Waterland
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By Graham Swift
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1 review
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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St Just Thursday Evening Reading Group 7th October 2021.
Waterland. Graham Swift.
This was a very interesting ‘reading group book’ as it generated a number of highly differing opinions. Several readers liked it very much: “thoroughly enjoyed it”, “a classic book I think which is still as good a read today as it was 40 years ago”, “it was a delight and I will read it again”. The idea that history is a narrative and needs to be taught as such was appreciated, as was the notion of progress, and the descriptions of the Fens and its atmosphere. The interweaving of the mystery of the murder of the young boy, the surprising parentage of Dick, and the reason why Tom’s wife stole a baby, were seen as being cleverly put together and applied to the background of the landscape which is also an integral part of the story.
Others, however, saw the book differently. Two gave up with it, finding it impossible to relate to; hard to keep track of; too history-lesson-like; and too many threads to keep in mind. They did not like the “wet boggy-ness of the Fens, the relentless flatness and sparsity of trees”. They disliked reading about eels. They did not like author referring to readers as ‘children’; they found the book too long; and they objected to the term ‘potato-head’. The matter of Tom relating his teenage sexual exploits to a class of children was also questioned. A couple of other readers were luke-warm about the book and enjoyed parts of it, considering it a bit complicated and the writing somewhat dated.
It was interesting that even those who said they “hated” the book, or were unenthusiastic about it, did enjoy the history of the Fens and their drainage. One reader mentioned that the author was not brought up in the Fens and knew little about the area before he started writing the book. Others said they could visualise the area, and informed themselves about the flooding in 1947.
This book was published in the 1980s and several readers had read it before; some enjoyed re-reading it and some not. On balance, this was recognised as a good book, but obviously not one to everyone’s liking.
This book was read during September 2021 and the continuing restrictions due to the Covid-19 virus, and so the discussion was not 'live' as usual, but took place via a Facebook group, email and telephone conversations.
