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The Waters of Kronos
From the time of its first publication in 1960, Conrad Richter's The Waters of Kronos sparked lively debate about the extent to which its story of a belated return to childhood scenes mirrored key events of Richter's own life. As was well known at the time, Richter had spent several years in the Southwest, where he collected the material for his first successful book, Early Americans and Other Stories , but by 1933, he had returned to live in his hometown, Pine Grove, Pennsylvania. John Donner, the main protagonist in The Waters of Kronos , traces a similar route from west to east, although he finds that his family home and native town have been submerged under the deep waters of a lake formed by the construction of a hydroelectric dam. As Richter narrates his alter ego's efforts to salvage his past, he moves beyond "semi-autobiography" to offer what are widely recognized as his most haunting reflections upon the power of family history, the fragility of human memory, and art's role in structuring the communal ethos. David McCullough, a fellow Pulitzer Prize winner, met and befriended Richter in the 1960s and has called him "an American master," praising The Waters of Kronos as "his most beautiful book."
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1960
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1287 people want to read
About the author
Conrad Richter
60 books145 followersConrad Michael Richter (October 13, 1890 – October 30, 1968) was an American novelist whose lyrical work is concerned largely with life on the American frontier in various periods. His novel The Town (1950), the last story of his trilogy The Awakening Land about the Ohio frontier, won the 1951 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.[1] His novel The Waters of Kronos won the 1961 National Book Award for Fiction.[2] Two collections of short stories were published posthumously during the 20th century, and several of his novels have been reissued during the 21st century by academic presses. (wikipedia.org)
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September 26, 2024
The Waters Of Kronos
Conrad Richter (1890 -- 1968) won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award during his literary career, but his works are too little read today. His novel "The Waters of Kronos" received the National Book Award in 1961. I found this short novel beautiful and moving. Richter writes lyrically and poetically, and with reflection and melancholy.
The book consists of eight brief chapters and is told by an omniscient third person narrator. The story is about a successful novelist, aging and unwell, named John Donner. Donner has driven for seven days from the West Coast to the small coal mining town called Unionville where he grew up in central Pennsylvania. He has a feeling of unease as he doesn't fully understand the purposes of his journey. He is aware from the beginning that the town of Unionville is no more. Donner reflects as he nears what remains of his destination.
"Of course, he knew that he had not been well. But why, he wondered, did he suppose he would be better at his destination? It was true that the sailor came home from the sea, the hunter from the hill and the prodigal son to his father's house. But for him there was no longer any father's house to come to. And still he went on, even now when, less that twenty miles from his native valley, fresh misgivings seized him."
Donner learns that the entire town of Unionville has been submerged by a lake to form a dam and power project. He is able to visit the cemetery, which had been relocated, where his family is buried.
Up to this point, the story has been realistic enough in tone. But then Donner meets a strange man driving a coal wagon who takes him on a brief ride down a hill to Unionville as it was when Donner was a boy, just after the death of his grandfather who had been a beloved minister.
In the remainder of the book, Donner, as an old man, visits and interacts for three days with the people and places of his boyhood. (The book leaves ambiguous whether this travel back in time is a hallucination on Donner's part or whether it is a supernatural event.) As a boy, Donner had been introspective and a loner and harbored doubts about the value of the religiosity of his family -- most of the men in the family had been ministers. The book describes in fond detail the people and places of old Unionville. Donner meets many of the people of his boyhood, including his father, uncles, brothers, and aunts. In a climactic scene, he meets himself as a young boy. With one possible exception, none of these people recognize Donner. They see him only as a strange old man. They are generally courteous to him but troubled by his presence. They would all be happier if he were gone.
The book seems influenced by Freudian psychology. Donner loves his mother but during his visit only sees her from a distance and doesn't have a conversation with her. The reader thus doesn't learn whether she would recognize her aged son. Donner also has mixed feelings towards his father, with whom he does speak briefly during the book. In the climactic scene of the story, the old Donner has a conversation with himself as a boy about the father. This conversation proves understandably uncomfortable for both of the apparent participants. The reader is left with the impression that the elderly Donner has learned something important about familial relationships and comes in old age to understand and appreciate his father more than he had been able to do during most of his life.
Although this book is beautifully written, it is slow moving and almost static. It tells its story with indirection and needs to be read carefully. (The novel is short and came clearer on a second reading.) The book resists an easy summation such as "you can't go home again". Donner learns a great deal from his real or imagined visit in terms of effecting a reconciliation in his mind with his hometown, his family, and himself. The book encourages reflection and thinking about oneself with the passage of time. I think older readers may appreciate this book more than younger people.
"The Waters of Kronos" merited the high literary award it received even though the book remains obscure. It is a beautifully written story about coming to terms with oneself.
Robin Friedman
Conrad Richter (1890 -- 1968) won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award during his literary career, but his works are too little read today. His novel "The Waters of Kronos" received the National Book Award in 1961. I found this short novel beautiful and moving. Richter writes lyrically and poetically, and with reflection and melancholy.
The book consists of eight brief chapters and is told by an omniscient third person narrator. The story is about a successful novelist, aging and unwell, named John Donner. Donner has driven for seven days from the West Coast to the small coal mining town called Unionville where he grew up in central Pennsylvania. He has a feeling of unease as he doesn't fully understand the purposes of his journey. He is aware from the beginning that the town of Unionville is no more. Donner reflects as he nears what remains of his destination.
"Of course, he knew that he had not been well. But why, he wondered, did he suppose he would be better at his destination? It was true that the sailor came home from the sea, the hunter from the hill and the prodigal son to his father's house. But for him there was no longer any father's house to come to. And still he went on, even now when, less that twenty miles from his native valley, fresh misgivings seized him."
Donner learns that the entire town of Unionville has been submerged by a lake to form a dam and power project. He is able to visit the cemetery, which had been relocated, where his family is buried.
Up to this point, the story has been realistic enough in tone. But then Donner meets a strange man driving a coal wagon who takes him on a brief ride down a hill to Unionville as it was when Donner was a boy, just after the death of his grandfather who had been a beloved minister.
In the remainder of the book, Donner, as an old man, visits and interacts for three days with the people and places of his boyhood. (The book leaves ambiguous whether this travel back in time is a hallucination on Donner's part or whether it is a supernatural event.) As a boy, Donner had been introspective and a loner and harbored doubts about the value of the religiosity of his family -- most of the men in the family had been ministers. The book describes in fond detail the people and places of old Unionville. Donner meets many of the people of his boyhood, including his father, uncles, brothers, and aunts. In a climactic scene, he meets himself as a young boy. With one possible exception, none of these people recognize Donner. They see him only as a strange old man. They are generally courteous to him but troubled by his presence. They would all be happier if he were gone.
The book seems influenced by Freudian psychology. Donner loves his mother but during his visit only sees her from a distance and doesn't have a conversation with her. The reader thus doesn't learn whether she would recognize her aged son. Donner also has mixed feelings towards his father, with whom he does speak briefly during the book. In the climactic scene of the story, the old Donner has a conversation with himself as a boy about the father. This conversation proves understandably uncomfortable for both of the apparent participants. The reader is left with the impression that the elderly Donner has learned something important about familial relationships and comes in old age to understand and appreciate his father more than he had been able to do during most of his life.
Although this book is beautifully written, it is slow moving and almost static. It tells its story with indirection and needs to be read carefully. (The novel is short and came clearer on a second reading.) The book resists an easy summation such as "you can't go home again". Donner learns a great deal from his real or imagined visit in terms of effecting a reconciliation in his mind with his hometown, his family, and himself. The book encourages reflection and thinking about oneself with the passage of time. I think older readers may appreciate this book more than younger people.
"The Waters of Kronos" merited the high literary award it received even though the book remains obscure. It is a beautifully written story about coming to terms with oneself.
Robin Friedman
December 6, 2019
I really enjoy Richter’s writing.
In this novel however an old John Donner travels across country back to his hometown of Uniontown Pennsylvania. Uniontown has since been flooded by a dam project. He first visits the cemeteries in town recalling all the churches and reconnecting.
But most of the town is underwater. The story then jumps into the fantasy realm as he takes a wagon ride into the long ago past where he finds his family. They are cordial but don’t recognize him. Several scenes of longing and nostalgia ensue. But he must remain an outsider.
