Red Dog, Red Dog

by Patrick Lane.

Quickie Recap: Two brothers living out in the prairies are the products of their pasts. The family history is rife with secrets, some kept, others not, which leads to a series of poor choices and the spiralling of consequences.

Quickie Review: I don't want to write this review because I feel pretty strongly that the problem was with me, and not the book. Because I saw the poetry in the words, the ache in the characters, the familiarity in the situations....but in the end, I just didn't have any feelings for this book. I've enjoyed Lane's work before, and lots of people agree that this is one of his best - nominated for the Giller, no less. So why did I feel so disconnected? Maybe that was the whole point - after all, this story is about isolation. Maybe the reader is meant to feel as they do, alone and largely uninvolved.

Quickie Recommendation: Sorry, I'm still feeling ambivalent about this one. I think I'll leave it on the back-burner and give it a re-read with fresh eyes somewhere down the road.

Thoughts?