Customer Reviews

The Night Swimmer: A Novel

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

 

 

I have now read two of Matt Bondurant's three novels. I hate coming to this conclusion, but I think they're just not for me. We're simply not on the same wavelength somehow. The descriptions always sound interesting and intriguing, but then the book winds up a disappointment for me.

The Night Swimmer is the story of Americans Fred and Elly, but it Elly who is the first-person narrator. The novel's lengthy prologue ends on this ominous note:

"This is hard to describe now. I will have to carefully measure the tone. In my mind, it is a story without words, only the shrill cry of heartbreak. I think of how much time I spent with my head in the water, swimming long stretches of the lake or the churning green sea. I think of what happened on that windy shore, the broken harbor, a small pub on the edge of the world, and I am ashamed."

The catalyst for the tale is a contest held by a beer company. Fred bests all competition to win ownership of a pub on the Irish coast. The couple believes it to be a dream come true, and chance to make a fresh start at simpler lives. And at first they're happy, Fred spending his time in the pub, and Elly pursuing her passion for open-ocean long-distance swimming:

"As I read these horrid accounts, I strangely felt all the more confident of my ability to make the swim to Fastnet. I just knew it wouldn't happen to me. It couldn't. It was as if these other people had engaged in some kind of tragic wager with the sea, putting up their lives on a foolish bet, and lost. But for me it wasn't like that. It wasn't about odds, or my natural ability. The ocean was not my adversary. The sea would never destroy me."

It's hard to say when things got ominous, but that they did. I'm not going to spoil what happens, because frankly, I'm still not sure I know. There were hostile natives, strange events, a downward spiral. Perhaps someone a little more in tune with all things Irish can explain it to me. But it wasn't merely the overly onerous story-telling that I had a problem with. The characters in this tale were difficult to get a handle on. They were opaque. This likely was intentional, as it reinforced the Americans' status as outsiders, but it was difficult to care much about anyone or feel invested in their fates.

Bondurant's prose is okay, though probably not as poetic as it's meant to be. I'm not entirely certain what my problem with Matt Bondurant is. I have trouble understanding what this author is trying to say, but the even bigger problem is that I really don't care. It's time for me to cut my losses.

"The Night Swimmer" is a beautifully written novel that tells the story of Fred and Elly and their undertaking in moving to Ireland when they win a pub. It's a new adventure for them and they dive into it head-long without much thought. Fred is thrilled with the pub and Elly is free to indulge her own passion--swimming in the ocean. Through a genetic defect, Elly is able to swim in cold water without any adverse affects for quite a long time.

While Fred submerges himself in learning how to run a pub in Baltimore and writing his ever-elusive novel, Elly finds herself taking the ferry to Clear Island on a regular basis to swim. She befriends only a few. Most of the locals do not like strangers, and they ignore her, but some seem to keep track of her swimming in their waters. There are a number of interesting characters on Clear Island, a decades old tragedy that no one will speak of, and an enigmatic goat farmer who seems to have a running feud with the Corrigans, a powerful family who runs most of the island commerce and the ferry service to and from the mainland.

The author does an excellent job of keeping to Elly's viewpoint. I could feel her anguish when her marriage begins to unravel and her hurt feelings when the locals shun her. I enjoyed reading most of the story. However, I did find some things either not explained at all or that they were so subtle that I found myself wondering what just happened especially surrounding climatic events on Clear Island. I feel like I missed something important, but just couldn't put my finger on it. I found this frustrating, and for that reason, I've not rated this novel as high as I would have liked.

This novel disappointed me. Yes, I thoroughly enjoyed Bondurant's descriptions of the wild beauty of the coast of southern Ireland, but that's all the praise I can give this book. The professionals' glowing reviews are overdone, and some customers' reviews are more to the point. While Fred and Elly, the novel's main characters, are well described, the other characters in the book are vague, half described, and their actions are left hanging. Yes, this story has many hanging shreds, and in the end one is left with a big question mark. And not because of the ghosts that are presumed to be all around.

One more thing: Bondurant occasionally lapses into a corny phrase that is acceptable for beginners, but not for an author of several previous books.

