Somehow five months have passed since I read A Town Called Solace (2021) by Mary Lawson and I haven’t written about it yet – but that’s not because I disliked it. On the contrary, Lawson is up there with the small number of living authors I love – and my love of her came on in bounds when I read The Other Side of the Bridge and declared it my best read of 2021.
In A Town Called Solace, Lawson is back in Ontario, Canada, in the fictional small town of Solace in 1972. It’s the sort of place where everyone knows each other, there’s only one place to eat, and that one place has a minuscule menu. In this community we first meet Clara, looking out of the window at the house next door – Mrs Orchard’s house. She sees a new, unknown man arrive there.
There were four boxes. Big ones. They must have lots of things in them because they were heavy, you could tell by the way the man walked when he carried them in, stooped over, knees bent. He brought them right into Mrs Orchard’s house, next door to Clara’s, that first evening and just left them there. That meant the boxes didn’t have necessary things in them, things he needed straight away like pyjamas, or he’d have unpacked them.
Clara is an eight-year-old, and so her perspective on things that happen around her is not an adult perspective. She knows that her older sister Rose is missing, after a row with her parents, and has vowed to stay looking out of the window until she comes back. She knows that Mrs Orchard – Elizabeth – is also away, because she has been asked to feed the cat. But she doesn’t know who this man is, what his connection is with Mrs Orchard, or why she is taking so long to return.
Lawson takes us into another two perspectives, in different chapters. One is this new man, Liam, who has just separated from his wife and left city life for this provincial backwater. I loved seeing him discover a small-town community (and interested to discover that Lawson left Ontario herself for England in the 1960s – so this is all drawn from memory). This community is not particularly warm to his arrival, and certainly doesn’t find some pure, simple folk to Remind Him About The Meaning Of Life. Rather, Lawson shows the contrast between urban and rural life, with the advantages and disadvantages of both. I particularly enjoyed reading the stilted, amiable relationships he finds with locals – in the sole eating place, and especially with Jim, a local handyman who starts to employ Liam. What a lovely, insightful portrayal of Jim this is:
He straightened up and raked through a jar of screws. “All you do for your kids, three square meals a day, nice warm house, teach them a good trade, what do they do? Take off and learn to be a vet. I told him, you like animals so much, get yourself a dog, for Pete’s sake! Get a horse! Get an elephant! Cheaper than a vet degree. I’m staring poverty in the face.”
He was a big, tough-looking, weather-beaten guy but he was so proud of his son he couldn’t even look at you for fear it would show, Liam could hear it in his voice.
The third perspective we get is Elizabeth Orchard’s – though this is the only that isn’t from the 1970s. We see her thirty years earlier, and gradually learn about her connection with Liam. I shan’t say anymore about that, but it’s done beautifully. Lawson is better known for slower, more meditative narratives. A Town Called Solace is still more interested in character than plot, and she transports the reader into a different world for a while with an expert authorial gentleness – but this is definitely plottier than the other books I’ve read by her. There are twists and turns in the connection between Elizabeth and Liam, and in the modern day story too. It even gets a bit dark, which I felt perhaps distorted the tone a little at times towards the end. That’s my only quibble with this book.
Overall, I thought this was another triumph by Lawson. It has certainly stayed with me over the months since I read it, while most novels fade from my memory very quickly. Lawson is so good at drawing complex, interesting, believable people – and even better at putting them in communities and seeing how the dynamics shape and evolve. All three of the main characters here are fully realised people who draw the reader’s empathy and even love. It’s hard not to love characters this vividly created.
I have read all four of her books and I eagerly await the next.
I haven’t read Road Ends yet, but will rectify!
I love Lawson, too. The review for this one is coming up in a few weeks on my blog.
Excellent!
I couldn’t have loved this book any more. It was utterly beautiful. I think I wrote one of my most glowing reviews ever. I then went on to read Crow Lake, which was wonderful too. It was a ‘bigger’ story, rather than the pared down essence that is A Town Called Solace.
Yes! And I think The Other Side of the Bridge is bigger still. Such a talented writer.
Oh… this does sound good. I don’t know her work at all.
Hope you enjoy if you find it!
It’s such a lovely book and has stuck in my mind more than I thought it would.
Yes, she subtly digs in there
Oh nice – I’ve not read any Lawson, but I love the sound of this. And a succesful child voice is always the sign of a good writer.
That’s a good point – yes, she handles all the voices so well
A new author for me, thanks for the tip!
She is so good! And seems to be getting the recognition she deserves now
I just started the audiobook and like it! Thanks for the suggestion ♥️
Oh brilliant, Linda
I hadn’t heard of her before, looks like I really need to !
Oh you DO!
It’s a shame she’s only written the four novels. I only have one left to read, The Other Side of the Bridge, so have been saving it up.
That’s my favourite of the three I’ve read, I think!
Finally got around to reading this after your recommendation – read Lawson’s other novels many years ago – and was pleasantly surprised to see that my home of Guelph, Ontario played such a predominant part in the book. It is one of those stories that echoes in the mind afterwards, and so beautifully and seemingly effortlessly written.
Oh lovely to see home in it! She is such a wonderful writer.