Crows: A Novel

by Charles Dickinson

Mozart, Wisconsin’s most renowned raconteur and local eccentric, Ben Ladysmith, vanished two years ago following a tragic boating accident. Obsessed with the disappearance of his friend and former professor, unemployed sportswriter Robert Cigar moves into the missing man’s home-to the dismay and annoyance of Ladysmith’s wife and three children. Though uninvited and unwanted, Robert is determined to keep Ben’s spirit alive, to share Ben’s elusive, hypnotic crow fables with the family that never hear them…and to solve the mystery that lies at the bottom of Oblong Lake-and, in the process, subtly, inadvertently and extraordinarily alters the household…and himself.

Genres: Classics, Fiction

407 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 12, 1985

About the author

Charles Dickinson is an American writer known for his literary novels that mix heartbreak and humor with action and well-developed characters. His books include, in the order of their publication: Waltz in Marathon, Crows, With or Without (a short story collection), The Widows' Adventures, Rumor Has It, A Shortcut in Time, and its sequel, A Family in Time. His short stories have appeared in Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, and The New Yorker.

Reviews

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like another reviewer here, I was a little slow to warm to Crows but wound up liking it a lot. At the time I read it, I had no first-hand experience of small-town Wisconsin, but I obtained a lot later! I have a strong bias in favor of regional and small-town novels; just by writing one, an author is halfway home with me.

[Tasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book! I read it in high school, and I've read it three times since :)

[Stephan Benzkofer · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me a while to get into Charlie Dickinson's* second novel. I fell quickly for Waltz in Marathon, his first book, but Crows played coy with me. Robert Cigar — or Rob or Rob-O — is a lost soul. Or an ass. Hard to tell at the outset, and he didn't do a lot to make me get to like him for awhile, but Charlie really can write, and I kept going on the strength of Waltz and the crow fables told by Ben, a biology professor whose death is at the heart of the story. I'm glad I did. The characters in Crows don't become more likable as the story progresses but because I've spent more time with them, my empathy deepened. People are like that, I think, but it is hard to pull it off in a book because the threat of people putting it down and never returning is great. This is a wonderful exploration of loss, grieving, and finding your way in the world.

* I had the pleasure of working with Charlie for many years at the Chicago Tribune.