To Be Sung Underwater

Aug 28, 2011 Teresa Lukey rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, made-me-cry, made-me-feel-good, must-share-with-friends, my-absolute-fav-s, 2011-top-10, 5-stars

At its heart, this is a love story-first love to be exact, but it also touches on elements of growing up, the intricacies of marriage and past regrets. The start of this book is like the casting of a line. Almost immediately you snag something delicate, then you begin to very slowly reel the line in. As you reel the line in, you know the line is there but it winks in and out of sight, but, again, you always know it is there.

I can't remember the last time I felt so perfectly cradled in the crook...more

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Jul 17, 2012 Marialyce rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: july-2012

Can one ever forget their first love? Should one go back and try to find that love and see what just might happen?

This occurs in this novel which brought about so many emotions and feelings that touched me deeply and soulfully. The story deals with the blandness of marriage, the longing for something of long ago, and the ability to try and recapture the moments that thrilled and excited our protagonists, Willy and Judith. Judith seems haunted by a number of ghosts: is her husband having an aff...more Can one ever forget their first love? Should one go back and try to find that love and see what just might happen?

This occurs in this novel which brought about so many emotions and feelings that touched me deeply and soulfully. The story deals with the blandness of marriage, the longing for something of long ago, and the ability to try and recapture the moments that thrilled and excited our protagonists, Willy and Judith. Judith seems haunted by a number of ghosts: is her husband having an affair, does she still love her old boyfriend, does she have any kind of life or is she caught in that automaton reality of raising a child, working, and being unfulfilled? ...and Willy, what has become of him?

Not many of us get that second chance to go back and I think the fascination with this lyrical novel is just that, Judith does go back. Willy, adorable and delightful in his youth, can not compete with the lure of Judith's going away to school and becoming something. He was easy to fall in love with and yet Judith left him. I loved how at one point near the book's conclusion he tells Judith..I was a chapter in your book of life while for me you were the entire book. Thinking back on this novel, as I have done since I finished and even dreamt about it, I find I have to believe that it is so, that one person as a couple or in a marriage, loves more than the other. Perhaps Mr McNeal believes this too as we see Willy become consumed by his love for Judith so much so that it seems to forever govern his life with heartbreak.

One wants very much for them to rekindle that young love. How fitting that we pretty much always want that happy ending, that riding off into the sunset together conclusion. This ending will break your heart and leave you with an abject sense of sadness and perhaps even melancholy. Perhaps, too, we really can never go home again.

For all of us who strive to be the book in someone's life, this was an excellent story, a story of true devotion and limitless love.(less)

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Jun 23, 2012 Laura rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Laura by: Markus Zusak

Shelves: marriage, lib-has-audio, library, 12-brilliants-in-12, 2012

A tremendous read, something that will stay with me for quite some time. This one grabbed me from the first page. The prologue made me say "Whaaaaaa?" and I was sucked right in, with some big questions from the start.

The book transitions from past to present, which are somehow equally compelling. You may not love the protagonist, but you can't help but be interested in her. She's pretty complex, and as the story unfolds, her motivations become easier to understand and relate to.

The book examine...more

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Mar 03, 2013 Suzanne Moore rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ashe-winter-challenge, romance, love-and-loss

This was a long, three-part story told by alternating chapters between the past and present. The main character is Judith Whitman who finds her life becoming less and less what she had first imagined. Of course there was a moment in time when she changed gears … now looking back she wonders if she did the right thing. She reminiscences about her first love and even creates an alternate identity to help her find him again. Willy Blunt has spent the last twenty-seven years holding on to memories a...more

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Nov 24, 2012 Andy Miller rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This novel has gotten great critical acclaim, but it left me empty. The story goes back and forth from Judith's high school years in a small Nebraska town and present day where she lives in southern California with her banker husband and only child while she works as a television film editor.

The flashbacks are more interesting, partly because Judith's dad and mother were interesting....Present day Judith and her husband not so much.Unless whining about your life is interesting.

I'm in a minority...more

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Feb 06, 2013 Cook Memorial Public Library rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: love-stories, book-club-book

"It is the first shower that wets."

