Review: A powerful story of compulsive love
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 10, 2012
It isn't often that I put down a novel that is so moving and powerfully written that I can't pick up another for a while. This story will dwell in my mind for a very long time. Liza falls in love at fourteen with her handsome, wild cousin Dace who is due to go into prison for manslaughter which was not his fault. There is an immediate bonding between them. Liza, like so many girls, is attracted to the Dark Lover, the inner male that is dangerous, difficult and even destructive - but who ultimately helps her to grow in wisdom and understanding through the emotional pain he gives her.This is a beautifully told love story, the characters of Dace and Liza are so well drawn they are almost a Heathcliffe and Cathy. Their natures are very different and yet they share the same inner depth, passion and loyalty as well as a streak of wildness, more prevalent in Dace but there in Liza also.A large part of the story centres around a real life event, the prison riot in Canada's Kingston Penitentiary in April 1971 in which Dace plays an important role. Scenes of prison life are told from Dace's viewpoint and are violent, realistic and disturbing;courtroom scenes are so well written, I thought I was reading a John Grisham novel but without half the tediousness of his long drawn out court battles. The sexual scenes are also beautifully done, a real part of the plot, not woven in to titillate the reader.All in all, this is one of the best books I have read in a long time.