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Rédemption
Dans la veine des films de James Gray ou des romans de Dennis Lehane, Rédemption marque les formidables débuts d'un jeune auteur canadien. Matt Lennox explore dans ce roman d'une beauté sombre et puissante les secrets d'une petite ville enfermée dans ses préjugés. Après dix-sept années passées dans une prison de haute sécurité, Leland King revient dans sa ville natale de l'Ontario, où sa mère est en train de mourir.
Quel crime a-t-il commis pour avoir été aussi longtemps privé de liberté ? Pete, son neveu, né pendant sa détention, l'ignore et ne s'en soucie guère. Mais, dans ce patelin où l'on ne vénère que Dieu et la loi, il est bien le seul : personne n'a vraiment pardonné à Leland son passé criminel. Surtout pas Stan Maitland, un flic à la retraite, qui ne peut s'empêcher de voir un lien entre le retour du "hors-la-loi" et la récente découverte du cadavre d'une jeune femme dans une voiture abandonnée...
Il faudra bien, un jour ou l'autre, que Pete affronte la terrible vérité.
Quel crime a-t-il commis pour avoir été aussi longtemps privé de liberté ? Pete, son neveu, né pendant sa détention, l'ignore et ne s'en soucie guère. Mais, dans ce patelin où l'on ne vénère que Dieu et la loi, il est bien le seul : personne n'a vraiment pardonné à Leland son passé criminel. Surtout pas Stan Maitland, un flic à la retraite, qui ne peut s'empêcher de voir un lien entre le retour du "hors-la-loi" et la récente découverte du cadavre d'une jeune femme dans une voiture abandonnée...
Il faudra bien, un jour ou l'autre, que Pete affronte la terrible vérité.
411 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
3 people are currently reading
113 people want to read
About the author
Matt Lennox
8 books6 followersMatt Lennox is a Captain in the Canadian Forces Army Reserves, and was stationed in Kandahar between 2008 and 2009. He wrote many of the stories in his first collection, Men of Salt, Men of Earth, published by Oberon in 2009, while there. The collection was shortlisted for the 2010 ReLit award, and the title story was published in Best Canadian Stories in 2006. He is currently in his second year of an MFA at Guelph-Humber.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
January 5, 2013
Wow, this is some book, great start of the year for me. This book got to me from page one up until the end. Raw, dark, intense, personal, great story, great characters, wonderful strong debut by this Canadian writer.
In short, it's a story in the 1980's in a small bleak Ontario town. Leland King is returning from prison to his home town after doing time for a heavy crime. His mother is dying, and he is trying to connect with his family again. His young nephew Pete has quit school and works at a gas station and is trying to find his way in life... Another character, Stan, a retired cop, is investigating the death of a young woman. In the end, it's all connected...
I recommend this one.
In short, it's a story in the 1980's in a small bleak Ontario town. Leland King is returning from prison to his home town after doing time for a heavy crime. His mother is dying, and he is trying to connect with his family again. His young nephew Pete has quit school and works at a gas station and is trying to find his way in life... Another character, Stan, a retired cop, is investigating the death of a young woman. In the end, it's all connected...
I recommend this one.
July 23, 2014
It's never easy to write a review about a book written by somebody you know, but, with that being said, I'll still attempt to. Lennox writes with a Cormac-McCarthy-esque spareness, purposefully keeping emotion tight and trim, which lends itself well to letting the reader taste the darkness that is unfolding all around the main male character. It, however, leaves some key characters and moments hard to empathize with - if we, the readers, aren't given an emotional peephole into people's actions or feelings, it can be alienating.
One of my main problems with this book is the lack of believable female characters - again, it's one of my quibbles with McCarthy, too, as well as Hemingway (writers that Lennox's writing reminds me of.) We are presented with the trope of the Madonna-whore, seen in our unattainable 17 year old girl and the brash, brassy, busty, crude waitress. After reading this, I actually said out loud "Why can't Leland have a good woman in his life? They exist, you know." Putting that aside, the book has a good plot, but drags remarkably in some crucial areas where it should not, in fact, drag at all, and yet also glosses over some key bits where a little fleshing out of emotion wouldn't hurt at all. Read this if you want to dip your toes into 1980s Canadiana McCarthy-lite.
One of my main problems with this book is the lack of believable female characters - again, it's one of my quibbles with McCarthy, too, as well as Hemingway (writers that Lennox's writing reminds me of.) We are presented with the trope of the Madonna-whore, seen in our unattainable 17 year old girl and the brash, brassy, busty, crude waitress. After reading this, I actually said out loud "Why can't Leland have a good woman in his life? They exist, you know." Putting that aside, the book has a good plot, but drags remarkably in some crucial areas where it should not, in fact, drag at all, and yet also glosses over some key bits where a little fleshing out of emotion wouldn't hurt at all. Read this if you want to dip your toes into 1980s Canadiana McCarthy-lite.
