Both a Southern literary saga and a psychological thriller, this beautifully wrought novel recounts a daughter's search for the truth about her mother's death. "Potently evocative . . . It will grab readers from the first line."--Chattanooga News-Free Press.
Sweet Water: A Novel
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Kline's first novel is a captivating read. When a grandfather she never knew bequeaths her a house and 60 acres of land in Sweetwater, Tenn., a restless young artist leaves New York to recover her past and rethink her future. Cassie Simon's mother Ellen died when Cassie was only three; raised in Boston by her grieving father, she never knew her maternal relatives. Unprepared for the thick veil of mystery that surrounds them, Cassie is especially bewildered by her brusque grandmother, whom rumor credits with hiding a terrible secret about Ellen's death. In alternating sections told from their respective points of view, Cassie and her grandmother fight their separate battles to cope with the truth about the tragedy. Kline perfectly renders each woman's voice: Cassie's, probing and often uncertain, propels the narrative and creates an appropriate level of psychological suspense; the grandmother's quavers with the weight of memory as Cassie's search forces her beyond family myth to a painful and perhaps dangerous truth. The result is a powerful, immensely readable tale of loyalty and betrayal, family and memory, made fresh by Kline's often beautiful and always lucid prose. Literary Guild alternate; Reader's Digest Condensed Book.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From School Library Journal
YA-This novel of self-discovery is told from the points of view of two female narrators: 25-year-old artist Cassie Simon and her grandmother Constance Clyde. Cassie was raised by her widowed father in the urban northeast. Unexpectedly, she inherits the old family homestead in rural Tennessee from her grandfather. Though puzzled by the bequest-she grew up without contact with any of her maternal relatives-she decides that the opportunity to change her life, pursue her art, and learn about her mother's family is too enticing to pass up. But her move to the rundown farmhouse brings her face-to-face with hostility and family secrets. As Cassie's story unfolds, and she grows to appreciate the simple wonders of the isolated farm, Constance's voice provides a counterpoint. The old woman broods over her life and dwells on her dead husband's infidelities with several local women, and on the long-ago, tragic death of Cassie's mother. The novel's climax unites grandmother and granddaughter, as each learns the truth about the past and each other. YAs who like a little romance and mystery mixed together will enjoy this gentle story.
Carolyn E. Gecan, Thomas Jefferson Sci-Tech, Fairfax County, VA
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Carolyn E. Gecan, Thomas Jefferson Sci-Tech, Fairfax County, VA
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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More About the Author
Christina Baker Kline is a novelist, nonfiction writer and editor. In addition to Bird in Hand, her novels include The Way Life Should Be, Desire Lines and Sweet Water. She is Writer-in-Residence at Fordham University.
Kline was born in Cambridge, England, and raised there as well as in the American South and Maine. She is a graduate of Yale, Cambridge, and the University of Virginia, where she was a Henry Hoyns Fellow in Fiction Writing. In addition to Fordham, she has taught fiction and nonfiction writing, poetry, English literature, literary theory, and women's studies at Yale, New York University,and Drew University. She is a recent recipient of a Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Fellowship, a Writer-in-Residence Fellowship at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and a Fordham Research Grant. She donates her time and editing skills to a number of arts organizations in New Jersey and Maine.
Kline is coeditor, with Anne Burt, of a collection of personal essays called About Face: Women Write About What They See When They Look in the Mirror. She also commissioned and edited two widely praised collections of original essays on the first year of parenthood and raising young children, Child of Mine and Room to Grow. She is co-author, with her mother, Christina Looper Baker, of a book on feminist mothers and daughters, The Conversation Begins. Her essays, articles, and reviews have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Yale Review, Southern Living, Ms., Parents, and Family Life, among other places.
Kline has worked as a caterer, cook, and personal chef on the Maine coast, Martha's Vineyard, and in Charlottesville, Virginia. She lives in an old house in Montclair, New Jersey, with her husband, David Kline; three boys, Hayden, Will, and Eli; and Lucy, an English springer spaniel. She spends summers with extended family in an even older house on Mount Desert Island in Maine.
