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197th out of 3,121 books
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Drowning Ruth
by
Christina Schwarz (Goodreads Author)
“POWERFUL . . . SUSPENSEFUL . . . RICHLY TEXTURED . . . [A] CHILLING, PRECOCIOUSLY GOOD START TO A BRIGHT NEW NOVELIST’S CAREER.”
–The New York Times
“[A] gripping psychological thriller . . . In the winter of 1919, a young mother named Mathilda Neumann drowns beneath the ice of a rural Wisconsin lake. The shock of her death dramatically changes the lives of her daughter, tr...more
–The New York Times
“[A] gripping psychological thriller . . . In the winter of 1919, a young mother named Mathilda Neumann drowns beneath the ice of a rural Wisconsin lake. The shock of her death dramatically changes the lives of her daughter, tr...more
Paperback, 368 pages
Published
November 19th 2008
by Ballantine Books
(first published January 1st 2000)
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While I didn't hate it, this book annoyed me to no end. I will say, to its credit, that I read it in a single day, almost a single sitting, which I very rarely do anymore. It was a page-turner. But for all the wrong reasons.
See, the book opens with a young nurse, Amanda, going home to Wisconsin to live with her sister and niece. In the very next chapter, it's a year later, and Amanda is at the sheriff's door with the niece, telling him that her sister fell through the ice on the ...more
See, the book opens with a young nurse, Amanda, going home to Wisconsin to live with her sister and niece. In the very next chapter, it's a year later, and Amanda is at the sheriff's door with the niece, telling him that her sister fell through the ice on the ...more
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Stupid Oprah. I quite liked this book, it annoys me to find out that it's an Oprah book. It makes me like it less by default. Why do authors LET her put her name on their books? It's a shame.
"But a sense that there might also exist some entirely different destination, one that he couldn’t yet see but which lay just beyond the obscuring undergrowth of long habit and expectations, troubled him and kept him from moving forward. He had no idea how to hack through the foliage, n...more
"But a sense that there might also exist some entirely different destination, one that he couldn’t yet see but which lay just beyond the obscuring undergrowth of long habit and expectations, troubled him and kept him from moving forward. He had no idea how to hack through the foliage, n...more
The last thing I do in the world is take advice from celebrities so when I discovered this was on Oprah’s book club list I almost didn’t pick it up. But the book kept calling out to me and I folded. Beautiful story. It reminded me a lot of “The Heretic’s Daughter”, by Kathleen Kent. Though completely different it had the same feel.
‘Drowning Ruth’ is a story of painful secrets, love for a child and a woman’s life sacrifice for this child. This is one of those stories that tugs at...more
‘Drowning Ruth’ is a story of painful secrets, love for a child and a woman’s life sacrifice for this child. This is one of those stories that tugs at...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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I wasn't as impressed with this book as I thought I was going to be. Something I always tell other people: don't go into a book with expectations. I should have listened to my own advice, then maybe I would have enjoyed the book a little bit more. But this being Schwarz's first novel, I'm not going to complain too much, because it was still pretty good.
It was a little too jumpy, just all around, writing, plot line, characters. While they weren't all over the map, they didn't stay on ...more
It was a little too jumpy, just all around, writing, plot line, characters. While they weren't all over the map, they didn't stay on ...more
I enjoyed the mystery, but thought some actions of the characters were incongruous with their natures. I guess what I mean is, sometimes the characters do things that are deplorable and unacceptable no matter WHAT a person has been through... but the author doesn't seem to cast these actions in that light. Being complicit in manslaughter is kind of passed off as acceptable, you know, just because she is angry and wasn't intentionally leaving anyone to drown. The first time (with her sister--when...more
I swaer, with some of the books being written today I could write a book about mutant kung-fu hamsters and get it published. The story danced around the central question: "What Really Happened the Night Mathilda Died?" After a while I just didn't care. The whole lot of them could have fallen through the ice for all I cared. The characters were stupid to the nth degree and there seemed to be a running theme of "Co-dependency is great!" running through the whole thing. The "...more
Set in rural Wisconsin between the First and Second World Wars, this story of two sisters and their children growing up on the shores of a lake is full of secrets, guilt, misunderstandings and tragedy. There's an intensity about the plot that makes it quite difficult to bear at times - especially the ending when so much is at stake. As a debut novel, it's quite remarkable and I wasn't surprised to hear that it was an Oprah's Book Club choice; but I think it has its weaknesses. In particular, th...more
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This novel tells the haunting story of two generations of a Wisconsin family brought together and torn apart by the lake adjacent to the family home. Focused on four women, sisters of two generations, the novel develops around the sisters' relationship with the lake, and the tragedy that ensues when it claims one of their lives. Much of the book is spent untangling the secrets which led to the drowning, and working out the complicated problems which arise from the family's attempts to keep these...more
A totally bizarre book I didn't like at all until the 2nd-to-last page. I mean not at ALL, and the only reason I was reading it was because I was on a trip and it was the only book in my carryon bag.
