Blurred Line

Finally! A book worth recommending. Since finishing school, I read a string of books (about five) where I either couldn't be bothered to finish or, once I did finish, only shrugged and moved on to the next book on the shelf. Then I picked up Ann-Marie MacDonald's The Way the Crow Flies. MacDonald's first book, Fall On Your Knees, picked up all sorts of awards, was picked for Oprah's Book Club and, not surprisingly, became a bestseller. It's also one of my favourite books of all time. So, to say that I had some high expectations for MacDonald's second novel would be an understatement.

The story centers around Madeleine McCarthy, the eight-year-old daughter of an officer in the Royal Canadian Air Force, newly transplanted with her family into an army base in a small Ontario town. It's the early 1960s and the McCarthy family has it all - great kids, a perfect marriage, and a great life. Then, a shocking murder takes place and the dream begins to unravel. The bulk of the novel takes place in this setting and the reader slides between the viewpoints of Madeleine, her father and her mother. Then, for the last quarter of the novel, we fast forward to 1986, where Madeleine and her family are still coping with the events of that summer in 1963.

This book is not brilliant, as MacDonald's first book was, but it's still a hell of a read. She evokes the family dynamic very well and, just as in her first novel, writes extremely well from the viewpoint of a child. Although her secondary characters aren't that well-fleshed out, they fit into the scenery of the novel so well that it's difficult to notice - her principal characters, though, are unbelievably well done. And, if the characters don't manage to engage you (they will, but just for argument's sake) the whodunit regarding the murder keeps you turning the pages and might just catch you off-guard. This one's definitely a great read, and it's one of those nice big novels that you can really settle into. Highly recommended.


Profile Editor. Writer. 9-5er. Lord of the Dance. Blurredline.com Apodis Publishing Fusion Fragment cterrill(at)blurredline.com Buy Goodbye, Darwin Amazon.com Amazon.ca Chapters.ca Barnes&Noble.com Read it free in PDF Format Buy Blurred Line Amazon.com Amazon.ca Chapters.ca Barnes&Noble.com Read it free in PDF Format The Short Stuff "Learning Magic From Mint" - published May 2007 in Atomjack "Between Eternities" - published October 2005 at Speculative.ca "Smoke and Mirrors" - published June 2005 in Byzarium Submissions Log Total Subs: 25 Acceptances: 3 Rejections: 17 Withdrawals: 3 Subs Out: 2 Quality Blogs Scalzi's Whatever Dave's Blogography Bookslut The Struggling Writer SF Signal the0phrastus Paperback Writer Scribe's Writing Desk Nathan Bransford Lyons Literary LLC The World in the Satin Bag Book In The Oven The Word Perhaps We Learned Something... Words, etc. Archives March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 Et Cetera Cavan @ Last.fm Cavan @ LibraryThing Feeds Atom Feed RSS Feed	Tuesday, May 29, 2007 - The Way the Crow Flies Finally! A book worth recommending. Since finishing school, I read a string of books (about five) where I either couldn't be bothered to finish or, once I did finish, only shrugged and moved on to the next book on the shelf. Then I picked up Ann-Marie MacDonald's The Way the Crow Flies. MacDonald's first book, Fall On Your Knees, picked up all sorts of awards, was picked for Oprah's Book Club and, not surprisingly, became a bestseller. It's also one of my favourite books of all time. So, to say that I had some high expectations for MacDonald's second novel would be an understatement. The story centers around Madeleine McCarthy, the eight-year-old daughter of an officer in the Royal Canadian Air Force, newly transplanted with her family into an army base in a small Ontario town. It's the early 1960s and the McCarthy family has it all - great kids, a perfect marriage, and a great life. Then, a shocking murder takes place and the dream begins to unravel. The bulk of the novel takes place in this setting and the reader slides between the viewpoints of Madeleine, her father and her mother. Then, for the last quarter of the novel, we fast forward to 1986, where Madeleine and her family are still coping with the events of that summer in 1963. This book is not brilliant, as MacDonald's first book was, but it's still a hell of a read. She evokes the family dynamic very well and, just as in her first novel, writes extremely well from the viewpoint of a child. Although her secondary characters aren't that well-fleshed out, they fit into the scenery of the novel so well that it's difficult to notice - her principal characters, though, are unbelievably well done. And, if the characters don't manage to engage you (they will, but just for argument's sake) the whodunit regarding the murder keeps you turning the pages and might just catch you off-guard. This one's definitely a great read, and it's one of those nice big novels that you can really settle into. Highly recommended. Cavan blogged at 9:52 PM \| 0 comments	Progress Zilch! 0/0 Listening A.J. Croce - "Maybe I'm Amazed" My Music Reading Bright Lights, Big City - Jay McInerney My Library Watching Black Book: B Sweet and Lowdown: C Breakfast on Pluto: B Wishlist Bridge of Sighs - Richard Russo Rachael Yamagata - Elephants...Teeth Sinking Into Heart