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They Came Like Swallows
First published in 1937, They Came Like Swallows was William Maxwell's second novel. It tells of an ordinary American family overtaken by the devastating epidemic of the Spanish influenza of 1918. The book begins on the day before the armistice in
a small midwestern town, and the events are seen from the perspective, in turn, of eight-year-old Peter Morison--called Bunny; of his older brother, Robert; and of their father. They are witnesses to a domestic tragedy that is written with beauty and a quite magnificent tenderness.
William Maxwell has been described by The Washington Post as "one of America's most distinguished and distinctive stylists." John Updike has said that "Maxwell's voice is one of the wisest in American fiction; it
is, as well, one of the kindest." The Times Literary Supplement declares
that "Maxwell offers us scrupulously executed, moving landscapes of America's twentieth century, and they do not fade." The Saturday Review said,"They Came Like Swallows is one of those rare tales in which child-hood is reflected in the simplicity and intensity of its own experience."
The Modern Library has played a significant role in American cultural life for the better part of a century. The series was founded in 1917 by the publishers Boni and Liveright and eight years later acquired by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer. It provided the foundation for their next publishing venture, Random House. The Modern Library has been a staple of the American book trade, providing readers with afford-
able hardbound editions of impor-
tant works of literature and thought. For the Modern Library's seventy-
fifth anniversary, Random House redesigned the series, restoring
as its emblem the running torch-
bearer created by Lucian Bernhard in 1925 and refurbishing jackets, bindings, and type, as well as inau-
gurating a new program of selecting titles. The Modern Library continues to provide the world's best books, at the best prices.
a small midwestern town, and the events are seen from the perspective, in turn, of eight-year-old Peter Morison--called Bunny; of his older brother, Robert; and of their father. They are witnesses to a domestic tragedy that is written with beauty and a quite magnificent tenderness.
William Maxwell has been described by The Washington Post as "one of America's most distinguished and distinctive stylists." John Updike has said that "Maxwell's voice is one of the wisest in American fiction; it
is, as well, one of the kindest." The Times Literary Supplement declares
that "Maxwell offers us scrupulously executed, moving landscapes of America's twentieth century, and they do not fade." The Saturday Review said,"They Came Like Swallows is one of those rare tales in which child-hood is reflected in the simplicity and intensity of its own experience."
The Modern Library has played a significant role in American cultural life for the better part of a century. The series was founded in 1917 by the publishers Boni and Liveright and eight years later acquired by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer. It provided the foundation for their next publishing venture, Random House. The Modern Library has been a staple of the American book trade, providing readers with afford-
able hardbound editions of impor-
tant works of literature and thought. For the Modern Library's seventy-
fifth anniversary, Random House redesigned the series, restoring
as its emblem the running torch-
bearer created by Lucian Bernhard in 1925 and refurbishing jackets, bindings, and type, as well as inau-
gurating a new program of selecting titles. The Modern Library continues to provide the world's best books, at the best prices.
191 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1937
271 people are currently reading
6028 people want to read
About the author
William Maxwell
116 books342 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
William Keepers Maxwell Jr. was an American novelist, and fiction editor at the New Yorker. He studied at the University of Illinois and Harvard University. Maxwell wrote six highly acclaimed novels, a number of short stories and essays, children's stories, and a memoir, Ancestors (1972). His award-winning fiction, which is increasingly seen as some of the most important of the 20th Century, has recurring themes of childhood, family, loss and lives changed quietly and irreparably. Much of his work is autobiographical, particularly concerning the loss of his mother when he was 10 years old growing up in the rural Midwest of America and the house where he lived at the time, which he referred to as the "Wunderkammer" or "Chamber of Wonders". He wrote of his loss "It happened too suddenly, with no warning, and we none of us could believe it or bear it... the beautiful, imaginative, protected world of my childhood swept away." Since his death in 2000 several works of biography have appeared, including A William Maxwell Portrait: Memories and Appreciations (W. W. Norton & Co., 2004), My Mentor: A Young Man's Friendship with William Maxwell by Alec Wilkinson (Houghton-Mifflin, 2002), and William Maxwell: A Literary Life by Barbara Burkhardt (University of Illinois Press, 2005). In 2008 the Library of America published the first of two collections of William Maxwell, Early Novels and Stories, Christopher Carduff editor. His collected edition of William Maxwell's fiction, published to mark the writer's centenary, was completed by a second volume, Later Novels and Stories in the fall of 2008.'
William Keepers Maxwell Jr. was an American novelist, and fiction editor at the New Yorker. He studied at the University of Illinois and Harvard University. Maxwell wrote six highly acclaimed novels, a number of short stories and essays, children's stories, and a memoir, Ancestors (1972). His award-winning fiction, which is increasingly seen as some of the most important of the 20th Century, has recurring themes of childhood, family, loss and lives changed quietly and irreparably. Much of his work is autobiographical, particularly concerning the loss of his mother when he was 10 years old growing up in the rural Midwest of America and the house where he lived at the time, which he referred to as the "Wunderkammer" or "Chamber of Wonders". He wrote of his loss "It happened too suddenly, with no warning, and we none of us could believe it or bear it... the beautiful, imaginative, protected world of my childhood swept away." Since his death in 2000 several works of biography have appeared, including A William Maxwell Portrait: Memories and Appreciations (W. W. Norton & Co., 2004), My Mentor: A Young Man's Friendship with William Maxwell by Alec Wilkinson (Houghton-Mifflin, 2002), and William Maxwell: A Literary Life by Barbara Burkhardt (University of Illinois Press, 2005). In 2008 the Library of America published the first of two collections of William Maxwell, Early Novels and Stories, Christopher Carduff editor. His collected edition of William Maxwell's fiction, published to mark the writer's centenary, was completed by a second volume, Later Novels and Stories in the fall of 2008.'
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April 24, 2024
I hadn't the least suspicion that this was the perfect book to read right after I’d completed a long Virginia Woolf season—but my reading life has a way of finding connections in spite of me. I finished Woolf's novels last week, and when I began to search my book pile for something that would be completely different, this slim novel by William Maxwell caught my eye. It's a book I’d been meaning to read since a friend recommended it, and other than remembering vaguely that it was connected with WWI, I knew very little about it. A couple of pages in, I began thinking, this reminds me of Proust: a young boy focused so closely on his mother, on books, on the life of the imagination. But before long, it was echoes of Virginia Woolf I was hearing, particularly To the Lighthouse. Unmistakeable. And then another friend, who knows I've been reading Woolf, sent me a link to a Paris Review interview in which William Maxwell speaks of his debt to Virginia Woolf, who, it turns out, was one of his favourite authors:
And think what 'To the Lighthouse' meant to me, how close Mrs. Ramsay is to my own idea of my mother . . . both of them gone, both leaving the family unable to navigate very well. It couldn’t have failed to have a profound effect on me.
Since I had recently been reading Woolf’s diary entries where she acknowledges that To the Lighthouse was partly autobiographical, recalling her own childhood before her mother died and before the family’s life changed forever, Maxwell’s words were exciting for me to read. So he was acknowledging that They Came Like Swallows was also autobiographical? I had wondered about that as I read Maxwell’s book but had reminded myself that every autobiographical-sounding novel isn’t necessarily autobiographical. But autobiographical means different things to different people. Maxwell has clear views on this:
I don’t feel that my stories, though they may appear to be autobiographical, represent an intention to hand over the whole of my life. They are fragments in which I am a character along with all the others. They’re written from a considerable distance. I never feel exposed by them in any way.
I like that explanation, and it fits with the way Virginia Woolf used the circumstances of her own life in her novels to a certain extent, mining her experience and that of her family and friends to imagine characters and scenes that she then goes on to dramatise, to fictionalise, sometimes in ways she didn’t initially foresee. Maxwell describes that process exactly:
Autobiography is simply the facts, but imagination is the landscape in which the facts take place, and the way that everything moves...Flaubert said that whatever you invent is true, even though you may not understand what the truth of it is.
There is another parallel between Maxwell and Woolf: the way they use language, the way they can conjure a scene so simply but lastingly. This one from Maxwell could well be found in The Waves:
Bunny listened. For a moment he was outside in the rain. He was wet and shining. His mind bent from the wind. He detached a wet leaf. But one did not speak of these things.
Maxwell set They Came Like Swallows in 1918. The war is still going on but he only refers to it obliquely, the way Woolf does in Jacob's Room. But sometimes oblique can be just as powerful as ‘straight on’. This little book holds a lot of power.
They came like swallows and like swallows went,
And yet a woman's powerful character
Could keep a Swallow to its first intent
Those lines of Yeats could just as well have served as an epigraph to Jacob's Room. I love when the different strands of my reading life join together like this.
PS: I liked Maxwell's writing so much that I immediately bought So Long, See You Tomorrow and read it almost in one sitting. Looks like I'm heading into a Maxwell season.
April 24, 2022
"They came like swallows
and like swallows went,
And yet a woman's powerful character
Could keep a Swallow to its first intent . . ." (Yeats)
Four graceful stars for the beautifully titled book ‘They Came like Swallows’. A sad yet uplifting story of love and loss during the pandemic of 1918.