"Marriage is like picking the place where you're going to live for the next fifty years by using a wall map, a blind fold, and what you really, truly, deeply believe is your lucky dart."

"Our marriage, like all marriages, was happy until it wasn't."

Judith was living the dream and had the sort of marriage to Malcolm she had envisioned for herself during her college years at Stanford. Her life was settled and serene, until a little 'swerve' occurred which she mi...more

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Jan 01, 2013 Lena rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

This novel about a 40-something LA film editor whose thoughts begin drifting back to the summer she loved a Nebraska farm boy gets off to a promising start. It was recommended to me for the quality of the writing, and I was in fact impressed with McNeal's lovely, carefully crafted prose. I was also drawn into the thoughtfully developed characters - not just the main character, Judith, but also her parents, who were struggling to deal with the impacts of their choices in a rapidly changing world....more This novel about a 40-something LA film editor whose thoughts begin drifting back to the summer she loved a Nebraska farm boy gets off to a promising start. It was recommended to me for the quality of the writing, and I was in fact impressed with McNeal's lovely, carefully crafted prose. I was also drawn into the thoughtfully developed characters - not just the main character, Judith, but also her parents, who were struggling to deal with the impacts of their choices in a rapidly changing world.

If the first part of the book hadn't been so well done, perhaps I would be less critical of the major missteps the author makes in the middle and at the end.

(view spoiler)

While I get what McNeal was going for in this book and admire his ability to craft beautiful prose, I'm stunned he had such a tin ear towards his characters in the second half of the book, especially after he demonstrated such acute sensitivity towards them in the first. For me, it's more of a two-star book, but I'm bumping it up since I really did admire the prose, and suspect I may be overly harsh in my judgements because of the high standard he set for himself.(less)

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Aug 15, 2012 Sherry rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was a lovely book. It offered complex characters in complex, real-life situations. They weren't entirely sympathetic and they seemed very real. The combination of flashback and present tense was effective and kept my interest. The protagonist, Judith, was intelligent and introspective, lost and confused. In a very real world way she finds herself looking at her life and wondering how she got here and why it isn't satisfying. It's a look at love and life, opportunities made and missed, and t...more

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Jul 31, 2012 Jennifer rated it 4 of 5 stars

a couple of takeaways from this book:

1. judith is having a mid-life crisis. she doesn't feel passionate about her marriage; she is stressed out at work; she is semi-alienated from her teenage daughter. with this context, it is understandable that she begins to long for a time in her life when she was happier, felt more free and alive.

2. when peoples' first experiences with love are cut short before the passion wanes, they always idealize the first love. we remember every thrilling detail--the co...more

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Jul 31, 2012 MyBookAffair rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If it is a great summer read that you are looking for, then look no further than 'To be Sung Underwater', by Tom McNeal. It tells the story of Judith Whitman, an unhappily married mother of one who suddenly does not feel that she belongs in her own house any more. Her family has outgrown her, her husband is having an affair, her teenage daughter is embarrassed by her. So, she sets up home in a storage facility and makes up a new identity for herself.
I suppose we can all relate to the desire to...more

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Jun 06, 2012 Ellen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"It is the first shower that wets."

"Marriage is like picking the place where you're going to live for the next fifty years by using a wall map, a blind fold, and what you really, truly, deeply believe is your lucky dart."

"Our marriage, like all marriages, was happy until it wasn't"

Judith was living the dream and had the sort of marriage to Malcolm she had envisioned for herself during her college years at Stanford. Her life was settled and serene, until a little 'swerve' occurred which she mig...more

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May 13, 2012 Amy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Who hasn’t wondered about the decisions made in the past? The person were once were when we were becoming adults? How we ended up in the situations we find ourselves in? These are the questions that face Judith Whitman in the brilliant novel, To Be Sung Underwater by Tom McNeal. Judith, at forty-four, is a film editor, mother of teenage daughter Camilla, and wife of Malcolm, a banker that may or may not be having an affair with his assistant. As the trials and tribulations of Judith’s everyday l...more

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May 12, 2012 Candace rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

To Be Sung Underwater, by Tom McNeal, is a moving story about a middle aged women and what has come of her life. Judith is a wife, mother, but most importantly a career women. Working in Hollywood as a television show editor, Judy puts in long hours at work and lives what others might call a perfect life. She has a handsome banker husband, a beautiful and smart daughter, and an impressive Hollywood career.

