Waterland
by Graham Swift
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Read in February, 2006
Waterland, published in 1983, is a semi-postmodern examination of the end of History, the trajectory of the promise of the Enlightenment. It is set in the 80's, but looks backwards through history, centering around 1943. It has three different plots: in the 40's, when the narrator Tom is a teenager, it tells of the death of another teenage boy and of the consequences of fooling around with curious Catholic schoolgirls (it sort of screams "DON'T HAVE PREMARITAL SEX! PREMARITAL SEX HAS...more
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Read in January, 2008
"Waterland" is a book I think I will quickly forget. The place is perhaps what will stay with me the most. The author, Swift, clearly did quite a bit of research on English waterways & the historical relevance of inner-waterway travel & commerce in 19th century England. So that was different. And there is also a weird relationship between nature & the people that inhabit this place that was mildly intriguing, although I never really put my finger on what that connection mea...more
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recommended to Maria by:
a professor @ BYU
So, I'm interested in stories about people who live near water...(don't ask; I have my theories). Hence, I read Waterland. It is not a light read. It is dark, damp (very puny of me, I know, but the word DOES accurately describe the tone of the novel), disturbing, and often downright disgusting, but it is very interesting. There is a light at the end of the tunnel-redemption of sorts. It might not be worth it to many, but it was to me. Although I thought this book was amazing in many respec...more
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Read in September, 1997
recommends it for:
people who like tortured stories
...i read this book for a class in which the book was being used to illustrate "post-modern" writing. In all honesty, other than its self-conscious writing (which isn't that "post-modern") and its discussion of theory as it is being written there is little post-modern about this book, but it is still excellent. the flashbacks of the teacher's lives set against his struggle to communicate to his student about history being the story of each of us, of all us is so powerful. ...more
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Read in February, 2008
um, it took me a while to warm up to this book - then i started to enjoy it - then i got bogged down (ha!) in the historical passages - then i got excited when it seemed like all the threads of the story were coming together in a rewarding way - and finally i was a little bit disappointed by the way everything ended up. i liked the way it showed a depressive, stagnant landscape fomenting a depressed, stagnant society of people, and how it explored story-telling and the study of history as method...more
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Read in July, 2007
recommends it for:
Literature enthusiasts
This book is a little difficult to read if you are not into "deep literature." I enjoyed the narrator's plunging backwards and forwards on the timeline, explaining the water people's history of northern england. The narrator happens to be a history teacher so he ties in his present classroom drama and the even worse drama that is his marriage. The police become involved in a kidnapping that his wife commited.
This book has undercurrents of incest, murder, abortion, death, guilt... ...more
This book has undercurrents of incest, murder, abortion, death, guilt... ...more
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Read in January, 1994
Probably my favorite book (when I'm asked to identify such an animal). Love the way Swift writes. And the interplay of timelines and events really makes the book what it is. Waterland is about how history is not simply the major events, but the small events of our lives. The main character is a history teacher whose class is being phased out by his school. So in an act of rebellion, he stops teaching "history" and begins teaching the history of his family. There's an awful movie ...more
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Graham Swift's novel is frustrating, if well written. The narrator--a guilt-ridden teacher-intellectual, whose expansive vocabulary allows him to sew words and stories into a substantively fragile and linguistically bombastic Cohesive History--demands much of his reader. The breadth of the story is impressive, and much of the plot is tenderly tragic. Ultimately, the novel succeeds in communicating over a century of finely-wrought local lore through the voice of a curmudgeonly and cowardly his...more
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Read in January, 1993
I wish I could remember more detail about this book to write a more coherent review. I shall have to get hold of a copy and re-read it and then edit this, because all I can remember is being entranced and blown away by this book.
It is superb. It is one of those books that seems so simple when you look back and consider what it is about - the lives of families and people - and yet it sucks you in and draws the world these characters inhabit so fully that you find it comes alive in front of ...more
It is superb. It is one of those books that seems so simple when you look back and consider what it is about - the lives of families and people - and yet it sucks you in and draws the world these characters inhabit so fully that you find it comes alive in front of ...more
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recommends it for:
incestuous dracunculophiles
Like the countryside in which it is set, I recall this book as being grey, depressing, and sodden. I can't recall a thing that I learned from it - all I remember is the enormous sense of relief I had once I managed to finish it.
