Official Review: Great Lakes by Lilly Kirckof

[Chrislock]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Great Lakes" by Lilly Kirckof.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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".... a half-century at sea had told Captain Perrin to keep an eye on the barometer. The Weetuk stood well to the east-nor'east of the Keewenaw Peninsula when the glass began to change. It wasn't just falling, it was plummeting, and almost an inch in less than twelve hours, something he had never seen before."
- Prologue, Great Lakes: the Saga of the Inland seas, Lily Kirckof

Great Lakes: the saga of the inland seas follows the lives of the Gilster-Perrin family as they rise to dominance in the Great Lakes shipping industry. Although this semi-historic novel follows the lives of the lives of the whole family from 1865 to 1993, the true focus is on the efforts of Harlan Perrin and Victoria Gilster in building the Gilster line into a dominant force in the Great Lakes shipping industry. The story's starts off with a vivid and vibrant world that the reader can easily immerse themselves in. The quote above taken from the prologue neatly captures Kirckof's ability to create suspense and elicit excitement from her readers. Unfortunately this same sense of suspense, excitement and intrigue is not maintained throughout the entire novel.

The story contained in Great Lakes is too big for just one book. Consequently the pacing of the story is all over the place. To give you a sense of what I am talking about, the first eight chapters covered a span of two years. In these chapters characters were well developed with Kirckof exploring the potential for both good and bad to be present in both protagonists and antagonists alike. This is particularly evident in the main villain of this section, Jacobus Bigelow, who demonstrates can both ruthlessly cruel and unwaveringly loyal. The next eight chapters covers a span of forty-five years, with the final seven chapters spanning a period of eighty years. In these last two-thirds of the book character development is diminished with the antagonists becoming one- dimensional evil villains and many side characters becoming exact replicas of their predecessors. And whilst the main protagonists did receive some development to distinguish them from their parents, this only further highlighted the lack of personalities in all other characters.

As said earlier though,a lot of this is caused by having a story that is just too large for a single book. The author would've been better to have focused solely on the story of Harlan Perrin, going into greater detail, the struggles that he and his wife, Victoria Gilster, faced in establishing a dominant shipping company on the Great Lakes. The story of their children and grandchildren could have each been given their own book allowing this section of the story to be fleshed out.

If I was to judge this book solely on the first eight chapters, I would have rated it between a two and a three. However, the rest of the book brings it down and I subsequently am giving it a rating of two out of four. The story has a lot of potential, and if the pacing had been better, it would have been a very enjoyable book. However, as it stands, it can be difficult to follow the story reducing overall enjoyment. Overall, this book is worth reading for its potential, but expect to get frustrated at times.

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Great Lakes
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[chytach18-]

To write a successful family saga, the writer has to learn from the classics, such as Tolstoy or Marquez. Nice review, Chrislock.

[kimmyschemy06]

The first family saga I read was the 'Kent Family Chronicles' by John Jakes. It consists of 8 books. A few of them are long ones. So, I think I would agree with you about this as 'a story that is just too large for a single book'.

[Paliden]

Family sagas are definitely difficult. I agree that it is difficult to fit a saga into one book, unless it is a seriously long book.