Unbeknownst to those looking in, Judy has recently come to question her husband's fidelity...more To Be Sung Underwater, by Tom McNeal, is a moving story about a middle aged women and what has come of her life. Judith is a wife, mother, but most importantly a career women. Working in Hollywood as a television show editor, Judy puts in long hours at work and lives what others might call a perfect life. She has a handsome banker husband, a beautiful and smart daughter, and an impressive Hollywood career.

Unbeknownst to those looking in, Judy has recently come to question her husband's fidelity as well as her detached relationship with her daughter, Camille. Judy finds herself at a crossroads while renting a storage unit for her childhood furniture. Instead of giving the storage company her true name Judy writes down an alias. She then spirals rather quickly into a life where she finds herself retreating to her storage space in order to dwell in the past and relive past regrets, namely regarding her first love, Willy. When Judy's mother finds out about her secret, she pointedly says, "I think you're trying to run away from home but don't know how to do it."

As I started reading To Be Sung Underwater it quickly pulled me in and then refused to allow me to put it down. I really enjoyed how the novel switched back and forth between Judy's teenage life in Nebraska and her present life in L.A. Tom McNeal effortlessly exhibited how Judy developed and grew into an adult and how she lived as that adult.

I felt that the character of Willy was very realistic and likeable. From the style that he dressed in, to the way he spoke, Willy was a great 3 dimensional character. Judy views Willy as the man she never really left behind. Judy thinks fondly of Willy and comes to realize that not only was he her first love, but quite possibly her one true love. McNeal shows what can unfold when second chances are presented and the past makes its way into the present.

McNeal did an excellent job in creating a special relationship between Judy and her father. A summer trip to visit him in Nebraska turned into a permanent situation when Judy realized that his house and town felt more like home than her childhood home with her mother. Judy discovered a friend in her quiet father and enjoyed the time spent with him, be it driving around country roads, weeding the garden, reading aloud from novels, or doing homework at the same table that he graded papers. While they may not have spoken much, Judy found comfort and familiarity in their silence.

I thought that McNeal did a terrific job painting the setting in To Be Sung Underwater. As the story unfolded I could perfectly visualize Nebraska, along with Judy and Willy's hangouts. McNeal gave life to the lakes, back roads, little towns, and storage unit. This helped To Be Sung Underwater feel profoundly realistic.

Tom McNeal's, To Be Sung Underwater, is an excellent novel which I would without a doubt read again. I definitely recommend this novel to book lovers, both male and female. This complimentary book was received for the purpose of review from the publisher Little, Brown and Company and BookPleasures.com.
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Apr 12, 2012 Luane rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A forgettable story about young love and the midlife pining for what could have been. Judith is the wronged wife who sequesters herself (quite literally in a storage unit) in the memory of a love that supposedly you'd uproot yourself for. Funny thing is, she didn't. So how fantastic could it really have been, especially considering that they were inebriated during their profound moments of togetherness? Their love wasn't all that exciting either. It was rather boring and ordinary. But perhaps th...more A forgettable story about young love and the midlife pining for what could have been. Judith is the wronged wife who sequesters herself (quite literally in a storage unit) in the memory of a love that supposedly you'd uproot yourself for. Funny thing is, she didn't. So how fantastic could it really have been, especially considering that they were inebriated during their profound moments of togetherness? Their love wasn't all that exciting either. It was rather boring and ordinary. But perhaps that was the point...to view life from the point of view of ordinary people. Some young Midwestern girl who finds love but makes the choice to move on to the fancy west coast college and leave the small town boy. Then many years later finds herself as a successful Hollywood film editor in a dull marriage to a man who may be having an affair and bemoans her relationship with an emotionally distant daughter. An interesting discovery that somehow instead of making her face the truth in her relationships spurs her to become even less present and leads her down that road that we all know rarely makes anyone involved happy. She seeks out Willy, the hard working, cowboy boot wearing, definately-not-Stanford-material bloke whom she left behind. And boy is he ready for her return! The last part of the novel, although laboriously slow and much too sweet and contrived for reality, was the reason for the third star. It was a just ending that actually made me think and wonder. Not too much mind you, but enough that it made for good book club conversation.

