REVIEW
Black Bear Lake
by Leslie
Liautaud
Black Bear Lake is currently on tour with Worldwind Virtual Book Tours. The tour stops here today for my review. Please be sure to visit the
other tour stops as well.
Description
Adam Craig, a forty year-old stock trader in Chicago, finds his marriage
teetering on the rocks and his life at a standstill. Desperate and on the edge
of personal collapse, Adam takes the advice of a therapist and travels to his
childhood family compound on Black Bear Lake with hopes of making peace with
his past. Stepping onto the northern Wisconsin property, he relives the painful
memories of the summer of 1983, his last summer at the lake.
In August 1983, a self-conscious fifteen year-old Adam carries a world of
worry on his shoulders as he arrives at Black Bear Lake for a month long family
reunion. Between anger and fear of mother’s declining health as she quietly
battles a quickly spreading cancer and his cherished cousin’s depression over
her parents’ bitter divorce, Adam is swept up in smothering familial love among
the multiple generations and heartbreaking misunderstanding and betrayal. The
arrival of a sensual but troublesome babysitter throws the delicate balance of
his family into a tailspin. Blinded by his attraction to the newcomer, Adam
fails to see his cousin's desperate cries for help and the charged electrical
current running through his family's hierarchy. Crushed in the middle of it
all, Adam is forced to learn that there's a fine line between self-preservation
and the strength of family blood, all the while unaware of the impending
tragedy that will ultimately change his life forever.
Some of My Favorite
Lines
"My parents, both writers, were continual in their quiet celebration
of my love of literature."
About the women in the family: "They were their own clan, set apart
from the boys and men. It was an intangible relationship. The weight and mass
so undeniable but at the same time so elusive it slipped through my fingers
before I could grasp int. I watched my mom and ached for this bond with
her."
"I etched the moment in my mind. I held this scene of perfect
normalcy in my heart like a delicate glass snow globe and, then I willed the
mind game of nothing-is-wrong to return."
"Sitting with Dannie, feeling the heat from her back while her muscles
relaxed against me, felt like home."
"Mom used to read to us before bed. Everything except 'kid books'.
she said if our minds were going to soak up knowledge like a sponge, she wanted
us soaking up something valuable."
"... it struck me one night that there are only so many words out
there. It's not like they go on indefinitely. So, why is some writing so
beautiful, so lyrical and rhythmic, like music? And some just puts you to
sleep?" (This is SO true!)
"Dannie and I looked at each other, both lost in the wonder of how
life would be if we were not constantly caught in the spider web of family entanglement."
"Whether you know it or not, the things you are learning right now
at fifteen years old will shape who you become, the decisions you will make,
the path you will take."
"To see death, to see it in person, to see the soul leaving a body
... it changes you. [...] Death becomes the thing that shapes you."
About mothers: "They cannot lose a child. This we have to protect
them from. It is our duty, the one thing we can be stronger about. Because when
a mother loses a child, a part of her dies too."
About acting: "How hard is it? I mean, it's pretty much a bunch of
people who get done up by a make up artist and are filmed being beautiful,
right?"
"My world, made up of letters, sentences and structure to explain
every thought and feeling, came crashing down. For the first time, there were
no words."
My Review
By Lynda Dickson
Adam can't commit to having a baby with his wife Julie. With his marriage
on the line, his therapist Dr Marchand thinks it's time he confronts his past.
So Adam travels back to Brown Bear Lake where a life-changing incident occurred
twenty-five years earlier in 1983, when he was fifteen.
We are taken back to a month-long vacation with his extended Polish-Italian
family, including Adam's distant cousin Dannie. We are treated to an idyllic
summer filled with family, good food, drinking, clever pranks, singing around
the bonfire, volleyball tournaments, fishing, and sexual discovery. All the
while, we feel the darker undercurrents of a failed marriage, a dying family
member, extra-marital affairs, family arguments, a wild bear, and a final
tragedy that will make this Adam's last summer at Black Bear Lake.
The story starts off in 2008, but flashes back to when Adam meets Julie. We
are then treated to an extended flashback to 1983. There are even flashbacks
within this flashback. While mostly well-told, I found Gramps' 1939 war-time
flashback to be particularly stiff and unemotional, especially given the
subject matter. There are numerous editing errors including capitalization, punctuation,
word repetition, incorrect word placement, and missing words. There are also so
many relatives to keep track of that the author herself uses the incorrect name
a couple of times.
While reading the book, I felt the story contained too much about the
family vacation. There were too many events, the pranks were fun but irrelevant,
and there were too many names to remember. I kept expecting something to happen,
but nothing did. Until it did. All is forgiven. I can now see how the story
fits together. Everything is relevant. And on top of that, the writing is
beautiful. Stick with it and you will be rewarded.
Warnings: underage drinking, sex, swearing, violence.
About the Author
Leslie Liautaud is the author of the stage plays Midnight Waltzes (2006), He Is Us (2008), The Wreck (2009), SALIGIA (2011),
The Mansion (2012), and Summer Nights and Dreams (2012). She is
also the author of the coming-of-age novel, BlackBear Lake (CreateSpace Independent Publishing, 2014).
Leslie is originally from Kansas City, Missouri, where she worked in the
performing arts. Currently, she divides her time between Key Largo, Florida,
and Champaign, Illinois, with her husband, three teenage children and three
rambunctious dogs.
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