Customer Reviews

Stillwater

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
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This is one of the best books I have read in a long, long time. The descriptions of the time, place and characters are haunting. Although I have finished the book some time ago, it remains in my mind.
Beautiful and sensitive! Maybe one of my all-time favorites!

This is a short, lovely novel about the drowning of the Swift River Valley in Massachusetts in 1938 to create the Quabbin Reservoir. Seen through the eyes of the narrator, Jamieson, a 15-year-old boy, Weld describes the people and places of the valley during the idyllic last summer before the flooding. The book is not exciting, packed with thrills, or a potboiler mystery. It is a quiet, beautiful accounting of a slower time when people could make a living off their farms. However, local corruption among self-serving politicians and false ministers is an undercurrent that darkens the over-all glow of the story.
Read this book and enjoy living in the Valley in 1938.
I also recommend "Letting Swift River Go" by Jane Yolen, which describes the same event in a lovely children's book.

I liked this book very much. It is actually the first book in a year or so that I have been interrested enough to finish. It is a very quick read for those who don't have much time. It has corruption, mystery and the outdoors. It is also a sad tale about the end of a leagacy for a young man and how the flooding of the river valley affects him and the other people from the 3 small towns. Anyway, give it a try. It will surprise you. Also, what got me interrested in this was seeing the author on NBC morning show. If you go to look at the segment on CNBC... it might just interrest you too.

Incredible in its breadth and brevity, William Weld's newest work, Stillwater, is destined to become a classic. Set in the late 1930's, he takes us back to a time both magical and surreal, yet as firmly rooted to the earth as Frost's poetry. The landscape of Swift Water Valley is to be soon flooded by a giant reservior, swallowing towns, farms, and innocence. Without giving the story away, let me conclude that the name of Jameison will one day be as familiar as Scout.

The story seemed forced and came out unnaturally. The premise was an interesting, but I found my mind wandering. The characters were not engaging at all! Also, their actions often seemed to come out of no where, with hardly any follow up. The beginning of the novel overall was too cutesy and corny for words. The ending was a bit better, but still didn't make up for the first portion. I'm glad I've done reading it, so I can move on to something more interesting and better written!

The strain of Weld's prose was uncomfortable after a while- the effort of ambition, not artistry, is evident in this novel. The love scenes were gruesome in particular- the dialogue that is used to express a young man's sexual desire, one of the most natural scenes to encounter in art and life, is here made irrevocably awkward and discomforting. My sense of the author was of a man who thought that writing simple thoughts down simply, and in relatively short sentences, was enough to make him the new Hemingway (he miscalculated). I also puzzled at the author's photo that accompanied his bio on the back cover- is the anxious look upon this man's face spotted with snowflakes supposed to remind me of the politically conscientious Redford? It looks more likely that he lost a cow in the snow off-camera.

The story seemed forced and came out unnaturally. The premise was an interesting, but I found my mind wandering. The characters were not engaging at all! Also, their actions often seemed to come out of no where, with hardly any follow up. The beginning of the novel overall was too cutesy and corny for words. The ending was a bit better, but still didn't make up for the first portion. I'm glad I've done reading it, so I can move on to something more interesting and better written!