My Drowning [Hardcover]

Jim Grimsley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1997

Ever since Ellen Tote can remember, she has dreamed of her mother walking slowly into a river. The mystery of this memory, as it unfolds in her recollections, is the haunting story of MY DROWNING.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Jim Grimsley's 1995 novel, Dream Boy, was a revelation--a pungent, beautifully written, poetic look at what it means to grow up gay in the rural South--that was both mythical and frightening, sublime and enlightening. Now, in My Drowning Grimsley tells the story of Ellen Tote, a young girl born to a poor family who finally, after years of abuse and poverty, grows up and "comes out"--not as a lesbian, but as her own person--when she discovers that it is possible to have a life and a mind of her own. Using the same spare prose and terse style that worked so well in Dream Boy, Grimsley has fashioned a tale that is startling in its honesty.

From Publishers Weekly

The third novel by this PEN/Hemingway Award finalist (Dream Boy; Winter Birds) is an evocative, uncompromising account of a hardscrabble childhood in rural North Carolina that shows Grimsley to be an accomplished stylist and a complex moralist. The narrator is the aged Ellen Tote, refugee from a life of bitter privation. "When I look back... [at] that hard winter in a house not fit for people," Ellen muses, "I amaze myself that my hatred does not burn me crisp." A full stomach nourished by more than fatback and biscuits, steady work, a life unimpeded by the shadows of superstition and poor health, even the homely sight of a full refrigerator?one of "a thousand insignificant details" that come to mean freedom to the adult Ellen Tote?seem cruelly unreachable to the struggling family. The girl is cowed by the sullen and sometimes violent marriage between Mama and her taciturn spouse, who bristles with bitterness. In the carefully honed episodes of the novel, Ellen remembers a father whose fist lashed out at his infant son; her sodden, lecherous Uncle Cope; her older sister Nora, blindly hostile to her; a crippled brother, Joe Robbie, dead before his eighth birthday; and two recurrent dreams, metaphors for the inroads that poverty has made on the family and on the soul. The first dream reflects young Ellen's fear of a monster in the woods, ready to make a child its prey?a nightmarish vision that even Ellen's mother comes to share. The second recurrent dream is of Ellen's mother surrendering her body to "the black water" of the river. A book that begins with a drowning and ends with a funeral certainly maps somber territory, but here, as in his other novels, Grimsley's delicate prose and the defiant resilience of his protagonist make reading his work a richly gratifying experience.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 296 pages
• Publisher: Algonquin Books; 1st edition (January 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565121414
• ISBN-13: 978-1565121416
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,185,471 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quite simply, the best book I have ever read, June 14, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: My Drowning (Paperback)

I have never seen a more convincing portrayal of a female narrator by a male author. Nor have I ever been so completely drawn into a narrative. I began to feel what Ellen felt. The ending, where the mystery of the opening chapter is revealed is nothing short of perfect. I loved Winter Birds, but this book is even better.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I can't resist., April 23, 2000

By 

Nicholas Montemarano (Northampton, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Drowning (Hardcover)

Even though I make it a point never to review books online, I cannot resist with My Drowning. If you find most contemporary fiction unexciting, as I do, and if you are looking for work that takes risks, is devoid of sentimentality, avoids the all-too-trendy irony, and tells a story in spare but careful prose written by an author who pays attention to the subtlety of language and syntax, then read this book. I mean what I am about to say: This book should have won (or at least been a finalist for) the National Book Award. It's that good.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great writing, rich in detail, captivating, February 22, 2000

By 

christinemm - The Thinking Mother (Houston Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: My Drowning (Paperback)

Wonderful story of a dirt-poor Southern white family. So captivating I didn't want to put it down. Easy to read. While of a depressing nature of lifes struggles, verbal and physical abuse, it was not so depressing as it had me in tears, as often is the case with me and sad stories. This may be in part because the character realizes the abusive behavior is not acceptable and doesn't repeat it in her own life. Main character has a wonderful narritive voice and it is hard to believe a male author has captured the essence of an innocent girl so well.