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remib's review against another edition
challenging
informative
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Incest, and Abortion
interlunar's review against another edition
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Suicide, Infertility, Abortion, Mental illness, and Incest
Moderate: Alcoholism and Forced institutionalization
Minor: Kidnapping
funneemonkee's review against another edition
3.0
I devoured this book, was utterly entranced by Swift's weaving together of space and time. At times I even loved this book, and the length was no obstacle at all to finishing it.
But 'Waterland' left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Perhaps I expect too much from a novel written when it was, but the cold way Swift tackles sexual violence, and the indifference of his female characters to it, was so dishearteningly disappointing.
A girl who's father 'loves' her. She does not want to sleep with her father, does not want to be raped by him. But she accepts her fate. Swift's narrator comments that this is not usual and moves on.
A young girl has her clothes torn from her by a group of boys. No matter, she isn't afraid. Despite any woman knowing this is not the case. This is a man's imagining of this violation. She is run up on from behind, and penetrated with an eel. To which she only laughs.
Perhaps I should have been warned off the moment the topic of 'holes' came up. That this was the entirety of the care Swift would take towards women's bodies in this text should have perhaps been clearer to me from there. But it was still a disappointment. This novel could have been great, were it not for the misogyny.
But 'Waterland' left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Perhaps I expect too much from a novel written when it was, but the cold way Swift tackles sexual violence, and the indifference of his female characters to it, was so dishearteningly disappointing.
A girl who's father 'loves' her. She does not want to sleep with her father, does not want to be raped by him. But she accepts her fate. Swift's narrator comments that this is not usual and moves on.
A young girl has her clothes torn from her by a group of boys. No matter, she isn't afraid. Despite any woman knowing this is not the case. This is a man's imagining of this violation. She is run up on from behind, and penetrated with an eel. To which she only laughs.
Perhaps I should have been warned off the moment the topic of 'holes' came up. That this was the entirety of the care Swift would take towards women's bodies in this text should have perhaps been clearer to me from there. But it was still a disappointment. This novel could have been great, were it not for the misogyny.
marmoset737's review against another edition
5.0
Beautiful as always - one of my all-time favorite books. Swift weaves the various histories of a small town in England (literal, family, scientific, religious, personal) eloquently and I can't recommend this book highly enough. Might take some getting used to because Swift jumps back and forth a lot from history to history through time, but it's well worth the first stumbling blocks.
roe_'s review against another edition
3.0
Postmodernism with no blood and guts and large automobiles? Whose idea was that?
(actual review) I am doing this for school. Not sure if I would've finished it otherwise - the 18th century parts of the plot were a slog for me and it didn't help that I'd already been shown the film so I didn't even have the excitement of not knowing the ending. Having said that, though, it's heavy on the foreshadowing anyway. It's a cleverly written book and I appreciate the ambitious structure, but at the end of the day my tastes tend towards short, tightly written novels. I'm usually impatient with big-picture abstract philosophising (it tends to feel a bit self-consciously quotable) but at the end of the day Graham Swift can write, so these philosophical tangents were tolerable. Dare I say this felt less pretentious than the usual Booker Prize fare. So I think it's a decent novel, well put together, but it's not really for me personally.
(actual review) I am doing this for school. Not sure if I would've finished it otherwise - the 18th century parts of the plot were a slog for me and it didn't help that I'd already been shown the film so I didn't even have the excitement of not knowing the ending. Having said that, though, it's heavy on the foreshadowing anyway. It's a cleverly written book and I appreciate the ambitious structure, but at the end of the day my tastes tend towards short, tightly written novels. I'm usually impatient with big-picture abstract philosophising (it tends to feel a bit self-consciously quotable) but at the end of the day Graham Swift can write, so these philosophical tangents were tolerable. Dare I say this felt less pretentious than the usual Booker Prize fare. So I think it's a decent novel, well put together, but it's not really for me personally.
alex2teeuw's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
benpawson's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0