January 4, 2016
19oct12 - wow. that hurt. this book is a raw, hard gut-punch. i will be seeing/meeting lennox in two days, as part of the IFOA - international festival of authors - running in toronto. i am trying to think of the place he was writing from with this story. and i am having a bit of an ache in my heart that this depth of emotional pain is familiar (for very different reasons) and sorry that someone else (many other someones) is (are) sitting with this experience and knowledge. there are relatable moments and then utterly unrelatable moments that make me appreciate the storytelling going on here. that lennox can pull a reader into such unfamiliar territory yet have her understand the choices being made and the frame of mind of the characters is amazing. i'll be thinking about this book and the people within for a long time, i suspect.
sept12 - received my personalized copy from matt today - via michael & caroline!! YAY!!!
may12 - so, turns out my cousin michael's very good friend wrote this book and i had no idea this was the same 'matt lennox'!! DOH! so excited for matt who has been getting great, great reviews.
sept12 - received my personalized copy from matt today - via michael & caroline!! YAY!!!
may12 - so, turns out my cousin michael's very good friend wrote this book and i had no idea this was the same 'matt lennox'!! DOH! so excited for matt who has been getting great, great reviews.
January 24, 2014
Matt Lennox has created a social geography that is familiar and yet distant. His spare style tends almost to the noir at times and the psychological insights stand out in stark relief. His is a novel of rejection and redemption and reality and well worth the read.
September 18, 2012
Intense. Well written, and good twists to a great story.
March 5, 2013
How I Came To Read This Book: A copy if it mysteriously showed up in my mailbox. I read it so I could review it and give another copy away through my blog.
The Plot: Leland King has just served 17 years of hard time, and is returning to his hometown - the very place where his unspeakable crime was committed - to be with his dying mother. In that same town we meet Lee's nephew, a high school dropout named Pete that seems to have his head on straighter than most of the folks around him (except of course when it comes to girls). We also meet a retired police officer named Stan Maitland - the very same man that drove Lee to prison all those years ago, and also forms a tie to Pete as the story ploughs forward. Each of these primary characters has a storyline that intertwines with the other. Lee's is about his dreams of redemption and the neverending hurdles to get there. Pete's is about figuring out what he really wants to do with his life. And Stan's is about not entirely being able to let go of his path - whether it's the grief he feels over his departed wife or the intrigue of an apparent suicide he happens to stumble upon. The past definitely plays a part in all three men's storylines, leading up to two rather dramatic moments for Pete and Lee in particular.
The Good & The Bad: Despite me giving this book 2 stars, it's actually an immensely readable book. Because here's the thing. I respect Matt Lennox as a writer. This is his debut novel, and I have every bit of faith he'll crank out some other great titles. Much has been made of his sparse, utilitarian approach to writing - earning him Hemingway comparisons - and it's definitely a refreshing change of pace from some of the more flowery titles I've read in the last while. Honestly, you feel no word is wasted, even when entering descriptive sections. And yet Lennox still lets your imagination fill in a lot of the blanks, which is an impressive feat for a very black & white writer.
So why the 2? I guess the book just wasn't really my cup of tea. I felt my heart quicken when I got to one of more action-packed sequences of the book (it reminded me a lot of the Joseph Gordon-Levitt film 'The Lookout' crossed with 'Fargo'), but while Lennox did a fab job of writing those sections, I suspect that wasn't really what I was supposed to take away from the book. The whole thing took awhile to get off the ground, although admittedly the passage of time and actions in the book's plot was quite elegantly done. Things that people said and did felt like they were said and done with intent and realism, and I could see the shift in the characters and their various plots (save for Stan, really) by the time we got to the end. And yet, and yet...the plot just didn't really take hold of me as much as I would've liked. I have all the respect in the world for how breezily Lennox made his book to read, and the realistic characters and conflicting emotions toward each of the protagonists was all fabulous...but it really just wasn't a book I was super enamoured with, personally. That's not to say I wouldn't pass it along to someone else to read. Just not for me.
The Bottom Line: A very well-written book by a very promising author that just wasn't very enthralling for me, personally.
Anything Memorable: Nope
65-Book Challenge?: Book #10 in 2013
The Plot: Leland King has just served 17 years of hard time, and is returning to his hometown - the very place where his unspeakable crime was committed - to be with his dying mother. In that same town we meet Lee's nephew, a high school dropout named Pete that seems to have his head on straighter than most of the folks around him (except of course when it comes to girls). We also meet a retired police officer named Stan Maitland - the very same man that drove Lee to prison all those years ago, and also forms a tie to Pete as the story ploughs forward. Each of these primary characters has a storyline that intertwines with the other. Lee's is about his dreams of redemption and the neverending hurdles to get there. Pete's is about figuring out what he really wants to do with his life. And Stan's is about not entirely being able to let go of his path - whether it's the grief he feels over his departed wife or the intrigue of an apparent suicide he happens to stumble upon. The past definitely plays a part in all three men's storylines, leading up to two rather dramatic moments for Pete and Lee in particular.
