Waterland (Picador Classic) Paperback – 1 Jan. 2015

It was only recently, after reading and watching books and movies set in the American south that I reconnected with Waterland and realised that it is essentially American gothic set in the damp heart of the East Anglian fens. There is the small community, enclosed by its own watery boundaries and separated from the rest of the country which barely gets a mention, close family (sometimes too close) and customs that are a throwback to times that if not simpler, were certainly less self-conscious. Echoes of Tom Sawyer are definitely here and Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe.Regardless of the connections beween Swift's masterpiece and great American novels, this is a fantastic book completely soaked in the atmosphere of its surroundings and doing for the fens what Hardy did for Wessex and Du Maurier for Cornwall. Reading Waterland is to lose yourself among the eels and reeds of eastern England, and is a book that lingers long in the memory, both for the setting and the story.

I read this on the recommendation of my university tutor after reading Swift's excellent novel 'Last Orders' . Although I found it rather longer and a bit more complicated than 'Last Orders' it is still an excellent story and really quite sad. It is set in The Fens and since my own father came from Norfolk I found this aspect of the book really interesting, the description of the Fens is superb and you get a real picture in your head of what living there was like. The story centre's around a history teacher who is going through a crisis in his life and the book also returns to incidents in his childhood. I do not want to give the story away but this is worth a read.

A sorrowful tale written in the early 80's predominantly based in the fen land of Norfolk and Lincolnshire. Multiple time lines are used to evoke an almost fantasy level of story-telling intermingled with harsh tales of hidden secrets.At times depressing and lacking hope the story unwinds at a leisurely pace with long descriptive passages.Excellent story-telling

I love the way this book is written, it weaves stories from decades apart in a really engaging way. Because we flit back and forth between stories it keeps you guessing (you find out the narrator's current situation, then you go back and find out how he got there). The fenland setting is an important part of the lives of the characters who inhabit it, and the story is an epic demonstrating how consequences echo down the generations. I found this book easy to read because of the short chapters/sections (good for commuting) but also because the story at the core of the book is full of drama and intrigue. The characters were also really engaging, you come to understand their motivations, histories and relationships. I'd really recommend this book, it's like nothing I've ever read before and I really enjoyed it.

have to say i found it a bit tedious, especially when he trawled through the lands history. there is a darkness to the book, always a brooding atmosphere waiting for something bad to happen. very well written but for me, less is more. i bought this from a recommendation from radio 4's a good read. the experts all loved it.

Read this book 30 years ago and loved it then. Re-read it on our holiday in north Norfolk, not far from the Fens. The book has not lost any of its originality, particularly the way Swift captures the flatness of the fens and the impact on the people who live there.

The book is written well, with an engaging postmodernist take. Nice change from the 18th Century books I've been reading though it is a little confusing with the overlaps between the past and present.Would recommend reading it at least twice to fully understand it.Had issues with the delivery and state of book (it's a secondhand one) but the content of the book is good.

An interesting read. It was something totally different and kept me engaged until the end.

This book was in my Saved Items for what felt like a million years until finally a massive price drop made me decide to buy it. A modern day classic, Graham Smith's Waterland is certainly a contender for one of the best novels of all time, and especially the twentieth century. It is part cautionary tale, part allegory, and fully excellent prose writing. A genuinely sublime experience.

'Waterland' fait partie de ces classiques qui, pas forcément passionnants à la lecture, fascinent cependant le lecteur, conscient qu'il est d'être en présence d'un grand roman. 'Waterland' est avant tout une réflexion sur la notion d'histoire - la grande Histoire (celle du monde), la petite histoire (celle d'une région, d'une famille, d'un individu) mais aussi les histoires, réelles ou fausses - mais toutes finalement s'enchevêtrent et dépendent les unes des autres. L'interrogation porte aussi sur le sens de l'Histoire, la cause et les effets.Graham Swift nous raconte donc plusieurs histoires, qui finalement n'en font qu'une: l'histoire des Fenlands, l'histoire des ancêtres du narrateur (grandeur et décadence d'une famille), l'histoire du narrateur lui-même: un épisode de sa jeunesse (ses amours, son frère Dick, simple d'esprit, et un meurtre...) et le moment présent quand, professeur d'histoire, on le contraint à prendre sa retraite.Le roman est dense et riche, mais aucun élément n'est gratuit: tout s'enchaîne, tout s'agence admirablement bien, preuve que le romancier maîtrise parfaitement son oeuvre. Comme je l'ai dit au début, ce n'est pas toujours passionnant, mais l'on est admiratif du talent de l'écrivain.

Swiftian History...Animesh Bag, Visva Bharati, India.Graham Swift's primary interest in history, human or natural, continues in this fiction. The novel presents his own way of understanding history, particularly the postmodern concept of history. A knowledge on Hayden White, Linda Huthcheon or R.G. Collingwood seems inevitable to understand the layers of this novel. If you love postmodern historical fiction, it could be a worth reading.