Delicate but cruel, moving yet unsentimental. A story that is told with striking simplicity about the devastating effects of the Spanish flu which is reflected in the humble account of three males in the Morrison family. Each with a very different experience, each heart broken by the loss of the central female character Elizabeth, a wife, a mother, and a friend.
The Storyline
To James Morrison, Elizabeth is the centre of his world, a woman who makes his life perfect by just being in it. Robert their eldest son who takes on the self-appointed role of protector is to face the ultimate challenge of his life. Not only is he unable to save his mother from a deadly virus. Ironically, he was the last person to fall ill with the Spanish flu before his mother succumbed to it. Then we have the beautiful 8-year-old adoring angelic son Bunny whose bond with his mother was so strong only looks were needed to communicate the tenderness and devotion they had to each other.
A very personal account of loss is narrated through the voices of James, Robert and Bunny while the chaotic world around them is suffering from the indiscriminate effects of the Spanish flu. As one of the family recalls of his loss
“Satin and lace and brown velvet and the faint odor of violets. That was all which was left to him of his love.”
Review and Comments
I read the first half of the book in one sitting and confess to feeling a little underwhelmed with the absence of strong characters, emotions, and storyline, until I found myself processing and thinking about the lives of the three Morrison males. In a few quiet moments, I began to appreciate the effortless, ease and grace with which this story of loss and grief was told.
The author did not need strong prose, or elegant phrasing, nor did he need the dominating characters to share a poignant message and evoke strong emotions. Because in portraying this emotional pillar, Elizabeth, as quiet and unassuming, when the swallows came, the unvoiced currents of love and need where evident, heart breaking and extraordinary. Yet the dramatic and anxious reaction of the world around this family was captured with accuracy and was amazingly precise.
Simple, elegant and heart-breaking. Accurate, compelling but effortlessly brilliant.
and like swallows went,
And yet a woman's powerful character
Could keep a Swallow to its first intent . . ." (Yeats)
Four graceful stars for the beautifully titled book ‘They Came like Swallows’. A sad yet uplifting story of love and loss during the pandemic of 1918.
Delicate but cruel, moving yet unsentimental. A story that is told with striking simplicity about the devastating effects of the Spanish flu which is reflected in the humble account of three males in the Morrison family. Each with a very different experience, each heart broken by the loss of the central female character Elizabeth, a wife, a mother, and a friend.
The Storyline
To James Morrison, Elizabeth is the centre of his world, a woman who makes his life perfect by just being in it. Robert their eldest son who takes on the self-appointed role of protector is to face the ultimate challenge of his life. Not only is he unable to save his mother from a deadly virus. Ironically, he was the last person to fall ill with the Spanish flu before his mother succumbed to it. Then we have the beautiful 8-year-old adoring angelic son Bunny whose bond with his mother was so strong only looks were needed to communicate the tenderness and devotion they had to each other.
A very personal account of loss is narrated through the voices of James, Robert and Bunny while the chaotic world around them is suffering from the indiscriminate effects of the Spanish flu. As one of the family recalls of his loss
“Satin and lace and brown velvet and the faint odor of violets. That was all which was left to him of his love.”
Review and Comments
I read the first half of the book in one sitting and confess to feeling a little underwhelmed with the absence of strong characters, emotions, and storyline, until I found myself processing and thinking about the lives of the three Morrison males. In a few quiet moments, I began to appreciate the effortless, ease and grace with which this story of loss and grief was told.
The author did not need strong prose, or elegant phrasing, nor did he need the dominating characters to share a poignant message and evoke strong emotions. Because in portraying this emotional pillar, Elizabeth, as quiet and unassuming, when the swallows came, the unvoiced currents of love and need where evident, heart breaking and extraordinary. Yet the dramatic and anxious reaction of the world around this family was captured with accuracy and was amazingly precise.
Simple, elegant and heart-breaking. Accurate, compelling but effortlessly brilliant.
November 1, 2024
I'm starting to think, here in midlife, that it can be absolutely empowering, to be wrong.
I was wrong! I was wrong! I could almost scream out this realization with delight!
I was so wrong, so very wrong, when I thought I was right, and I'm so very happy that I was.
I was wrong to think that I wasn't interested in William Maxwell's work; I was wrong when I thought I'd had my fill, already, of male authors who were publishing in the 1930s.
But then I “met” William Maxwell this week. I met Mr. Maxwell, a midwestern American writer, born in 1908, whose family, among so many others, succumbed to the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918. He was a person who learned grief, at a very young age, and then was blessed with a long life to consider joy and grief, and all of the complicated gray areas in between.
Mr. Maxwell's writing style is dynamic, and I was awestruck by his ability to execute with absolute precision while also appearing to be laid-back in his observations.
He is also a great witness of the human condition. One of Mr. Maxwell's characters says in this story, “I think we know sometimes what is going to happen to us. . .”
And, almost immediately, another character juxtaposes her thoughts, remembering the lifelong rants of an atheistic father-in-law, a real know-it-all, who one day wakes up and knows God.
The author of this novel seemed to understand that we are complex beings, constantly in motion, and, in under 200 pages, he also shows us who we are and how limited we are in discerning, in all of the chaos, what is right and what is wrong.
. . . it was what people intended to do that counted—not what came about because of anything they did.
I was wrong! I was wrong! I could almost scream out this realization with delight!
I was so wrong, so very wrong, when I thought I was right, and I'm so very happy that I was.
I was wrong to think that I wasn't interested in William Maxwell's work; I was wrong when I thought I'd had my fill, already, of male authors who were publishing in the 1930s.
But then I “met” William Maxwell this week. I met Mr. Maxwell, a midwestern American writer, born in 1908, whose family, among so many others, succumbed to the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918. He was a person who learned grief, at a very young age, and then was blessed with a long life to consider joy and grief, and all of the complicated gray areas in between.
Mr. Maxwell's writing style is dynamic, and I was awestruck by his ability to execute with absolute precision while also appearing to be laid-back in his observations.
He is also a great witness of the human condition. One of Mr. Maxwell's characters says in this story, “I think we know sometimes what is going to happen to us. . .”
And, almost immediately, another character juxtaposes her thoughts, remembering the lifelong rants of an atheistic father-in-law, a real know-it-all, who one day wakes up and knows God.
The author of this novel seemed to understand that we are complex beings, constantly in motion, and, in under 200 pages, he also shows us who we are and how limited we are in discerning, in all of the chaos, what is right and what is wrong.
. . . it was what people intended to do that counted—not what came about because of anything they did.
March 5, 2025
«Quando eu era criança, falava como uma criança, entendia o mundo como uma criança...mas quando me tornei homem acabei com as coisas de criança.» Coríntios 13:11»
Como é difícil crescer e libertarmo-nos dos nossos cordões umbilicais.
A andorinha é uma ave migratória monogâmica, ou seja, possui um parceiro durante toda a vida e, por esse motivo, está associada ao amor. É conhecida como ave da partida e do regresso.
Com uma magnífica epígrafe de um poema de W.B.Yeats, «Vieram como Andorinhas» narra sob o ponto de vista de duas crianças e do seu pai, o trágico acontecimento que assolou a família Morison no inverno de 1918, a pandemia da gripe espanhola.
Bunny, o filho mais novo, enterneceu--me com a ligação à sua adorada mãe, o seu amor filial tão dependente da figura materna.
O livro é magnífico; nutro por ele um carinho especial pela beleza da escrita e da história, mas também pela felicidade o ter lido logo após ter criado a minha primeira conta no Goodreads em 2014.
De 2014 até hoje, a minha vida sofreu um câmbio radical, outros livros se juntaram, mas este ficou agarrado a mim com um nó-cego muito apertado.
Como é difícil crescer e libertarmo-nos dos nossos cordões umbilicais.
A andorinha é uma ave migratória monogâmica, ou seja, possui um parceiro durante toda a vida e, por esse motivo, está associada ao amor. É conhecida como ave da partida e do regresso.
Com uma magnífica epígrafe de um poema de W.B.Yeats, «Vieram como Andorinhas» narra sob o ponto de vista de duas crianças e do seu pai, o trágico acontecimento que assolou a família Morison no inverno de 1918, a pandemia da gripe espanhola.
Bunny, o filho mais novo, enterneceu--me com a ligação à sua adorada mãe, o seu amor filial tão dependente da figura materna.
O livro é magnífico; nutro por ele um carinho especial pela beleza da escrita e da história, mas também pela felicidade o ter lido logo após ter criado a minha primeira conta no Goodreads em 2014.
De 2014 até hoje, a minha vida sofreu um câmbio radical, outros livros se juntaram, mas este ficou agarrado a mim com um nó-cego muito apertado.
January 25, 2017
I cannot believe that in a long lifetime of reading, this is the first book I've read by William Maxwell. SO my kind of book. Basically the story of a family dealing with each other and themselves during the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic. Probably not for plot-centric readers, but for those liking interior dialogue and growth of characters, this is a jewel.
September 1, 2019
What a marvel is this novel, so delicate and at the same time poignant and tearing....
I felt kidnapped as a daughter and as a mother, living the endless drama of this family. A little gem unknown and nowhere to be found, absolutely recommended.
