Customer Reviews

Nightswimmer

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Joseph Olshan has achieved a nearly impossible task: a successful novel about the kaleidoscope of emotional rides that constitute the anticipation, the terror, the neuroses/psychoses, the obsession and the gamut of highs and lows of that strange encounter called 'falling in love'. Not that potent love stories are oddities, but when the characters are all males in varying degrees of acceptance/indulgence of being gay, such rollercoaster rides often become either merely taudry, steamy sex encounters or distanced longings such as the wondrous "Maurice" of EM Forster. Nightswimmer takes us many places we know and more places we haven't been, and does so in such convincing style that we feel like part of the in-crowd of these perfectly drawn characters. For the reader who wants to understand both sides of the approach/avoidance magnet of being hopelessly in love, here it is. With enough use of metaphor to keep the story universal, Olshan has written a durable novel that already is showing the test of time. I'm happy this book is becoming more available. Recommended highly - thanks to a friend's recommendation!

While I had read mostly decent reviews of "Nightswimmer", I went into this book with a bit of skepticism. So often, gay-themed novels barely qualify as true literature. Thankfully, Joseph Olshan is a first-class author who takes this multi-dimentional story and enhances it with a very unique perspective--written almost as an extended, detailed love letter. It is refreshing to find a book about mature men who question and struggle with love, passion, relationships, commitment, and the role personal history plays in each one's future. A definite read for anyone looking for a quality story about love and loss that just happens to feature gay men.

Nightswimmer was actually the very first item I'd ever written a review for here at Amazon. I don't know what ever happened to it, but the book remains my favorite of all the gay fiction books I've ever read. Most gay fiction centers around name brands, a-list stars and a-list cities, lots of gossip and overblown scandals/dramas. While those books are fun to toss in the beach bag on a nice summer day, Olshan created a story that hits much closer to home in the lives of many gay men. He writes about relationships in a palpable way - love, love lost, and love found again. It's really neither gay nor straight, but an exploration of how gay men in particular tend to cling to relationships of the past, leaving pieces of themselves behind until they have the chance to reclaim them in finding new love. He does not glamourize his characters nor does he attempt to apologize for their flaws or shortcomings. They are who they are, and they are well-crafted and quite realistic. The haunting melancholy of the past and the trepidation the main character, Will, has about his future is beautifully written and the story remains a favorite of all the friends I've loaned this fine book to - get it for yourself, you won't be disappointed.

I was really looking forward to reading this book, just because I'm rather fond of drama novels and the like. But, to be honest, I think I got my hopes a bit too high. While at first, I was completely drawn in by the story, style of writing, complexity of characters, etc. I was a bit disappointed by the end.

In the beginning, Nightswimmer was strong, it had many different elements and was rather realistic. However, it kept going on, and it got rather repetitive in my mind, and pretty... bland? Along with it, I got lost a few times with mentions of random people and places. I just didn't like it. As a previous reviewer stated, the only reason I read it was because it kept me reading on. It kept me hooked, but not necessarily interest. I was more interested in getting it over with, or looking forward to it improving in the end. It didn't happen, though. Not for me.

I happened upon Olshan's most recent novel, Vanitas, because I heard it depicted New Orleans. I enjoyed it immensely and then on a lark read Nightswimmer. Nightswimmer has to be one of the best, if not the best, modern love stories I have ever read. The fact that the characters happen to be gay ends up being quite incidental (I will admit, however, that I did learn a few things about love between men that I would never have known!). And yet these characters are people first and foremost, and the author makes you care deeply for them and more than that, identify with them. To be a heterosexual woman as I am and find this novel so moving, so compelling, so true to my life, I think is extradinary. What an astonishing writer this man is!

This was a beautiful book. The author really nailed the character and his story of lost love. Never self-pitying or saccharin, or tarted up with an easy redemptive happily ever after. It would be a mistake to think this is just for a gay or male audience, the themes resonate for all of us.

What can I say...this is the book that opened my eyes to the incredible talent of Joseph Olshan. I first read Nightswimmer during the summer of 1994. I've re-read it annually since then and I never grow tired of the story or the characters.

The story is haunting. The mysterious death(or was it) of a lover leads to obsession and fear to continue living. Life seems more complicated now for Will. Going back or staying with his obsession for Chad would be easier. New love seems scary and more complex in the 10 years that past since Chad's death.

This book is pure, heart wrenching emotion. The story and character are strong. This book is a must read, especially before reading In Clara's Hands.

OK, I picked up the book thinking it was going to be a light read for a long airline flight. It turned into my own journey of self. The author challenged me to face the fact that I did many of the same things as the narrator. I constantly think of the "one" who left me (did he really leave? Is he reading this?) and finding Sean's journals - what would YOU do? This has been the frist book in a long long time where I dreaded the impending last pages. Not in the way it ended but that I was so wrapped into the breath of the book I did not want to end the journey. My vacation - - I can't even tell you what or where I was - - but I will remember this book, sitting on a beach and wondering if NIGHTSWIMMER is in front of me OR if Sean is behind me. Great Job - -and sorry guys - - I know some of us have been here - -but it is good to read our own story and have to re-examine what we are doing!

A heartbreaking tale I read over four years ago, "The Nightswimmer" is still one of my favorites of any genre. It was involving to the point of distraction, forcing this reader to break up his plans for the evening to just finish the damn thing. I was sorry afterward that the experience went by so quickly, but I also walked away resenting other books that fail to get under my skin like this one does---still. Thankfully, Olshan came out with "Veritas" a few years later and reaffirmed my conviction that he is a marvel at characterization, plot and illuminating the rough spots in matters of the heart. This is one of those gems I pray to stumble upon every time I step into a bookstore, but rarely find.

In words that flow as graceful as a river and strike as sharp as a waterfall, Joseph Olshan has vividly captured the unbearable ordeal of taking another chance at love. In haunting prose, he has begun to unlock a mystery of the human heart -- how it yearns to be loved, yet can't bear to let go of the pain which has been too familiar. By beginning to unlock this door, the reader is compelled to open it, revealing inner wounds which has never healed -- wounds which are always felt, but ignored in fear of recognizing its self-inflicted nature. The author has painted a remarkably bleak tale of this truth, conjuring tidal waves of loneliness, nostalgia, regret, hope and understanding. Using the perfect metaphor for life -- water -- he shifts waves of undiluted empathy to his tortured characters, involving the reader to their inner turbulences, confusing the compass to a calmness that is dreamt by all, but at the same time dreaded for its unmistakable stillness. I was touched by the sheer power if this story, saddened by my subsequent reflections on our plight to find companionship and nearly driven to tears after realizing how much of oneself is torn in the process.