Books captivate readers for a number of reasons. Maybe it's a character that reminds you of someone you know or someone you want to know. Maybe it's a setting that you've always dreamt of. Maybe the plot engages your attention fully, refusing to let go even as it twists and turns.

If you're lucky, a book captivates you because of its author's voice and its author's awareness of how to build character relationships and how to maintain suspense. Readers of Matt Bondurant's The Night Swimmer can consider themselves among the lucky.

Bondurant centers his story on an American couple who win a pub in Ireland. Many people might take the cash equivalent of the prize, but Elly and Fred make the decision to leave everything and everyone they know behind. As Fred restores the pub in Baltimore, Elly spends her time swimming in the waters off Cape Clear Island.

Elly has a minor genetic abnormality (an evenly distributed, thin layer of fat) that allows her to spend long amounts of time in cold water. Her communion with the ocean is one of the strong points of Bondurant's writing, likely because he is a long-distance swimmer himself.

A side note - the locations in The Night Swimmer are real, and images are available on the web if Bondurant's word paintings make you want more.

Another strong point of the novel is the bond between Elly and Fred. Bondurant doesn't describe their love in over-the-top prose. He lets his characters' actions speak for themselves. It's clear these two love each other, which makes it slightly confusing when events of the novel begin to overtake their relationship.

Elly and Fred begin to feel the power of the Corrigan family which controls most of the commerce and culture of Baltimore and Cape Clear. The Americans are outsiders and Elly's growing awareness of the undercurrents on Cape Clear make them more of a target. Fred retreats into a novel he's trying to write and neglects the needs of the bar. Elly retreats into her swimming and getting to know Cape Clear. The two start to drift apart, but Bondurant never fully explains why.

It's a jarring flaw in the novel. Other plot points go unexplained. For some of them, this works - Elly starts to learn about mysteries on the island and she may not need all the answers. Some of the island's mysteries though cry out for explanations, at least for the reader.

Highgate, a blind goat farmer who becomes central to the story, may be more than he seems. As may the Fastnet lighthouse, which exerts a strange pull on Elly.

It's to Bondurant's credit though that these flaws are minor. The story is told from Elly's point of view, and Bondurant never once drops the female perspective, a feat not all male authors can pull off. The mood he creates throughout The Night Swimmer pulls a reader in. His descriptions of setting and character are active. Readers experience the setting as Elly does, not as a laundry list of flora and fauna. Even when Elly befriends a visiting birder (who offers his own threat to her marriage), her exposure to the numerous species excites the readers, rather than becoming a mind-numbing list of bird names.

The novel builds exquisitely to a series of climaxes before ending on what may seem an abrupt note. Perhaps that's an area for improvement in Bondurant's writing. Or perhaps it's just a sign of not wanting to find yourself on the last pages of a book.

Fred and Elly have a good life, but it's busy. So when Fred wins an Irish Pub in Ireland in a dart competition, they decide to pack it all up and move. Fred studies up on how to run a pub, and Elly is anxious to swim in the waters. She's a long distance swimmer and she's extraordinarily good at it. She has a skin condition that gives her a higher fat density, making it easier for her to float and not drown.

When they arrive, it takes a while to get the pub, called the Nightjar, into working order. While Fred works with various contractors to get the pub ready to open, Elly goes to Cape Clear, a nearby island. There, she stays at a bed and breakfast and begins to know the locals and about the ancient clan, descended from Irish saints, who have ruled the island for centuries.

What Elly really wants to do is swim the Fastnet, a dangerous endeavor. Also, Elly keeps seeing a strange man with no arms walking the fences at night, leading a pack of goats. When she questions the locals about it, they regard her curiously. They haven't seen that person and have no idea who she is talking about.

Meanwhile, Fred is trying to write a novel and spend time with Elly when it allows. Elly misses Fred as well, but her swimming seems to have taken over most of her time. But as the two of them find their lives immersing more with the locals, danger begins to surround them. As it accelerates, their marriage begins to crumble.

With a cast of likable and original characters, a dramatic and beautiful backdrop, a dangerous feud and a local intrigue, The Night Swimmer is a unique journey with complex plotting. Powerful, beautiful writing and remarkable storytelling, you won't want to miss this exciting novel!

As you navigate the pages of Bondurant's work, you become enchanted with both the nostalgic beauty of Ireland and horrified by the ruggedness of a culture lost in time. Bondurant does a fantastic job at balancing the idealistic quintessiential Irish pub and folk, but then takes the reader through twists and turns introducting you to the underbelly of an Irish culture not welcoming to newcomers, or as he refers in the novel "blow-ins". The authors ability to capture the peaceful monotony known to any distance swimmer is exquisite, and his description of Irish gales literally teleports you into the storm in your mind. I agree with some of the reviews in which some of the characterization could be more in depth and I found myself struggling to get a "real grasp" of characters beyond Elly (the heroine. I found myself extremely disappointed at the ending, not becuase I was unsatisfied with the book, but more I wanted to hear more of the story behind all of the characters and felt the end came a little to bluntly! And example of this is I'm still left hanging about Miranda's role, a mysterious creature developed by Bondurant who seems to serve the role of island "watchdog". However, the integration of John Cheever's work and the backstory of O'boyle's schizophrenic mother and her last etchings is wonderful foreshadowing to "what is to come". Overall, this was a fantastic read, and wonderful prose written in only a way a true storyteller can. If you want to crawl and bed at night and be transported to a foreign land, where your imagination will build beauty and angst - this is the novel for you! By far Bondurant's best work to date!

This is a well written book(which makes it different from 90% of similar books). It is about Fred and Elly's life in Ireland running a "pub". Two different personalities doing their own thing and how they come together.

My book club meets next week and I'm looking forward to the conversation The Night Swimmer will generate. Beautiful and restrained, this book makes for an unlikely page turner but I found myself picking it up and reading late into the night.

The story of Elly and Fred's ill-fated attempt to run a small pub in a remote part of Ireland is filled with intrigue and mystery. Like so many of the best books, Bondurant leaves room for interpretation and imagination. The story, like life, doesn't end tied up neatly with a bow. The images of the island and the sad fates met by some of the stories memorable characters however, are written in a way that guarantee they will haunt the reader for a long time after the book is finished.

I just finished the book and I honestly did not get it. I get that Fred, after the horrors of 9/11, enters a contest to win a pub in Ireland, and after sucessfully winning the contest, he and his wife Elly move to Ireland to start a new life. I get that the locals don't want the Americans (blow-ins) moving in and opening a pub, I also get the mythical lore of Ireland, but I don't get all the varied Irish chararacter's back story and how all of it tied together, never mind what the significance of Elly's sister's story or Fred's ecentric father's story had to do with anything. And a goat that walks upright on two legs...really? I just dont get it.

Ugh. I just finished the book that I was so excited to start. I love swimming and enjoy finding books that have a swimmer for a main character. I was also intrigued with the setting, the North Atlantic ocean and an isolated island off coast of Ireland. The author's prose was lyrical, but sometimes disjointed or odd. He quotes and references John Cheever's works often, and it seems he writes a bit like Cheever---with a stream of consciousness. I gave the book 3 stars only because of the open water swimming passages. I found the rest to be dark and depressing. I totally agree with the other reviewers who gave it only 3 stars or less---their comments regarding being left hanging, confused and disappointed with the ending. This book had so much potential with the Irish lore and history. We never understand why the native islanders are so angry and vengeful, violent. I was hoping for the author to tie up loose ends in the epilogue, but was left hanging on several character's outcomes (Sebastian, O'Boyle/Ariel, Highgate). The author did a good job of 1st person point of view of a woman, but I still felt I did not truly understand her (Elly) and her choices. I also found it difficult to believe that an extremely fit long distance swimmer would "party" (drink so much alcohol and smoke pot) so much. She must have a high tolerance for alcohol and not get hungover---otherwise how could she swim for hours after a night of drinking? If you love to swim and would enjoy beautiful descriptions of Ireland, the ocean, storms--then you will get something out of this book. The author referenced (in his Acknowledgements) "Swimming To Antarctica" (by Lynne Cox) which I read and LOVED. He also mentioned "Haunts of the Black Masseur" (Chuck Kruger)--"beautiful literary history of swimming"---which I just purchased on Amazon--looking forward to it, so thank you Mr. Bondurant!