Bottom line is that this was a sappy story that read almost like a trash novel but still managed to allow me to ponder the what ifs in life even if I had no sympathy for the characters. The highlight was the relationship between Judith and her father. But the early promise of that chapter was quickly lost to the mundane introspections of a rather self absorbed woman. Maybe I like characters to have a real flair for something or a novel with real purpose or a strong captivating story, none of which were evident in this book, so overall it was just okay.(less)

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Jan 28, 2012 Steve lovell rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Sometimes we daydream back to past loves and wonder ‘what if’. It is natural, it is human to meditate on what could have happened if that girlfriend/lover/wife/mistress/ whatever had not drifted/blazed out of one’s life – had the relationship continued on, where would we be now. If all is fine in the present moment these warm whimsies pass, but if existence is barely bearable then such notions may not remain so tucked away.

The sad feature of ‘To Be Sung Underwater’ is that it had to end – always...more
Sometimes we daydream back to past loves and wonder ‘what if’. It is natural, it is human to meditate on what could have happened if that girlfriend/lover/wife/mistress/ whatever had not drifted/blazed out of one’s life – had the relationship continued on, where would we be now. If all is fine in the present moment these warm whimsies pass, but if existence is barely bearable then such notions may not remain so tucked away.

The sad feature of ‘To Be Sung Underwater’ is that it had to end – always the mark of a classy novel. Here you wish that the refound love would go on and on, and we could vicariously follow its progress. In my sunny nook I could quite happily, white wine within reach, have become lost in its narrative for at least a couple of hundred or so more pages. Like many of its effusive reviewers, this reader fell in love with the book’s Nebraskan summery-ness. I became captivated for hour after hour by Willy Blunt – his country boy homespun-ity, his tales, his capabilities, jokiness, his flashes of violence – but above all his heart-on-the-sleeve love for Judith.

Judith Whitman, nee Toomey, is the focus of the novel, living the LA lifestyle with bland banker Malcolm – the hubby who was maybe/maybe not cheating on her. When you’ve had a Willy, why would you ever take up with a Malcolm, so it gradually dawns on Judith that there is very much something missing in her being. She therefore sets about turning the ‘what if’ into actuality. This for her produces an answer that is surprising on several levels – sadly poignant, almost ‘Sparkesian’, and all too soon final.

Willy Blunt shines leaving Judith, Malcolm and other lesser characters in his shade. Judith’s father, Dr Toomey, a small town academic is the other ‘winner’ for this reader. As with Malcolm, we are not quite given the ‘full story’ of his secret world at once – McNeal cleverly ekes out the information. Like many of us, he has had to adjust to a life that has not met earlier expectations – a life that to the outside observer could be read as disappointing. As with Willy, the sincerity of his love for Judith is a given and adds much to the allure of the tome.

Yes, this book is indeed ‘ravishing’ to borrow another reviewer’s apt word, And Willy Blunt will remain in my mind long after the details of his great love, with time, turns to haze
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Dec 15, 2011 Virginia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club

I honestly cannot figure out if I loved this book or hated it. I became engaged in the story and yet found it familiar. I liked the main character, Judith, as a little girl and teen, but really disliked her as an adult. I still haven't decided if her teenage love, Willy, was a good guy or a conniving underhanded sneak.

The story involves a film editor named Judith who lived in California, but spent her teenage years living with her lovely father (a totally likable character) in Nebraska after he...more

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Nov 19, 2011 Susan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I have a good friend - scientist, fisherman, pragmatist and dashing world traveller - who absolutely loves The Bridges of Madison County. He'll get misty eyed about it even in the face of ridicule from his supposedly good friends. To Be Sung Underwater might be my Bridges of Madison County. This means I acknowledge the book is filled with romantic cliches, unbelievable coincidences and an unrealistic lovers' reunion...but I loved it anyway. It is a novel about the "One Who Got Away." How many of...more

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Nov 13, 2011 Jean rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There are no surprises in this beautifully written story of the well-worn cliched road not taken.

