Poignant family drama as crises aplenty open up the path to forgiveness for the troubled MacKinnons.
The Ice House is a multifaceted family drama centred on a family in crises as circumstances conspire to leave fifty-three-year-old Scottish born protagonist, Johnny MacKinnon, on the brink of losing his livelihood and contemplating a bleak medical prognosis. Faced with potentially a final opportunity to heal rifts and make some difficult decisions, Laura Lee Smith serves up a sprawling look at the lives of those surrounding the man, from Johnny’s estranged thirty-year-old son, Corran, to the employees on the floor of the ice factory he and locally born second wife, Pauline, own and run. Full of insights, honesty and stunningly well-observed, a cast of flawed characters with regrets and compassion aplenty combine to make for a steadily engrossing and truly memorable story.
Johnny and Pauline MacKinnon have owned Bold City Ice plant for the past two decades that were set in motion when young Scot, Johnny, left his native home to pursue lucrative employment at an ice factory in Florida. Finding love with the bosses daughter, Pauline, and eventually marrying into the family business, the couple remain instrumental to the functioning of the factory, located in the run-down, predominantly black and deprived neighbourhood of Little Silver, Jacksonville. Leaving work to return to their comfortable home on Watchers Island, the outlook should be fairly optimistic for the couple, but with the ice plant facing an appeal against devastating fines following a claim of negligence after an ammonia gas leak and Johnny diagnosed with a potentially cancerous brain tumour, it presents perhaps a final opportunity for Johnny to make peace with his estranged only son whom he left behind in Scotland. A near year long war of silence has endured since Pauline’s ring went missing after Corran stayed with the couple following his third relapse into heroin addiction and a spell in rehab funded by remortgaging the MacKinnon home. Despite amicably divorced Johnny’s first wife back in Scotland, Sharon, attesting to Corran’s sobriety and Pauline’s urging, his obdurate nature has seen Johnny holding out for an apology which might never come.
When Johnny is forced to take a leave of absence from the ice floor and avoid stress ahead of brain surgery he uses the time as an opportunity to travel to Scotland with his zany teenage neighbour acting as chauffeur in a last ditch bid to salvage his relationship with Corran and meet granddaughter, Lucy. As the oddball duo descend on good-natured, straight-forward Sharon, she too is fighting fires including managing her second husbands increasingly foggy memory. As Smith delves into the chequered backstory of Corran she presents an insight into his grievances with a father whom he feels has moved on to a new life and turned his back on the harsh realities of life on the other side of the pond. Smith’s realistic insight into Corran’s daily battle with heroin is movingly authentic and makes evident the struggle not to relapse therefore casting his character in a sympathetic light.
Leaving Pauline to handle the impending appeal and worry of her husband travelling given the chances of a seizure, Johnny’s journey opens up the path for Pauline to overcome her own regrets and drill down into the lives of two of Bold City Ice’s most invested employees, lead engineer, Roy Grassi and Pauline’s assistant and best friend, Claire Kaplan. Smith’s cast are beautifully drawn and very real people facing a series of relatable issues as they navigate the trials and tribulations of daily life. From financial hardship to missed opportunities, old age and protecting those that we love, each of the central characters have their own dilemmas to contend with and with the fate of the ice plant hanging in the balance it sees them all take stock.
The novel is something of a slow starter as the set-up takes a while to be fleshed out in enough detail to become involving, but the animated characters leap from the page, immediately drawing the readers into their lives. From the disparity between the hardship of life for the community in Little Silver with the relative opulence of the MacKinnon’s, to the raw winds and cold of the Scottish coast with the stifling heat and drone of the cicadas in Florida, it is these contrasts which are the backdrop to a story about meeting in the middle and letting bygones be bygone. Likewise, the evolving character arcs open up the opportunity to recognise the similarities between Johnny and his similarly stubborn son and unfocused Chemal and Corran prior to becoming a father himself.
The Ice House is on the lengthy side given the central focus on Johnny recognising the importance of resolving the tensions and animosity between he and his only son, Corran. Whilst other characters do face their own crossroads, such as Pauline’s regret at never becoming a mother and her relationship with her bigoted father, Packy Knight, they feel like a sideshow to the overarching Johnny-Corran thread. For such a vast story I would have appreciated a more well-rounded look at not only Pauline, but loyal Bold City Ice employee Roy Grassi and misunderstood misfit neighbour, Chemal. I was also disappointed by what felt like a hasty conclusion with rather too neat solutions to the multitude of problems swiftly emerging. However, overall The Ice House is a witty, heartfelt look at a family reflecting and reconnecting, and is a literary story full of contentious discussion points. Readers irked by the presence of dialect may find Smith’s novel hard to contend with but, for the most part, the writing is vividly descriptive and full of humane observations on life’s obstacles. An absorbing, genuinely touching and quietly profound drama that emphasises the importance of family life.
