Customer Reviews

Drowning People, The

5 star:		(57)
4 star:		(39)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(23)
1 star:		(35)

 

 

OK, let's give Mr. Mason credit for a damn good 2-page opening. It's the remaining 300 pages I have trouble with. First of all, the author is intellectually lazy. He wanted his protagonist to reminesce over the past 50 years but couldn't be bothered doing research on life in 1950 (don't forget that advance they were dangling in front of him), so he plops him down in 2040 without even a by-your-leave. After all, then he'd have to show a little creativity about life in the future. I don't know why so many reviewers said they couldn't believe the book was written by an 18 year old. It could ONLY have been written by an 18 year old! Only kids that age are involved in so much "philosophical", narcissistic, we're-different-from-the-rest-of-the-planet, self-absorbed navel-gazing. Blah, blah, blah, blah.....And this is where Mr. Mason shows his mediocrity as a writer. He continually describes what his characters are thinking, feeling, etc., but he doesn't have the ability to let them demonstrate his descriptions though their own words and actions. And then there's the story. Did you really believe Sarah's pathological hatred of Ella is based on Ella's snagging the most forgettable character in all literature (She should have thanked her!) Do you have any clue why James marred Sarah? And best of all--this was really a thigh-slapper--Did you really buy James' agreeing to have sex with his best male friend in order to prove to his fiancee that he wasn't homosexual? How many men are getting on that line! But,most sadly of all, I could have forgiven all of the above had there been a single word of wit or charm or grace. Daphne du Maurier indeed!

The best thing about Richard Mason's debut novel is its deeply macabre plot about upper-class family madness, murderous revenge, and the ruthless insensitivity of young people in love. Taken on its own, it's quite good fun in a gothic, BBC-drama kind of way, and would make a decent movie. You'll work out what's happened well before the final pages, but that doesn't actually spoil things at all - it's entertaining to watch it all unfold like a car accident in slow-motion, and most readers will be happily immersed in it. Mason clearly has a talent for conceiving bizarre revenge plots (as his second and weaker novel, "Us", confirms - not available in the USA, but you can get it from Amazon UK). What he's not so good at (yet) is the actual writing. In "The Drowning People", he seems to have made the fundamental error of wanting us to take the plot seriously; or, rather, choosing such a plot as the basis for a novel which obviously yearns to say something serious about guilt, the dangerous power of first love, and the life-long consequences of youthful selfishness. But it's too convoluted, too B-movie, and too concerned with its own construction to be very effective in that task. The result is that the real "content" of the novel - the ideas about guilt and responsibility - don't emerge from the events. Rather, they're imposed on them. They're constantly re-stated by a narrator who pontificates about Life and all that he has learned from it, which sadly seems to be little more than a raft of platitudes and cliches, delivered in a pompous, finely-cadenced, T.S. Eliotesque tone that irritates more than it convinces. But what else would you expect from an 18-year-old writer with no experience of the kind of life-long perspective he's affecting? It's a classic example of a nervous young author striving to make his point clear and impressive via narrative commentary because he knows it doesn't flow from the action - action which, once again nervously, he's made too flashy, too plot-heavy, to be emotionally engaging in the way it needs to be. If Mason had chosen just one part of this elaborate story - the James-Eric-Ella love triangle, for example, with its hideous "proof of love" pact - and gone deep rather than long, it might have worked. James' pain would have been far more interesting, far more tangible, if he'd really described how it actually felt to a confused 22-year-old rather than just relating it to abstract morality. The familiar lovers'-bargain-with-disastrous-consequences device used in the James-Eric-Ella vignette has long been a powerfully effective one, as in "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" and "Wings of the Dove", and could have been given a nice contemporary airing here exploring issues of class, masculinity, sexuality and female power. Alternatively, Mason might have taken Sarah's point of view - for she's actually a much more interesting character than narrator James. But he didn't make these choices. So, in the end, the novel doesn't work beyond the level of "trashy thriller with literary pretensions", neither fish nor fowl, etc.

To observe the difference between this and really good writing, you need only pick up one other novel, published in the same year, which is also about the memory of a juvenile crime and its life-long ramifications: I'm talking about Ian McEwan's "Atonement". It has everything Mason's novel lacks: a simple but compelling plot, credible characters, a subtle use of language, a convincing depiction of several historical periods, a wonderful sense of the passage of time, and a quiet but entirely justified confidence in its own hidden complexities. It's also incredibly moving in a way Mason's novel strives to be but never comes close to achieving. Moreover, the actual telling of the story is not simply an excuse to revel in "the wealth of shameful detail" (p.196), as it sometimes seems to be in Mason's novel despite the narrator's protestations to the contrary. For McEwan, the telling is a vital act emerging from the central character's nature; an imaginative transformation, that is itself a part of the story, and immovably locked into the novel's theme. Read them back to back and you'll see what I mean.

Mason is being touted as some kind of adolescent prodigy, but the book simply doesn't deliver. It is an extremely convoluted and unlikely story, overstuffed with cities, castles and too obviously 'interesting' rich people. Characterisation hardly evolves beyond caricature, which is fatal especially for the main figures, James and Ella. Ella emerges as some kind of histrionic Gorgon, fickle and highly unlikeable, which makes it hard to see why James would fall in love with her in the first place, let alone have his every emotion and action dictated by her (fancy attempting to have sex with your best male friend only to prove to your girl, who suspects you of being gay, that it doesn't work for you. There's a bit of twisted psychology for you if ever there was!) This uncritical slavery doesn't inspire much sympathy for his character either. Mason doesn't bother to explain all this, probably being too busy keeping the storyline together. Yet the love of James for Ella is the pivotal element, without an understanding of which the plot simply falls apart.Mason's inexperience, not as much as a writer but simply in life, shines through on every page. He seems selfconscious about this, judging by all the times he lets his (elderly) narrator muse on the inexperience and silliness of youth. All this is not too convincing. Though not per se badly written, there are some irritating mannerisms, not least the far too frequent use of the tag 'you see', probably meant to create the intimate feel of the narrator directly addressing us. But in a novel where there is really so very little to be seen (and what there is, you will have seen at least 20 pages before the narrator comes out with it) this did strike me as somewhat ridiculous: like somebody telling you the clue (ta-taaa) to a joke that has fallen flat long before. So forget about this book. Too many words to describe too little, too many aspirations and too little realisation of them.

Having recently finished reading Richard Mason's The Drowning People, I am amazed that the author was only eighteen when he wrote this novel. The plot Mason presents is fascinating, with multiple twists and turns that keep the pages turning. However, the author's age and lack of experience is revealed, I believe, in the lack of maturity and believability in his characters. While Mason exhibits a beautiful writing style and an ability to create a fascinating plot structure in The Drowning People, the characters, especially James and Ella, lack realistic and likeable characteristics. Because of this, I found the book to be an enjoyable read, but not a terribly thought-provoking or emotional experience. Mason is truly a magnificent writer. In fact, his writing seems too good for the petty subject matter of this novel. His descriptions are beautiful and allow the reader to share in what the characters see and feel. James describes Prague as, "a city of arched bridges; sharp steeples; gracious domes. Bathed in the morning light sharper and colder than the light of London, the mist rising from the Vltava was a brilliant, dreamy ribbon in the gray blanket of the city." It is Mason-created images like this that allow the sights and sounds of The Drowning People to come alive for the reader. While Mason's writing is generally excellent throughout the novel, his mode of creating suspense is both obvious and boring. While uncertainty is normally a welcomed element in a fictional work, Mason's version of suspense is obnoxious. There is a moment in the novel when Ella says to James, "I've done something I shouldn't have done, something I certainly shouldn't be telling you about." But rather than divulge what she has done, Mason writes two laborious and boring pages before he reveals the mystery. Mason does nothing but bore us from the point at which he arouses our curiosity until he supplies the information the reader hungers for. Unfortunately, useless and boring pages fill the gap, and by the time Mason divulges the secret, the reader has lost interest in it all together. The plot of the Drowning People is fascinating and shows that Mason has a unique and clever imagination. What a remarkable concept to begin a story with the aged narrator, reflecting on his past, telling the reader that, "My wife of more than forty-five years shot herself yesterday afternoon. At least that is what the police assume...I am the one that killed her." This is probably Mason's only successful attempt at creating effective suspense. It is unfortunate that the creative Mason fails to provide this very exceptional story line with exciting characters with whom the reader can relate to. The main characters in this novel, Ella and James, are unrealistic and difficult to like. For some of the wrongs they commit in this novel, James and Sarah feel almost no guilt. For others, they are grossly emotional. Ella and James also lack a realistic maturity that, while adding to the characterizations, annoys the reader terribly. For example, Ella offers James a challenge, in order for him to prove his love. This convoluted and sick dare, which comes at the expense of James' dearest friend, shows the immaturity of Ella for making it and James for accepting it. Their willingness to play "cutesy" love games at the amazingly high emotional expense of another friend is unusual and twisted. Rather than make the characters dynamic, it makes Ella and James seem too farfetched for reality. While well written, The Drowning People reads, in my opinion, more like a soap opera, at times, than a mature novel. The emotional roller coaster of this novel depends too much on unbelievable and uninteresting characters. In this work, however, Mason has shown readers that he is truly an author of great talent and promise. I am sure as he matures, so too will his writing.

