Review of “Black Lake,” by Johanna Lane, 2014. New York: Hachette. Paper, 217 pages.
Johanna Lane presents here a terribly sad story with a wonderful mix of fact and fiction from the past. Lane bases this family history on the Scots who came to Ireland during the famine and who took advantage of the people, evicted them from their land, and starved them out. The Scots built great houses in Ireland, and this book includes such a house based on one which the author knew of as a child.
Karma is perhaps the word that comes to mind as the reader sees what happens to the modern-day members of the family that is from the Scottish stream of people who came to the island and took over the lands, threw the residents off their farms, and helped to forcibly disperse many Irish to points all over the world.
The modern-day members of the Campbell (Scottish name) family have to deal with their own forms of displacement from both their home and their status. The upheaval in the family’s lives is at the core of the book.
All of the above having been said, the book is about many more things indeed. It is about class (there is an old Irish couple in their own little cottage to provide help with cooking and gardening) and about coming of age and about gender differences and what it means to be a good wife in a certain traditional setting… plus about trying to speak up for oneself when one has been raised to be polite and acquiescent.
Writers and teachers of writing will love unraveling the different threads of stories intermingled with incredible discussions of setting. The different chapters of the book are told by the family members. The language used to describe the great house, the cottages, the garden, the hills, the paths, and the island is as beautiful and detailed as the story is tragic and maddening.
On the cover of this paperback version I have in my hands is this quotation from Harper’s Bazaar: “Lose yourself in this gently devastating read.”
The book includes three extra sections. First, there is a revealing author interview which makes strong points about the Scottish destruction of Irish families—and other information included. Second, there is a list of Lane’s favorite castles or “great houses” in Ireland and England. Excellent and in some cases well-known books have been written about these monuments—some of which are real. Third, there is a list of 12 questions for reading groups to discuss. There is indeed a great deal here in this book. It would make for interesting discussions, and it will be one I hope to include in one of my reading group/book clubs someday in the future.
Symbols and metaphors sneak around the garden path and the woods in the hills above the setting. Consider the hidden stream—revealed under the sidewalk. Consider the collapsing chapel, the hunting picture, the spider in the hut, the water, the unfinished ballroom, the water (lake, channel, swimming pool, tide), the toy train set, the Coca-Cola machine, and the labels on the trees and plants…
The labels are a terrible insult.
This is really a book about being homeless. Yes, it is about all the things above, and more. True, it is a good book about history and social studies and social classes. It is about loss and disappointment. But you need to read this book to experience the emptiness the author does a great job of labeling.
This is really a book about being homeless.