Che meraviglia questo romanzo, così delicato e allo stesso tempo struggente e lacerante....
mi sono sentita rapita come figlia e come madre, vivendo il dramma infinito di questa famiglia. Un piccolo gioiellino sconosciuto ed introvabile, assolutamente consigliato.
I felt kidnapped as a daughter and as a mother, living the endless drama of this family. A little gem unknown and nowhere to be found, absolutely recommended.
Che meraviglia questo romanzo, così delicato e allo stesso tempo struggente e lacerante....
mi sono sentita rapita come figlia e come madre, vivendo il dramma infinito di questa famiglia. Un piccolo gioiellino sconosciuto ed introvabile, assolutamente consigliato.
October 4, 2024
Why I chose to read this book:
1. it came up as a GR recommendation; and,
2. September 2024 is my "Fauna Titles" Month.
Praises:
1. such sophisticated, thought-provoking writing by author William Maxwell about a family's relationships and its brush with the Great Influenza in 1918;
2. I love a poignant, character-driven novel. Just when you think someone was unlikeable, Maxwell expertly draws out empathy from you for that character, leaving you feeling wistful and heartbroken; and,
3. Maxwell's vivid descriptiveness had me feeling that I was an intimate observer into this family's life.
Overall Thoughts:
If you enjoy remarkably well-developed character novels, then this book is for you!
1. it came up as a GR recommendation; and,
2. September 2024 is my "Fauna Titles" Month.
Praises:
1. such sophisticated, thought-provoking writing by author William Maxwell about a family's relationships and its brush with the Great Influenza in 1918;
2. I love a poignant, character-driven novel. Just when you think someone was unlikeable, Maxwell expertly draws out empathy from you for that character, leaving you feeling wistful and heartbroken; and,
3. Maxwell's vivid descriptiveness had me feeling that I was an intimate observer into this family's life.
Overall Thoughts:
If you enjoy remarkably well-developed character novels, then this book is for you!
May 14, 2022
The magic of William Maxwell is his ability to get inside his characters and expose them to you, heart, soul, flesh and blood. This story opens on the Morison family as seen through the eyes of its youngest member, Bunny. A timid eight year old, Bunny is very attached to and dependent upon his mother.
In the second section, Maxwell switches point of view to Bunny’s older brother, Robert. A pre-teen who has lost his leg in an accident, and goes to great lengths to be normal, active and self-sufficient. Robert loves his mother, as Bunny does, but holds her, and his Aunt Irene, at an arm’s length, to protect his perceived manhood.
In the final section, we hear from the father, James. Also dependent upon his wife, the center of not only his universe, but the person who knows how to run the house and guide the children.
What we get is a full and complete picture of this family and of the mother they adore. The Spanish flu epidemic is in full swing, and as one family member after another succumbs to it, we know this is about to be a story of loss, desperation, and sorrow, but also about love and connection and the unbreakable nature of family.
This story is largely autobiographical, which makes it all the more poignant. There was nothing sentimental about it, and yet it wrenched at the heart and caused me to fight back tears. In its short 174 pages, it exposes the depths of feeling in a host of characters as they navigate their ordinary lives.
He knew only that there was frozen ground under his feet, and that the trees he saw were real and he could by moving out of his path touch them. The snow dropping out of the sky did not turn when he turned or make any concession to his needs, but only to his existence. The snow fell on his shoulders and on the brim of his hat and it stayed there and melted. He was real. That was all he knew.
The losses in this book are very personal, but Maxwell knows, and conveys to us in his beautiful prose, that whatever we feel is never exclusively our own.
And he saw that his life was like all other lives. It had the same function. And it differed from them only in shape–as one salt-cellar is different from another. Or one knife-blade. What happened to him had happened before. And it would happen again, more than once.
This tale is soft and sharp, it is sad and joyful, and it is filled with the stuff that makes us human and helps us to understand others, as we seek to understand ourselves. William Maxwell is an under-rated writer; his name should be listed with the greats–he never disappoints me.
In the second section, Maxwell switches point of view to Bunny’s older brother, Robert. A pre-teen who has lost his leg in an accident, and goes to great lengths to be normal, active and self-sufficient. Robert loves his mother, as Bunny does, but holds her, and his Aunt Irene, at an arm’s length, to protect his perceived manhood.
In the final section, we hear from the father, James. Also dependent upon his wife, the center of not only his universe, but the person who knows how to run the house and guide the children.
What we get is a full and complete picture of this family and of the mother they adore. The Spanish flu epidemic is in full swing, and as one family member after another succumbs to it, we know this is about to be a story of loss, desperation, and sorrow, but also about love and connection and the unbreakable nature of family.
This story is largely autobiographical, which makes it all the more poignant. There was nothing sentimental about it, and yet it wrenched at the heart and caused me to fight back tears. In its short 174 pages, it exposes the depths of feeling in a host of characters as they navigate their ordinary lives.
He knew only that there was frozen ground under his feet, and that the trees he saw were real and he could by moving out of his path touch them. The snow dropping out of the sky did not turn when he turned or make any concession to his needs, but only to his existence. The snow fell on his shoulders and on the brim of his hat and it stayed there and melted. He was real. That was all he knew.
The losses in this book are very personal, but Maxwell knows, and conveys to us in his beautiful prose, that whatever we feel is never exclusively our own.
And he saw that his life was like all other lives. It had the same function. And it differed from them only in shape–as one salt-cellar is different from another. Or one knife-blade. What happened to him had happened before. And it would happen again, more than once.
This tale is soft and sharp, it is sad and joyful, and it is filled with the stuff that makes us human and helps us to understand others, as we seek to understand ourselves. William Maxwell is an under-rated writer; his name should be listed with the greats–he never disappoints me.
May 14, 2022
A novel about the influenza pandemic after the First World War. It is set in small town Illinois. This is a haunting novella which will stay with me, well written and hasn’t really become dated. The Morison family consists of mother, father and two boys: Bunny who is eight and Robert who is thirteen and has a disability (he has lost a leg below the knee). All four members of the family are ill at some point and inevitably there is loss. The first two parts of the book are told from the point of view of the two brothers. The last part is from a more general perspective.
The title is from a Yeats poem:
They came like swallows and like swallows went,
And yet a woman’s powerful character
Could keep a swallow to its first intent;
And half a dozen in formation there,
That seemed to whirl upon a compass-point,
Found certainty upon the dreaming air…
Maxwell is writing from his own experience in the pandemic and that is what makes this feel very personal.
The eight year olds perspective feels like an eight year old and life is centred on his mother:
“He got down from his chair at once. But while he stood waiting before her and while she considered him with eyes that were perplexed and brown, the weight grew. The weight grew and became like a stone. He had to lift it each time that he took a breath. ‘Whose angel child are you?’
By those words and by the wholly unexpected kiss that accompanied them he was made sound and strong. His eyes met hers safely. With wings beating above him and a great masculine noise of trumpets and drums he returned to his breakfast.”
And:
“Always when he and his mother were alone, the library seemed intimate and familiar. They did not speak or even raise their eyes, except occasionally. Yet around and through what they were doing each of them was aware of the other’s presence. If his mother was not there, if she was upstairs in her room or out in the kitchen explaining to Sophie about lunch, nothing was real to Bunny – or alive. The vermillion leaves and yellow leaves folding and unfolding upon the curtains depended utterly on his mother. Without her they had no movement and no colour.”
I felt at times there was an indebtedness to Woolf and I was reminded a little of To The Lighthouse.
Robert is older and a little more knowing and worldly wise and the two don’t always get on. Both perspectives work pretty well. Robert’s thoughts about the pandemic are different to Bunny’s:
“Page two… There it was: ‘SCHOOLS … The school board and the health officer have posted notices on the school houses and at places about town to the effect that the schools will be closed until further notice…’ Robert felt very small prickles in the region of his spine. He read the first sentence twice, to make sure that there had not been a mistake… His mother couldn’t keep him at home indefinitely. Things as awful as that didn’t happen.”
Semi spoiler ahead. We also see some perspective from Mr Morison senior as well:
“It was a shock to step across the threshold of the library and find everything unchanged. The chairs, the white bookcases, the rugs and curtains – even his pipe cleaners on the mantel behind the clock. He had left them there before he went away. He crossed the room and heard his own footsteps echoing. And knew that, now that he lived alone, he would go on hearing them as long as he lived.”
This is a really good novel which captures loss and uncertainty in childhood and is one of the better pandemic novels I have read.
The title is from a Yeats poem:
They came like swallows and like swallows went,
And yet a woman’s powerful character
Could keep a swallow to its first intent;
And half a dozen in formation there,
That seemed to whirl upon a compass-point,
Found certainty upon the dreaming air…
Maxwell is writing from his own experience in the pandemic and that is what makes this feel very personal.
The eight year olds perspective feels like an eight year old and life is centred on his mother:
“He got down from his chair at once. But while he stood waiting before her and while she considered him with eyes that were perplexed and brown, the weight grew. The weight grew and became like a stone. He had to lift it each time that he took a breath. ‘Whose angel child are you?’
By those words and by the wholly unexpected kiss that accompanied them he was made sound and strong. His eyes met hers safely. With wings beating above him and a great masculine noise of trumpets and drums he returned to his breakfast.”
