Customer Reviews

The Canal House (Harvest Reading Guides)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For those seeking an adventure novel, you could do better to look elsewhere, something by James W. Hall perhaps. This is a book to sink into, not one to rush through with adrenaline pumping. Yes, there is adventure present as well as suspense, in this well crafted novel, as we travel to violent regions Africa and Indonesia. But what makes the book worthy of five stars, in my estimation, is a beautifully told story of two men and a woman whose lives intersect and become entangled. The pace is leisurely as the author creates wonderful word pictures of place, of encounters. The author draws us into the lives of these three characters and one finds oneself caring about what happens to each of them. I appreciate that the author takes us to Africa and East Timor, sharing with us the depredation of oppression and war, but it is his fine eye for detail and for the subtleties of character that entranced me and made the book difficult to put down. If you appreciate good writing, this is definitely a book worth seeking out.

Mark Lee has written an exceptionally involving novel that manages to be both fast-paced and accessible while telling subtle, multilayered, interlinked stories of developing friendship, love, tragedy and the reawakening of human commitment. Confided to us in alternating sections by a male American war photographer and by a female English doctor who both have a fatal attraction for working in the World's war zones, the novel vividly involves us in the lives of bush pilots, peace-keeping troops, American hostages, charity workers, fund-raiser party-planners, news magazine editors, child soldiers, the super-rich, and the wounded, starving poor, and more, while traveling through the Italian and British haunts of war correspondents, the refugee camps and combat zones of East Africa and Indonesia, and the offices and hunting grounds of the wealthy who patronize refugee charities. Both in his simple but evocative language and in his rare ability to convincingly set a story of love and loss against the keenly observed ironies, horrors, fascinations, and tragedies of war, Lee is evocative of Hemingway at his best.

(...)I will tell you how much I enjoyed the writing. The sentences run smoothly together and before I knew it whole pages went by. Every once in awhile I would be stopped by a expertly crafted sentence. If it is possible to write a poetic sentence in a book of prose, Mark Lee has done it.
After finishing the book I was greatly disappointed to find that none of the libraries in my area carry his first book. I might even have to buy it :)

I chose The Canal House by Mark Lee for the June book club selection for all my chapters of The Pulpwood Queens Book Clubs, the largest "meeting and discussing" in America, 13 chapters strong, nearly 300 members. Mostly because I had never read anything quite like this book before. Mark had opened up a world I will probably never experience and in such a way I felt that I was there in his war-torn world. We were lucky enough to have Mark come and visit all the chapters and the stories, oh the stories. In fact, when we did discuss the books the characters were discussed as if they were real people.
I highly reccommend reading this book and note that this is one writer to watch. Mark is taking us as readers to places that we have never been before both physically and spiritually. I know The Pulpwood Queens Book Clubs have crowned him KING for the Day. May his books reign on our shelves forever!
Tiara wearing and Book bearing,
Kathy L. Patrick
The Pulpwood Queen of East Texas and
Hairdresser to the Authors...

This is a wonderful book. I picked it up, meaning to leaf through a few pages and could not put it down. Not only does the author tell a mesmerizing love story, the reader gets a behind-the-scenes look at what war correspondents actually go through. Do yourself a favor. Buy this book.

Mark Lee has written a book that not only gives insight into a world most people never see, the world of releif camps and traveling journalists, but mostly his book is a poignant and memorable love story. I don't understand the few comments saying the readers lost interest in the story. I was glued to the book and finished it in a few days. The pacing is excellent, but the characters are written in enough depth so that the reader is privy to their insights about their adventures as well as their own lives. I particularly enjoyed the narrator, Nicky, who I thought was very convincing as a man who uses a camera to avoid getting emotionally involved with others. Mark Lee's book is one you'll remember for a long time. Two other friends have read the book, loved it and now we'll be using it for our book club. It's a sleeper. And what a great movie it would make!

I don't typically enjoy novels about war but this story is so much more than war. I found the lives of the journalists, photographers and relief workers facinating! It's a wonderful read and well worth the time!

There are those books that you read every once in a while that you want to put a copy into everyone's hands. At the bookstore, you point it out. At the library, you put it in the bin of good books you may have missed. This is one writer you shouldn't miss - especially if you like your stories to include adventure, friendship, love, betrayal, cruelty, bravery, loyalty.
I fell in love with Mark Lee's writing with his first book, The Lost Tribes. The Canal House, his second work, is another page turner telling a great story.

This story goes from England to Italy to Africa and Indonesia with an exciting finish. I am anxiously awaiting Mr. Lee's next book. I will be first in line to buy it. And I did search to find a hard copy of his first marvelous story The Lost Tribes.

The topic sounded very interesting but I was not drawn in. Not until the end of course. The ending was great and the book overall reminded me of "A prayer for Owen Meany" in that the book did not excite me until the end, at which point I wanted to read it again.

The fact that this book isn't a best-seller is outrageous. I bought it because a friend read it in her book club, and I am not only recommending it for my book club but am also recommending it to everyone I know who is in a book club. It's such a great story, and I loved the characters. It reminded me what life is all about.