overinvolvement with the book how enthralling it was.
Here are a few bits and pieces from the book to whet your appetite:
They passed mile upon mile of ugly blackened brick buildings, all jammed up against each other like rotting teeth...
It came to Tom suddenly that his mother didn't actually care for her children very much once they passed the baby stage. It was just babies she liked. Maybe that was why she kept having more.
My advice to you is to read one or all of these four Mary Lawson books. If you're only going to read one, maybe choose "Crow Lake" so you can be amazed at how a debut novel can be this perfect! But then go on to read them all like I did, so we can sit and snuffle together.
June 8, 2014
Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
So goes the opening line of Anna Karenina. But it could as easily apply to the Cartwright family – seven living sons and one daughter in the fictional town of Struan, near Crow Lake, in the backwoods of northern Ontario at the end of the 1960s.
The narrative shifts between three family members – patriarch Edward (written in the first person), who is curiously absent from his family life; Tom, the eldest son and drifter, who abandons a promising career in aeronautical engineering after the suicide of his best friend; and Megan, the foundation of the family, who finally escapes from voluntary servitude to a life in London.
The choice of Edward as a first person narrator is deliberate; he holds the key to the disintegration of the family as he struggles with his past, diving into his mother’s diaries and calling forth memories of an abusive father. All three of these characters are struggling to reach (or escape) from their potential, but the focus of the book is Megan, whose story is that of every woman who strives to redefine her role – indeed, to redefine herself – as the consequences of her departure echo throughout her family.
“If you kept walking south and east eventually you would hit civilization; if you kept walking north and west you would hit Crow Lake, where the road comes to an end,” one character muses. It’s a fine metaphor for the Cartwrights, who, in some essential ways, have come to the end of the road and who are muddling forth to find direction.
As in Mary Lawson’s past novels, the writing is beautifully authentic…the themes of family loyalty and personal sacrifice versus freedom and self-actualization are convincingly rendered…and the characters are achingly real. The reader does more than enter this fictional world; he or she ends up inhabiting it.
So goes the opening line of Anna Karenina. But it could as easily apply to the Cartwright family – seven living sons and one daughter in the fictional town of Struan, near Crow Lake, in the backwoods of northern Ontario at the end of the 1960s.
The narrative shifts between three family members – patriarch Edward (written in the first person), who is curiously absent from his family life; Tom, the eldest son and drifter, who abandons a promising career in aeronautical engineering after the suicide of his best friend; and Megan, the foundation of the family, who finally escapes from voluntary servitude to a life in London.
The choice of Edward as a first person narrator is deliberate; he holds the key to the disintegration of the family as he struggles with his past, diving into his mother’s diaries and calling forth memories of an abusive father. All three of these characters are struggling to reach (or escape) from their potential, but the focus of the book is Megan, whose story is that of every woman who strives to redefine her role – indeed, to redefine herself – as the consequences of her departure echo throughout her family.
“If you kept walking south and east eventually you would hit civilization; if you kept walking north and west you would hit Crow Lake, where the road comes to an end,” one character muses. It’s a fine metaphor for the Cartwrights, who, in some essential ways, have come to the end of the road and who are muddling forth to find direction.
As in Mary Lawson’s past novels, the writing is beautifully authentic…the themes of family loyalty and personal sacrifice versus freedom and self-actualization are convincingly rendered…and the characters are achingly real. The reader does more than enter this fictional world; he or she ends up inhabiting it.
December 18, 2013
Maybe I expected too much, having so enjoyed the first two Mary Lawson books immensely, but Road Ends did not work consistently for me. The problem lies in the characters: most of the family members whose lives are the focus of this novel are highly dysfunctional, so much so that they seem like caricatures. The one "normal" person in the group, the daughter, Megan, is incredibly naive. Such extreme people make it difficult for the reader to relate to or believe them.
Some portions of the novel transcended this problem, however. I really liked Megan's relationship with her housemate, Andrew; and I especially enjoyed meeting two characters from Crow Lake who enter the plot of Road Ends many years later. Luke and Bo are delightfully and refreshingly ordinary.