The Good & The Bad: Despite me giving this book 2 stars, it's actually an immensely readable book. Because here's the thing. I respect Matt Lennox as a writer. This is his debut novel, and I have every bit of faith he'll crank out some other great titles. Much has been made of his sparse, utilitarian approach to writing - earning him Hemingway comparisons - and it's definitely a refreshing change of pace from some of the more flowery titles I've read in the last while. Honestly, you feel no word is wasted, even when entering descriptive sections. And yet Lennox still lets your imagination fill in a lot of the blanks, which is an impressive feat for a very black & white writer.
So why the 2? I guess the book just wasn't really my cup of tea. I felt my heart quicken when I got to one of more action-packed sequences of the book (it reminded me a lot of the Joseph Gordon-Levitt film 'The Lookout' crossed with 'Fargo'), but while Lennox did a fab job of writing those sections, I suspect that wasn't really what I was supposed to take away from the book. The whole thing took awhile to get off the ground, although admittedly the passage of time and actions in the book's plot was quite elegantly done. Things that people said and did felt like they were said and done with intent and realism, and I could see the shift in the characters and their various plots (save for Stan, really) by the time we got to the end. And yet, and yet...the plot just didn't really take hold of me as much as I would've liked. I have all the respect in the world for how breezily Lennox made his book to read, and the realistic characters and conflicting emotions toward each of the protagonists was all fabulous...but it really just wasn't a book I was super enamoured with, personally. That's not to say I wouldn't pass it along to someone else to read. Just not for me.
The Bottom Line: A very well-written book by a very promising author that just wasn't very enthralling for me, personally.
Anything Memorable: Nope
65-Book Challenge?: Book #10 in 2013
June 7, 2014
Leland King rentre chez lui après 17 ans de prison. Sa mère est mourante, sa sœur a épousé un pasteur complètement bigot, son neveu de 17 ans a quitté le lycée pour travailler. Un vieux policier à la retraite en mal de sensations fortes est troublé par le suicide d'une jeune femme dont il a bien connu la famille. Jusque là, rien à voir, quoique...Leland reprend une vie à peu près normale mais semble ne pas y croire lui-même, son neveu Peter lui est rapidement très attaché, et ignore le crime commis par son oncle, car personne n'en parle ni ne l'évoque. La bigoterie ambiante entretient le silence et le secret, on parle de la bible plutôt que de la vie réelle. Le personnage de Leland est d'une grande froideur, il m'a paru inerte, vide, sans épaisseur, il vit sa vie, semble reconnaissant à son beau-frère de l'avoir soutenu et guidé vers la "spiritualité", mais il n'a pas d'opinion, tranchée, Leland est plus proche du mouton indifférent que du repris de justice rebelle, car à première vue, il rentre un peu trop dans le rang. Les autres personnages tiennent un peu mieux la route, mais dans l'ensemble, si l'histoire se lit bien, il m'a manqué un gros je ne sais quoi qui aurait pu rendre Leland et sa famille un poil plus sympathique.
June 15, 2012
This was more than a 3 star, but not quite a 4 star, but 4 seemed to fit better than 3, I think.
The plot was really interesting, the characters were intriguing, and I really wanted the best for Lee once he was out of prison. The family dynamic was weird (which I'd imagine is realistic in that situation), and the book slowly tells the backstory.
What drove me crazy about this one was the punctuation...I know, I know, it's acceptable, but I prefer quotation marks when people are speaking, instead of like this:
- It is really hot out today, said Lee
WHAT is that?? Was it SO HARD to put quotation marks in there instead of the dash??
Anyway, there are also parts of the plot completely left unresolved, or the resolution is "nobody will know for sure what happened" - well, YES, the author knows, but didn't know how to round out the story. Part of the plot was just to introduce characters to the storyline, except it was done like a sub-plot/mystery added to the book and it was never fully realized.
Still, all in all, it was pretty decent, I enjoyed it, it was hovering between a 3 and 4 star for me.
The plot was really interesting, the characters were intriguing, and I really wanted the best for Lee once he was out of prison. The family dynamic was weird (which I'd imagine is realistic in that situation), and the book slowly tells the backstory.
What drove me crazy about this one was the punctuation...I know, I know, it's acceptable, but I prefer quotation marks when people are speaking, instead of like this:
- It is really hot out today, said Lee
WHAT is that?? Was it SO HARD to put quotation marks in there instead of the dash??