" For you, I was a chapter - a good chapter maybe, or even your favourite chapter,but,still,just a chapter - and for me, you were the book" is what Willy tells Judith 27 years after she abandoned him in Nebraska to pursue an ambition that extended beyond what Willy could offer her.Willy did not fit in with the life that she had planned for herself.
Now Judith is forty four and her life has hit a swerv...more There are no surprises in this beautifully written story of the well-worn cliched road not taken.

" For you, I was a chapter - a good chapter maybe, or even your favourite chapter,but,still,just a chapter - and for me, you were the book" is what Willy tells Judith 27 years after she abandoned him in Nebraska to pursue an ambition that extended beyond what Willy could offer her.Willy did not fit in with the life that she had planned for herself.
Now Judith is forty four and her life has hit a swerve.Her banker husband Malcolm, may or may not be having an affair. She does not know if she loves her teenage daughter Camille, though she feels that she probably once did.And no matter how many hours she puts in at the studio where she works as a film editor, it is never enough and she falls more and more behind in her work.

Judith's back story as the teenager who falls for carpenter Willy's easy smile and pale blue eyes (not to mention his vocabulary!) is very cleverly weaved into her present life.
Her parents are separated and Judith,disillusioned with her mothers change of character - for one thing her mother stops wearing a bra and starts borrowing her clothes - spends her summer holidays with her father who has moved to a small town in Nebraska. She wants to effect a reconciliation so that things can return to the normality that she knows.It is here that she meets William Blunt.

Meanwhile, back at the present-time ranch, Judith - firmly in the grip of a mid-life crises adopts a secret identity and rents a storage garage where she goes to be alone and re-live the memories of her "Summer Of Willy"
And then the moment comes when after a brief phone call during which Willy enigmatically tells her that she has to come to him immediately, she packs a hasty bag, tells everyone she is off to visit her sick mother who has conveniently moved to Mexico and flies into what she presumably thought would be Willy's muscled arms.
Tom McNeal is a masterful wordsmith - his writing is smart without being flowery and he tells the story with humour;he also has the ability to interest the reader enough to care about the characters. (less)

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Nov 02, 2011 Banafsheh Serov rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The first time we fall in love, lasts forever.

Love is complex. It can uplift spirits and it can bring them crashing to the ground. Traversing between Vermont and Nebraska where her parents have separated to, Judith meets and falls in love with Willy Blunt. They separate, promising to wait for one another when she leaves for college. But now Judith is introduced to a different world and has new sets of friend. She meets Malcolm and consciously starts to let go of her past; starts to let go of Wi...more The first time we fall in love, lasts forever.

Love is complex. It can uplift spirits and it can bring them crashing to the ground. Traversing between Vermont and Nebraska where her parents have separated to, Judith meets and falls in love with Willy Blunt. They separate, promising to wait for one another when she leaves for college. But now Judith is introduced to a different world and has new sets of friend. She meets Malcolm and consciously starts to let go of her past; starts to let go of Willy and the promises she made him.

In her mid-forties, Judith is living in California. She is married to Malcolm and together they have an intelligent teenage daughter. In her career, she's a successful film editor and puts in long hours to meet deadlines. By all counts, Judith has everything a modern career woman aspires to in the 21st-century. But Judith is not happy. She suspects her husband is having an affair; her daughter behaves distant and she feels threatened by the new breed of ambitious editors gunning for her job. As Judith becomes more disillusioned with her life, her thoughts return to happier days. And to Willy Blunt. At this point the author raises the philosophical question: if you had the chance to reunite with your first love, would you do it?

For Judith it means returning to Nebraska and track down Willy Blunt. Here we are asked whether two people ever love equally. In Nebraska, Judith discovers Willy shrunken by life. Married with two sons, he has never forgotten Judith. Alone in the log cabin he has built, he confesses to her these poignant words.

