Lost Lake: Stories by Mark Slouka
W.W. Norton & Company: 10/24/17
eBook review copy; 192 pages
ISBN-13:
9780393352665
Lost Lake: Stories by Mark Slouka is a recommended collection of
twelve interconnected stories set in a small Czech community on the
shores of Lost Lake.
The stories are all wonderfully descriptive and mainly about fishing.
The narrator is a middle-aged man, Mostovsky, who is looking back at his
experiences at the family's cabin on Lost Lake in upstate New York and
the largely Czech community who vacationed there. As with many childhood
memories, many of these have a dream-like nostalgic quality to them.
Along with the good memories are other memories that are less than
beautiful or not completely understood until viewed at as an adult.
Strong emotions from the memories are acknowledged, as are the
subtleties among the residents there that may be noticed by a child,
but, again,
only understood as an adult.
The strength in this collection and the reason to read it is the
beautiful writing, which is rich in its comparisons and images. That
said,
this isn't a collection where a whole lot of action takes place or a
clear plot is developed. The stories jump back and forth in time as
memories and recollections are shared. There are prose includes
descriptions of the nature surrounding the lake in the stories and talk
about fishing. A whole lot of talk about fishing. In the end it was all
the discussion of fishing that overwhelmed me and began to detract from
the quality of the writing.
Disclosure:
My review copy was courtesy of W.W. Norton & Company.
No comments:
Post a Comment