Anyway, there are also parts of the plot completely left unresolved, or the resolution is "nobody will know for sure what happened" - well, YES, the author knows, but didn't know how to round out the story. Part of the plot was just to introduce characters to the storyline, except it was done like a sub-plot/mystery added to the book and it was never fully realized.
Still, all in all, it was pretty decent, I enjoyed it, it was hovering between a 3 and 4 star for me.
December 28, 2014
I really enjoyed this book. The story is a familiar one (Lee King returns to his hometown in search of redemption and betterment), and local characters (some from his past and some new) help and hinder him in his progress while the drama of their own lives unfold. The book sets up a few mysteries that made this a classic page turner for me. I wanted to know the answers to the questions posed at the start, and the ending did not disappoint. The various separate stories came together by the end in a very exciting and highly satisfactory way. This is an example of smart story plotting.
There were one or two scenes that seemed too conveniently placed, their only purpose being to elicit an emotional reaction from characters or the reader, but this is a very minor criticism and these scenes were as wonderfully written as all the others so they were still very enjoyable.
The writing itself is pitch perfect: sparse and precise. It wonderfully evokes small town Ontario in the 1980s - the story's setting - and the characters' dialogue adds another layer of understanding for the reader.
This is a great book, I highly recommend it!
There were one or two scenes that seemed too conveniently placed, their only purpose being to elicit an emotional reaction from characters or the reader, but this is a very minor criticism and these scenes were as wonderfully written as all the others so they were still very enjoyable.
The writing itself is pitch perfect: sparse and precise. It wonderfully evokes small town Ontario in the 1980s - the story's setting - and the characters' dialogue adds another layer of understanding for the reader.
This is a great book, I highly recommend it!
April 29, 2012
When I was a kid, my dad would have Argosy Magazine laying around the house. I would sneak the magazine into my room and read stories that I wasn't supposed to. The stories all had a very masculine edge to them. The Carpenter is like that. Although there's some deep issues revealed in the book, Matt Lennox doesn't waste words analyzing the emotional component. The characters populating this book are incredibly real. The dialogue is crisp and staccato. Nothing feels false about this book.
Leland King has returned to his small town Ontario home after being in prison for 17 years. His mother is dying of cancer. His sister is distant and his preacher brother-in-law is trying to lead Lee to God. His arrival in town is on a sunny day in September that is rife with possibility. The weather matches the mood of the story. As things take a darker direction, the weather turns colder. You can taste the desperation and inevitability.
Brooding, dark, and intense, this is an auspicious debut.
Leland King has returned to his small town Ontario home after being in prison for 17 years. His mother is dying of cancer. His sister is distant and his preacher brother-in-law is trying to lead Lee to God. His arrival in town is on a sunny day in September that is rife with possibility. The weather matches the mood of the story. As things take a darker direction, the weather turns colder. You can taste the desperation and inevitability.
Brooding, dark, and intense, this is an auspicious debut.
August 17, 2012
I originally thought this was a murder mystery - but it becomes something different and more - a look at lives of several people in small town that seem to have bad things happen to them that are not necessarily of their own doing. It is not a happy story but I liked it for being different and making you think about life and the choices we make.
May 29, 2016
L'histoire d'un homme qui sort de prison et qui tente de refaire sa vie. Une histoire simple, sans trop d'originalité, mais bien écrite et réaliste. Un drame qui malgré quelques clichés au niveau des personnages, vient nous chercher et nous fait réfléchir. Si l'On considère qu'il s'agit d'un premier roman, cela est plus que respectable. Je relirai cet auteur avec plaisir!
June 27, 2012
Slow going story with a lot of good characters in a small town. A jailbird returns to his hometown to be with his dying mom. Lennox is a good writer but I think he'd be a great one if he could pick up the pace.
December 4, 2015
la lecture est intrigante à souhait et distille une atmosphère sombre et mélancolique particulièrement fascinante. j'ai trouvé ce roman maîtrisé, puissant mais dévastateur ! ça colle parfait si la météo est au gris déprimant.
March 11, 2012
Bleak, noir and beautiful.
May 20, 2012
After 76 pages, I closed the book and returned it to the library. I thought it was flat with a multitude of uninteresting characters.
October 20, 2012
A carefully crafted debut novel that handles faith and redemption and good and evil with thoughtful, insightful character and plot development.
January 21, 2013
Original and creative story. Love reading Canadian authors!
May 29, 2013
Sounded interesting so I "Looked Inside" on Amazon. Another author who missed grammar lessons - no speech marks, no thanks.
July 4, 2014
4.5 stars.
May 22, 2015
Amazing book. Menacing characters and would be superb as an HBO movie or series. A great story of a good man forced to do some horrible things.
March 27, 2016
This would have been 4 stars but for the story line of the twin. I really enjoyed the characters. Pete was interesting. Sinister and surprising.
April 13, 2013
Started strong but gradually waned.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews