{"id":682,"date":"2021-02-13T07:39:34","date_gmt":"2021-02-13T07:39:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/undinestudios.com\/blog\/?p=682"},"modified":"2021-08-19T03:18:54","modified_gmt":"2021-08-19T03:18:54","slug":"city-book-review-cormorant-lake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/undinestudios.com\/blog\/?p=682","title":{"rendered":"City Book Review: Cormorant Lake"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"thisIsMeNow_CBRs_Cormorant\"<\/p>\n

I wrote an editorial review for\u00a0Cormorant Lake.\u00a0 It was\u00a0phenomenal!\u00a0\u00a0Here’s my review:<\/p>\n

When Evelyn returns home late at night and finds her roommate\u2019s two young girls in a dangerous situation, she finally breaks. She hastily gathers their things and buckles the little girls into the backseat of her \u201992 Corolla before racing out of California in the dark. The destination is Evelyn\u2019s hometown of Cormorant Lake\u2014nearly two thousand miles away, but unfortunately not far enough to escape her demons. It\u2019s here that she reunites with her own de facto mother, Nan, who takes to the kidnapped girls like a person lost in the desert would take to water.<\/p>\n

Cormorant Lake<\/i>\u00a0is a saga of de facto mothers, of women whose suitability for motherhood is measured exclusively by eagerness for the job. They scoop up these neglected, malnourished kids, take them in as their own, feed them, care for them as best they can. Evelyn is as eager as they come, helplessly in love with the girls she\u2019s spirited away but so conflicted about what she\u2019s done that she experiences brief fits of paranoid horror that seem almost paranormal. Fear of being alone with her thoughts pushes her along, and she barrels toward burnout immediately\u2014two menial jobs, occasional catnaps between, half-eaten meals, long drives on cold, dark roads. On the rare occasion she does sleep, you\u2019d think she\u2019d imbibed the same mysterious liquor as Rip Van Winkle, falling into a slumber deeper than the titular lake. Before long, she views rest as something of a vice\u2014as if she should be working to cure herself of the need.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Nan is haunted by her own demons, and it\u2019s startling how often her past mirrors Evelyn\u2019s present. She, too, has separated mother from child. She wrestles with the decisions she\u2019s made and yearns for absolution that will never come. Author Faith Merino is careful not to linger too long on the characters\u2019 perceived iniquities, describing them with tactful prose that is empathetic and never pitying. Even Jamie, an ambitionless, cuckolding swim instructor with a pregnancy fetish\u2014a character who would probably seem ridiculous in any other book\u2014somehow manages to hang onto some dignity because of how Merino presents him. He and the other characters\u2019 idiosyncrasies take on an almost fable-like quality.<\/p>\n

Flashbacks and off-the-cuff comments along the way eventually reveal that both Nan\u2019s and Evelyn\u2019s guilt is rooted in much more than simply swooping in and caring for neglected children. The book\u2019s conclusion came as something of a surprise to me. It\u2019s abrupt but deliberate, perhaps illustrating the unfulfilled need for closure the main characters will deal with for the rest of their lives. Faith Merino\u2019s debut novel is engrossing, haunting, and beautifully written. Fans of any genre will find something to enjoy here.<\/p>\n