Overview
Will Ben ever escape the Landing? The hardscrabble farm on the shores of Lake Muskoka can't generate a living, so Ben's Uncle Henry sells goods and gas to cottagers from the dock known as Cooks Landing. It had never been much of a living and since the Depression hit, it's even less. Ben's thinking a lot these days, and it's making him miserable. He's thinking about how unfair it is that his uncle only cares about work. He's thinking about what he really wants to do: play the violin. These days, he's lucky to snatch the odd bit of practice between chores, playing to the chickens in the henhouse. A new job fixing up the grand old cottage on nearby Pine Island seems at first to be just one more thing to keep Ben away from his violin. After he meets the island's owner, Ben changes his mind. Ruth Chapman is a cultured and wealthy woman from New York who introduces Ben to an unfamiliar, liberating world. After Ben plays violin for Ruth and her admiring friends, it only makes him more desperate to flee. Then, during a stormy night on Lake Muskoka, everything changes.
Synopsis
John Ibbitson’s compelling novel tells the story of a talented young violin player who yearns to escape his rural home and discover his calling.
Children's Literature
Ben Mercer's future is as predictable as the cycle of seasons on the remote Canadian farm where he lives: he will grow up and take over the day-to-day operations of Cook's Landing where rich vacationers come to get supplies and boat repairs. He hates giving up his dream of playing the violin, but sees no way out, as there is no one else to take care of his widowed mother and bitter uncle. When a wealthy American woman—heir to her late husband's publishing fortune—buys the island across from Cook's Landing, Ben receives more than a well-paying job fixing up Ruth Chapman's neglected cottage; he gets a peek into an entirely different world, one of fancy dinner parties, famous writers, and loads of luxuries. The more Ruth teaches Ben about music, the more desperate to avoid a life of poverty at the Landing he becomes. Sadly, as Ben's heartache grows, Ruth becomes increasingly remote, until she leaves the island altogether, shattering Ben's vision of escape. A quietly emotional tale about an artist on the outside looking in, this novel by one of Canada's most well-known writers and journalists recreates Muskoka, an area north of Toronto, in 1934. While generally well written and beautifully vivid in its descriptions, the author relies on deus ex machina to bring about a resolution to Ben's seemingly insurmountable problem. Themes of loss, family discord, and frustrated ambitions will resonate with readers, who will cheer for Ben in his moments of glory and yearn for his freedom. Reviewer: Keri Collins Lewis