A bit too much like Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping, which I didn't like either; I felt like the world could do without another copy of this book. And then I hit the middle of page 337, and for some reason, I simultaneously got choked up, and decided I kind of liked it.
The...more
A bit too much like Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping, which I didn't like either; I felt like the world could do without another copy of this book. And then I hit the middle of page 337, and for some reason, I simultaneously got choked up, and decided I kind of liked it.
The...more
The book, "Drowning Ruth" by Christina Schwarz, didn't really capture my attention in the beginning, so it took me a longer time to read. When I started reading it more, it got me more interested. I liked how it had switching points of view in each chapter. In the first part of the chapter it could be in the third person and another part of the chapter it could be in the first person. What I didn't like about the switching point of views is that in the third person, it would be what...more
What an amazing book this was. I was drawn in almost immediately and always felt as though I wanted to know what happened next and then after that. There were parts that I thought were unnecessary and could be taken out of the book as I wanted to get back to the main story at hand, and there were also parts that I thought shouldn't have been ommitted - like I would have liked to have heard Carl's part when he found out about Mattie. But overall, it was very well written - with just the right amo...more
Amazing! I think I drove my husband insane while reading this because after every page, I would put it down and exclaim, ""This book is crazy, babe!"" The author uses both first and third person to tell her story from multiple perspectives. Some of the negative reviews for this novel sited the use of both first and third person as their main reason for disliking the format of the story. I personally found it quite useful in the character development and that is where this nov...more
Have you ever seen something that's either so disturbing that you can't help but stare even if you know you shouldn't? Drowning Ruth by Christina Schwarz was that way for me. So disturbing that I felt like I should stop reading, but I just couldn't without finding out what really happened.
Drowning Ruth is written in modern lit fashion; the story is told from the perspectives of various narratives and in various time frames. You get bits and pieces of life before a young woman named Mat...more
Drowning Ruth is written in modern lit fashion; the story is told from the perspectives of various narratives and in various time frames. You get bits and pieces of life before a young woman named Mat...more
This is a phenomenal book for a first time author to publish. The storytelling is amazing, the plot perfectly paced, and the details of the lives of the Starkeys revealed just at the right speed to keep you reading with anticipation. Usually, books that are suspense drama stories frustrate me and I speed through them simply to find out what happens. This novel, however, was so well balanced between the tragedy of the past and the looming tragedies of the present that I was more than satisfied...more
This was one of the best stories I have read in a long time. So often an avid reader can predict where a story is going by the middle of the book-but Christina Schwarz really does a wonderful job of weaving a web that you just can't put all the pieces together until the last few pages.
The story takes place in Wisconsin and begins with Amanda, who is a nurse in the early 1920's, experiencing difficulties focusing on her patients at the hospital where she works. This is viewed as odd by h...more
The story takes place in Wisconsin and begins with Amanda, who is a nurse in the early 1920's, experiencing difficulties focusing on her patients at the hospital where she works. This is viewed as odd by h...more
Ruth remembered drowning.
'That's impossible,' Aunt Amanda said. 'It must have been a dream.'
But Ruth maintained that she had drowned, insisted on it for years, even after she should have known better.
Zo begint Drowning Ruth, de debuutroman van de Amerikaanse Christina Schwarz. Het boek beslaat de periode tussen beide wereldoorlogen en speelt zich af in een dorpje vlakbij Milwaukee, aan de Great Lakes.
De zussen Amanda en Mathilda wonen daar in het huis dat hen door h...more
'That's impossible,' Aunt Amanda said. 'It must have been a dream.'
But Ruth maintained that she had drowned, insisted on it for years, even after she should have known better.
Zo begint Drowning Ruth, de debuutroman van de Amerikaanse Christina Schwarz. Het boek beslaat de periode tussen beide wereldoorlogen en speelt zich af in een dorpje vlakbij Milwaukee, aan de Great Lakes.
