By Lynn Willoughby
Sanctuary Line ~ Jane Urquhart
There is a story in here, but you have to read a lot of family history to get to it. I really wasn’t that interested in “the great greats” as uncles, cousins etc and how they set up families in the USA and Canada.
What family does not have its share of turmoil, of betrayal, regret or even darker secrets? The Butlers are no different. Liz just seems to have difficulty sorting out her memories – what was true, what was imagined, what was told by others, what it all meant. Should it even matter to a forty year old?
Much of this novel is set at the family farm on the shores of Lake Erie. Summers for all the cousins are spent exploring, swimming, building forts, picnics, reading, playing board games. It sounds idyllic, but there is always tension, moodiness, small and large indignities, hurts or kindnesses.
When Liz’s cousin – who is the reader and the poet, joins the army and ends up in Afghanistan as a military strategist – Urquhart lost me. These two simply do not work togehter. I just did not connect with anyone in this very wordy novel.
- The Stone Carvers
- The Underpainter
………….and others
Who Knew?
The SAWP (Seasonal Agricultural Worker’s Plan) has allowed worker’s from Mexico and the Caribbean into Canada since the 1960s. After NAFTA the price of Mexican grown crops plummeted, forcing some 2.3 millions farmers off the land.