Not much drama to the story. I think it would have made a great short story maybe with an unrequited love story in there somewhere.
3 stars. The writing quality is quite good here but not enough to overcome the lack of drama.
In this novel however an old John Donner travels across country back to his hometown of Uniontown Pennsylvania. Uniontown has since been flooded by a dam project. He first visits the cemeteries in town recalling all the churches and reconnecting.
But most of the town is underwater. The story then jumps into the fantasy realm as he takes a wagon ride into the long ago past where he finds his family. They are cordial but don’t recognize him. Several scenes of longing and nostalgia ensue. But he must remain an outsider.
Not much drama to the story. I think it would have made a great short story maybe with an unrequited love story in there somewhere.
3 stars. The writing quality is quite good here but not enough to overcome the lack of drama.
December 12, 2014
This book truly intrigued me. My family homestead, was located near a small country town that was flooded for the creation of a dam. I was a child of about eight, when we visited the vacant town, just prior to flooding. It was utterly spooky. All of the buildings, back then, were wooden, and very old (early 1900's, or even earlier). You could see the church and it's spire, the dirt streets, the hitching posts and parking lots for those who had cars, which were few back then. You could see the general store, etc. It truly spooked me out!
My mom, nana, sister, and I went to watch the "spill", as they called it. OMG. I will never forget it. It was like watching Armageddon, with a wall of water destroying everything it's hateful path. I am, usually, very sentimental, and cried when we traded our old Dodge (I was 5), but this shocked me to my core! I remember standing there, above the dam, watching the water boiling, and roiling, and wondering if the hole (town) could contain all of that powerful, noisy water,...if we would be swept away with it. After the flooding, which did not take all that long, you could still see the top of the church spire, and the bell was ringing. It was creepy, to say the least.
I always wanted to contact a writer like Stephen King, to write the story of this waking nightmare, but never had the nerve. Then, I found the synopsis of this book, and had to read it.
The story line was fabulous, compelling, and a step into the unreal, which I love, but the last chapter was, in my opinion, an indulgence of the author's attempt to satisfy something related to his real life scenario experience with this same experience. It end left me cold. I could not relate to his "insights", or the cliff hanger ending. He didn't even attempt to end it in anyway that was satisfying. It's a shame really, because the premise was fabulous, and I liked it very much up until the last chapter.
My mom, nana, sister, and I went to watch the "spill", as they called it. OMG. I will never forget it. It was like watching Armageddon, with a wall of water destroying everything it's hateful path. I am, usually, very sentimental, and cried when we traded our old Dodge (I was 5), but this shocked me to my core! I remember standing there, above the dam, watching the water boiling, and roiling, and wondering if the hole (town) could contain all of that powerful, noisy water,...if we would be swept away with it. After the flooding, which did not take all that long, you could still see the top of the church spire, and the bell was ringing. It was creepy, to say the least.
I always wanted to contact a writer like Stephen King, to write the story of this waking nightmare, but never had the nerve. Then, I found the synopsis of this book, and had to read it.
The story line was fabulous, compelling, and a step into the unreal, which I love, but the last chapter was, in my opinion, an indulgence of the author's attempt to satisfy something related to his real life scenario experience with this same experience. It end left me cold. I could not relate to his "insights", or the cliff hanger ending. He didn't even attempt to end it in anyway that was satisfying. It's a shame really, because the premise was fabulous, and I liked it very much up until the last chapter.
August 28, 2020
The Waters of Kronos is a strange little magic trick of a book. Earning the National Book Award in 1961, the book's first chapter or so felt exactly like I thought it would. Its well-painted rural backdrop and its literary prose style seemed perfectly in line with what you would expect from a writer who cut their teeth as an artist during the 1940s and 50s. Then a strange, subtle thing happens.
The story zigs, but Conrad Richter is very careful to make sure you didn't notice it zig. The story gets ahead of you, and there is a nice moment where you realize you're having to catch up. And while you're catching up and reevaluating what came before, he is finally ready to tell story his story.
His story is a lovely meditation on childhood, the past, and the home to which you can never return. It's an elegiac journey through the sad halls of memory, where even the brightest and affirming moments are tinged with the bittersweet knowledge that they can never again be now.