Though, as the blurb helpfully point out, there are eels and incest.
Though, as the blurb helpfully point out, there are eels and incest.
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This is a book that broke my heart, but added some interesting new valves in the process. It's best consumed by wolfing it down, then going back and reading it again, lingeringly and slow.
It also changed, and still colors, my understanding of history (I have two books in this category -- Waterland and War & Peace... this one's a better read, of course). That will likely sound painfully dull to you, unless you have read this book, in which case you'll probably know what I mean.
It also changed, and still colors, my understanding of history (I have two books in this category -- Waterland and War & Peace... this one's a better read, of course). That will likely sound painfully dull to you, unless you have read this book, in which case you'll probably know what I mean.
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Read in March, 1994
Ok, this is my favorite book of all time. Perhaps a little odd choice for one's fav, but I have to say that something about this book completely connected with me. I was a senior in college at the time, double-majoring in history and English lit. The interwoven narrative of the generational histories of the principals captured my imagination in a totally unique way. The choices and actions of the past are inextricably linked with the present.
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It was a little hard to get into at first, but then I became completely engrossed. The story itself was really intricately woven, which was great, but even more interesting were the sidetracking (or perhaps the main point of the book) dialogues re. history, eels, the english Fens. I had to google the fens and now I really wish I could go see them in their heyday. Love a book that transports you physically and temporally.
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One of my very favorite novels, of any time. The narrator, a history teacher, has a flair for charmingly self-conscious melodrama, but the more you hear his story, the more you'll feel the true weight of it. Brilliant story-telling, haunting imagery. All Swift's books contain a mystery and this one's a whopper. I love his writing and think he's the most neglected contemporary British writer, at least here in the U.S.
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This is one of those strange little books you come across at random and then are entranced by the world it brings to you. Narrated by a drepressed-intellectual-retired-teacher, it folds around time to tell the story of Tom's life and what he believes. I think I just made a wonderful book sound terribly boring, but I just don't have the words to describe just how beautiful a book this is.
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recommends it for:
anyone with historical consciousness!
this is BY FAR my favorite book, of all time. I tend to give this book as a gift - because when I read it as an undergrad freshman for my first course in history, I considered it a gift -- and had many "ah ha!" moments with it. Swift is a beautiful writer - simple, elegant prose. "History" and "history" collide here, as it does in everyone's lives -- read it to find out what that means...
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Read in January, 2000
recommends it for:
anyone who likes words and isn't a fool
Yes yes yes yes yes yes. Preeta is completely right. Possibly the best modern English novel. Does stuff with space and memory that are usually beyond most English writers (I mean England = country not = language: English novelists tend to be relly limited in terms of spatiality--tending to set stuff in London which is really boring) (discuss). Marvelous, heartbreaking, sad. Read it.
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I had completely forgotten that I've read this book until I saw it on someone else's list. Unfortunately I read it so long ago that I have forgotten most of the details, so I will refrain from trying to cobble together a review from a bunch of vague memories. I do recall, however, that I liked the book and felt satisfied when I finished it, hence the four stars.
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Read in September, 2007
This is one of those books that I was unsure about while reading it, but I absolutely fell in love with it after I was done. That reminds me - I really need to read it again :)
Edit the first: Inspired by my own memories of this book, I picked it up from the library and have already read several chapters. I'll revamp this review once I've finished.
Edit the first: Inspired by my own memories of this book, I picked it up from the library and have already read several chapters. I'll revamp this review once I've finished.
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Read in March, 2008
i hated this book. i couldn't force myself to read any further than mid-book. it was annoying and dull and i wanted to tear my eyeballs out of my head to keep from reading another page. i liked the format the author introduced at the beginning of the chapter, but it fell far from the expectations i had for it.
very, very disappointing.
very, very disappointing.
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