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Swamp Water: A Novel
Swamp Water , the first novel by a young native of south Georgia, was an immediate critical and financial success. The setting is the mysterious Okefenokee in southern Georgia―"the Swamp that pulled a man down and never let him go." Movie versions were made in 1941 (by Jean Renoir) and in 1951.
- GenresFiction
280 pages, Paperback
Published May 1, 2008
2 people are currently reading
47 people want to read
About the author
Vereen Bell
13 booksVereen McNeill Bell (5 October 1911 – 26 October 1944) was an American novelist and naval officer, who was killed on active duty during World War II.
Born in Cairo, Georgia, he graduated from Davidson College in North Carolina in 1932. Davidson College today awards the Vereen Bell Award for creative writing in his honor.
Born in Cairo, Georgia, he graduated from Davidson College in North Carolina in 1932. Davidson College today awards the Vereen Bell Award for creative writing in his honor.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 28, 2020
3.4 unfairly little known, this is a good mid-20th century tale of poor white south georgians, by an author who died young in WW2. its greatest moments are the detailed descriptions of the okefenokee swamp. in spite of cottonmouths, gators, panthers and men quick with a knife, it gave me a strong urge some day to get in a quiet boat, poling through the black water and noting the abundant waterfowl and bountiful plants.
while i don't know the region, the local vernacular had a great ring to it, and the straight-talking characters were all vivid. hunting, pig-stealing, church and occasionally mating are the main pastimes. i'm guessing if they or their descendants were still around, they would mostly vote for donald trump, but they could also explain this with either succinct sincerity or the poetry of a few lines from a song.
as a taste of the swamp life, i offer a paragraph i enjoyed, which i have just noticed another GR aficionado also appreciated:
"An osprey circled over them and lit in a slender tree, his sharp voice echoing from the far-off cypresses, creating a sense of vastness, of emptiness; the swamp was a lost world; a nether land where the crawling things in the muck and the screaming things in the air had triumphed, and man rotted in the peaty earth; the space was the space of eternity, endless, changeless; a thousand years passed, and another thousand, and another, and man's bones were ground to ash by the ages, his gun a discoloration of rust beneath the earth. The osprey half opened his wings, then dropped over the side of the limb, leveled off over the shallow water, then rose again, and screamed; and the sound echoed and re-echoed across the flat swamp."
while i don't know the region, the local vernacular had a great ring to it, and the straight-talking characters were all vivid. hunting, pig-stealing, church and occasionally mating are the main pastimes. i'm guessing if they or their descendants were still around, they would mostly vote for donald trump, but they could also explain this with either succinct sincerity or the poetry of a few lines from a song.
as a taste of the swamp life, i offer a paragraph i enjoyed, which i have just noticed another GR aficionado also appreciated:
"An osprey circled over them and lit in a slender tree, his sharp voice echoing from the far-off cypresses, creating a sense of vastness, of emptiness; the swamp was a lost world; a nether land where the crawling things in the muck and the screaming things in the air had triumphed, and man rotted in the peaty earth; the space was the space of eternity, endless, changeless; a thousand years passed, and another thousand, and another, and man's bones were ground to ash by the ages, his gun a discoloration of rust beneath the earth. The osprey half opened his wings, then dropped over the side of the limb, leveled off over the shallow water, then rose again, and screamed; and the sound echoed and re-echoed across the flat swamp."
April 1, 2017
This is a fine novel, which can stand with the excellent Southerner Lit novels of the mid-20th century, and deserves to be better known. It's a book for those like me whose favorite section of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is Huck and Jim hiding out on the island. It's a old story of men and wilderness and that wild-ness in men like Huck and Swamp Water's Tom Keefer, to which we are both drawn and fear even as true wilderness diminishes.
The wilderness here is the Okefenokee Swamp, a 400,000 acre metaphor way down upon the Suwannee River. While beautiful with its old growth cypress bearded with spanish moss, this isn't Wordsworth's or Thoreau's wilderness, but nature red in tooth and claw and fang. Or as the author's son (a fine literary scholar in his own right who wrote the first academic book on Cormac McCarthy) puts it in his fine introduction, "This surviving wilderness and its indifference to what we ordinarily value as human is not just the setting for Swamp Water; what it represents in the novel and in the world is what Swamp Water is about."
Bell describes the Okefenokee in wonderfully evocative writing throughout the novel in passages such as this:
"An osprey circled over them and lit in a slender tree, his sharp voice echoing from the far-off cypresses, creating a sense of vastness, of emptiness; the swamp was a lost world; a nether land where the crawling things in the muck and the screaming things in the air had triumphed, and man rotted in the peaty earth; the space was the space of eternity, endless, changeless; a thousand years passed, and another thousand, and another, and man's bones were ground to ash by the ages, his gun a discoloration of rust beneath the earth. The osprey half opened his wings, then dropped over the side of the limb, leveled off over the shallow water, then rose again, and screamed; and the sound echoed and re-echoed across the flat swamp."
Amid all this beautiful writing is a rousing adventure story (sort of a wet and muddy The Revenant,) but in the end (spoiler alert) wilderness and wild-ness can never last, and so Tom Keefer must light out for the Territory ahead of the rest on a new and different kind of adventure.