I have to admit that by the middle of this book I was skimming, hoping for some brief ray of light. There was so much boring fore-shadowing- chapters of predicting really bad things to come - that nothing short of mass murder could have lived up to that angst. Instead we get a "Duh" moment - any one who enjoys even the most banal mysteries was there before the book was. The author may be forgiven writing a bad book but who the heck agreed to publish this drivel?

Regardless of its oft-mentioned "startling opening sentence," Richard Mason's "The Drowning People," soon bogs down in a muddled mess of cliches, sophomoric plot devices and a sense that the author never really gets around to telling the story that has been promised. As a mystery, the book stumbles through a plot hobbled by static characters and (sadly) foreseeable developments in its story line. About midway through this tired mess, it becomes clear that rather than looking to follow a clever, or even interesting line of mystery, the author is content to clumsily try to articulate his views concerning heterosexuality. I found myself gritting my teeth as I finished this book, frustrated as much with its lack of substance and intelligence as I was by the blathering accounts of praise that its review pages were laden with. Save the $ and go read your favorite "Hardy Boys" again.

Wonderful, engrossing story of obsession, love, passion, delusion, and guilt. Once grabbed by the first paragraph, you will find it hard to leave this book, which is designed as a confession with detailed descriptions and explanations of events fifty years past. My only knock is that, on occasion (rare occasion), the dialogue perhaps is a bit too clever. I found it a terrific read. I am awed and a little jealous of the talent of its very young first time author.

I completely agree with the review from the Oregon reader, too. The Drowning People falls into that category of "young people writing" in which there are three epiphanies per chapter and high flown feelings all around; it gets very boring after a while. Also, the behavior of the youth strikes me as belonging to the 30s, not the 90s, so there is an utter lack of realism, too. Don't be taken in by the prologue, which makes the book look interesting. You will be disappointed by chapter 2.

James Farell's wife has shot herself. At least, that is what the police believe. In fact James has killed her and he tells us so at the beginning of what will become a confession of about 400 pages. In flashback, he tells the reader everything that has led to this deed in great detail, why, after 45 years of marriage he decided to kill her. That is a big challenge to do: Start with the end and go back from there. The writer was 18 when he wrote this and he did a good job considering his young age,but..clearly Mason (yet) lacks the ability to make his characters convincing. He simply might be too young to draw a 70 year-old, tormented man. He tries to put 'deepness' in Farell's thinking but i.m.o. he failed. While reading I couldn't help thinking: This could have been told in 200 pages and I wouldn't have missed a thing, it was only because of his smooth pen and the fact that I somehow wanted to find out what happened that I read on. Mason is trying to show the reader he knows a lot of little facts about classical music, history, Prague etc. which I think are meant to give the story literary quality, but even with that he isn't able to veil the rather disappointing outcome. The writing on itself was rather good, but to me, that didn't save the story. Pondering.. this book does have qualities to become a bestseller: Nice looking young writer, a ready pen and not too bad a story.

The Drowning People proves to be a stunning accomplishment for a 20-year-old novice, Richard Mason; but disregarding the age factor of the author, the novel itself is not exactly an extraordinary piece of literary work. The story line is rather trite and uninspired. It follows the tired scheme of criticizing a society bound by traditions, blinded by superficiality, and obsessed with materialistic needs. At the center-stage are, of course, the typical rebellious youths: James Farrell and Ella Harcourt. Together, they strive to break free of conventions, of whatever expectations others have for them. When Edith Wharton wrote on this theme of "societal conventions" in the 1920's, the subject was new, perhaps even radical in its criticism. Since then, however, it has been written on over and over again. The Drowning People is an excellent psychological thriller. It holds the reader's attention with the usual mix of love, lies, and jealousy; but again, nothing original. It has the feel of the typical romance novel. The single distinguishing aspect of the entire novel, however, is Mason's atypical insights into the human psyche. At age twenty, Richard Mason assumes the mentality of a seventy-year-old man surprisingly well. His construction of James Farrell's reminiscence displays an incisiveness and a maturity beyond his years.