The Waters of Kronos is magical because its story is actually quite simple, seemingly padded out with a catalogue of mundane sights and sounds and characters from the pilgrim narrator's past. It is as arbitrary as the random interactions you might have as you walk down the street seeing and hearing things that pass out of your short term memory immediately. But Richter makes the catalogue sing with wistful longing. There is also magic in the way he weaves what should have been some pretty clunky symbolism into a truly moving search for a type of succor that is impossible to ever find.
I was reminded of an incident that occurred to me several years ago, wherein I drove by my old childhood home. It has been almost 40 years since I lived there. The sight of the house, the neighbors' houses, the park across the street, the fenced lawn at the end of the block, it all washed over me in a great nostalgic wave. And the feeling I had as we drove away was that the people who live there now will never know or care who I am. The importance of that place to me means nothing to them, as indeed, it meant nothing to me when my childhood perspective was far too limited to recognize such importance at the time.
The Waters of Kronos left me with that feeling. A sharp and melancholic sorrow that breaks the heart but makes for a fine and satisfying read.
The story zigs, but Conrad Richter is very careful to make sure you didn't notice it zig. The story gets ahead of you, and there is a nice moment where you realize you're having to catch up. And while you're catching up and reevaluating what came before, he is finally ready to tell story his story.
His story is a lovely meditation on childhood, the past, and the home to which you can never return. It's an elegiac journey through the sad halls of memory, where even the brightest and affirming moments are tinged with the bittersweet knowledge that they can never again be now.
The Waters of Kronos is magical because its story is actually quite simple, seemingly padded out with a catalogue of mundane sights and sounds and characters from the pilgrim narrator's past. It is as arbitrary as the random interactions you might have as you walk down the street seeing and hearing things that pass out of your short term memory immediately. But Richter makes the catalogue sing with wistful longing. There is also magic in the way he weaves what should have been some pretty clunky symbolism into a truly moving search for a type of succor that is impossible to ever find.
I was reminded of an incident that occurred to me several years ago, wherein I drove by my old childhood home. It has been almost 40 years since I lived there. The sight of the house, the neighbors' houses, the park across the street, the fenced lawn at the end of the block, it all washed over me in a great nostalgic wave. And the feeling I had as we drove away was that the people who live there now will never know or care who I am. The importance of that place to me means nothing to them, as indeed, it meant nothing to me when my childhood perspective was far too limited to recognize such importance at the time.
The Waters of Kronos left me with that feeling. A sharp and melancholic sorrow that breaks the heart but makes for a fine and satisfying read.
July 24, 2017
Loved this book from the very start, beautifully written too. I've read some of the reviews and get why lots of readers were unsatisfied with the last chapter. I'm not one that has to know the ending or how it all unfolded, so my view on it is different. I believe John Donner had the intentions of going back home to die there. He needed and wanted to reunite with his family. With his old town being under water, and all his loved ones buried there, the only way was to go "back in time" to see everything as it used to be and as he remembered it. In my opinion he gained peace at the end and was able to die peacefully there with everyone he loved. At least that's how I interpreted it. To each his own...
January 2, 2016
This started off so promising, an old man visits the town of his youth, only it's laying at the bottom of a lake. By some means he manages to travel back in time (only he's still an old man) and see the town in its heyday as well as all the faces of old, now long since buried. However, no one recognizes him and he remains very much an outsider.
What can I say? It was disappointing.
Pages of reminiscing, very little dialog, basically an elderly man looking back at his life and his efforts to lay things to rest before he joins his ancestors. Not too exciting and ultimately unsatisfying, like a dream. One reader here on GR compared it to the feeling you get when you save your sundae's cherry to eat last and then find its a radish. I couldn't say it better.
Very different from his book "The Trees".
What can I say? It was disappointing.
Pages of reminiscing, very little dialog, basically an elderly man looking back at his life and his efforts to lay things to rest before he joins his ancestors. Not too exciting and ultimately unsatisfying, like a dream. One reader here on GR compared it to the feeling you get when you save your sundae's cherry to eat last and then find its a radish. I couldn't say it better.
Very different from his book "The Trees".
January 31, 2014
Conrad Richter was a well respected mid-century writer whose series about a midwestern pioneer family, The Trees (1940), The Fields (1946), and The Town (1950), were his most popular books. I read The Town because it won a Pulitzer Prize in 1951 and enjoyed it for the good story telling and the history of the midwest.
The Waters of Kronos is a whole different type of novel. I would say it was experimental for its time though not as far out there as his contemporaries Wright Morris or John Barth.
John Donner is an aging man in ill heath when he goes back to his home town, seeking answers in the past. Unionville lies somewhere amongst the mountains of the northeastern United States and has been underwater for years due to a large hydroelectric dam on the River Kronos.
Donner talks his way past a guard at the gates of the fenced lake and before long finds himself in the Unionville of the past, in the years of his childhood. Richter uses a cross between time travel and symbolism as he has Donner roam the town where no one, even members of his own family, recognizes him.
Page after page of description, of memories and nostalgia, do not reveal much about Donner's childhood, except that he feared his father, adored his mother, and left home as a young man. He works through a Freudian/Jungian hatred of his father but finally still longs for the mother's love and acceptance.
Richter won the National Book Award for The Waters of Kronos, wrote one more novel and passed away in 1968 at the age of 78.
September 14, 2014
It was ok, the ending was poor.
May 31, 2020
My experience with Conrad Richter, as with a lot of folks, began with Richter's Awakening Land series. I absolutely fell in love with The Trees. I enjoyed and was similarly impressed with the other two books in the series, The Fields and The Town. The Waters of Kronos, my latest Richter novel, was a completely different experience. The one similarity was a mystical feel in both The Trees and The Waters of Kronos, but that mystical quality was a minor aspect of The Trees while it was central to The Waters of Kronos. I almost struggled to recognize these works as written by the same author.
Although I did not enjoy The Waters of Kronos nearly as much as I did the Awakening Land series, and that is standard #1 when I read, I did admire what Richter was trying to do, or at least what I think he was trying to do. This novel left more questions unanswered than answered. It would be great for a discussion group where there would be the opportunity to explore all of the alternative theories.
Although I did not enjoy The Waters of Kronos nearly as much as I did the Awakening Land series, and that is standard #1 when I read, I did admire what Richter was trying to do, or at least what I think he was trying to do. This novel left more questions unanswered than answered. It would be great for a discussion group where there would be the opportunity to explore all of the alternative theories.
March 11, 2012
It may be nasty that I didn't give his National Book Award winner 5 stars, but nothing could be as good as the Awakening Land series.
January 2, 2015
"If the young could only know," he apologized for his uncertainty. "But then they wouldn't be young anymore"
June 4, 2008
Though Richter won the National Book Award for this book, it failed to capture my fancy. Late in his life, John Donner, the protagonist, tries to return to the town where he grew up but discovers that it is now underwater as a hydro-electric dam has been created. Though the public is kept from entering the area, he manages to con his way in and the book - in entirety - is an account - as it were actually happening - of the people and places he knew much earlier in his life. It's written as if he actually sees those things though no one recognizes him and remembers ever having known him. Though the book is only 176 pages, I felt many times as I made my way through it that it could have been much, much shorter. The award probably came from his recalling in such detail the kind of life that existed there long ago.
July 16, 2020
Wavering between two and three stars. This short book should have been a very quick read, but I had to push myself to return to it and keep reading. I never felt completely draw in by it. A old man returns to his childhood home to find it no longer exists. Yet, he somehow returns to the town as it was during his boyhood, and tries to seek out his own family. Of course no one in the tight- knit community recognizes the old man, so he is treated as an outsider....meanwhile he seems to be trying to resolve some issues, to get closure on some ineffable thing(s) that seem just beyond his reach and memory. As a reader, I feel conflicted and unsatisfied. It was well written, and at times quite beautiful, but I found I just couldn't connect with this one.
ETA - Originally gave this only 2 stars, but because I still think about the book now and then, decided to bump up to three.
ETA - Originally gave this only 2 stars, but because I still think about the book now and then, decided to bump up to three.