And:
“Always when he and his mother were alone, the library seemed intimate and familiar. They did not speak or even raise their eyes, except occasionally. Yet around and through what they were doing each of them was aware of the other’s presence. If his mother was not there, if she was upstairs in her room or out in the kitchen explaining to Sophie about lunch, nothing was real to Bunny – or alive. The vermillion leaves and yellow leaves folding and unfolding upon the curtains depended utterly on his mother. Without her they had no movement and no colour.”
I felt at times there was an indebtedness to Woolf and I was reminded a little of To The Lighthouse.
Robert is older and a little more knowing and worldly wise and the two don’t always get on. Both perspectives work pretty well. Robert’s thoughts about the pandemic are different to Bunny’s:
“Page two… There it was: ‘SCHOOLS … The school board and the health officer have posted notices on the school houses and at places about town to the effect that the schools will be closed until further notice…’ Robert felt very small prickles in the region of his spine. He read the first sentence twice, to make sure that there had not been a mistake… His mother couldn’t keep him at home indefinitely. Things as awful as that didn’t happen.”
Semi spoiler ahead. We also see some perspective from Mr Morison senior as well:
“It was a shock to step across the threshold of the library and find everything unchanged. The chairs, the white bookcases, the rugs and curtains – even his pipe cleaners on the mantel behind the clock. He had left them there before he went away. He crossed the room and heard his own footsteps echoing. And knew that, now that he lived alone, he would go on hearing them as long as he lived.”
This is a really good novel which captures loss and uncertainty in childhood and is one of the better pandemic novels I have read.
January 17, 2020
A simple but also elegant portrait of a young Midwestern family, father, mother, and two boys, Bunny aged 8 and Robert aged 13, They Came Like Swallows shows us a brief glimpse into the Morison’s life in the days surrounding the end of World War I, the Armistice and the coming of the Flu.
Divided into three sections, narrated by respectively Bunny, Robert and their father James, the story gives us three views of family life from three perspectives and also reveals their individual relationships with Elizabeth, wife and mother. Bunny is the young child still very much in love with his mother while Robert is in the midst of minor rebellions. James is drawn so well as the grief stricken and confused husband who doubts life can or will continue.
Maxwell’s writing is quiet but so perfect in setting the stage, the characters and the gradual progression of the simple plot here, which allows for wonderful portraits of emotion in family life.
Divided into three sections, narrated by respectively Bunny, Robert and their father James, the story gives us three views of family life from three perspectives and also reveals their individual relationships with Elizabeth, wife and mother. Bunny is the young child still very much in love with his mother while Robert is in the midst of minor rebellions. James is drawn so well as the grief stricken and confused husband who doubts life can or will continue.
Maxwell’s writing is quiet but so perfect in setting the stage, the characters and the gradual progression of the simple plot here, which allows for wonderful portraits of emotion in family life.
July 18, 2023
“hadi, yarın görüşürüz”deki kurmaca/gerçek farkı gibi bir yazarlık dersi vermiyor burada william maxwell ama bu kez de bir çocuğun gözünden dünya nasıl anlatılır, bunu muhteşem bir biçimde göstermiş bize.
çok uzun yazmayacağım, daha doğrusu sonraya saklıyorum yazacaklarımı. ama 1918’de amerika’ya gelen ispanyol gribinin yarattığı kaos beni pandemiye geri götürürken yine yazarın yavaş yavaş açtığı karakterler, tanrı anlatıcının müthiş bir şefkatle üç kişiyi ele alması ve bunları apayrı biçimlerde yapması, romana sinen ölüm korkusu bambaşka hissettirdi.
işte yine o “şey” oldu. ürperen sırtım ve ben bunu yazmalıyım hissi.
bizde çocuk yazılamıyor çünkü garibanız, çocuk olamamışız hiç. 1918’de bile elin memleketinde çocuk nasıl büyüyor, koskoca yazar o çocuğu nasıl yazabiliyor… bizde bugün bile bu yok. kim anlatabilir işte… orhan pamuk, refik halid, halid ziya diye örnek vereyim… çocuğa çocuk gibi davranabilecek zenginlikte ve eğitimde olanlar.
o nedenle okurken hasetten sinirlerim bozuldu. batı edebiyatındaki bu çocuk anlatımı benim ayarlarımı bozuyor. kıskanıyorum.
nefis bir roman… bir kadının ailedeki erkekler için ne demek olduğu, hepsi için ayrı ayrı, ayrı ayrı gözlerden aktarılmış. ailedeki diğer kadınlar, öküz erkekler, farklı çocuklar… nasıl ustalıkla çiziliyor gözümüzün önünde.
çiğdem erkal yine nefis çevirmiş bu arada.
çok uzun yazmayacağım, daha doğrusu sonraya saklıyorum yazacaklarımı. ama 1918’de amerika’ya gelen ispanyol gribinin yarattığı kaos beni pandemiye geri götürürken yine yazarın yavaş yavaş açtığı karakterler, tanrı anlatıcının müthiş bir şefkatle üç kişiyi ele alması ve bunları apayrı biçimlerde yapması, romana sinen ölüm korkusu bambaşka hissettirdi.
işte yine o “şey” oldu. ürperen sırtım ve ben bunu yazmalıyım hissi.
bizde çocuk yazılamıyor çünkü garibanız, çocuk olamamışız hiç. 1918’de bile elin memleketinde çocuk nasıl büyüyor, koskoca yazar o çocuğu nasıl yazabiliyor… bizde bugün bile bu yok. kim anlatabilir işte… orhan pamuk, refik halid, halid ziya diye örnek vereyim… çocuğa çocuk gibi davranabilecek zenginlikte ve eğitimde olanlar.
o nedenle okurken hasetten sinirlerim bozuldu. batı edebiyatındaki bu çocuk anlatımı benim ayarlarımı bozuyor. kıskanıyorum.
nefis bir roman… bir kadının ailedeki erkekler için ne demek olduğu, hepsi için ayrı ayrı, ayrı ayrı gözlerden aktarılmış. ailedeki diğer kadınlar, öküz erkekler, farklı çocuklar… nasıl ustalıkla çiziliyor gözümüzün önünde.
çiğdem erkal yine nefis çevirmiş bu arada.
August 22, 2014
Bunny is eight years old in the late 1910's, the war has ended and he and his family live in a small Midwestern town, Bunny is our narrator for the first part of this novel. This is not really a coming of age novel, though it does include two young children. The Spanish Flu is rearing its ugly head and causing devastation in many, many places, people are being told to stay home. This is not a novel about the Spanish Flu either, though it does play a significant part of this story.
This is the story of a family, could be any family, middle class, nice house, a few tragedies in their past such as their son Robert's accident, just trying to get by day by day. It has one of the best viewpoints, narrated by Bunny, of a young sons love for his mother. IT was wonderful to read and really made me remember my five sons when they were this age and I was their whole world. Anyway all eventually grow up. Robert, who narrates the second section, is 13, and his viewpoints of the family is a little different, not quite young, not quite grown-up. A quiet novel about a normal family that will have to deal with more than they ever thought they would, one that will change them all.
I love this author, this is the second book I have read by him and intend getting my hands on more. He has such a subtle, poignant just natural way of telling a story. No big scenes meant to shock just novels about lives lived, normal people dealing with extraordinary events, just so incredibly real.
This is the story of a family, could be any family, middle class, nice house, a few tragedies in their past such as their son Robert's accident, just trying to get by day by day. It has one of the best viewpoints, narrated by Bunny, of a young sons love for his mother. IT was wonderful to read and really made me remember my five sons when they were this age and I was their whole world. Anyway all eventually grow up. Robert, who narrates the second section, is 13, and his viewpoints of the family is a little different, not quite young, not quite grown-up. A quiet novel about a normal family that will have to deal with more than they ever thought they would, one that will change them all.
I love this author, this is the second book I have read by him and intend getting my hands on more. He has such a subtle, poignant just natural way of telling a story. No big scenes meant to shock just novels about lives lived, normal people dealing with extraordinary events, just so incredibly real.
September 1, 2022
Another beautiful, lyrical book from William Maxwell. Man, can he write!
This book focuses on the Morison family: James is married to Elizabeth and their two sons, Robert and Bunny. The time is 1917 as WWI is ending and the Spanish flu is causing a worldwide devastation. How they cope with this flu and how they evolve as a family as tragedy strikes is the main gist of the novel.
Maxwell’s words flowed through me with its gentleness and excellent characterizations.
I loved the poem the author used at the beginning of the book. It is by W.B. Yeats. It’s meaning is even more impactful if you read it after finishing the book. This is the poem:
They came like swallows and like swallows went,
And yet a woman’s powerful character
Could keep a swallow to its first intent;
And half a dozen in formation there,
That seemed to whirl upon a compass-point,
Found certainty upon the dreaming air….
A short, powerful novel. This is the second book I have read by Maxwell. I look forward to reading more.
Published: 1937
This book focuses on the Morison family: James is married to Elizabeth and their two sons, Robert and Bunny. The time is 1917 as WWI is ending and the Spanish flu is causing a worldwide devastation. How they cope with this flu and how they evolve as a family as tragedy strikes is the main gist of the novel.
