This easy, immersive read gets its hooks into you early on and never lets go; I finished it in a matter of hours. A gripping, warmhearted, finely written novel.
I’ve never heard of this Canadian novelist before I stumbled on a blog review of her fourth novel, and apparently she’s carved out a niche of her own writing stories
Though the book nails the authentic small-town feel, it’s interested less in a comprehensive portrait of a rural community than in close perspectives of three very different individuals, who all feel off-balance and disoriented after an upheaval in their lives. We’re first introduced to Clara, a seven-year-old girl whose rebellious teenage sister Rose has run away from home after a fight with her mother. To cope with the disappearance, Clara devises her own rituals, such as waiting obsessively by the window looking out for Rose’s return.
One day, she is disturbed to see a strange man moving boxes inside the house of her next-door neighbour, Mrs Elizabeth Orchard, who went into the hospital weeks ago and entrusted Clara with looking after her cat Moses. The man is Liam, an unsociable thirty-something who, unbeknownst to Clara, is actually Mrs Orchard’s heir. Her house is a temporary refuge from an early midlife crisis and failed marriage back in Toronto, and Liam doesn’t plan to stick around after the first snowflake alls.
The third perspective belongs to elderly Mrs Orchard, whose second-person narration is coming from the recent past relative to Liam and Clara. She is never to leave the hospital, and spends her last living days in interior conversations with her long-dead husband, thinking back to when she knew Liam as a small boy living next door. There are clues hinting on a complex history and a past traumatic event, possibly even a criminal one, that haunts Elizabeth to this day.
Despite the strong mystery aspect to the novel, it never takes over its fundamentally character-driven nature; tension and suspense are present but they are more of a quiet, submerged kind than a high intensity you might expect. I could imagine a different version of A Town Called Solace where Rose’s disappearance and investigation that ensues are central, but here they receive minimal attention. It’s just as well since the plot itself is fairly pedestrian and hardly the book’s greatest strength.
Instead Lawson’s focus is on crafting three distinctive, realistic and sympathetic characters who try to make the most of their situation while dealing with grief and loss, and their sensitively rendered past and present relationships. Her superb gift for capturing individual voices is evident even in the brief sketches of the supporting characters. I was especially impressed with Clara’s characterisation; a perspective of a seven-year-old child is hard to capture and make believable, but Clara’s quirks, childlike logic and frustrations with the adults around her all ring true.
Lawson’s language is simple and plain yet beautifully controlled. She fills in the texture of everyday life with seemingly mundane details that bring a place to life. A chapter might focus on little else besides Liam’s attempts to grab an evening meal in Solace, and still remind you that a book doesn’t need a fast-paced plot or showy writing style to keep you glued to the pages.
The only major misstep I can think of is the underdeveloped last-minute romantic subplot, with a meet-cute over home-made ice cream that I felt was way too cutesy. It’s not terrible but it does strike a weird discordant note in a book where everything else is handled so carefully. Overall though I loved the book and was impressed with the hopeful ending that doesn’t necessarily put a nice happy bow on everything.
yggdrasille.com 