With thanks to Readers First who provided me with a free copy of this novel in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.
Johnny and Pauline MacKinnon have owned Bold City Ice plant for the past two decades that were set in motion when young Scot, Johnny, left his native home to pursue lucrative employment at an ice factory in Florida. Finding love with the bosses daughter, Pauline, and eventually marrying into the family business, the couple remain instrumental to the functioning of the factory, located in the run-down, predominantly black and deprived neighbourhood of Little Silver, Jacksonville. Leaving work to return to their comfortable home on Watchers Island, the outlook should be fairly optimistic for the couple, but with the ice plant facing an appeal against devastating fines following a claim of negligence after an ammonia gas leak and Johnny diagnosed with a potentially cancerous brain tumour, it presents perhaps a final opportunity for Johnny to make peace with his estranged only son whom he left behind in Scotland. A near year long war of silence has endured since Pauline’s ring went missing after Corran stayed with the couple following his third relapse into heroin addiction and a spell in rehab funded by remortgaging the MacKinnon home. Despite amicably divorced Johnny’s first wife back in Scotland, Sharon, attesting to Corran’s sobriety and Pauline’s urging, his obdurate nature has seen Johnny holding out for an apology which might never come.
When Johnny is forced to take a leave of absence from the ice floor and avoid stress ahead of brain surgery he uses the time as an opportunity to travel to Scotland with his zany teenage neighbour acting as chauffeur in a last ditch bid to salvage his relationship with Corran and meet granddaughter, Lucy. As the oddball duo descend on good-natured, straight-forward Sharon, she too is fighting fires including managing her second husbands increasingly foggy memory. As Smith delves into the chequered backstory of Corran she presents an insight into his grievances with a father whom he feels has moved on to a new life and turned his back on the harsh realities of life on the other side of the pond. Smith’s realistic insight into Corran’s daily battle with heroin is movingly authentic and makes evident the struggle not to relapse therefore casting his character in a sympathetic light.
Leaving Pauline to handle the impending appeal and worry of her husband travelling given the chances of a seizure, Johnny’s journey opens up the path for Pauline to overcome her own regrets and drill down into the lives of two of Bold City Ice’s most invested employees, lead engineer, Roy Grassi and Pauline’s assistant and best friend, Claire Kaplan. Smith’s cast are beautifully drawn and very real people facing a series of relatable issues as they navigate the trials and tribulations of daily life. From financial hardship to missed opportunities, old age and protecting those that we love, each of the central characters have their own dilemmas to contend with and with the fate of the ice plant hanging in the balance it sees them all take stock.
The novel is something of a slow starter as the set-up takes a while to be fleshed out in enough detail to become involving, but the animated characters leap from the page, immediately drawing the readers into their lives. From the disparity between the hardship of life for the community in Little Silver with the relative opulence of the MacKinnon’s, to the raw winds and cold of the Scottish coast with the stifling heat and drone of the cicadas in Florida, it is these contrasts which are the backdrop to a story about meeting in the middle and letting bygones be bygone. Likewise, the evolving character arcs open up the opportunity to recognise the similarities between Johnny and his similarly stubborn son and unfocused Chemal and Corran prior to becoming a father himself.
The Ice House is on the lengthy side given the central focus on Johnny recognising the importance of resolving the tensions and animosity between he and his only son, Corran. Whilst other characters do face their own crossroads, such as Pauline’s regret at never becoming a mother and her relationship with her bigoted father, Packy Knight, they feel like a sideshow to the overarching Johnny-Corran thread. For such a vast story I would have appreciated a more well-rounded look at not only Pauline, but loyal Bold City Ice employee Roy Grassi and misunderstood misfit neighbour, Chemal. I was also disappointed by what felt like a hasty conclusion with rather too neat solutions to the multitude of problems swiftly emerging. However, overall The Ice House is a witty, heartfelt look at a family reflecting and reconnecting, and is a literary story full of contentious discussion points. Readers irked by the presence of dialect may find Smith’s novel hard to contend with but, for the most part, the writing is vividly descriptive and full of humane observations on life’s obstacles. An absorbing, genuinely touching and quietly profound drama that emphasises the importance of family life.
With thanks to Readers First who provided me with a free copy of this novel in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.