Customer Reviews

Swann

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It comes as quite a shock at the beginning of the fifth chapter of "Swann" to be reminded that Sarah Maloney, Morton Jimroy, Rose Hindmarch and Frederick Cuzzi area all fictional characters. By that time, having read each of their brushes with Mary Swann (who is also fictitious) and her poetry, you feel that you'd recognize them in a crowd.

In this early novel, Carol Shields shows the talent developed in later works, especially her penchant for using disparate literary styles to tell the story. Her characters are so beautifully formed; they leap from the page and demand you get to know them. Locations are so vividly described, you feel you could immediately find them, should you be transported to Chicago, Palo Alto, Nardeau or Kingston.

In 1965, within hours of submitting her body of work, written on scraps of paper and stored in a paper bag, to literary publisher and newspaper owner, Frederick Cruzzi, Mary Swann, a "primitive" poet from rural Canada, was hacked to pieces by her violent brute of a husband. The 125 poems were subsequently published in a small, stapled pamphlet with a limited run of 250 copies, most of which Cruzzi and his wife ended up giving away.

Many years after publication, Sarah Maloney, a feminist scholar of some note, found a copy in the limited selection or reading material in a remote cottage on a lake in Wisconsin, where she'd gone to have a good long, hard think about her life. Intrigued, she set out to find out more about Swann and her poetry, and soon was in correspondence with a select little group of assorted fans and scholars, including pretentious Morton Jimroy, self-appointed biographer, spinsterly Rose Hindmarch, librarian who lent books to Swann, worldwise Frederick Cuzzi, publisher to whom Swann entrusted her work.

The present time of the book is 1987, and the first ever Swann Symposium is about to take place. Strange things start happening with Swann memorabilia - Sarah's copy of "Swann's Songs" can't be found; Cruzzi's house is burgled and the only things missing are the four copies of the pamphlet he'd retained; one of the two known photographs of Mary Swann goes missing from the Nardeau library.

In this fascinating tale, it's intriguing how the threads of Mary Swann's life slowly pull together, even as she seems to be disappearing forever and how the works of an extremely little known poet, dead for more than 20 years, cause such bitter rivalries, jealousies and criminal behaviour. But even as she becomes more ephemeral, her effect on her admirers becomes more profound.

The first four chapters, almost novellas, of this book titled "Mary Swan" in the British edition I found in my library, each tell of a central character's encounter with Swann and/or her work. The Swan Symposium, the final chapter, is written as a play, which I thought at first was a little precious. Then I realised that since it all took place in a hotel and was mostly dialogue anyway, what better way of expressing it. Readers are spared all the words normally used to pad dialogue out into sentences. "Bit part" players are given beautifully descriptive names like Butter Mouth, Merry Eyes, Silver Cufflinks, Woman with Turban, Woman in Pale Suede Boots, Wistful Demeanour and Crinkled Forehead - that's all you need to picture them.

"Swann" has been described as a "literary mystery" but it's not a traditional mystery with a detective following up clues - in fact, I think to categorise it as a mystery is to sell this rich and intriguing work short. If you want to categorise it at all, it's a beautifully subtle satire aimed at the pretentiousness found in the literary world. If any of Ms Shields' novels were worthy of a Pulitzer Prize, this is the one.

I've read several of Carol Shields works and, with the exception of "Stone Diaries", each has usurped the last as my favourite. This is a little worrying, since I've been working my way backwards through the list. I guess I'll have to stop now.

It is really difficult to determine genre of this undoubtedly excellent novel. A literary mystery? Yes, but only in its framework... A brilliant satire that derides the intellectual high society? Yes, especially in the last part of the book with its impressing gallery of ironically depicted persons without names but with picturesque sobriquets. Even at least three of four main characters of the novel are rather humorously delineated: a feminist who is fond of theoretically contemptible men; a biographer and misanthrope, an impotent with disorderly sexual fantasies; an old maiden with pretensions of personal significance... An experiment with literary form? Yes, it really transforms through the whole book, reaching its culmination in the end, crossing the border between novel and screenscript...

But I think that the author's conception is more profound: the novel is a serious attempt of philosophical comprehension of human personality. Mary Swann, a rural Canadian poet, was murdered by her brutal husband only hours after submitting her poems to local newspaper editor and publisher Frederic Cruzzi. She became famous posthumously, and now four different people - a scholar Sarah Maloney, a writer Morton Jimroy, a librarian Rose Hindmarch and Frederic Cruzzi are trying to understand Mary Swann and her poems. With their semi-empty souls and aspirations for mandane success and promotion, in their endeavors to grasp the meaning of her poems, they fail. They start reconstruction not of the real Mary Swann but her artificial image apropos their intensions.

So genuine understanding is impossible: Swann's life was devoid of external events, nobody knew her thoughts and yearnings. But a miracle happens - unsolved spirit of poetess via her naive poems commences to alter her readers...