For you, I was a chapter-a good chapter, maybe, or even your favorite chapter, but still, just a chapter-and for me, you were the book.

Although To Be Sung Under Water has all the ingredients of a sweet and tender love story, and although McNeal's writing is staggering, I could not find myself being drawn to the story or the characters. I understand that there are loves that never leave our hearts; feelings that no amount of time or distance can erode. But I failed to understand Judith. She has a comfortable life. Her suspicions over her husband's infidelity are unfounded and her relationship with her daughter can be resolved if she spends less time holing herself in her past and more time with her.

I had high expectations from To Be Sung Under Water. I really hoped to fall in love, to swoon and be heart sick over the unrequited love. But in the end, the story failed to connect with me.(less)

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Oct 05, 2011 Bess rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Do you remember the football quarterback that was the most popular person in high school? In his 20's he still wore the letterman jacket & in his 30's & 40"s was resigned to reliving the "big game" at the bar with his bartender as his #1 fan?

This book was tragic and self absorbed in that same way. People who couldn't get past an event or didn't realize the importance of an event until it was too late. I was surpirsed by the father's philandering that was revealed since he was characteri...more

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Sep 10, 2011 Elizabeth rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This novel by Tom McNeal is about Judith, a young woman who, when her parents divorce, moves from Vermont to a small college town in Nebraska where her father is a professor. It is also about Willy, a young man she "abandoned, and yet never quite left behind."
The story is about two worlds: the surface and what lies beneath the surface; the present and the past; the world Judith finds herself in when she reaches a mid-life crisis, and the world she longs for.
Judith lives in Los Angeles with her...more

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Sep 05, 2011 Bookworm rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What a great find To Be Sung Underwater has turned out to be. With it's wonderful writing, moving storyline and dynamic characters, this was one of those books that I lost myself in for a few days.

One summer, while living in Nebraska with her father, Judith Toomey met and fell in love with a carpenter named Willy Blunt.
When she left for college, she promised him she would return and marry him. Instead, Judith wound up meeting and marrying a banker named Malcom and has a daughter named Camille....more What a great find To Be Sung Underwater has turned out to be. With it's wonderful writing, moving storyline and dynamic characters, this was one of those books that I lost myself in for a few days.

One summer, while living in Nebraska with her father, Judith Toomey met and fell in love with a carpenter named Willy Blunt.
When she left for college, she promised him she would return and marry him. Instead, Judith wound up meeting and marrying a banker named Malcom and has a daughter named Camille. She never returned to her lost love in Nebraska.

Now twenty seven years later, Judith has never forgotten Willy. Memories of him intertwine with her everyday life. For a while, she'd call his house then hang up when his mother answered. She still keeps his photo in her wallet.
The story flashes back from the summer when Judith was in love with Willy and living in Nebraska, to her current day life as a film editor.
In her current life, Judith has good reason to believe that her husband Malcom is cheating on her. She wonders if she herself has fallen out of love with him.

Judith came from a broken home, her parents having divorced when she was a teen. I liked reading the flashbacks of Judith and her father. He would read her Pride & Prejudice and Judith would ask him if she would ever be like Elizabeth Bennett. Judith decided to stay with her father permanently as the two had a close bond.

Reading about Judith and Willy made me think those two were meant to be together. Their love story just drew me in. Their first date is the simple and romantic kind that just makes the reader sigh. The Nebraska setting for their summer love was perfect and I could easily envision the sights and sounds during their private rendezvous in the Adirondack-like mountains.

I loved this novel. To Be Sung Underwater will be on my top reads for 2011. This is the kind of story that begs to be discussed and one that you reflect on long after the last page is turned.

I think this book would make for a great movie as well. There is romance, heartache and drama weaved within the story and I found it hard to put down.
Another thing I like about this book is the cover. Isn't it serene looking? It fits the story perfectly.
To Be Sung Underwater was a wonderful read from cover to cover and I highly recommend it if you are looking for a good book to get lost in.

read my full review here
http://thebookworm07.blogspot.com/201...(less)

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Aug 14, 2011 Pearl rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"If we had to do it all again, would we? could we?"