Maxwell’s words flowed through me with its gentleness and excellent characterizations.
I loved the poem the author used at the beginning of the book. It is by W.B. Yeats. It’s meaning is even more impactful if you read it after finishing the book. This is the poem:
They came like swallows and like swallows went,
And yet a woman’s powerful character
Could keep a swallow to its first intent;
And half a dozen in formation there,
That seemed to whirl upon a compass-point,
Found certainty upon the dreaming air….
A short, powerful novel. This is the second book I have read by Maxwell. I look forward to reading more.
Published: 1937
August 20, 2025
"They Came Like Swallows" is a beautifully written gem about an Illinois family during the 1918 influenza pandemic. The book is divided into three parts, told in the third person, which show the family from the perspective of the younger son, the older son, and the father. Bunny is the sensitive younger child who enjoys playing indoors, and is very close to his mother. Robert, the older boy, loves the outdoors and plays sports well despite having an artificial leg. He also loves his mother, but is more independent than Bunny. James Morison, the father, is a good provider who loves his pregnant wife and leaves the childcare in her capable hands.
The title and epigraph is from a W.B. Yeats poem: "They came like swallows. . . That seemed to whirl upon a compass-point." For each of the three Morison males, Elizabeth Morison is the emotional compass point that family life revolves around.
The story is told with such sensitivity and tenderness partly because it is semi-autobiographical. The character Elizabeth Morison is inspired by William Maxwell's mother. This story is even more poignant after living through this century's pandemic since grief, guilt, and love are timeless emotions.
The title and epigraph is from a W.B. Yeats poem: "They came like swallows. . . That seemed to whirl upon a compass-point." For each of the three Morison males, Elizabeth Morison is the emotional compass point that family life revolves around.
The story is told with such sensitivity and tenderness partly because it is semi-autobiographical. The character Elizabeth Morison is inspired by William Maxwell's mother. This story is even more poignant after living through this century's pandemic since grief, guilt, and love are timeless emotions.
March 5, 2025
Com a mãe, Robert quase nunca se sentia constrangido ou pouco à vontade. Parecia fácil e natural para ela estar a falar sobre o que estivesse a pensar. Não parava o que estava a fazer. Quase nunca. E por isso, ele sentia-se confortável para lhe contar toda a espécie de coisas. Porque sabia que ela continuaria a dobrar os lençóis e as fronhas.
Que me perdoem todos os pais, sobretudo os pais atentos e carinhosos, mas uma mãe faz muita falta, e em “Vieram Como Andorinhas” isso é dolorosamente evidente.
Dividido em três partes, vemos de uma forma microscópica os efeitos da gripe espanhola de 1918 nos Estados Unidos, primeiro, da perspectiva de Bunny, de 8 anos; depois, de Robert, de 13 anos e, finalmente, de James, o pai de ambos. Tal como no belíssimo “Adeus Até Amanhã”, as personagens lidam num grau maior ou menor com a culpa, no entanto, aqui há um crescendo na sensação de perigo e catástrofe, desde o olhar inocente de Bunny, à apreensão de Robert e, por fim, ao desespero de James, demasiado ensimesmado e apático para tentar manter a família junta. Tal como em muitas famílias, a mãe é a figura central na casa dos Morrison, aquela que cuida, que resolve conflitos entre os filhos, a presença mais ou menos discreta que mantém uma casa a funcionar sem sobressaltos, aquela que não consegue manter-se longe de um filho doente nem mesmo durante uma pandemia.
Recusava-se a acreditar que Elizabeth se deitasse a seu lado e ficasse acordada a pensar e a planear as coisas para quando já não estivesse presente. Com as outras pessoas, por vezes ela oculta os seus verdadeiros sentimentos, mas não com ele. Ninguém tinha ideia, por exemplo, de como o acidente de Robert a perturbava ainda, de como à noite ela se aninhava nos seus braços e chorava. Se a vida dela tinha sido ensombrada pela antecipação da morte, ele tê-lo-ia sabido.
Que me perdoem todos os pais, sobretudo os pais atentos e carinhosos, mas uma mãe faz muita falta, e em “Vieram Como Andorinhas” isso é dolorosamente evidente.
Dividido em três partes, vemos de uma forma microscópica os efeitos da gripe espanhola de 1918 nos Estados Unidos, primeiro, da perspectiva de Bunny, de 8 anos; depois, de Robert, de 13 anos e, finalmente, de James, o pai de ambos. Tal como no belíssimo “Adeus Até Amanhã”, as personagens lidam num grau maior ou menor com a culpa, no entanto, aqui há um crescendo na sensação de perigo e catástrofe, desde o olhar inocente de Bunny, à apreensão de Robert e, por fim, ao desespero de James, demasiado ensimesmado e apático para tentar manter a família junta. Tal como em muitas famílias, a mãe é a figura central na casa dos Morrison, aquela que cuida, que resolve conflitos entre os filhos, a presença mais ou menos discreta que mantém uma casa a funcionar sem sobressaltos, aquela que não consegue manter-se longe de um filho doente nem mesmo durante uma pandemia.
Recusava-se a acreditar que Elizabeth se deitasse a seu lado e ficasse acordada a pensar e a planear as coisas para quando já não estivesse presente. Com as outras pessoas, por vezes ela oculta os seus verdadeiros sentimentos, mas não com ele. Ninguém tinha ideia, por exemplo, de como o acidente de Robert a perturbava ainda, de como à noite ela se aninhava nos seus braços e chorava. Se a vida dela tinha sido ensombrada pela antecipação da morte, ele tê-lo-ia sabido.
June 9, 2013
What a beautiful and bittersweet novella this is. It's the story of an Illinois family who suffers through the 1918 flu epidemic. The first chapter is told from the viewpoint of the 8-year-old son, Bunny, who is an imaginative and anxious little boy. He desperately loves his mother and is afraid of his stern father. Bunny looks up to his older brother, Robert, who is mean and rarely condescends to play with him. The second chapter is from the perspective of 13-year-old Robert, who is a rambunctious but surprisingly earnest child. The final chapter is from the father's perspective, and it is a study in grief.
Each chapter made me empathize with its narrator. I loved the descriptions of how each boy played -- Bunny preferred being indoors and was always inventing his own games and races and building towns out of random items, but Robert wanted to be outdoors and play football and run and tackle and climb high onto the roof. When I read Bunny's chapter, I learned to hate Robert and wished he would be nicer to Bunny. But when I got to Robert's chapter, I saw how frustrating it was to have a younger brother like Bunny, who was so sensitive and frequently cried and didn't want to play rough with the other boys. And the father's chapter was the perfect way to tie the story together, because we finally understood why he always seemed so stern and distant:
"In the long run it was a mistake to have children. James did not understand them. He never knew what was going on in their minds."
This is the second William Maxwell novel I've read -- the first was "So Long, See You Tomorrow" -- and his writing is so good that now I want to read everything he has written. I highly recommend both books.
Each chapter made me empathize with its narrator. I loved the descriptions of how each boy played -- Bunny preferred being indoors and was always inventing his own games and races and building towns out of random items, but Robert wanted to be outdoors and play football and run and tackle and climb high onto the roof. When I read Bunny's chapter, I learned to hate Robert and wished he would be nicer to Bunny. But when I got to Robert's chapter, I saw how frustrating it was to have a younger brother like Bunny, who was so sensitive and frequently cried and didn't want to play rough with the other boys. And the father's chapter was the perfect way to tie the story together, because we finally understood why he always seemed so stern and distant:
"In the long run it was a mistake to have children. James did not understand them. He never knew what was going on in their minds."
This is the second William Maxwell novel I've read -- the first was "So Long, See You Tomorrow" -- and his writing is so good that now I want to read everything he has written. I highly recommend both books.
May 28, 2015
Though not the masterpiece So Long, See You Tomorrow is, this much earlier work of Maxwell's contains many of the elements that seem to haunt much of his writing: the effect of the 1918 flu epidemic on his family and their small Illinois community, and his relationships with his older brother and their father.
The narrators are the three males of the family, but the mother is the center of their lives, and of this slim novel, too. The story is passed down, like a reversed legacy, from 8-year-old Bunny to 13-year-old Robert to their father, and the reader remembers the interior life of each preceding character while reading of the next. Clocks tick to keep us aware of time's passing, and it is this, along with the time period the novel is set in, as well as Bunny's existence being tied up so fully with his mother's, that reminded me of To the Lighthouse. (The father's name here is James and perhaps that was Maxwell's tribute to the Woolf novel; I know she is a writer Maxwell revered.)
Maxwell inhabits the mind of each of these three characters effectively, especially the brothers with their petty resentments and their occasional striving to get along though never in concert, but his greatest strength is the words he uses, seemingly simple, to elucidate the state we experience, whether it's due to vivid dreaming or extreme illness, when the real meets the irreal, when it's almost impossible to tell one from the other as we go "down under" and come "up out of," as the boys' grandmother says of Jesus' baptism.
The narrators are the three males of the family, but the mother is the center of their lives, and of this slim novel, too. The story is passed down, like a reversed legacy, from 8-year-old Bunny to 13-year-old Robert to their father, and the reader remembers the interior life of each preceding character while reading of the next. Clocks tick to keep us aware of time's passing, and it is this, along with the time period the novel is set in, as well as Bunny's existence being tied up so fully with his mother's, that reminded me of To the Lighthouse. (The father's name here is James and perhaps that was Maxwell's tribute to the Woolf novel; I know she is a writer Maxwell revered.)
Maxwell inhabits the mind of each of these three characters effectively, especially the brothers with their petty resentments and their occasional striving to get along though never in concert, but his greatest strength is the words he uses, seemingly simple, to elucidate the state we experience, whether it's due to vivid dreaming or extreme illness, when the real meets the irreal, when it's almost impossible to tell one from the other as we go "down under" and come "up out of," as the boys' grandmother says of Jesus' baptism.
January 1, 2019
Si uno tira una piedrita a un estanque, se crea un círculo concéntrico expansivo. Y si uno tira una segunda piedra, se crea otro círculo expansivo dentro del primero. Con una tercera piedra, habrá tres círculos expansivos antes de que el estanque recupere su quietud gracias a la fuerza de gravedad. Yo quería que mi novela fuera así. William Maxwell.
El punto central de Vinieron como golondrinas es Elizabeth, el sostén de la familia, el elemento que la une y la convierte en lo que es. Elizabeth, al igual que la madre de Maxwell, muere de gripe española poco después de firmarse el armisticio que pone fin a la Primera Guerra Mundial.
La novela se divide en tres partes, cada una narrada desde el punto de vista de cada uno de los miembros masculinos de la familia, los hijos, Bunny, de 8 años, y Robert, de 13, y el marido, James. A través de esas tres miradas, o círculos concéntricos, los conoceremos, por sus pensamientos y sentimientos, pero también por sus relaciones y por cómo se ven los unos a los otros. El punto de vista de Elizabeth no lo escucharemos, ni llegaremos a conocerla del todo, no hace falta. Ella es el eje alrededor del que gira todo, y el abismo que tras su pérdida se abre en el pequeño universo que es esa familia es uno de los temas más importantes de la novela, aunque no el único.
Pocas veces me ha sido tan sencillo empatizar con los personajes de una novela, pocas veces los he sentido tan reales. Es fácil sentirse identificado con ellos, hayamos o no sufrido la pérdida de nuestra Elizabeth, y seguramente muchos de los miedos y sentimientos reflejados nos serán familiares (Si en una grieta pones el pie, a tu madre no la vuelves a ver). Por otro lado, con esta temática hubiese sido sencillo caer en la sensiblería, contar una historia lacrimógena y poco más, pero Maxwell consigue transmitir lo doloroso y lo bello de ese sentimiento y contar una historia emocionante, llena de momentos magistrales (esa primera parte llena de detalles, los pensamientos de Robert en el tejado, el paseo de James, o su dolor ante los objetos de Elizabeth).
El punto central de Vinieron como golondrinas es Elizabeth, el sostén de la familia, el elemento que la une y la convierte en lo que es. Elizabeth, al igual que la madre de Maxwell, muere de gripe española poco después de firmarse el armisticio que pone fin a la Primera Guerra Mundial.
La novela se divide en tres partes, cada una narrada desde el punto de vista de cada uno de los miembros masculinos de la familia, los hijos, Bunny, de 8 años, y Robert, de 13, y el marido, James. A través de esas tres miradas, o círculos concéntricos, los conoceremos, por sus pensamientos y sentimientos, pero también por sus relaciones y por cómo se ven los unos a los otros. El punto de vista de Elizabeth no lo escucharemos, ni llegaremos a conocerla del todo, no hace falta. Ella es el eje alrededor del que gira todo, y el abismo que tras su pérdida se abre en el pequeño universo que es esa familia es uno de los temas más importantes de la novela, aunque no el único.
Pocas veces me ha sido tan sencillo empatizar con los personajes de una novela, pocas veces los he sentido tan reales. Es fácil sentirse identificado con ellos, hayamos o no sufrido la pérdida de nuestra Elizabeth, y seguramente muchos de los miedos y sentimientos reflejados nos serán familiares (Si en una grieta pones el pie, a tu madre no la vuelves a ver). Por otro lado, con esta temática hubiese sido sencillo caer en la sensiblería, contar una historia lacrimógena y poco más, pero Maxwell consigue transmitir lo doloroso y lo bello de ese sentimiento y contar una historia emocionante, llena de momentos magistrales (esa primera parte llena de detalles, los pensamientos de Robert en el tejado, el paseo de James, o su dolor ante los objetos de Elizabeth).
January 30, 2025
This is my second by William Maxwell, after beginning with So Long, See You Tomorrow. I am starting to reap the benefits of using this year to revisit some authors who initially made a great impression on me. I have found Maxwell’s novels to be strongly character driven. I find myself engaged by his stories, but I believe some readers consider them slow: they are what I categorize as quiet novels.
What you may not get in plot that moves along quickly is offset by characters with depth: you get to experience what the characters feel and think. They have strengths and flaws. They can be unpredictable. They Came Like Swallows is divided into three Books. The first Book is told from the perspective of Bunny (Peter), an 8-year-old boy: shy, sensitive and sometimes fearful, who has a strong connection with his mother, Bess. The second Book focuses on Robert, Bunny’s older brother, who is 13; Robert also has a very strong, although less apparent, connection with his mother. In the third Book we are in the head of James, Bess’ husband. James is very much in love with his wife; he greatly admires her and is very dependent on her. The events of the story takes place in a town in Illinois at the end of WWI; they encompass Armistice Day but then focus on the impact of the Spanish Flu.
I thought the structure of the novel was wonderful. In the first Book you become so intimate with Bunny that in the second and third books you want to know what Bunny is thinking about the events that transpire. In Book 1 you think you know who Robert is only to discover in the second Book that he is more complex than you thought. And so it goes in Book three. I found the ending a little too predictable, but otherwise this was a great experience. I am looking forward to reading more of William Maxwell.
What you may not get in plot that moves along quickly is offset by characters with depth: you get to experience what the characters feel and think. They have strengths and flaws. They can be unpredictable. They Came Like Swallows is divided into three Books. The first Book is told from the perspective of Bunny (Peter), an 8-year-old boy: shy, sensitive and sometimes fearful, who has a strong connection with his mother, Bess. The second Book focuses on Robert, Bunny’s older brother, who is 13; Robert also has a very strong, although less apparent, connection with his mother. In the third Book we are in the head of James, Bess’ husband. James is very much in love with his wife; he greatly admires her and is very dependent on her. The events of the story takes place in a town in Illinois at the end of WWI; they encompass Armistice Day but then focus on the impact of the Spanish Flu.
I thought the structure of the novel was wonderful. In the first Book you become so intimate with Bunny that in the second and third books you want to know what Bunny is thinking about the events that transpire. In Book 1 you think you know who Robert is only to discover in the second Book that he is more complex than you thought. And so it goes in Book three. I found the ending a little too predictable, but otherwise this was a great experience. I am looking forward to reading more of William Maxwell.
November 28, 2023
150 sayfalık bir roman insanın en derinine nasıl nüfuz edebilir, işte böyle. Amerikan edebiyatına biraz mesafeli olduğumdan açıkçası ne kadar bana hitap edeceğinden emin olmayarak başladığım William Maxwell romanı Kırlangıçlar Gibi Geldiler içime içime işledi. Bir yazar nasıl tüm karakterlerini böyle şefkatle anlatabilir, üstelik bunu aklımıza ilk gelen sevgi sözcüklerini kullanmadan yapabilir, hayran oldum. Nasıl duru bir anlatım (şüphesiz bunda Çiğdem Erkal'ın kusursuz çevirisinin de payı büyük), nasıl naif, kendi halinde, nasıl gerçek bir kitap.
1918'de Amerika'nın Illinois eyaletinde bir kasabada geçiyor kitap. Bunny ve Robert adlı iki çocukları olan Morison ailesi, tam savaşın bittiği ve İspanyol gribinin dünyayı kasıp kavurduğu bir dönemde üçüncü çocuklarını bekliyor. Önce Bunny'nin, sonra abisi Robert'ın, en sonda da babaları James'in ağzından dinliyoruz hikâyelerini.
Salgın, kapanma, ölüm korkusu, endişe. Maalesef son yıllarda hepimizin hemhal olduğu kavramlar. Kitaba sinmiş bir tekinsizlik var ama yumuşacık bir başka hisle kol kola yürüyor o tekinsizlik. O hissi sanırım "nazik" olarak tanımlamak da mümkün. Bazı kitaplar tuhaf bir nezaket taşıyorlar, yazar sanki her cümlesinde karakterlerini de, okuru da incitmemek için çabalıyor gibi hissediyor insan okurken. Bu naiflikte çok kitap yok, o yüzden karşıma bunlardan çıktığında bambaşka bir sıcaklık duyuyorum.
Üç erkek anlatıcı olması yanıltmasın; büyük de bir kadın hikayesi bu aslında. Çünkü bu üç erkeği de anneleriyle ilişkisi üzerinden dinliyoruz, anne neredeyse tanımlayıcı, belirleyici, kimlik verici unsuru bu öykünün. Sadece anne Elizabeth değil, kitaptaki diğer kadınlar da çok akılda kalıcı karakterler, özellikle teyze Irene öyle güzel anlatılmış ki.
Büyük yazarlık böyle bir şey işte, azıcık sayfada bir dolu karakteri böyle derinleştirerek anlatabilmek, okura böyle geçmelerini sağlamak, böyle süssüz, ihtişamsız yazıp böyle nüfuz edebilmek... Hayranlıkla okudum.
Resmen bana Amerikan edebiyatı sevdireceksiniz bay Maxwell. Dilimize çevrilen "Hadi, Yarın Görüşürüz"ünüzü de okumayı iple çekiyorum.
1918'de Amerika'nın Illinois eyaletinde bir kasabada geçiyor kitap. Bunny ve Robert adlı iki çocukları olan Morison ailesi, tam savaşın bittiği ve İspanyol gribinin dünyayı kasıp kavurduğu bir dönemde üçüncü çocuklarını bekliyor. Önce Bunny'nin, sonra abisi Robert'ın, en sonda da babaları James'in ağzından dinliyoruz hikâyelerini.
Salgın, kapanma, ölüm korkusu, endişe. Maalesef son yıllarda hepimizin hemhal olduğu kavramlar. Kitaba sinmiş bir tekinsizlik var ama yumuşacık bir başka hisle kol kola yürüyor o tekinsizlik. O hissi sanırım "nazik" olarak tanımlamak da mümkün. Bazı kitaplar tuhaf bir nezaket taşıyorlar, yazar sanki her cümlesinde karakterlerini de, okuru da incitmemek için çabalıyor gibi hissediyor insan okurken. Bu naiflikte çok kitap yok, o yüzden karşıma bunlardan çıktığında bambaşka bir sıcaklık duyuyorum.
Üç erkek anlatıcı olması yanıltmasın; büyük de bir kadın hikayesi bu aslında. Çünkü bu üç erkeği de anneleriyle ilişkisi üzerinden dinliyoruz, anne neredeyse tanımlayıcı, belirleyici, kimlik verici unsuru bu öykünün. Sadece anne Elizabeth değil, kitaptaki diğer kadınlar da çok akılda kalıcı karakterler, özellikle teyze Irene öyle güzel anlatılmış ki.
Büyük yazarlık böyle bir şey işte, azıcık sayfada bir dolu karakteri böyle derinleştirerek anlatabilmek, okura böyle geçmelerini sağlamak, böyle süssüz, ihtişamsız yazıp böyle nüfuz edebilmek... Hayranlıkla okudum.
Resmen bana Amerikan edebiyatı sevdireceksiniz bay Maxwell. Dilimize çevrilen "Hadi, Yarın Görüşürüz"ünüzü de okumayı iple çekiyorum.
October 28, 2020
I came across this book by chance on the kindle daily deals, and I'm rather glad I did, as it was definitely something different for me to delve into. This book is set during the time that the Spanish flu was circulating, and we learn about one family, and their lives during this time. The story is told in three different perspectives, and while this doesn't always work, in this book, it did.
The aspect that was somewhat lacking was character development. There were a few characters that had very little background and I would have liked to have known more. It would have answered some of my curiosities.
I thought the writing was simple and accessible, if not a little abrupt, at times. There were a couple of times when a chapter ended, and it didn't seem like the correct place to do so.
Despite this, I enjoyed this story, and I think the cover is quite fitting, too. I would certainly read more of Maxwell's work.
The aspect that was somewhat lacking was character development. There were a few characters that had very little background and I would have liked to have known more. It would have answered some of my curiosities.
I thought the writing was simple and accessible, if not a little abrupt, at times. There were a couple of times when a chapter ended, and it didn't seem like the correct place to do so.
Despite this, I enjoyed this story, and I think the cover is quite fitting, too. I would certainly read more of Maxwell's work.
June 15, 2015
This is an extremely dreary and subtle novel that touched upon (though didn’t quite fully develop) the loss a child feels when he loses his mother, and the emptiness one feels when a spouse dies.
Brothers, aged 8 and 13, struggle to connect with each other and to relate to the world around them, and it’s all in that unspoken, time-gone-by way of boys and toy soldiers and farms and summers. They both have that deep-seated craving for mother’s love, and both feel the sting of favoritism and jealousy.
I thought the final part that was written from the father/husband’s point of view would be tacked on as an afterthought, but I found his narrative to be the most touching. The shock, wandering around the empty house, contemplating a lifetime of hearing his own footsteps echo…
These male characters were from a time and a place where they couldn’t, or didn’t know how to, express grief. There’s a constant reference to clocks, and ticking, and you can almost hear the floorboards creaking and see the lace curtains billowing in the breeze.
I read this short book on a Sunday afternoon and when it ended I was left with a sad and slightly anxious feeling. Beautiful, gentle writing.
Brothers, aged 8 and 13, struggle to connect with each other and to relate to the world around them, and it’s all in that unspoken, time-gone-by way of boys and toy soldiers and farms and summers. They both have that deep-seated craving for mother’s love, and both feel the sting of favoritism and jealousy.
I thought the final part that was written from the father/husband’s point of view would be tacked on as an afterthought, but I found his narrative to be the most touching. The shock, wandering around the empty house, contemplating a lifetime of hearing his own footsteps echo…
These male characters were from a time and a place where they couldn’t, or didn’t know how to, express grief. There’s a constant reference to clocks, and ticking, and you can almost hear the floorboards creaking and see the lace curtains billowing in the breeze.
I read this short book on a Sunday afternoon and when it ended I was left with a sad and slightly anxious feeling. Beautiful, gentle writing.
April 27, 2016
Revi-me na infância, e reconheci todas as birras que fiz e o porquê de alguns comportamentos que tive.
Constatei que, talvez em determinadas ocasiões, não tenha dado o devido valor a algumas pirraças dos meus filhos.
Como mãe, senti com um misto de dor e ternura, porque é que temos de ser a cola que une todas as pontas.
Um livro sem estória mirabolante, sem personagens recambolescas, mas que é um espelho, um reflexo de cada um de nós desde as pequenas dores de crescimento até às sábias provas de vida que nos fazem gente grande.
Constatei que, talvez em determinadas ocasiões, não tenha dado o devido valor a algumas pirraças dos meus filhos.
Como mãe, senti com um misto de dor e ternura, porque é que temos de ser a cola que une todas as pontas.
Um livro sem estória mirabolante, sem personagens recambolescas, mas que é um espelho, um reflexo de cada um de nós desde as pequenas dores de crescimento até às sábias provas de vida que nos fazem gente grande.
December 21, 2014
One British, one French, one German. Three novels, one from each of those countries. Three perspectives of the First World War. The moment I read that I thought what a wonderful idea, circling the conflict, a century removed. Real life reading friends were impressed when I suggested it as our group project for 2015. Oh, I could have, should have, credited Fionnuala, but to my reading chums that would have just been a lovely name. They would have missed the inspiration, the Muse that she is.
I was tasked with selecting the three novels, and was in the very process. But the reading gods have their own schedule, don't they? Walking my you-never-know walk through the shelves of a used-bookstore, there was this slim vintage international, just the slightest bit nudged out from the row. The gods do that, you know. They Came Like Swallows. William Maxwell. Hey, isn't that Teresa's guy?
I held it, a reminder. The American entry made it a World War.
_____ _____ _____ _____ _____
The large clock in the Morison home sounds loudly, marking time. A constant measurement and presence. It is November, 1918. So there will be an Armistice. But on the historical scroll there is another War. The flu. This is a story about how the War came to Logan, Illinois.
The title comes from Yeats' poem Coole Park, 1929:
What Maxwell accomplishes, in spare sentences of perfect cadence, is to show the intersection of things: War, sickness, family. Almost, they are almost the same thing. These are the images:
Outside, branches of the linden rose and fell in the wind, rose and fell. And November leaves came down.
A bird flies into the house, a bad omen.
"Please don't hurt it, Robert!"
"Why not?"
Robert swung vigorously.
"Because I don't want you to."
"One sparrow more or less---"
Robert lost a leg as a child. Lost a leg.
_____ _____ _____ _____ _____
I liked the book even though I didn't like the characters. Except Irene. Irene is the strong one, the one who will see this through. It is Irene who says this:
"Boyd is fonder of little Agnes than he is of me. I don't think he knows that, but he is. After he carried her off that time, I knew it. And I was afraid to have him see her. But I don't feel like that any more. He's so frightfully lonely. And there's no reason why he shouldn't have her part of the year. If I could be sure that I might be a different person, or that he could--but what has happened once can happen again. No matter what it is or how hard you try to avoid it.
Maxwell wrote this in 1937.
_____ _____ _____ _____ _____
_____ _____ _____ _____ _____
Those clocks. Those damn clocks. They don't always ring at the same time, even though they mean to. Yes, it was a world war.
I was tasked with selecting the three novels, and was in the very process. But the reading gods have their own schedule, don't they? Walking my you-never-know walk through the shelves of a used-bookstore, there was this slim vintage international, just the slightest bit nudged out from the row. The gods do that, you know. They Came Like Swallows. William Maxwell. Hey, isn't that Teresa's guy?
