Kit's Law

Set in a remote Newfoundland village in the 1950s, this beautiful first novel balances raunchy folk humour, riveting suspense and family tragedy with a young girl's profound first love. Fourteen-year-old Kit Pitman lives in a weather-beaten coastal cottage with her mentally disabled mother, Josie, and her fiercely protective grandmother, Nan (Lizzie)--a "shadow big enough to blot out all of Haire's Hollow." Both childlike and sexually promiscuous, Josie scandalizes the villagers, but Nan holds the family together until her abrupt death. When a group of locals tries to place Kit into foster care, she fights to keep her beloved gully-side home; with few friends, she cherishes quiet and isolation. Household help comes from her ailing aunt, show more Drucie, and from the reverend's son, Sid, with whom Kit falls deeply in love as the plot accelerates to a thriller's pace. Kit and Sid's ultimately doomed affair is unraveled first by a violent act of self-defense and then by impossible family secrets. With a poet's attention to sound, Morrissey combines wonderful, rich characters and compelling family intrigue with a powerful, almost meditative sense of place. Startling, vivid, and expertly crafted, this novel introduces an exciting writer whose career needs to be followed closely. show less

Donna Morrissey's first novel is just breathtaking. The writing is so good, the storyline is mesmerizing and the action rarely lets go. Morrissey has a talent for developing fully rounded characters and her descriptions bring the small Newfoundland coastal town to life.
I was a bit nervous about reading this one as the blurbs on the cover made it sound so grim and disturbing, but I found that although Kit lives a tough life, and things rarely work out for her, she does have allies and people who love her and are there for her. This is a novel that will stick with me. Highly recommended!

Unlike a lot of Canadian fiction, this one is about not leaving home although home is far from perfect. A girl comes of age in Newfoundland when her grandmother dies and she is left coping with her retarded mother and a hostile town. Library Book.

There's such a grace and charm to this book. I certainly plan on looking up more of her work!

I enjoyed this book about three generations of women in New Foundland.

One complaint-- after reading the back cover text, I knew one of the central plot points after reading only the first paragraph of the book. That predictability was a bit disappointing but otherwise, a good read.

Another book on the trials and tribulations of a prococious child stuck in a Newfoundland outport. I found this book boring and the character annoying and unbelievable.

Excellent. Good story line. Nfld setting.