Crow Lake, Mary Lawson

Reader
Meeting #5: Chapters 23-24

Quote one: “It was said, Daniel, meet Matt... After all these weeks of dreading it,
visualizing it, living it in advance a thousand known, if you were listening in, the huge and
nameless weight behind those words. They were said, and I had survived it. The world was still
turning on its axis. I should have felt relief.” (261)
I think this quote is very memorable and relieving on Katie’s part. After all her worries and
fear of mixing the past and the present, she finally overcomes that fear and introduced her
significant other to her family. Daniel was always interested on Katie’s history and her family but
he was always hindered because of Katie’s stubbornness about telling a story about herself. Imagine
introducing your loved ones to your family, telling them how proud and thankful you are to them
and telling your loved ones and family how important they are to you. Imagine that but now, your
loved one and family are now bonded together like a chain. I’m sure that would make every person
feel loved, cared and happy.

Quote two: “Marie gave another cry. She said, “He didn’t mean to kill him! He was hitting
him, and we were trying to stop him, and he was hitting him, and Laurie fell! He hit his head on the
blade of the plow! Oh God, oh God, don’t call the police! He’ll kill me!” Luke said “Take her into
the other room.” Marie said, “No! No! Oh please! Don’t, he’ll kill us all! He’ll kill my mother!
He’ll kill us all!” Matt couldn’t move, so Luke brushed him aside and picked her up and though she
was screaming and fighting him, he carried her into the other room, with Matt trailing helplessly
behind. He said to Matt, “Keep her there.” And then he came back and called Dr. Christopherson
and the police. Calvin Pye killed himself three hours later.” (269)
This scene was pretty disturbing and gruesome. I included this quote just because it is
probably one of the most interesting and memorable ones out of the three chapters. As if you could
almost see and feel what the characters are seeing and feeling at the moment. Calvin accidently
killed Laurie Pye at the barn and Marie called for help because she was scared that she might be
killed as well. It was pretty sad and scary because Calvin didn’t mean to kill Laurie but now that he
did, there is no turning back. Calvin proceeded to kill himself and I don’t even know what to think
at this point. Anyways, I think this is a major event and it is worthy to be heard by my group.

Quote three: “Yet another image, this time, twelve years later, the night before I myself set
off for university. Matt had come over from the farm to say good-bye. For years I had managed to
block that evening from my mind, but now it came back to me, as fresh, as bright, as clear in all its
details as if it had taken place yesterday. The two of us had gone down to the beach. We sat on the
sand, watching the night creep in over the lake, and talked stiltedly about things that did not matter
– tomorrow’s train journey, the hall of residence, whether there would be phones on every floor.
We talked like strangers. We were almost strangers, by then. The weight of twelve years’ worth of
things unsaid, unresolved, had made strangers of us.” (286)
This quote is when Katie has flashbacks of when she was about to go to the university. She
was saying goodbye to Matt. I know that Katie loves Matt dearly because Matt taught Katie about
the ponds and then Katie took interest in it. Because of that, it grew on Katie and she later became a
Zoologist because of it. It is kind of like a domino effect and Matt teaching Katie about his hobby,
which is the ponds, toppled another domino until it grew into toppling a bigger which is Katie going
into university.

Quote four: “That’s what I would have chosen to do that afternoon, rather than help to host
a birthday party. But still, it was good to see everyone - very good, in fact. They were all there,
apart from Miss Vernon, who sent a message that she was a bit old for parties but wished Simon
well. I introduced Daniel to most of them, I think. He was rather subdued himself, no doubt still
unsure of my state of mind. But he rose to the occasion – all the Professors Crane are good at
occasions. We talked quite a bit with Miss Carrington. She is the principal of the school now – it
has expanded to three rooms and she has two teachers working for her. She was looking very well.
There is serenity about her. Possibly there always was and I just hadn’t noticed it before. Anyway it
makes her very restful to be with. Simon had a good time, I think, which was the object of the
exercise, after all.” (290-291)
This quote was the one of the last paragraph in the book. It was a beautiful finish in my
opinion by summing up everything that has happened as well as telling closures to almost every
character in the book. I chose this paragraph not because it is Simon’s party, but it is also a became
a long awaited family reunion by the family. After all the tragedy and good times of the family, they
have finally reached what they have always wanted to become and I think that is beautiful. The
book was fun to read although there were some boring parts but it was okay.