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A review by roe_
Waterland by Graham Swift
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.