Experience The Fortunate Brother (Sylvanus Now #3) Edited By Donna Morrissey Provided As Text

Fortunate Brother is a dark, atmospheric and compelling novel about the aftermath of a murder in a claustrophobic rural community in Newfoundland.
When a body is found in the lake suspicion falls on the troubled Now family, As the mystery unfolds other, far deeper, secrets are revealed, Compassionate and wise, beautiful and brutal, The Fortunate Brother is the story of a family and a community in turmoil and confirms Donna Morrissey's place as one of Canada's foremost storytellers.
I haven't read the previous two, found the dialect a bit offputting, Not the best of her's I've read admittedly I was a bit distracted while reading, I have always loved reading Donna Morrissey's novels, but this one was a particular treat for me, as I have just returned from a trip to Newfoundland and could so vividly picture the setting.
I now know what patridgeberry and bakeapple are, and what they taste like, I have experienced runins with moose who saunter along the road, I have heard the waves crashing against the rocks on a foggy day, Donna Morrissey already does an excellent job conveying all this but it was a bonus for me to have actually seen, heard, tasted it all in the flesh.
The Fortunate Son is the third and I imagine the final novel in a trilogy which I very much loved.
The characters in the first two books seemed to take on mythic proportions, their passions, crushing defeats and resolute courage framed up against the wild sea and craggy landscape of Newfoundland.


These themes are central to The Fortunate Son as well, The Now family is at odds with one another, separated by grief, The murder of an abusive husband creates unsettling suspicion and spurs secretive alliances which upend Kyle Now, the youngest Now family member.


The story is intensely focussed on Kyle, The sense of place which Morrissey so artfully has brought alive in her earlier novels, and which I loved so much, didn't come through here.
Her supporting cast, though interesting, were incompletely developed to serve the mystery at the centre of her plot.
I wished for so much more from them,

Morrissey' novel just didn't fully deliver for me, It finishes the story of the Nows, and ties things up, but I simply didn't feel that sense of being lifted to a plane of the profound as I have with Morrissey's earlier novels.
EXCERPT: his father had been sick heart attack from working himself to death fishing for cod that were too scarce to pay the bills and so he doubled his workload with cutting and hauling logs for the sawmills too.
Heart just up and called it quits, New boat and new truck parked out by the door like hungry dogs, growling for their bank payments.
And Sylvie. Good, good Sylvie stepping up to the fates, Came flying from her high paying job of the oil soaked fields of Alberta like Persephone, Lord of Underground Wealth.
Took Chris back with her to the oil fields to help wrestle those snarling dogs and six weeks later Chris was dead.


ABOUT THIS BOOK: The Fortunate Brother is a dark, atmospheric and compelling novel about the aftermath of a murder in a claustrophobic rural community in Newfoundland.
When a body is found in the lake suspicion falls on the troubled Now family, As the mystery unfolds other, far deeper, secrets are revealed, Compassionate and wise, beautiful and brutal, The Fortunate Brother is the story of a family and a community in turmoil and confirms Donna Morrissey's place as one of Canada's foremost storytellers.


MY THOUGHTS: I almost put off reading The Fortunate Brother by Donna Morrissey, I am glad I didn't, Initially, I struggled with the cadence of the writing, Totally my problem. But then a little ways in, I got it and never looked back, In fact I became consumed by this raw and brutal book, its rough and uncouth characters who have little, if any, beauty in their lives.


Life in this small hamlet in Newfoundland is harsh, As are the people towards one another, And yet they are also loyal, Protective of one another. The author paints a bleakly atmospheric picture of the Nows, their friends and family, their struggles, the landscape in which they live.
Alcohol abuse and spousal abuse are just a regular part of the day,

There is a passage towards the end of the book that describes my feelings perfectly 'He looked like an old sailor who'd weathered a great storm and was now safely anchored to a pier of his own making.
' Substitute 'felt' for 'looked', and that's how I felt at the end of the book,

Thank you to Cannongate Books via Netgalley for providing a digital copy of The Fortunate Brother by Donna Morrissey for review.
All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions,

Please refer to my Goodreads, com profile page or the 'about' page on sandysbookaday, wordpress. com for an explanation of my rating system,

This review and others are also published on my blog sandysbookaday, wordpress. com sitelink wordpress. com/ This is the third in a trilogy which began with Sylvanus Now and was followed by What They Wanted.
Readers who are familiar with the Now family will want to read this third installment, but the book can certainly be read as a standalone.


