Customer Reviews

Time Swimmer (Island Fiction)

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The slippery slope of ancient mythos merging into present day realities has been climbed and mastered by the author in this sensuously written page turner. When academicians try to poeticize their knowledge of myth you are as likely to get porridge as you are to get winged inspirations and when the poetically gifted attempt to tell rollicking tales you may have to saddle up for a wild ride or you could get a goose egg.

Miraculously, Mr. Hausman leaps the hurdles of blending the old with the new and arrives at something much more. In Time Swimmer, I believe he has created a portal into the eternal truths in a way I've never seen or read before. The language and writing itself is brilliant and I would push for anyone to read it for the exquisite use of simile throughout, the alliteration and syncopation, its tight rhythms and brave, yet precise leaps into colorful descriptives.

The tale, and it is fantastic, is guided by his ear for language and attunement to Caribbean ways and a precise understanding of how character is revealed by speech. When you combine this gift of tailoring description and dialogue to character and their actions with a very evident level of wisdom, the reader realizes the author themselves are the shaman and the teacher and it is their embodiment of the actual truth and wisdom of the eternal myths that has written this book.

How else could one explain how the greek myths are made to come alive so fluidly and clearly in their message in an entirely different time and place? And how is it that what may be seen by some as a playful adventure for younger readers is actually a deep and penetrating meditation on spiritual liberation, free will and the star stuff we are made of? How? Because it is jazz, mixed with patois, written by a wise man who has given voice to the gods because they have spoken to him. This is modern myth making.

Odysseus and Gerald Hausman are sitting at the same poker table folks. Get this book so you can watch them play the hands that are dealt in this fantastic, time warped, shape shifting beauty of a book. Harry Potter, move over!

The old gods of Greek, Norse and other myths battled each other in Neil Gaiman's AMERICAN GODS, and the protagonist Shadow became caught up in the middle of that chaos. In Gerald Hausman's TIME SWIMMER, the young Jamaican Luke is also caught up in battles between the old gods. Befriended by the epic warrior and journeyman Odysseus (who has been cursed by Zeus to live as a sea turtle), Luke has numerous fantastic experiences during this epic tale of travels through time in the Caribbean. This is a fitting book for a young reader who may be interested in fantasy and tales of the elder gods; it may even encourage some readers to seek out books of those original myths. The adult reader may recognize other allusions, including Ambrose Bierce's classic tale, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." Overall, this is a satisfying young adult tale.

I have read a number of books by the Author Gerald Hausman.

It amazes me how he can write about so many interesting subjects and be so informative on each.No doubt he must do a great deal of research and preparation before creating his new story.

I am also letting readers know that Mr Hausman is also a great showman.A dear friend let me know that Mr Hausman was the key speaker at their school and let me know that he had each child's attention of every word that he was reading from one of his books.

My point is that this latest book from him is a wonderful read for many.

Time Swimmer is a unique and special novel - reminds me of many fantasy stories I enjoyed as a child - but this story takes a different and fresh approach. All ages can enjoy this journey!

A pure blend of history and fantastical delights, Time Swimmer is a break for the mind, and good for the soul! It is during tough times like this that we need to remind oursleves that you can simply lose yourself in a good read...

I loved the creative flow of the book and the use of poetic short paragraph sentences and the cadence they summoned throughout the story. It's an Afro-Caribbean drum beat that sounds on the back of a turtle, one of the most endangered species on the planet, over the great ocean currents and the dream space of the collective subconscious throughout the world.

Time Swimmer is as much a seraphic work of poetry as prose. Gerald Hausman, with incandescent imagination, braids together the tale of Odysseus, with tales of gods old and new, the story of a young boy who's failed his Common Entrance Exam, and historical incidents of the Caribbean. Magic mixes nonchalantly with reality. The story is a journey for the main characters as well as the reader. On one level, the story takes you from wonderful place to place, fantastic character to character. But, at another level, you are taken on a journey of philosophy, made to consider the nature of friendship, mortality and purpose of life. The book is a scrumptious, exotic palette of tastes and scents. I loved it. David Greenberg