This book is perfect....it has everything a book should have: it's got a fantastic storyline (more in a minute....), history, brilliant characters, it's written brilliantly, the description is amazing and it has rude bits and funny bits!!!
The basic storyline is history teacher Tom Crick's ... Read review
Swift is a true giant of contemporary British literature, and the winner of the 1996 ... more
Booker prize for 'Last Orders'. Picador are reissuing Graham Swift's classic backlist titles with a stunning new brand look alongside his new book, 'Making an Elephant'.
Advantages: Just perfect!!! Disadvantages: Erm.......none!!
This book is perfect....it has everything a book should have: it's got a fantastic storyline (more in a minute....), history, brilliant characters, it's written brilliantly, the description is amazing and it has rude bits and funny bits!!!
The basic storyline is history teacher Tom Crick's autobiography. Crick's narration is perfect, some of it is told to his rebellious pupils when they ask "what's the point in history?" ... ...of interest in history to make way for new subjects. You really do feel genuinely sorry for Tom when he finds this out....maybe I find this relevant being a dedicated history student!! But the point of the relevance of history does raise some interesting questions; particularly as Tom's childhood is during the Second World War, so it does make you realise the effects of history on the future.
Swift's genius lies, I think, in creating ... more
This book is perfect....it has everything a book should have: it's got a fantastic storyline (more in a minute....), history, brilliant characters, it's written brilliantly, the description is amazing and it has rude bits and funny bits!!!
The basic storyline is history teacher Tom Crick's autobiography. Crick's narration is perfect, some of it is told to his rebellious pupils when they ask "what's the point in history?" when Tom discovers he's being "retired" due to a lack of interest in history to make way for new subjects. You really do feel genuinely sorry for Tom when he finds this out....maybe I find this relevant being a dedicated history student!! But the point of the relevance of history does raise some interesting questions; particularly as Tom's childhood is during the Second World War, so it does make you realise the effects of history on the future.
Swift's genius lies, I think, in creating real people as characters. Tom and his wife Mary appear to be normal, real people. It doesn't rely on impossible, far- fetched storylines or characatures to tell the story. The fact that it is so real and "down to earth" does suggest it could be boring, but, trust me, it isn't! Tom's recollections of his childhood and adolescence are beautiful- how his childhood innocence is shattered by the realities of war, losing his mother and then suffering the trauma of Mary showing him the physical differences between boys and girls and taking his virginity!
But, the consequences are never quite what they want. Mary becomes pregnant at the age of 15, shocking the boys and their families, not least because the baby could be Tom's or his elder brother's. She is promptly "sent away" to be looked after by nuns, and loses the baby only to become infertile, which ultimately leads to the events that later unfold.
But, aside from this tragedy, there are moments of humour, such as when Tom and his friends, including Mary and one of her friends, have a competition: the boys must swin across the river to be "rewarded" by Mary removing her bra! One of the boys also decisedes to put an eel down Mary's navy blue pants (I think Swift has an obsession with this particular type of underwear as they seem to be a recurring theme in his books!), to quite hilarious consequences!
Aside from this, the novel also has beautiful description of the Fenland where it is set. Swift's fictional setting is comparable to Thomas Hardy's Wessex. It's certainly created with as much meticulous attention to detail, creating a believable setting.
The novel's claimax is the drama caused by Mary suffering a breakdown and the chaos that ensues when she visits a supermarket. I won't reveal what happens or I'll spoil it if you want to read it!
All I can say is this book is absolutely perfect, and I'm definitely going to read it again!! I must also thank the most gorgeous-est person in the world ever, David, for reccomending I read this. Thankyouthankyou, and I love you!!!
Swift has also written other books including: Last Orders (which won the Booker Prize), The Sweet Shop Owner, Shuttlecock, Out Of This World and Ever After, which are probably also worth reading, and I promise I will soon!!!!!!
This book is a masterpiece!
I read it some time ago now, so forgive me if this review isn't quite up to speed wih the others i have read - the standard of reviews on this website are very high indeed. The reason i put my fingers on the keyboard here is that i felt the other review (whilst very good indeed) did not quite do justice to the composition of this excellent novel. So for those interested in the plotline and sumary of the book - i direct ... ...opinion. The novel is remarkable, because the craft of writing therin is simply so skillfull it beggars belief that someone could actually conceive ofit in the first place. As we can see from his later novel - Last orders - Swift is a great writer for taking many disparate threads of a story and introducing them to the reader gradually, winding them together strand by strand until the form a cohesive whole that is somehow (through the inflection ...
bergmcberg 01.12.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Waterland - Graham Swift
Advantages: A book deeply concerned with how a convoluted childhood and past can affect the present Disadvantages: Long descriptions of landscape and history can become tedious at times
“Waterland” is a novel that is deeply concerned with the nature of the past. It begins with Thomas Crick, who has dedicated his life’s work to history by “making a profession out of the past”. He is a history teacher who is soon to be let go due to a cutting back of the history department at the school where he teaches. Thomas sees recording history as collecting stories, “Perhaps history is just story telling.” He is obsessed with understanding ... ...he suffers various tradegies, including a botched abortion his girlfriend suffers and the death of his brother.
The choosing of his profession as a historian can be directly linked with Thomas’s obsession with the past. With his mind constantly upon important times in history such as the French Revolution, it is inevitable that he will often ruminate on his own individual past. John Brewer and Stella Tillyard said “ruminating on the nature of history ...
taranmatharu 22.04.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Waterland - Graham Swift
Tom Crick, a history teacher in the Fenlands, is driven by a marital crisis and the provocation of one of his pupils, to forsake his teaching and relate the story of his family who have lived in the Fens since the 18th century. Graham Swift won the 1996 Booker Prize for Fiction for "Last Orders".
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