Shortlisted for the Booker, winner of the Guardian Fiction Prize
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
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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 --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
"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 --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
From the Back Cover
"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 --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
"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 --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
The aspect of this novel that I found most intriguing was Crick's fascination with history. He is plagued, as we all are, by the omnipresent question "Why?", and the novel is the story of his quest for the eternal answer. He views the persent as the ultimate indefineable dimension of time; the time when we as humans are the most vulnerable and unable to make heads from tails. He comes to the conclusion that we must look to the past to determine not only the future, but the "Here and Now" as well. Driven by an infinity of "Why?"s that haunt his daily life, Crick becomes a school teacher; a history teacher. He strives to show the students how history, no matter how distant it seems to the individual, is somehow linked to everyone, and how no piece of history is more important or monumental than another. Through the narration of his own personal experiences as well as the lives of his ancestors, Crick reveals the beauty and power of history to his students. He reaches them in a way that textbooks never dreamed of. Perhaps it is redemption he seeks in teaching his pupils to draw wisdom and foresight from the past. While Crick opens the gates of history for his eager students, he comes to terms with his own past.
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
And so it seems like everyone extracts something different from this book. I wasn't interested in the history as much as on the actual content, on the part that dealt with people. The content was confusing. But I liked his play on words. I liked it how he wasn't grammatically correct. I liked it how sentences wouldn't have to make sense the way they were written, but they still made sense to me.
By "dbsweeney"
Format:Paperback
Now, I'm not going to try and pretend I can explain the different facets of just why I hold this novel so dear to my heart, because I can't. It's enough to say that it's a terribly heartfelt novel, about the past, present and the ways that humans rely on each to live and love, even when the ones they love seem lost to them. It sense of character and location seems persuasive, and the sense of loss that the narrator holds for his past and his wife is simply tragic. Wonderful.
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4.4 out of 5 stars
Most recent customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Return to Waterland
I read Waterland almost two decades ago when it first appeared and was nominated for the Booker Prize. Read more
Published on Mar 18 2002 by Norman Dale
5.0 out of 5 stars
Extraordinary!
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. Read more
Published on Mar 1 2001 by Russel E. Higgins
5.0 out of 5 stars
My favorite book of all time!
This novel is really a story of "what might have been?" Everything was fine for the young lads for awhile; they secretly went off many times and made love, they didn't... Read more
Published on Feb 3 2001 by Dontlistentome
5.0 out of 5 stars
One exeptional book
One exceptional book Waterland is a book about a history teacher being forced into early retirement, the teacher changes the subject of the French revolution into his own life and... Read more
Published on April 17 2000 by kim m benedict
5.0 out of 5 stars
A new kind of "history" lesson...
History is more than the mere retelling of facts and occurrences. History is about people. It is about raw feelings and experiences, emotions and reactions. Read more
Published on Mar 13 2000 by Al Alven
4.0 out of 5 stars
once upon a time...a history teacher told me this story...
"~Waterland was a novel that held me captive....I was unable to put it down without reading it in its entirety. Read more
Published on Mar 13 2000 by Kelly Anne Burns
5.0 out of 5 stars
Waterland--a Study of Human Nature
Like most of the readers who posted their reviews here, I agree that Graham Swift's Waterland is indeed a masterpiece. Read more
Published on Mar 6 2000
5.0 out of 5 stars
BRILLIANT, MOVING, SAD
Graham Swift is a great talent. Waterland is a wonderful novel. The narrator is Tom Crick who lived in the Fens in the 1930s and 1940s and is narrating the story from London in the... Read more
Published on Feb 8 2000 by William M. Hessberg
3.0 out of 5 stars
Norfolk Gothic
An interesting book, mostly by the lessons it gives in what to avoid when writing novels. In the thirties a group of young people experiment sexually, among them the narrator, his... Read more
Published on Jan 31 2000
4.0 out of 5 stars
The characters in Waterland
This emotional novel takes the reader to the heights and depths of emotions. The characters, so well written and completely developed, paint the picture of life in Fenland. Read more
Published on Oct 28 1999
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