Dark Family Secret Leads to Tragedy in Novelist Arnold Logan’s Springtime in Lawrence Park

Marie Barnacle should have had the perfect life. Born into wealth and prestige, she grew up in posh Lawrence Park, with its winding roads, stone mansions, and old money. But Marie’s charmed life is haunted by a dark family secret.

“…at once intellectual, literate, weirdly funny, and unsettling.… Logan sketches the raw underbelly of Toronto’s quasi-aristocrats in merciless, jarring fashion.” –Kirkus Reviews

The youngest child of Raul and Tabitha Barnacle, Marie Doreé is burdened by her parents’ attempt to burnish the faded glory of their dynasty. She and her siblings must cope with an overbearing father filled with rage and an equally domineering mother.  This dark satire follows Marie through her troubled childhood, rebellious adolescence, and her efforts to establish a life beyond the reach of her domineering parents and possessive brothers. She traipses from one unfulfilling career to the next and drifts through a series of dalliant affairs. When she finds a love that offers a real escape, Marie’s family tightens the noose. The Barnacles will do anything to protect their darling — even destroy her.

Springtime in Lawrence Park offers readers a cast of characters at once unusual but at the same time all too familiar and a skillfully drawn plot whose climatic ending will leave readers shocked but satisfied.

A social novel in the tradition of Balzac and Zola, Springtime in Lawrence Park appears past the veneer of a most dignified neighborhoods to explore the hidden — and often hysterical — lives of the decadent elite.

About Arnold Logan

Arnold Logan was born in North Toronto. He went from boarding school in England to working on Seven Ontario dairy farms, from fibreglass factories to horseback riding with the King of the Nepal. He studied at Innis College, University of Toronto, and lived abroad for many years. Springtime in Lawrence Park is his first novel.