Waterland (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Perfectly controlled, superbly written -- Waterland is original, compelling and narration of the highest order." -- The Guardian (U.K.)

"Swift spins a tale of empire-building, land reclamation, brewers and sluice-minders, bewhiskered Victorian patriarchs, insane and visionary relicts.... I can't remember when I read a book of such strange, insidious, unsettling power with a more startling cast of characters." -- Books and Bookmen (U.K.)

"Teems with energy, fertility, violence, madness -- demonstrates the irrepressible, wide-ranging talent of this young British writer." -- Washington Post Book World

"A formidably intelligent book -- animated by an impressive, angry pity at what human creatures are capable of doing to one another in the name of love and need.... The most powerful novel I have read for some time." -- The New York Review of Books

"Waterland appropriates the Fens as Moby Dick did whaling or Wuthering Heights the moors -- a beautiful, serious, and intelligent novel, admirably ambitious and original." -- The Observer (U.K.)

"Rich, ingenious, inspired." -- The New York Times -- Review

Review

"Perfectly controlled, superbly written -- Waterland is original, compelling and narration of the highest order." -- The Guardian (U.K.)

"Swift spins a tale of empire-building, land reclamation, brewers and sluice-minders, bewhiskered Victorian patriarchs, insane and visionary relicts.... I can't remember when I read a book of such strange, insidious, unsettling power with a more startling cast of characters." -- Books and Bookmen (U.K.)

"Teems with energy, fertility, violence, madness -- demonstrates the irrepressible, wide-ranging talent of this young British writer." -- Washington Post Book World

"A formidably intelligent book -- animated by an impressive, angry pity at what human creatures are capable of doing to one another in the name of love and need.... The most powerful novel I have read for some time." -- The New York Review of Books

"Waterland appropriates the Fens as Moby Dick did whaling or Wuthering Heights the moors -- a beautiful, serious, and intelligent novel, admirably ambitious and original." -- The Observer (U.K.)

"Rich, ingenious, inspired." -- The New York Times

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (March 31, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679739793
• ISBN-13: 978-0679739791
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (61 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #30,884 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Those Who Do Not Learn From History Are Doomed to Repeat It, October 25, 1999

By	Shara Klevan (Cherry Hill, New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This book was masterfully told in the form of a retrospective by a history teacher, Tom Crick, who is being forced into early retirement under the guise of "cut backs." Crick's narrative takes the reader through hundreds of years of history, painting pictures of youthful sexual experimentation; love; betrayal; mental illness and even baby-snatching. Crick is disheartened by his forced early retirement and disallusioned by life. He struggles to answer the question "Why, Why, Why?" regarding his own life by answering his pupil's question as to why history is important. His student feels that the here and now is important and to dwell on the past is a waste of time. Crick searches for answers by giving his class a history lesson on his youth and his anscestry. The story takes many twists and turns and shows us the consequences of the actions of many of the men in this history teacher's "history." Swift takes the reader through a botched abortion performed on Mary, the love of Crick's life, and we are privy to the physical and mental consequences of that act. Swift provides wonderful characters such as Dick, Tom's brother, who reminded me of Steinbeck's Lenny in the masterpiece "Of Mice and Men." Waterland tells tales of insanity, giving us characters like Sarah Atkinson who goes nuts as a result of domestic abuse and mistrust by her husband who shares Crick's first name. Sarah shows up at various other points as a ghost, adding a sense of mysticism to the tale. Swift takes chances on subjects that are often taboo, such as incest and child abduction. Crick's mother who was adored by his father, had a sexual relationship with her father. We are given insight into the relationship and provided with her point of view. She is not viewed as a villain in the novel. To the contrary, she is idolized by Crick's father and forever mourned after her passing. Swift gives an account of the process that Mary, who is now Crick's wife, goes through to steal a baby from a young mother. She is not portrayed as an evil, vicious child abductor. The reader is given the story of her life and taken through her history, leading us to her ultimate mental breakdown. We see the affects of this breakdown on our narrator, Tom Crick. Swift goes a long way to show that every action has a consequence and history is something to be learned from if it is not to be repeated. Mary and Sarah Atkinson suffered the same fate of mental breakdown. Crick hopes to convey this lesson in life to Price, as Swift hopes to convey this lesson to his readers. This book was an absolute page-turner and didn't pass judgement on its characters. The unique thing about this novel was that topics that are normally avoided or harshly judged, were presented with their ultimate consequences and left to the reader to be evaluated. Swift obviously trusted the intelligence of his readers to make their own analysis as to the morality of his captivating cast of characters.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinary!, March 1, 2001

By	Russel E. Higgins (Ridgewood, N.J. United States) - See all my reviews

A reader must have patience and perseverance while reading Graham Swift's remarkable novel "Waterland." Like some of the better authors in British literature, Mr. Swift weaves theme upon theme with great virtuosity and skill; the reader must follow the turns and detours of the expansive plot while dealing with an unusual handling of time. The extraordinary tale is narrated by Tom Crick, a rambling storyteller and ex-history teacher from England's Fen Country. He is the son of a canal lock keeper, and the story he tells - although frequently convoluted, digressive, and rambling - is one of the most fascinating stories I have ever read. Right before he is forced to retire in the 1980's, Tom abandons the history curriculum of the school at which he teaches and relates instead a three-hundred page saga of the Fen Country involving murder, incest, madness, ghosts, revenge, and two centuries of pain and tragedy. He incorporates this remarkable history with references to the French Revolution and to his own painful story of growing up during World War II, becoming involved with a bizarre murder and with a witless half-brother who was conceived in order to become "Saviour of the World." It is a disquieting and painful novel, a work of Gothic proportions in which the reader must maintain the utmost concentration. But the rewards are great. I simply could not get this novel out of my mind while I was reading it. I quickly became enthralled with Tom Crick's touching story, with his striking historical account of his ancestors, and with his marvelously graphic description of the Fen Country and its austerity and often tragic hardships. In fact the Fen Country is a major character in the novel for it acts upon the characters in extraordinary ways. The symbol of water is omnipresent, and the Fens are seen as mysterious, isolated, overwhelming in their effects on the rugged and independent peoples who inhabit them. "Waterland" is indeed an exceptional novel. Despite its chronological complexities, its many digressions, and the rather complex syntax of the narrator, the novel forcefully probes mankind's pain and torment in the twentieth century and presents new perceptions for the reader to consider.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For what purpose history?, July 6, 2004

By	Gregory A. Laurence "gre_chan" (Tokyo, Japan) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I should preface this review by mentioning that I first read the book as one of the requirements of an historiography course in graduate school. As a result, while I have reread the book on numerous occasions since and, while it remained my favorite book until I read "The Wind-up Bird Chronicle" by Haruki Murakami, I come at my reading of the book from that historian's slant. Also, while I love the book, I don't "like" the characters, if this makes sense.

As noted by other reviewers, Tom Crick tells the tragic story of his family to the captive audience of his high school history class in the days before he is forced out of his teaching position. A troubling aspect of this, though, that I have not seen mentioned in other reviews is that way in which Tom USES the history of his family to, in a way, explain away the recent events that have brought him and his wife to their current place in time. Swift is able to make us feel sympathy for this character all the while that the character is using the trials and tribulations of his family to explain the reasons that "it's not his fault". Shouldn't we feel sympathy for the students who must listen to Tom interpret the events of the past 300 years in a way that absolves himself of responsibility for the faults in his life and marriage?

Thinking about this actually makes me want to read the book once more.....