August 23, 2011
Water of Kronos by Conrad Richter was an interesting book. It is about a man called John Doner who returned to his home town only to find that it was sunk into the water of the lake formed by building a hydroelectric dam. He starts to reflect back his memories and recall his life with his family.
What I noticed through reading this book is its uniqueness. In this book, nothing actually happens. The protagonist reflects back and tries to figure out how his life with family was like. The feeling of the protagonist was well expressed and I liked it. However what I didn't like was that it took so long at the biginning walking around the town.
What I noticed through reading this book is its uniqueness. In this book, nothing actually happens. The protagonist reflects back and tries to figure out how his life with family was like. The feeling of the protagonist was well expressed and I liked it. However what I didn't like was that it took so long at the biginning walking around the town.
August 15, 2012
A fairly autobiographical story of Conrad Richter and his personal realizations about himself as a child and the relationships he had with his family. He admits that he couldn't get away fast enough from his father and his childhood home and all that it stood for. Later in life he travels home almost on autopilot where he comes to the realization that what he feared and loathed most about his father was that exact thing he himself was. he reminisces and is allowed to see, small, and feel all that home used to be and just how much it truly means to him.
October 8, 2012
This book is a discard from a library - published in 1960, the edition was not available in the Goodreads list. It had a small school picture of a young girl (b&w) in it that had probably been there for decades. But it is just a neglected book by a wonderful author. The main character makes a visit to his hometown which now actually lies at the bottom of a manmade lake. The reader must decide how to interpret this book. At my age, it tugged at my heartstrings as I identified with the character's desire to revisit his past in a real way.
May 7, 2014
Beautifully written, slow, rich with detail. This is a kind of time travel, kind of fictional memoir written by a man near the end of his life trying to wrap his arms around what was. An old man seeks to return to the womb. What he finds -- what we find -- is not what either of us expected. Touching, gorgeous and real, this award-winning short novel ultimately left me unsatisfied. Like eating a rich chocolate sundae, waiting until the last minute to eat the cherry, then discovering it's actually a radish. If it wasn't so beautifully written, I'd be giving it 3 stars.
December 27, 2009
I read of Conrad Richter in David McCullough's Brave Companions and went to the bookstore and got the Waters of Kronos and Sea of Grass. Richter grew up in Pine Grove, PA and was a well-acclaimed writer in the 50s and 60s. The Waters of Kronos is a novel that is a memoir o sorts about a community which was flooded to make way for the DeHart Dam. It is wonderfully written, thoughtful and brings great focus to family and community. Also very short.
June 13, 2011
After reading "A Light in the Forest" repeatedly as a kid, I was surprised to find another book by the same author, and bought it on sight, not having a clue what to expect. At first, it read like an old man in a dream, but it soon became very much like a classic Twilight Zone episode. I absolutely loved it and never would have expected it from the same writer! If I ever see another book of his, I will buy it on sight, and hope for another delight!
May 16, 2014
Not quite sure what to say about this one. The writing was technically excellent - beautiful and vividly described, but something was just a bit off, and the overall experience for me was unsatisfying.
At some point I will try to read more from this author - perhaps the trilogy that concludes with The Town.
At some point I will try to read more from this author - perhaps the trilogy that concludes with The Town.
July 10, 2015
This is a 3 1/2 star book. It's the story of an old man who visits his home town that was flooded to make a dam and is transported to a time when he was a young kid interacting with his long dead family who don't recognize him. It's the story of end of life and thinking about the past, rectifying the things you know and remember. Richter is an excellent novelist and this book is a very fast read.
June 23, 2007
Picked this up as part of my quest to read award winners. This won the National Book Award in 1961. I'd never heard of it or of Richter before. Quite a good book, though. Kind of a time travel (or is it a dream?) story about an older man trying to figure out his life. Makes me want to read more by Richter.
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September 16, 2014This is not a review. I read about a third of the book before I couldn't get further. The story is very interesting although a but strange. My major hang up was that he wrote about very familiar towns in my state but the geography was completely wrong! If you are going to write about real towns you shouldn't change the geography of that town. I couldn't get past the messed up scenery.
May 31, 2015
An author with a soul, one who writes with deep emotion and awareness of the human condition. David McCullough mentioned Richter in a NY Times book review article. I knew nothing of this author before noting McCullough's comment.