Sadly, Vereen Bell was killed in action in the Battle off Samar in 1944 so we'll never know what kind of WWII novel he could have given us if he'd survived the war.
The wilderness here is the Okefenokee Swamp, a 400,000 acre metaphor way down upon the Suwannee River. While beautiful with its old growth cypress bearded with spanish moss, this isn't Wordsworth's or Thoreau's wilderness, but nature red in tooth and claw and fang. Or as the author's son (a fine literary scholar in his own right who wrote the first academic book on Cormac McCarthy) puts it in his fine introduction, "This surviving wilderness and its indifference to what we ordinarily value as human is not just the setting for Swamp Water; what it represents in the novel and in the world is what Swamp Water is about."
Bell describes the Okefenokee in wonderfully evocative writing throughout the novel in passages such as this:
"An osprey circled over them and lit in a slender tree, his sharp voice echoing from the far-off cypresses, creating a sense of vastness, of emptiness; the swamp was a lost world; a nether land where the crawling things in the muck and the screaming things in the air had triumphed, and man rotted in the peaty earth; the space was the space of eternity, endless, changeless; a thousand years passed, and another thousand, and another, and man's bones were ground to ash by the ages, his gun a discoloration of rust beneath the earth. The osprey half opened his wings, then dropped over the side of the limb, leveled off over the shallow water, then rose again, and screamed; and the sound echoed and re-echoed across the flat swamp."
Amid all this beautiful writing is a rousing adventure story (sort of a wet and muddy The Revenant,) but in the end (spoiler alert) wilderness and wild-ness can never last, and so Tom Keefer must light out for the Territory ahead of the rest on a new and different kind of adventure.
Sadly, Vereen Bell was killed in action in the Battle off Samar in 1944 so we'll never know what kind of WWII novel he could have given us if he'd survived the war.
January 20, 2025
Another random used bookstore find. This one is a reminder of why I'll scoop up 10-20 books that might be good.
There is abundant experience in the writing. Instead of a lot of purple prose, Bell writes by describing those little moments and sensations that make up life. The people speak with such an honesty; it can be oblique or through idiom, but it's rock solid.
The end comes quick, and is incredibly moving.
There is abundant experience in the writing. Instead of a lot of purple prose, Bell writes by describing those little moments and sensations that make up life. The people speak with such an honesty; it can be oblique or through idiom, but it's rock solid.
The end comes quick, and is incredibly moving.
April 26, 2020
Very interesting novel of life in s Georgia and the Okefenokee swamp. A good story with interesting characters.
January 5, 2026
Swamp Water is a gripping and surprisingly thoughtful novel. Set in the hauntingly beautiful Okefenokee Swamp of Georgia, the story follows young Ben Ragan, who defies his father’s warnings by venturing deep into the swamp in search of his dog, Trouble.
Ben then encounters Tom Keefer, a fugitive hiding out in the swamp, who unexpectedly proves to be one of the story’s most morally grounded characters. And as Ben and Tom begin trapping furs together, their bond deepens. Bell uses their relationship to explore themes of integrity, loyalty, and the nature of justice in a world that often misjudges appearances.
What makes Swamp Water especially compelling is Bell’s writing. It’s deceptively simple--clear, fluid, and unpretentious--even as it dips into local dialects, which richly evoke the atmosphere of the swamp. Bell’s descriptions of the natural world are vivid and precise. He captures not only the look and feel of the environment but also the emotional weight the Okefenokee Swamp carries for the characters.
The story told is more than just a backwoods adventure. It’s a story about how people treat one another, the complexity of human motivations, and how stubbornness can either destroy or redeem. Bell treats his characters with empathy and nuance, allowing their actions and growth to speak louder than any overt moralizing.
Swamp Water became an immediate bestseller, and it’s easy to see why. The novel offers a compelling narrative with the emotional depth and layered storytelling of a modern classic. In short, Swamp Water is both a page-turner and a deeply humane story--smart, evocative, and well worth rediscovering.
Ben then encounters Tom Keefer, a fugitive hiding out in the swamp, who unexpectedly proves to be one of the story’s most morally grounded characters. And as Ben and Tom begin trapping furs together, their bond deepens. Bell uses their relationship to explore themes of integrity, loyalty, and the nature of justice in a world that often misjudges appearances.
What makes Swamp Water especially compelling is Bell’s writing. It’s deceptively simple--clear, fluid, and unpretentious--even as it dips into local dialects, which richly evoke the atmosphere of the swamp. Bell’s descriptions of the natural world are vivid and precise. He captures not only the look and feel of the environment but also the emotional weight the Okefenokee Swamp carries for the characters.
The story told is more than just a backwoods adventure. It’s a story about how people treat one another, the complexity of human motivations, and how stubbornness can either destroy or redeem. Bell treats his characters with empathy and nuance, allowing their actions and growth to speak louder than any overt moralizing.
Swamp Water became an immediate bestseller, and it’s easy to see why. The novel offers a compelling narrative with the emotional depth and layered storytelling of a modern classic. In short, Swamp Water is both a page-turner and a deeply humane story--smart, evocative, and well worth rediscovering.
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May 4, 2016Give authentic descriptions of swamps in GA.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews