Waterbaby

by Cris Mazza

As children, Tam and her older brother were swimming when she suffered her first epileptic seizure. He pulled her from the water and was crowned a hero. Tam was labeled “disabled” and never swam again. And so began 30 years of vigilance, never allowing her body to betray her, never allowing her brother or her family or anyone else to influence her path. Now, in middle age, a lifetime’s worth of control has taken its toll. Exhausted, she heads to Maine where, while working on a genealogy project, she falls under the spell of two dead women: an ancestor, Mary Catherine, who died at 33; the other, the town ghost. Through their cloistered, tragic lives Tam relives her own life over and over — until a distant cousin forces her to see herself in a new light. Tam’s quest to transcend self-imposed limitations is superbly crafted and richly satisfying.

Genres: Fiction

310 pages, Paperback

First published September 10, 2007

About the author

Cris Mazza is the author of a dozen books of fiction, mostly recently Waterbaby (Soft Skull Press 2007). Her other titles include the critically acclaimed Is It Sexual Harassment Yet?, and the PEN Nelson Algren Award winning How to Leave a Country. She also has a collection of personal essays, Indigenous: Growing Up Californian. Mazza has been the recipient of an NEA Fellowship and three Illinois Arts Council literary awards. A native of Southern California, Mazza grew up in San Diego County. Currently she lives 50 miles west of Chicago. She is a professor in the Program for Writers at the University of Illinois at Chicago "

Reviews

[Anastasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all, I need to say that this book is not for everyone. It is definitely strange, and mixes together several genres as well as several media (mediums?). It's set in the present, but the main character does some genealogical research for her sister and spends a bunch of time fantasizing, thinking about, and even acting out what she thinks happened in the lives of her 19th century ancestors. The author uses email and websites to tell some of the story, and in this case, I think it was really effective, but I could see how certain people wouldn't enjoy it. Anyway, the main character felt very real. Her issues drove the story forward and the author did a nice job of building momentum and even providing a resolution at the end. The only plot line I had trouble with was the sexcapade, but you get to decide for yourself whether it's realistic.

[Andrew]

I so, so wanted to like Waterbaby, but I just couldn't. I appreciated the collage of texts, the references to family lore and ghost stories, the crippling self-doubt, but it just didn't cohere at all. The more I read and the further the story got from the initial narrative of swimming and epilepsy, followed by a sudden horrifying discovery of, well... a water-baby of a sort... the less I cared. By the end of the book I was just counting down the pages.

[Darlene · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really wanted to like this book more then a 2 star rating. Right from the start I knew it wasn't going to be what I thought it was about. At times I found it confusing while reading, the story line jumping from present day to the past in just a sentence or two. Often times the author would elaborate on a part of the story that really didn't need to be. To me, the important parts got cut short. You could definitely tell the main character of the story had the middle child syndrome, poor me attitude and blaming her brother for causing her seizure she suffered while they were swimming. While reading this book, besides middle child syndrome, one would have to wonder if she wasn't a little schizophrenic as well. While going to do some research into their family history in Maine, her first day there she goes to the lighthouse that many ancestors worked at. While standing there, a man comes up to her, takes her hand, leads her into the lighthouse and next thing you know, they are having sex-really? No questions asked. Later she learns that this guy is a distant cousin, not that it matters, but to some people it would. While there, she finds a baby in a toilet in a restroom, then realizes she had witnessed the possible parents coming from that area. To me, the description she gave to the police was not as good as it should've been because she stared at the girl long enough to be able to say what she was wearing but nothing else? When you make eye contact with someone and that person has a pleading look to them, you're going to notice more then clothing. As the story goes on, this woman, who doesn't take chances because she may have another seizure, goes to the hospital where this baby is to check on him, finds the mother there and decides to take the baby and the mother and takes them to the lighthouse with her where they stayed so no one would know they were there. During all this, her brother comes up missing, and they think he is coming there to find her and bring her back home, never mind she is a grown woman and can do what she wants. Her brother does show up, leaves little things around to let her know he is there until she finds him in a boat with the mother of the baby that is staying there with her. She ends up going into the freezing water, for a reason that wasn't really clear, gets the girl to the shore, her brother goes into the water but comes on shore. This whole part of the story was very confusing. She also ends up calling the mother of the girl to tell her where to find her and the baby. And that is almost how the story ends. I would've liked to of read more about the history of the family, not all the issues they were having now. Also, perhaps the story would've been better if it didn't jump around so much. The story line concept was a good one, a mysterious baby supposedly washes up on shore during a storm, the only one rescued from a ship going down, the mother wraps it in a mattress. There is no record of this said child growing up on the island, living with the family that rescued it. Also, many years later there was a mystery woman that came to that area, checked into a hotel, walked to lighthouse and her body was found later and they ruled it a suicide. No one knew of this woman, she was buried in the local cemetery which was mostly family. Between those two incidences, that would make a good book and story, not all this other stuff in between that didn't need to be there. Really don't think I will be reading anything else by this author.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Book: Waterbaby

Author: Cris Mazza

Published: October 2007 by Soft Skull Press, 320 pages

Date Read: June 2012

First Line: ”She’d been feeling a seizure coming on for several weeks, and for the first time in twenty-five years.”

