Customer Reviews

The Knowledge of Water

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I just finished Sarah Smith's The Knowledge of Water. Absolutely incredible, with passages at the end that are worth reading, and reading again, and then stopping to savor. It's a book about passion, and in particular the passion for one's art, one's calling, and how people honor that passion in the context of a whole life -- not "fit it in," because passion cannot be accommodated, does not fit comfortably around the edges -- and it's about how expectations twist people's lives. And it's about women, their expectations for themselves, men's expectations, about the choices they make, about what it does to a person to give up her truth in order to do the laundry and buy the groceries and raise the children.

There are no bad guys in this book. There is a pianist who loves a man, but who for days leading up to her first public performance forgets to write to him. There is a doctor who gets caught up in saving his hospital and forgets that he has left his bride-to-be in a cheap hotel. There is, yes, a wedding that comes off in a paragraph, because the story is not about weddings but about marriage, of which the wedding is only an incidental part. There are discussions of love and risk and art and truth and forgery. I think -- although I won't know for years -- that this book will bear reading and re-reading, and may be one of the ten books that I would take to a desert island.

I was reading this book in Penn Station, waiting for a train, and had to sit down on the floor because I was so far into the book that I was beginning to lose track of where I was.

I found The Knowledge of Water to be an absorbing blend of mystery, period history and romance; but before you write it off as a bodice-ripper, let me add that the characters are well developed and believable, and the thorny women's issues are thought-provoking and timely. The result is good, entertaining brain food.
My only regret is that I read this volume before the first one in the series, The Vanished Child. Although I plan to go back and read it now, I fear Knowledge of Water gives away too many of the surprises from the first novel.

The Knowledge of Water is the second part of a trilogy, and meant to be read as such. It's interesting to see how an author can take the same set of characters, add some new ones, and further develop their personas around a completely different plot. The Vanished Child was about guilt and survival. Knowledge is about forgeries, layer upon layer of them. On the surface is the question of artistic dishonesty. Who is the forger of the works of the great Mallais? Slightly deeper is the question of identity, and to what extent an individual should be willing to compromise him/herself in the name of love. The broadest question is that of the rights and abilities of early 20th century women - who loses more by suppressing their talents, the women themselves or society as a whole? Who has the right to decide their fates?
Swirling around Reisden and Perdita as they struggle with these issues are the rapidly rising waters of the Seine and the intentions of a killer.
As other reviewers have noted, the center of the story does slow to a crawl as the various characters work their way through their choices to come to ultimate decisions. Patience is rewarded, however, by surprises in the final 20 pages.
On to the third and final volume of this series.....

This book was excellent. I loved the images of turn-of-the-century Paris and its suburbs. I also loved the usage of the French language. The mystery was involving and kept the reader guessing until the resolution. I am now reading it for the second time and it is just as good. I intend to read the prequel to this (The Vanished Child) sometime very soon. Sarah Smith has a very unique way of words and describes scenes while leaving some to the imagination.

Love this book. Sarah Smith is the most interesting author I have read in a long time and I can't wait to read her other books. Her characters are fascinating and each one deserves to be featured in a book of their own.

Even though this book is set at the turn of the century, the choices and actions of women speak to the women of today. Having a family AND a career is more commonplace, but excelling in both is just as difficult, for men, as well as women. Sarah Smith gives voice to several men and women as they wrestle with their passions, searching for a solution they can live with. What makes this book excellent is that just like today, there are no easy solutions

Perdita's struggle to balance career and love was well presented. However, the use of the artist community did nothing to carry the story line. There was little motivation to investigate forgeries during deathly flood. Leonard's character and Alex's past only muddied the waters. Much pretention, little substance. Throw this book a life preserver!

I am a firm believer that an author should never try to write the same story over and over again just to sell books. Therefore, I was happy to read the other reviews, though negative, of Knowledge of Water. They told me that although Sarah Smith carried characters from The Vanished Child over to this book, it would not be just a rehash of the first one.

However, even if one does not compare the content of the two books, the first one is far superior, as all events turn on the central thread of the novel, the story of the 'vanished child'.

Smith chose as her central thread here the Paris flood of 1910. However, that thread frays early on, leaving too many scattered ends drifting like flotsam in the flooded Seine.

Once again, Alexander Von Reisden is the anti-hero of the story, along with Perdita, his partially sighted fiancee, who dreams of a career as a concert pianist. Perdita knows that she ultimately cannot commit to marriage, as she will one day leave to follow her passion. Reisden, still haunted by the death of his first wife (events described in Vanished Child) is content to simply let the relationship carry on as is; the same as Perdita. But, even though both feel that there is no real future for their love, passion eventually overtakes them.

Enter Roy Dougherty, police officer and friend from home (Boston) who quite correctly deduces that the relationship has progressed to being far from platonic, with the usual consequences.

Reisden is called in for questioning in the matter of a dead girl, the 'Mona Lisa'. He aides the police as much as possible, since he knew the girl in passing, and begins receiving notes asking him to 'do right by her' and see that she is 'taken care of'. Reisden and the police deduce that it is her killer making these requests, and set out to trap him.

Perdita, as well as Reisden, is drawn into an art forgery investigation, along with Dougherty, headstrong writer Milly Xico, and Reisden's 'cousin' Dotty, all convinced that Dotty's 'original Mallais painting' is nothing of the sort. Perdita takes up residence next to the widow Mallais and her shut-in brother Yvaud, befriending the kindly old woman, and soon learns that not all is as it seems.

The book is well written, but the story is what suffers from a lack of development. The central thread of this book seems to bounce back and forth. The flood; the art forgery; the dead girl; the well-meaning killer; Perdita's musical career; Reisden's mental clinic....too many focal points for one story. While I enjoyed the author's style and brand of prose once again, I was sad to see that nothing gelled into a main storyline, at least not for me. Most conflicts are resolved by the last page, but...with so many different story threads, it is hard to really enjoy any of them completely. Just when you are drawn in to one particular sub-plot the story shifts to another.

I eagerly await reading the third novel in the trilogy, A Citizen of the Country, as the reviews and book description all praise it highly.

I can only give this book 3 stars, however, and in comparison with part 1, it pales. Hopefully part 3 will even the score.

I was very disappointed with the Knowledge of Water. There are too many unnecessary characters, too many story lines that do not seem to come together at the end. Even main characters were not well developed. The story is too factual. Do read the Vanished Child! It is wonderful! Don't bother with the Knowledge of Water.

After reading The Vanished Child, I just had to get my hands on The Knowledge of Water. I eagerly awaited its arrival after ordering it on Amazon... and I was disapointed.

This one is slow, and needlessly melancholy. I know it is exploring themes of repression and martyrdom, but the main characters really could have lightened up a little. In the first book, there is a good reason behind their attitudes, but here they seem forced. There are numerous subplots which unfold slowly and the main plot point is a little dull.

Don't get me wrong. This is an alright novel, but Smith ought to have stopped at the first and let us imagine the rest, because this does not stack up well. I don't think I'll read the third one.