Review of Sip Lake

[Sharmeen Farooquu]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Sip Lake" by joseph basara.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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Occurring during the summer of 1977, Sip Lake is a story of Owen Clouds in his late twenties who is still trying to figure out his life. It is a first person narrative of his move to a new town and a new job as an orderly at a hospital where he meets people that somehow influence his life. Be it doctors, patients or three women who leave him at times doubting himself and wishing he was more than just a red headed simple looking man.

Joseph Basara takes us on a very detailed journey of an ordinary diffident person whose mind wanders from one thing to another, who breaks out into songs and tries his hand at humour now and then and usually ends up with people not understanding him. It is an extremely relatable and sweet story about friendships but also unhealthy attachments.

The book focuses a lot on the interior psychology and observations about the everyday existence of the main character which makes it very slow paced and that is what I disliked. It is also a lot more atmosphere driven than plot or character driven and it requires quite some patience to read. Also, at a point, quite a number of characters are introduced which got overwhelming and confusing. Some of them had no impact on the character than just being. In Sip Lake its not that nothing happens but that so many things are happening which makes it difficult to summarize.

Although the book is slow paced, Joseph has written it in a way that I wanted to read till the end to know what would happen to Owen Clouds. The way it has a true to life story feeling is what I particularly enjoyed. How the characters behaved and the situations they are put in are very close to real life. Another aspect I liked about the book is how Joe dwells on the life of the working class people and how important they are. Similarly our main character’s understanding and empathy with people who live through struggle and tragedy is heart touching.

I will rate this book 2 out of 4 stars because even though it was slow paced, the ending was extremely rushed and predictable as if to just finish the story while leaving many questions unanswered.I would recommend this book to people who get swept up by emotion of the interior life of characters instead of action packed, fictional and high-octane storylines. People who enjoy a book they can relate to would be great readers for this book.

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Sip Lake
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