I will read all I can of Richter. He reaches deep into his and the reader's soul.
Jim
I will read all I can of Richter. He reaches deep into his and the reader's soul.
Jim
September 3, 2017
Beautifully written as are all of Richters books. This is the story of an old man mysteriously going back to his boyhood town and seeing the people and places as they were when he was a boy. It had the feel of a semi-autobiographical account of the author confronting some of the demons that haunted him as a child. The ending was somewhat unsatisfying, however.
October 29, 2010
1961 National Book Award. This is an odd, dreamy sort of book about an old man who finds that he has traveled back in time to his childhood town. It's an unusual choice among NBA winners, which thus far have tended to be gritty or funny realism.
March 9, 2015
I guess I just wasn't in the mood for this book. I thought it was very boring.
November 29, 2017
Unsatisfying ending, boring book.
August 27, 2023
We’re onto the 1960s in the National Book Awards with this odd but ultimately disappointing novel. The premise is very cool: John Donner, an aged writer, returns to his childhood village, Unionville, which has been submerged by an artificial lake, its remaining inhabitants having been bought out and its cemeteries relocated to dryland. On his way to the cemetery, he encounters a mysterious man driving an old-fashioned wagon and, hitching a ride, finds himself somehow transported into the past, walking the streets of his Unionville and interacting with its residents. Confronted with these ghosts of his childhood, John begins to literally revisit his memories, seeking an answer to his rootlessness, his fraught relationship to home, and his uncertain sense of self. There is a problem, though: the residents of the village--his family and former neighbours--aren’t keen to answer the probing questions of a stranger, and since John knows he’s not going to get anywhere explaining to them that he is either a ghost or a time-traveller or both, he’s only able to offer vague accounting of who he is and where he came from (“I used to live here a long time ago” or “I am related to the Donners”), which isn’t going to convince anyone to open up to him. If I had read this as a blurb on the back of a book, I would have bought it immediately, and I’m still not quite sure how it managed to squander such a promising set-up. The main issue is that Richter doesn’t seem to know what to do with the story he has created; unable to make any kind of headway with the residents of the village, John spends the entire novel stumbling around, having vague conversations with people that lead nowhere, like he’s talking to NPCs in a an old RPG whose only function is to add some local colour. And while John does delve into his memories to flesh out some context for the people and places he’s encountering, little of it is particularly memorable or compelling. It reads like an entry in a village almanac, listing names and occupations and relationships, along with an interesting factoid or two, rather than an in-depth exploration of memory, place, and character. None of the people have a chance to become anything more than abstractions because inevitably, after ten minutes or so, John’s forced to move on, and about halfway through the novel, it becomes clear that Richter is less interested in telling any kind of story at all than in simply thinking about the relationship between childhood and adult identity; by the end, he’s worked his way into a deceptively simple question: why has John never been able to relate comfortably with his father?
The quest to answer this question becomes momentarily more compelling when, about three-quarters of the way through the novel, in a conversation with his child-self, John asks the boy about a mysterious voice that he has apparently been hearing all his life, which sounds almost like his father but not quite, and which he dubs “the frightener.” Unfortunately, since this is the first time he’s really talked about it, it feels a bit random, and in any case, the novel’s concluding chapter is disappointingly trite, as John suddenly realizes a) that life was better when he was a kid, before he started analyzing things rather than just exploring them, and b) that it’s himself he’s uncomfortable with, his father’s image and the voice of the frightener troubling him because they are reminders of the anxiety he feels about the man he is (or is not) to become. If you’ve read your Freud or Jung, though, you will have already worked out this particular epiphany long before John himself stumbles into it (there is even an explicit reference to Oedipus, in case you missed the psychoanalytic undertones). And though the prose is sometimes poetic, it often feels more like the writing of a man who has read Hemingway and Faulkner and is trying, only occasionally successfully, to marry their style to Frank Norris’s sensibilities. Maybe I just wasn’t in the headspace for it, but The Waters of Kronos is a book that should feel lyrical and weighty and mysterious but is instead only the shadow of those things. It’s missing the deep, alchemical essence of true American mythmaking particular to writers like Cormac McCarthy and Denis Johnson.
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