Genre/Rating: Literary fiction; 2/5 ghosts disappearing around the side of a lighthouse

Review: The description of this book sold me. A romance! Troubled relationships between siblings! An abandoned baby! Genealogy! A ghost! A mystery! I love all of these things. I am a sucker for historical literary mysteries. Even poorly-written ones. Something about history bleeding into contemporary times does it for me.

That being said, this book left me cold.

Tam was a talented swimmer as a teen until she suffered her first epileptic seizure while in the pool. Since then, she’s been afraid to go back in the water in case it triggers another seizure. Her brother Gary, who saved her the first time, went on to become a championship swimmer and hero during the search and rescue phase of post-9/11 New York City; her sister Martha stayed home, raised a family, and investigates the family genealogy. Tam, feeling lost after her roommate kicks her out, goes on a trip to Maine to ostensibly research some genealogy for her sister, but truly to find the family connection to her epilepsy. While in Maine, she falls into a relationship, helps an abandoned child, and investigates a ghost story with ties to her family.

I didn’t hate it. I didn’t want to stab it with a letter opener and bury it in a shallow grave on the side of the road. I finished it. I just didn’t care. I didn’t care about the mystery; I didn’t care about any of the characters, including the baby; I didn’t care about the history. The HISTORY! I LOVE history! What a disappointment.

Tam was cold and unfeeling. I didn’t care about her troubles. I thought she brought most of them upon herself, to tell you the truth. Her history came out in such fits and starts that I stopped caring about it; we’re obviously supposed to be so excited to find out what happened in a doomed relationship she had in college that changed her life, but every time she started going on about it, I just wanted her to MOVE ON, already. I didn’t care about her overbearing brother, her scatterbrained sister, her arrogant and childish lover. None of them mattered. Even the history started to bore me silly. When I got to the end and found out that it was based on a true story, I was sad. I felt that I should have been more interested. I love Maine. I’ve always been so interested in anything Maine-centric. Maine is one state I’ve always wanted to visit. But this book made me not care about it. I’m kind of mad at you for that, book.

So, meh. Big, fat, total meh on this book. I didn’t hate it. I just didn’t care. I want to care about the books I read.l I’d even rather hate them than be meh about them, you know? Nope. No, thanks, book. Life’s too short for something that causes no emotions whatsover.

Originally published at Insatiable Booksluts

[Patrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kind of a strange book. I finished it, but it was more work than I'd have liked. The main character is related to a (real) lighthouse keeper in Maine with the last name of Marr, whom I might be tangentially related to. That was enough to keep me going (barely), but I kept putting this book down so I could read others instead. That illustrates the fact that I didn't find it a compelling read. It does make me want to visit Maine though, so I guess it had some value.

[Sydney · Rating 1 out of 5]

The first few chapters of this were really enjoyable. Family tension, allusion to lost loves and tragedies, show dogs, etc. etc. But then it got into the very thin and hard to believe historical reconstruction...and the sex...and more sex...and hey look, there's a teenager and her baby...and then what?! It's over.

Overall, not that great.

[Kelly Suprenant · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one started out rough. The characters were bland and unappealing, ridiculous things happened such as sex within five minutes of meeting. But as it wore on and the past and present became more tightly wound, it came together beautifully. Particularly the last quarter of the book is beautiful and sad. It just takes a while to get there. Stick with this one, it's rewarding in the end.

[Gina · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of Cris Mazza's best.

[Brian · Rating 1 out of 5]

Waterbabyruth

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I couldn't get into this book, so I quit.

[Red · Rating 1 out of 5]

there was so much promise in this book, and so little delivered. at one point, the book skipped from page 218 to 272, and I barely noticed.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sophisticated, not stuffy.

[Lynn Pottebaum · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess this wasn't my cup of tea ...very confusing switching from personal past to historic, and who were all those ancestors, anyway? I read a lot, maybe 20-50 books each year, and I will not pass this book on to friends. Couldn't tell if the the sex encounters were character's fantasy or if something so quick and weird was supposed to be really happening. Each story line was interesting, but putting all of them together made a confusing mess.

[fi · Rating 2 out of 5]

not a fan