Lawson tells a good story which could have been so much better with characters pitched less at the extreme end of the spectrum. I would give it 3.5 stars.
Some portions of the novel transcended this problem, however. I really liked Megan's relationship with her housemate, Andrew; and I especially enjoyed meeting two characters from Crow Lake who enter the plot of Road Ends many years later. Luke and Bo are delightfully and refreshingly ordinary.
Lawson tells a good story which could have been so much better with characters pitched less at the extreme end of the spectrum. I would give it 3.5 stars.
July 19, 2017
I remembered reading Lawson's Crow Lake, and remembered it fondly, though the story itself and any of its details had long gone the way of things tucked into dark corners of my brain. As I read this, however, it became apparent that this was set in the same region of "The North" and that perhaps, just perhaps, there were some of the same characters. Now that I've finished this one, I looked back at the description of that one and, sure enough, Lawson has drawn from the same well. This one takes place - mostly - about 30 years later. I also took a moment to look at her The Other Side of the Bridge. Characters apparently featured in that one get at least a passing mention in this one.
Lawson's prose is comfortable - neither too challenging, nor too simple. The characterization is only adequate, but the characters themselves are interesting enough given what we know of them. Others may find this predictable, and certainly the ending itself was no surprise. There are a couple of characters for whom I have hopes. I will look forward to Lawson's next novel, to she if she indulges those hopes.
Even with all of that, this bears no resemblance to a series in the true sense and there is surely no need to read them in any order. Each will stand on its own merits. I will look for the one I haven't yet read.
Lawson's prose is comfortable - neither too challenging, nor too simple. The characterization is only adequate, but the characters themselves are interesting enough given what we know of them. Others may find this predictable, and certainly the ending itself was no surprise. There are a couple of characters for whom I have hopes. I will look forward to Lawson's next novel, to she if she indulges those hopes.
Even with all of that, this bears no resemblance to a series in the true sense and there is surely no need to read them in any order. Each will stand on its own merits. I will look for the one I haven't yet read.
March 23, 2015
It is always a pleasure to start reading a book by Mary Lawson. She takes you to small town Ontario, Canada and her focus is always on the people. In this book there are 3 main characters: Edward, the Dad, who feels trapped in his current life and is searching for answers in his past; Tom, the eldest son, who had a brilliant career ahead of him and also the chance of escape from small town Struan, until a tragedy struck; Megan, the eldest daughter, who after being the surrogate mother for so many years, does start a new life in London, England.
A family in crisis- this book is about ordinary people dealing with their lives and the tragedies that befall them. It is about coming to terms with your hopes and desires and learning to move forward. The ending was a bit too neat, otherwise overall, a very good read.
A family in crisis- this book is about ordinary people dealing with their lives and the tragedies that befall them. It is about coming to terms with your hopes and desires and learning to move forward. The ending was a bit too neat, otherwise overall, a very good read.
December 18, 2020
I decided to re-read "Road Ends" during this Corona Christmas season, and it was even better the second time around. This completes my re-reading of all three Lawson novels during the pandemic: "comfort reading"! Luckily she has a new novel coming out early next year! I've got it on pre-order! My 2015 review still stands:
I ABSOLUTELY LOVED this novel. (I've already ordered her other two novels and can't wait to read them.)
I heard Anne Tyler recommend this book when she was on NPR last month and immediately ordered it. Well, it is just wonderfully written and the characters beautifully drawn. Mary Lawson is like a combination of Maeve Binchey, Anne Tyler, and Antonya Nelson...all wonderful writers of "family" stories.
I hated this one to end and I wasn't ready to let these people leave my life!
I ABSOLUTELY LOVED this novel. (I've already ordered her other two novels and can't wait to read them.)
I heard Anne Tyler recommend this book when she was on NPR last month and immediately ordered it. Well, it is just wonderfully written and the characters beautifully drawn. Mary Lawson is like a combination of Maeve Binchey, Anne Tyler, and Antonya Nelson...all wonderful writers of "family" stories.
I hated this one to end and I wasn't ready to let these people leave my life!
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