De zussen Amanda en Mathilda wonen daar in het huis dat hen door h...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
This book had a very good, interesting story with wonderful characters. However, Schwarz switches from first to third person and with in that third person,keeps the narrative distance moving in and out of limited and omniscience (within the same paragraph too) which is completely false. I don't mind seeing all these different perspectives but the way she presents them seems to be laziness or some sort of insecurity on her part as a writer. The story she creates is really a entertaining one (...more
I picked up this book voluntarily when I forgot to bring in a book for our reading day. I have previously read books in Oprah's book club, and enjoyed them very much. When I saw the cover I had no real expectations for what the story was about but I did not let that stop me. I ended up kind of enjoying the book.
Initially I thought that the title was figurative and there would be nothing literal about it. However, much to my surprise the story had a lot more in store. One of the thin...more
Initially I thought that the title was figurative and there would be nothing literal about it. However, much to my surprise the story had a lot more in store. One of the thin...more
I first read this book about 6 years ago and remembered really enjoying it at the time yet could not recall exactly what the story encompassed. I was not disappointed in my second reading. The story centers around Ruth and her Aunt Amanda, who cared for Ruth after her mother's drowning when she was a mere three years old. There is a certain amount of mystery that surrounds this death and the story is given to you in bits and pieces, the past combining with the present.
Upon picking up...more
Upon picking up...more
Kayleigh Zabell
“Drowning Ruth”, written by Christina Schwarz, was an action packed, suspenseful, historical fiction novel. As I was reading this story I became so wrapped up in it that I couldn’t put it down.
Matilda was the mother of Ruth (main character), wife of Carl (soldier in WWI), and younger sister of Amanda, her life sadly ended when she drowned in a lake. But, did she really drown in a lake? When Carl returned home from WWI, he was devastated by the death of his ...more
“Drowning Ruth”, written by Christina Schwarz, was an action packed, suspenseful, historical fiction novel. As I was reading this story I became so wrapped up in it that I couldn’t put it down.
Matilda was the mother of Ruth (main character), wife of Carl (soldier in WWI), and younger sister of Amanda, her life sadly ended when she drowned in a lake. But, did she really drown in a lake? When Carl returned home from WWI, he was devastated by the death of his ...more
The story “Drowning Ruth”, by Christina Schwarz is a historical fiction book published on September 27, 2000. I would recommend this book to anyone who is into a good mystery. It may be confusing as the book alternates perspectives and goes into the past various amounts of times to help connect the relationships between people, the feelings towards others, and memories that can help connect the mysterious murder of Mathilda. Mathilda is married to Carl, who went into World War 1 and got injur...more
This is just the type of book I most enjoy reading. It's a "twisted family drama," spanning three generations, with secrets and guilt and tragedies. The relationships between the women in the story are central to the plot and I liked the way Schwarz juxtaposed the positions of the protagonists from one generation to the next. (There are two generations of centrally connected mothers and daughters who end up paralleling each other throughout the novel, which goes back and forth in ti...more
Butterfly Effect and emotionally dysfunctional family is all I could think, where someone has a Big Secret and it eats at the character throughout the novel but somehow this secret touches everyone beyond the person it directly effects, basically ruining their lives. One must wait until the end to get the Big Reveal, in regards to the drowning. Both Ruth and Amanda (the two quasi-narrators, when the text isn't busy jumping back and forth between third person perspective and the first person pe...more
A bizarre tale that begins in 1919. Amanda, who's been away from home as a nurse, returns to the family farm after hallucinations and other problems force her to leave her job. At home she moves in with younger sister Mathilda (whose husband Carl went away to war) and their 3 yr old daughter, Ruth. They live on the shore of a lake and their property includes a house on an island at the lake. Much of the story revolves around the lake and their relationships. I can't say much without spoilin...more
While I was skeptical about this book at first once I started I found I couldn't put it down. I know it was an Oprah's Book Club so that should've been a clue that it would be wonderful but still.
The author does a great job of keeping you wanting more throughout the entire book, while at the same time not dragging it out for too long. I was really sucked into the lives of all of the characters and as the answers began to unfold it made perfect sense. There were a few times that I was an...more
The author does a great job of keeping you wanting more throughout the entire book, while at the same time not dragging it out for too long. I was really sucked into the lives of all of the characters and as the answers began to unfold it made perfect sense. There were a few times that I was an...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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| Drowning Ruth | 3 | 61 | Aug 19, 2011 05:38am |