This is a good book one of the great authors. nice book.

Je devais lire Swift qui est au programme du M1 Anglais à l'université de Montpellier.J'avoue que je ne connaissais pas l'auteur auparavant. C'est une rencontre particulière, un savant mélange de faits locaux qui ont rendez-vous avec l'Histoire.Un professeur qui est remis en question par un de ses élèves : " Monsieur, à quoi sert l'histoire?" et par le directeur de son école, qui entend se séparer du département d'histoire , sous pretexte qu'il faut faire des coupes nettes sur le budget, arguant ainsi du fait que la matière ne serait que sulbalterne, vis à vis de celles dites " utiles" pour l'avenir des élèves.Un roman non linéaire, où l'on suit les aventures de Tom ( l'enseignant) et de Dick ( son frère handicapé) , grâce à un récit qui fait alterner le passé et le présent, le factuel à l'imaginaire, dans un formidable tourbillon de pensées, rythmées par la désolation des Fenlands, région oubliée et marécageuse d'Angleterre.Je recommande cet ouvrage à tous ceux qui veulent entreprendre ce grand voyage à travers l'histoire, les petits faits du quotidien qui se mélangent aux conflits mondiaux aux familles qui s'aiment ou se déchirent, dans un tourbillon de rancoueurs et d'amours contrariées.

This is probably in my top ten of books. It is beautifully written and utilizes such a perfect metaphor. It might not be the most uplifting of novels, but its beauty cannot be denied.

Mind blowing

Excellent

des descriptions

紙の本にすると500ページを超える大作。あまりにも多くがぎっしりと詰まっていて、重い。52章に渡ってそれぞれにタイトルがついているので、それなりに内容を把握しやすいが、それにしても、様々な内容が時系列でなく錯綜していて、読み終わってほっとしたというのが率直な感想。著者がこの本で一番言いたかったことは何なのだろうか？　18世紀から20世紀に至る一族の物語。イングランド東部のどこまでも平坦に広がる不毛の沼沢地 Fens に入植して、Wash 湾から北海へと流れる川をつくり干拓地とし、やがてビール製造で成功し、と継がれていく一族の、悲劇的な結末。川の水門の管理人となった男との関わり。この水門管理人のひとりの息子は、長じて高校の歴史教師となって32年になるが、妻の精神を病んだ行動から退職を迫られることになり、フランス革命の授業を投げ出して、生徒たちに自分の生い立ちや過去の事柄を語っていくのだ。校長との確執や、ある利発な生徒の反駁から、歴史とは何か、歴史をどう教えどう学ぶのか、教育の本質にふれている部分は興味深かった。しかし、生まれ育った地の人々の silt(沈泥)や水との闘いや、ウナギの生態、一方では10代の少女の奔放な性、ある少年の殺人、近親相姦、等々、時代を行き来して語られる多くの事柄は複雑で、あちこちに見られる意味深い部分には引き込まれるものの、一冊の本としてのまとまり、一貫性には欠けるように思われた。

A bleak tale of youthful folly having dire and life-long consequences against the dreary backdrop of English marshes. A self-absorbed, verbose high school history teacher segues from teaching the French Revolution (a benighted attempt to gain freedom) into a convoluted history of his own ancestors and his own attempts at freedom that ended in tragedy that continues to unfold around him. Lots of musing about the value of history and the nature of insanity. I bogged down in a slough of despond.However, the service from the bookseller was fabulous. Came from Britain in a good and timely fashion.

Le livre est arrivé dans les délais et en parfait état. merci pour l 'efficacité !il a ét lu tout aussi rapidement par un avide lecteur !

What a wonderful book.I grew up near this area and many times when reading this book, i was transported back to my childhood. He really nailed the atmosphere of the place.It took me a little while to get into the story, but the history lesson and quality writing kept me in it. Once into the second half of the book, the story really starts to unfold, and the characters, so well developed up front, really come to life and take their place in the unfolding events.You will know what is coming at the end, and wish with your heart to jump in and stop it, but you can't. You just can't, and you will have to bear the sorrowful burden with the rest of us. But it's so worth it.Thank you Graham.

An amazing and terribly sad story but so beautifully told and written. Even though I have never been to the fens of eastern England, I felt that I had been there. Wonderful descriptions of the region.

A wonderful thought-provoking book set in the English fen lands. The central character is a history teacher who uses local history and geography to bring the history of revolutions to life. Humans' need to know why, and sometimes to put a positive spin on potentially incriminating facts are what history is.His own personal tragedies, including being forced to retire, give him a unique freedom to bend his lessons in ways that would otherwise have been impossible.Extraordinarily well-written and satisfactory.