I held it, a reminder. The American entry made it a World War.
_____ _____ _____ _____ _____
The large clock in the Morison home sounds loudly, marking time. A constant measurement and presence. It is November, 1918. So there will be an Armistice. But on the historical scroll there is another War. The flu. This is a story about how the War came to Logan, Illinois.
The title comes from Yeats' poem Coole Park, 1929:
What Maxwell accomplishes, in spare sentences of perfect cadence, is to show the intersection of things: War, sickness, family. Almost, they are almost the same thing. These are the images:
Outside, branches of the linden rose and fell in the wind, rose and fell. And November leaves came down.
A bird flies into the house, a bad omen.
"Please don't hurt it, Robert!"
"Why not?"
Robert swung vigorously.
"Because I don't want you to."
"One sparrow more or less---"
Robert lost a leg as a child. Lost a leg.
_____ _____ _____ _____ _____
I liked the book even though I didn't like the characters. Except Irene. Irene is the strong one, the one who will see this through. It is Irene who says this:
"Boyd is fonder of little Agnes than he is of me. I don't think he knows that, but he is. After he carried her off that time, I knew it. And I was afraid to have him see her. But I don't feel like that any more. He's so frightfully lonely. And there's no reason why he shouldn't have her part of the year. If I could be sure that I might be a different person, or that he could--but what has happened once can happen again. No matter what it is or how hard you try to avoid it.
Maxwell wrote this in 1937.
_____ _____ _____ _____ _____
_____ _____ _____ _____ _____
Those clocks. Those damn clocks. They don't always ring at the same time, even though they mean to. Yes, it was a world war.
November 11, 2018
This is the second book that I have read by William Maxwell and I have to say that I simply love his writing. If you have read and liked books such as Stoner and Mrs. Bridge, then his books may be worth looking into. These are books that are more about the beautiful and elegant prose, rather than being plot-driven. They are all books that are subtle and simply remain with you. The story here is about a family during the Spanish Flu epidemic in 1918.
A quote about siblings:
“There was no time (no time that Bunny could remember) when Robert had not made him cry at least once between morning and night.”
A quote about siblings:
“There was no time (no time that Bunny could remember) when Robert had not made him cry at least once between morning and night.”
September 29, 2020
A poignant semi-autobiographical story set during the 1918 flu pandemic, They Came Like Swallows traverses the deliberate change in living as the first world war reaches an end and the H1N1 virus spreads. Through the story of the Morison family, the casualties of the pandemic don't rely on dying people denoted solely by numbers but the personal aftermath they leave. Much more to two siblings who come face to face with the threat and eventual ambush of mortality. What makes this utterly unfortunate is how they don't get along at all. And some pinch of sibling envy and selfishness keep them far apart. Although the pandemic itself persists to be secondary with the complicated family dynamic hampered by gender roles and their complications at the centre, the response of the people is glaringly similar to current responses with the COVID19 pandemic. Indeed, a minor character disagrees with the closure of religious establishments because no way is the virus going to spread in an hour eucharistic celebration. And why will God let people die in his house? Another passing thought to consider is the skewed understanding of children about the pandemic. One kid slightly celebrates the school closures. Yet, They Came Like Swallows is essentially a novel about grief; the struggle to hold it together. The ultimate realisation that the beloved wouldn't come home again, comb their hair again nor even rest their hand on your shoulders again. A loss of innocence happens in parallel as well. And Maxwell writes in pulses of striking imagery and emotional bleakness. Every paragraph is saturated with delicate melancholy and bittersweet sentiments. The departed is perceived through others without really having a voice in the novel; a tearful set of memories in-transit that ceaselessly ripples across the absence they leave.
I am only rating this a tad lower than I should because it's too depressing for the current circumstances. To read a story about the pandemic while experiencing it in real-time is tacit masochism it seems.
I am only rating this a tad lower than I should because it's too depressing for the current circumstances. To read a story about the pandemic while experiencing it in real-time is tacit masochism it seems.
July 29, 2015
(4.5) With this being my first exposure to William Maxwell, I was expecting something highly emotional and well written. Getting through the first three quarters of this book, I had yet to see anything of true emotion, but once I saw it, it was seen and I couldn't get enough of it. I don't think I've read a book that has went from a 2-3 star to a 4-5 star so quickly within just a few pages, much less a couple paragraphs. Despair is Maxwell's niche and it worked for me. Of all his writings, I'm glad I started with this one; short and simple, but packing a big punch in the end.
August 20, 2021
"Kırlangıçlar gibi gelip yine kırlangıçlar gibi gittiler..."
Hadi Yarın Görüşürüz gibi bir başyapıttan sonra yine unutulmaz güzellikte bir Maxwell yapıtı daha.
Çiğdem Erkal çevirisiyle 2022 yılında raflarda olacak.
Hadi Yarın Görüşürüz gibi bir başyapıttan sonra yine unutulmaz güzellikte bir Maxwell yapıtı daha.
Çiğdem Erkal çevirisiyle 2022 yılında raflarda olacak.
August 5, 2010
This is a gorgeous book. The writing feels effortless; each word and every sentence is simple, yet the effect is a luxury of acute observation and depth of feeling. Reading it was like walking into the warmth of beautifully loved parlor, full of polished furniture, a ticking clock, thick rugs, and a mother, hemming diapers, whose smile could heal all your wounds.
The book is set in 1918 during the great flu pandemic, and involves the Morison family. The first section is told from the point of view of Bunny, the youngest son (8), the second is Robert, five years older, and the third from James, the father. All are males who are deeply attached to and affected by Elizabeth, wife and mother, whose love for them is lightly worn but profoundly felt. "They Came Like Swallows" has such a small circle of action that I don't want to give away any of the important details, but the everyday things matter very much. Elizabeth's significance to her husband and two sons is heartrending and powerful. The title is perfectly chosen from a Yeats poem: "They came like swallows and like swallows went, / And yet a woman's powerful character / Could keep a swallow to its first intent; / And half a dozen in formation there, / That seemed to whirl upon a compass-point, / Found certainty upon the dreaming air . . ."
It was difficult to close the book when I was done. My chest hurt. This novel is a jewel.
The book is set in 1918 during the great flu pandemic, and involves the Morison family. The first section is told from the point of view of Bunny, the youngest son (8), the second is Robert, five years older, and the third from James, the father. All are males who are deeply attached to and affected by Elizabeth, wife and mother, whose love for them is lightly worn but profoundly felt. "They Came Like Swallows" has such a small circle of action that I don't want to give away any of the important details, but the everyday things matter very much. Elizabeth's significance to her husband and two sons is heartrending and powerful. The title is perfectly chosen from a Yeats poem: "They came like swallows and like swallows went, / And yet a woman's powerful character / Could keep a swallow to its first intent; / And half a dozen in formation there, / That seemed to whirl upon a compass-point, / Found certainty upon the dreaming air . . ."
It was difficult to close the book when I was done. My chest hurt. This novel is a jewel.
May 21, 2023
Hayatlarının merkezine annelerini alan iki kardeş, üçüncü kardeşlerinin geleceğini öğrenir. Baba konu hakkında pek konuşmaz, anne heyecanlıdır, çocuklar ise değişecek düzenlerinin nasıl olacağı konusunda düşüncelidir. Ama bu haberden daha büyük gelişmeler kapıdadır.
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Kırlangıçlar Gibi Geldiler, William Butler Yeats’in bir dizesinden alıyor ismini. 1. Dünya Savaşı’nın son bulduğu, İspanyol Gribi’nin patlak verdiği günlerde, Illinois’da yaşayan bir ailenin yaşadıklarını okuyoruz.
Hadi Yarın Görüşürüz ile tanıştığım yazar William Maxwell, bu eserinde sadece sıradan bir aileyi anlatıyor gibi görünse de detaylardaki zenginlik gözden kaçmıyor. Ailenin Alman çalışanı, engelli bir çocuk ve kardeş arasında gözle görülmeden hissedilen rekabet, savaşların-salgın hastalıkların kilometrelerce ötedeki bir aileye dahi sirayeti gibi..
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Bir çırpıda, severek okuduğum eserlerden oldu Kırlangıçlar Gibi Geldiler.
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Çiğdem Erkal çevirisi, gray318 kapak tasarımıyla ~
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Kırlangıçlar Gibi Geldiler, William Butler Yeats’in bir dizesinden alıyor ismini. 1. Dünya Savaşı’nın son bulduğu, İspanyol Gribi’nin patlak verdiği günlerde, Illinois’da yaşayan bir ailenin yaşadıklarını okuyoruz.
Hadi Yarın Görüşürüz ile tanıştığım yazar William Maxwell, bu eserinde sadece sıradan bir aileyi anlatıyor gibi görünse de detaylardaki zenginlik gözden kaçmıyor. Ailenin Alman çalışanı, engelli bir çocuk ve kardeş arasında gözle görülmeden hissedilen rekabet, savaşların-salgın hastalıkların kilometrelerce ötedeki bir aileye dahi sirayeti gibi..
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Bir çırpıda, severek okuduğum eserlerden oldu Kırlangıçlar Gibi Geldiler.
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Çiğdem Erkal çevirisi, gray318 kapak tasarımıyla ~
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