Kline was born in Cambridge, England, and raised there as well as in the American South and Maine. She is a graduate of Yale, Cambridge, and the University of Virginia, where she was a Henry Hoyns Fellow in Fiction Writing. In addition to Fordham, she has taught fiction and nonfiction writing, poetry, English literature, literary theory, and women's studies at Yale, New York University,and Drew University. She is a recent recipient of a Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Fellowship, a Writer-in-Residence Fellowship at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and a Fordham Research Grant. She donates her time and editing skills to a number of arts organizations in New Jersey and Maine.
Kline is coeditor, with Anne Burt, of a collection of personal essays called About Face: Women Write About What They See When They Look in the Mirror. She also commissioned and edited two widely praised collections of original essays on the first year of parenthood and raising young children, Child of Mine and Room to Grow. She is co-author, with her mother, Christina Looper Baker, of a book on feminist mothers and daughters, The Conversation Begins. Her essays, articles, and reviews have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Yale Review, Southern Living, Ms., Parents, and Family Life, among other places.
Kline has worked as a caterer, cook, and personal chef on the Maine coast, Martha's Vineyard, and in Charlottesville, Virginia. She lives in an old house in Montclair, New Jersey, with her husband, David Kline; three boys, Hayden, Will, and Eli; and Lucy, an English springer spaniel. She spends summers with extended family in an even older house on Mount Desert Island in Maine.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good Read,
By
This review is from: Sweet Water (Paperback)
Twenty seven year old Cassandra Simon is lost. Her life in NYC is mundane at best. Both her professional and personsal lives are lacking. Cassie isn't sure what is lacking. So when an unexpected bequest from Amory Clyde, she decides to go to Sweet Water TN. Her father warns her that she may not find what she's looking for. Her friend Drew cautions, "Sometimes we are running from something or we are running towards something." For Cassie the truth may be both.Haunted by the death of her mother 24 years, she is running from the unspoken grief that she and her father shares and toward answers to the questions she desperately needs. Her Grandmother, Constance Clyde is afraid of those answers too. Clyde is beyond forgiveness. She just wants to forget. Betrayal, revenge, and guilt are best forgotten. Clyde understands why Cassie is coming back after all of these years, but she can't allow her to find out her secret - she is responsible for her daughter's death. Amory knew Cassie would come to claim the family's old homestead and the land. But she searched the house and the land. Even her Aunts and Uncles are wary of Carrie...Why is she coming after all this time? As Cassie settles in the old house, her grandmother becomes distant and hostile, especially when her grand-daughter discovers Bryce Davies. And Cassie wonders could one grandparent be responsible for his daughter's death, while the other murdered her best friend? Could Mae be right? Sometimes family secrets are best left buried. Christina Baker Kline weaves together a fine Southern family saga and mystery by alternating Cassie and Clyde as narrators. Both are very strong characters and their telling of their own stories adds suspense to the novel. Readers will need to suspend belief of a subplot concerning one of Cassie's cousins though. I had to scratch my head on that one and looked at my cat saying, "Huh? Really? She went there? Other than that SWEET WATER is a good read.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sweet Water,
By birdladypoole "birdladypoole" (lockwood n.y USA) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Sweet Water (Paperback)
I bought this book for my daughter for her birthday. My daughter has been reading a lot of books by this Author: Christina Baker Kline. She told me this is another good book from Christina Baker Kline. Thanks birdladypoole
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very Good Read,
By
This review is from: Sweet Water (Curley Large Print Books) (Hardcover)
This is a story about a girl who chooses to explore her families history to learn about her mother's death. The narrative goes back and forth between Cassie, the main character, and her grandmother, giving the reader insight on what really happened. What affected me the most is how a lie can truly change a life forever.
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