There's the central question of the novel which I'm not sure is answered. And who knows the answer about the road not taken?

This is a very pastoral, romantic, lushly written novel that moves between past and present. The two central characters are Willy, a Nebraska farm boy and carpenter, and Judith, a New Englander who, as a young teenager, moved to Nebraska with her father when her parents separated and then to California to attend Stanford...more "If we had to do it all again, would we? could we?"

There's the central question of the novel which I'm not sure is answered. And who knows the answer about the road not taken?

This is a very pastoral, romantic, lushly written novel that moves between past and present. The two central characters are Willy, a Nebraska farm boy and carpenter, and Judith, a New Englander who, as a young teenager, moved to Nebraska with her father when her parents separated and then to California to attend Stanford and settle in Hollywood as a TV and film editor. In so choosing, she left behind the simple, pure, and intense joy of first love. To describe Willy as simply a farm boy and carpenter is not to do him justice, but you'll have to read the book to know him better.

When we meet Judith as an adult, she's in her early 40s, she's successful, she's married to an urbane, witty, considerate and successful banker, who loves her and who's good-looking to-boot. They have a teen-aged daughter and a maid. What could be wrong? Mid-life crisis? or, as she calls it, a swerve. When husband and daughter cast out Judith's old bird's eye maple bedroom set, she begins thinking about her past. The bedroom set was a family heirloom and we find Judith trying to save her past and then to re-create it. She rents a very large storage unit for the old bedroom set, sets it up, furnishes it with books and begin escaping to it as a refuge. It's not long before she begins longing to know what happened to her first love, Willy, but she has no idea where he is.

I don't want to give away the plot. But can you recapture the past? And, if you could, would you? In one scene Judith "loses" her watch but then it is returned to her, suggesting that time cannot be stopped even as the seasons cannot - the idyllic summer is turning in to a chilly fall.

It's a tender, poignant story that sometimes ALMOST slips in the realm of "chick lit," a term I dislike; but it really is much more than chick lit, much more multi-layered and much more beautifully written. The title itself is suggestive of so much. The characters are multi-dimensional and treated with tenderness. If you're looking for an action packed adventure, don't look here; but if you want to read a quietly compelling story, this would be a good book for you. I recommend it.

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Aug 12, 2011 Krystal rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Judith always believed in marriage. She has her dream job and a husband she considered nice enough. Now, she wonders if her husband is cheating on her and her thoughts continually drift to Willy, a boy she loved long ago. The novels switches between the past and the present. The reader will get a sense of what went on long ago and how Judith came to make her present choices. Judith is an interesting character, she is nice, caring, and overall "smart" in her choices...

The reader will get to know...more

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Jul 23, 2011 Jim rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, literature

Beautiful. Lyrical in its simple prose. Imagine if Hemingway were to write a novel that combines the best of THE HORSE WHISPERER with the best of THE NATURAL (in terms of relationships and destiny) and you might get a sense of this one. Willy Blunt was Judith Whitman's first love during her teenage years in Nebraska, where she had chosen to live with her college professor father after the breakup of her parents' marriage. But fate throws the young couple a late summer curve, and their plans go t...more

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Jul 07, 2011 Mary (BookHounds) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, arc, from-publisher-author

Judith has been married to Malcolm and begins to wonder if she married the right man. Her thoughts turn to Willy, the boy she left behind years ago. The story flips back and forth between the present and the years before when she first met Willy. The story flows easily between the two time periods and you can easily get a feel for how Judith has matured. She has a dream job editing films, a lovely home and a man she thinks might be cheating on her. The drama builds effortlessly and the words are...more

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Jul 05, 2011 drey rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011-reads, fiction-contemporary

Tom McNeal's To Be Sung Underwater isn't just a love story. It is a love story in the past, and a journey of angst and (re-?) discovery in the present. There's a lot of background here, and this is where I'll admit that I did not like Judith when I first meet her. In fact I definitely disliked her until we get past her first summer in Nebraska, visiting her father.