Mary Swann was considered by some to be a great poet whose life was tragically ended by a brutal husband. Some intellectuals will do almost anything to "expand" their reputation(s) and careers including dismissing as inconsequential friends and peers of this poet or better yet STEALING. Carol Shields book was such a joy to read I was sorry it ended. I loved the last section with all the character names (i.e.Wispy Blonde,Wimpy Grin,Ginger Ponytail,etc.)I've read all her books and for me this is her best.

I just finished this novel and still am reeling six ways from Sunday because it's just too damn fine. Brilliant, funny, wise, mordant, stupendous, gorgeous novel about creativity and how it's perceived. A particularly fine academic satire but very much more. If you haven't read this yet, get thee hence asap. What great and useful pleasure awaits.

I read this book last year, after borrowing it from a friend. The day after I finished it, I went and bought a copy for myself, one for my mother, and one for my sister; everyone should read it! I was moved to tears in some parts, in others, I had to stop reading, I was so afraid for the characters. Mary Swann's poetry is touching and beautiful, and her "disappearance" that forms the focus of the story is heartbreakingly tragic. The style and form are typical Sheilds, adding interest and humor. Such a great book.

Carol Shields' "Swann" is quite the most entertaining novel I have read all year. It is, in short, a gem, a rare find that defies easy categorisation. Shields combines elements of several literary genres to create a landmark that is simply resplendent in all its glory. Mary Swann, an obscure rural poet who was brutally murdered by her husband in 1965, suddenly emerges as the latest discovery some decades later and becomes a fixation with the publishing and scholarly community in Canada. Four individuals, a scholar (Sarah Maloney), a biographer (Morton Jimroy), a publisher (Frederic Cruzzi) and a librarian (Rose Hindmarch), working separately on Swann's legacy, are brought together by their common obsession. Examining the part each of them plays in unrevelling the Swann mystery, Shields explores the nature of art and the recurring theme of "appearance and reality" to great effect. The scholastic community look in vain for "literary influences" in Swann's sparse but granite hard jewels. Is it so inconceivable that this cowering nothing of a woman is capable of creating art "without influences" ? The value ascribed to manuscripts by scholars and publishers is also questioned. Are they not merely the physical manifestation of the final product and not the genius of creation which is of the moment and incapable of being captured and saved for scrutiny and analysis. Shields also displays her brilliant sense of irony in her characterisation. Sarah, for all her feminist ideals, marries not her lover (Brownie) but the well heeled Stephen and finds herself on the way to becoming a Mum. Who would have thought that the pompous and superior Morton, celebrated biographer of Ezra Pound, is sexually impotent, unable to relate to women in the flesh but imagines himself to be in love with Sarah ? The novel also crackles throughout with an almost cruel sense of humour, particularly in the dialogue sequence between Morton and Rose which is so funny it borders on the ridiculous. All the threads are neatly drawn together in the final segment where Shields delivers her coup-de-grace in a climax resembling a Miss Marple type thriller. With customary wit and charm, Shields has produced a minor masterpiece in "Swann". It is so good you would want to revisit it again and again. Go read it. I can't recommend it more highly.

As a big fan of Carol Shields', I was slightly disappointed in Swann. The book started out strong and I really liked the four characters who were mesmerized by the life and death of rural poet, Mary Swann. Scholarly Sarah, Frederick the editor, and Jimroy, the cynical biographer were all well developed and interesting, except for Rose, the librarian, who I felt was very much of a stereotype.

Swann was an unabashed critique of academic pretensions and in that respect, it succeeded. It did not succeed as a mystery because I did not like the way that Shields changed voices towards the end of the book. She wrote the final conclusion of the book as a screenplay, which seemed farcical and ridiculous. I think that Shields could have made her point more effectively by writing the entire book in the third person -- many academics and people in the publishing field will play loose and fast with the truth when they don't like the information that they discover about their object of fascination. How true that is!

Having said that, even a disappointing book by Shields is a great read since she was a literary genius.

I was deeply saddened by her death, which put an end to a unique and distinct writing career.

Sigrid Macdonald

Author of D'Amour Road

I love all the different dimensions this novel offers up. Each chapter, except of the final one, deals with one of the four main characters. Shields intoduces us to them by using different narrators. There are first and third person narrators, one chapter is told from the perspective of the reader (my favourite), and the final chapter is written as a screen play.

Incredible, really, to have pulled it all togehter, laced with a generous dose of satire, this is an amazing book.

I read THE STONE DIARIES earlier this year, and thought it was a thought-provoking & interesting book. But when I read this one...Stone what? Carol Shields is a master of wit & irony, displayed in her characters and her relentless mocking of the intellectual establishment. Being something of a poet myself I could almost put my self in poor Mary Swann's shoes... A combination satire, artistic declaration and Miss Marple mystery, SWANN is amazing. Read this before any other Shields book...trust me.

The ending was a monumental let down. Did I miss something that the other reviewers understood? Nothing is done to apprehend the thief...it's all left up in the air. I didn't like the book from the beginning but plodded on to the end. What a mistake. Don't wast your time.