This book focuses on Kyle Now who is still mourning the death of his brother Chris who died working on an Alberta oil rig.
The family is a troubled one, Sylvanus, the father, takes refuge in alcohol Abbie, the mother, is facing breast cancer and Kyles relationship with his sister Sylvie is strained because of what he sees as her role in Chris death.
Then a local bully, Clar Gillard, is murdered and suspicion falls on the Now family with whom he has had confrontations.


Characterization is amazing, All characters are fully developed, round characters, their traits consistent with those in the first two books of the trilogy.
Kyle is a dynamic character, At the beginning he sees nothing positive in the world: “Felt like the one long day

for three years now.
The one long dull day, caught on a cloud of grief hovering over his house, ” He has no hope: “Nope, Kyle Now was done with wishing, ” He does not talk and share his grief with others but worries about everyone else, his constant fingernailchewing and footjiggling clearly indicating his tension.
His typical response is to run: “hed pushed Sylvie away and ran and was still running, Running from everything. ” The novel shows how Kyle goes from such desperation to finally running towards someone and seeing the beauty around him: “The moons broadening smile rose above the hills and glimmered amongst that were mostly dead and yet whose lights still shone through the eternal sky.
”

Kyles foil is his mother, Addie, despite all her troubles, always remains hopeful, Chris is “struck once more by her fortitude, That whatever this new thing thickening her cloud of sorrow, hope was already ignited in her heart and offering itself as a shelter for him and his father.
” The contrast is obvious when Kyle is described: “But he was done with hope, It took her babies and Chris and he had no more courage for hope, Hope had failed her too many times, Rather that she had never hoped, Rather that it was just those babies she grieved and not the pain of lost hope as well.
” Kyle needs to learn what Addie has, that “hope eventually creeps through darkness, making inroads through to an easier tomorrow” and that “Theres good to be found in everything, even grief.
”

There are, of course, other lessons that Kyle must learn: “Some people have illness, everybody has something.
Its how you carries it thats what you take into the other world with you, Thats the only thing we takes” and “You cant go getting down and blaming yourself for stuff you got no control over” and “You needs to be like everyone else, tending to your own concerns.
” I love the references to Job: “Were blessed like Job then, when we feels the fear of something and does it anyway” and “were sainted like Job when we can stand the pain and thrive in the end.
” A person may be given advice but does not necessarily listen, and part of the interest of the novel is in seeing if/how Kyle will learn these lessons.


As suggested, a major theme is that of hope, It is introduced in the epigraph, a quotation from George Eliots Adam Bede: “There is no despair so absolute as that which comes with the first moments of our first great sorrow, when we have not yet known what it is to have suffered and be healed, to have despaired and to have recovered hope.
” Repetition is used to emphasize the need for hope: “And you cant lose hope, either, You got to trust some things” and “Hopes a powerful thing, Its what takes us into the next world, hopes of a better life” and “Theres always hope” and “Hopes contagious like that: if one believes, then another might.
”

It is not just characterization and theme development that are amazing, There is such pleasure in reading Morrisseys style, The dialogue is truly that of a Newfoundland outport, The images are also wonderful, An abstract like guilt is made concrete: “Guilt rotting him like an old shack built on wet ground, leaving no shores strong enough to shelter himself or his family.
” And descriptions of setting say so much: “Sulphuric smells rose from a smoking pulp mill that headed the harbour while nice shingled homes and shops and oak trees encircled the mills land side as ribs might encircle the lifegiving heart.
”

I strongly recommend this book it is literary fiction at its best, If you havent read Sylvanus Now and What They Wanted, read them first, but if you have been fortunate enough to meet the Now family, reunite with them by reading The Fortunate Brother.
You will not be disappointed,

Note: I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley,

Please check out my reader's blog sitelink blogspot. ca/ and follow me on Twitter DCYakabuski, I did not realise until I started reading this book that it is the third book in the trilogy.


The story is about the Now family who are mourning the death of their son Chris who died while working on an Alberto Oil Rig.
Sylvanus the father!has turned to alcohol, Abbie the mother is facing breast cancer and Kyle the son relationship with his sister Sylvie is strained.
Then the local bully is murdered and suspicion is on the Now family,

The book is mixed with suspense, emotion, loyalty and tragedy, It has also covered love, guilt and grief and the families bond, I wish I had read the first two books before this one but I do think this can be read as a standalone.


I would like to thank NetGalley, Canongate Books and the author Donna Morrissey for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.
The family is uprooted from their fishing village in Newfoundland , dealing with the tragic loss of a son and the illness of their mother.
As if this wasn't enough, the murder of a local bully changes their lives, This is a very sad, depressing story, .