Then I felt a bit sorry for her. Her mother doesn't fit in. Her father's umpteen states away. She doesn't have friends. All this whil...more

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Jul 01, 2011 Brenda Casto rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"To Be Sung Underwater" revolves around Judith Tooney Whitman. She was a teen when her parents separated, her mother stayed in Vermont but her father took a job in Nebraska, and Judy decides to follow him. When she falls in love with Willy Blunt, she can easily see herself married to him, but when she is accepted to Stanford, things change, and theirs is a love lost. Fast forward twenty years and Judy is a successful film editor in California who seems to have it all, she married Malcolm Whitman...more

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Jun 13, 2011 Deb Carpenter rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This novel by Tom McNeal is about Judith, a young woman who, when her parents divorce, moves from Vermont to a small college town in Nebraska where her father is a professor. It is also about Willy, a young man she “abandoned, and yet never quite left behind.”

The story is about two worlds: the surface and what lies beneath the surface; the present and the past; the world Judith finds herself in when she reaches a mid-life crisis, and the world she longs for.

Judith lives in Los Angeles with her...more This novel by Tom McNeal is about Judith, a young woman who, when her parents divorce, moves from Vermont to a small college town in Nebraska where her father is a professor. It is also about Willy, a young man she “abandoned, and yet never quite left behind.”

The story is about two worlds: the surface and what lies beneath the surface; the present and the past; the world Judith finds herself in when she reaches a mid-life crisis, and the world she longs for.

Judith lives in Los Angeles with her husband of twenty years. She edits movies. The turning point or “swerve” in her life begins when her husband buys a new bedroom set for their daughter Camille and places the old set out by the pool. To Judy, this bedroom set is not just any furniture. It is a birds-eye maple bedroom set that has family history and a special significance to her.

Judith rents a storage unit and secretly reconstructs it to look like the room she had when she was a teen. She escapes her reality of editing movies and the façade of her marriage by thinking back to the simple joys of her high school years. She finds herself drawn to the storage unit, again and again losing track of all time while she naps peacefully on her birds-eye maple bed.

We quickly realize that Judith’s life in Los Angeles is superficial. Her musings about the high plains of Nebraska have the depth of simplicity. Her memories reveal who Judith really is beneath the surface. Those memories involve Willy, a young carpenter who ushered her into womanhood on the birds-eye maple bed and helped her appreciate the beauty of a sunset and his dream of a little acreage where he would one day create a small lake.

Judith’s transformation into an alternate world is so complete that she creates a new identity and hires a detective to find three friends from her past. Of course, one of them is Willy, the boy she left in Nebraska.
Tom McNeal, author of award winning “Goodnight, Nebraska,” spent part of every summer in Nebraska, at a farm where his mother was raised. To those of us familiar with the area, we recognize Rufus Sage as Chadron and are pleasantly startled to read references to Hemingford, Highway 385, Herman the Germans and other local places. I was not surprised, however, to realize that what matters most happens in small communities in America’s heartland, and not on either coast.

I wondered about the title of the book, but then I thought about when I was a kid, taking a bath, and I let my head rest on the bottom of the tub, ears completely submerged, nose above waterline. I remember singing and listening to how different the tune sounded underwater. I remember how the words and music were clear and pure and limited to the voice inside my own head. Those two worlds-- life on the surface and life beneath the surface—still mesmerize me and those same worlds are captured eloquently and reflectively by Tom McNeal.

Immerse yourself. This book is “to be sung underwater.”

by Deb Carpenter-Nolting

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Jun 08, 2011 Deborah rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: award-winning-author, family-dynamics, favorite-male-authors, latest-reads, men-would-enjoy, reviewer-book

I'm frankly so humbled and left lingering in the aftermath of Tom McNeal's writing that I hardly know how to express myself. A strange place for me; ask anyone who knows me!

Having just finished "To Be Sung Underwater" today, I find myself heart-weary and contemplative...much like I felt after reading Pat Conroy's "The Prince of Tides," though the story lines are nothing alike and the protagonists are far from the same. It's just the quality of how the books both reach something deep inside, some...more

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The Smart Chicks ...: To Be Sung Underwater	19	42	Aug 19, 2012 07:52am
pathological love	3	58	May 31, 2012 09:36am

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