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Customer Reviews of Waterland

Not your ordinary history class...
Waterland is a very interesting and surprising novel. Initially, I feared that the book would move slowly, since I realized during the initial phases of reading the work that the "stories" in the novel were simply short and compact historical accounts (regardless if they dealt directly with Tom Crick's past or just past global issues). Upon this realization I became worried that the novel would move slowly, mainly because I personally do not favor historical accounts or texts. However, the manner in which Graham Swift incorporates these "stories" is completely engrossing, making it very difficult to put the novel down. I particularly enjoyed the manner in which the novel is told. I have always found that the use of a conversational narrator adds to the overall effect of almost any novel. In Waterland, Tom Crick has recently been forced into early retirement, and he is in the process of completing his final lecture to a class of students. He decides to abandon the traditional manner in which history is typically taught, and concentrate on providing the students with a "personal account" of history by telling stories of his, his family's, and his home town's past. These stories range from an old brew house that his grandfather owned to his wife, Mary, who has taken to abducting small children from supermarkets. It is apparent through the telling of these stories, that Tom Crick himself is going mad. Tom hopes that by retelling these stories, he will not only be able to help himself, but he will also be able to help his students. Thus Tom apparently believes that those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it, and he wishes that his students have better experiences in life than he has had. Tom exposes these historical accounts as individual presentations to his students in class. Yet, even though these stories are individually rather short, together they form an amazing novel that will engross any reader. Each story exposes another element of Crick's past, and overall aid Tom in making sense of his past and present. Not only is he teaching his students, but he is also teaching himself, and is gradually working towards the answer of his own philosophical question, "Why?"

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Once Upon A Time...History
Through his sometimes over-inflated, long-winded and dramatic language, Graham Swift tells the story of history in his book Waterland, because history, to Tom Crick, the book's narrator, is just that: a story. "..." (135). The fairy-tales of history are constantly returning to claim the present time's mysteries as reoccurrences, soothing those who so boldly demand explanations. These explanations, however, cannot be found in studying French Revolutions or the New World; the purpose of history, education, and fairy-tales is to eliminate fear of what's to come. In the same way that Helen Atkinson soothes her veteran patients to mental health with her stories, the world inundates itself with fairy tales, convincing explanations for the way things are, the way things progress. Once faced with the loss of his job and a rebellious youth named Price, Crick tells his own story, beginning appropriately with "Once upon a time..." (7).
His story is told in realistic sequence, that is, as it comes to mind, in three parts. The present day conflict with overflowing curriculum loads, fanatical headmasters, and unmotivated students leads Crick to conceal his biggest fears of progression with fairy-tales, his own family history, laborers of water control and land reclamation, giving Crick his roots in the Fens, and also, the rise and decline of the Atkinson name, once a prominent brewing family turned to insanity and incest, tying all three together in an overview of world history.
As this book points out, history is not the only thing to move in cycles. Nature has its own dramatic role in this novel. The deceitful Eastern winds, sometimes bringing ample life to the region, other times signifying death. Stubborn silt landscapes refuse technological progression and falter the human desire to push on. Raging fires claim years of accomplishment in a matter of seconds, leaving an audience to gawk at its awesome ability. Tireless bouts with land reclamation foiled by a few days of rain and the reinstatement of river waters, crushing livelihoods effortlessly. How easily nature can retract what takes history decades to produce.
In doing all of this, Swift takes on an excessively optimistic, but admirable task. His story is one of ingenuity and poignancy, even, at certain points, grace, but his writing style is not an attractive one. Long, complex sentences (frequently interrupted by parenthetical additions that read longer than the sentences themselves) and overly dramatic ellipsis plague this novel. I cannot recall how many times I had to return to the beginning of a sentence, paragraph, or chapter to recapture my thoughts. This was extremely discouraging as a reader and certainly affected the amount of time I spent on this novel. Perhaps my short attention span and fastidious reading style is to blame for this because the content of the novel is wonderful. There were even points where I grew to appreciate the difficult writing style. In the end, the book felt like a lot of work, but because of its message and Swift's unique approach, it was a worthwhile read.

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For what purpose history?
I should preface this review by mentioning that I first read the book as one of the requirements of an historiography course in graduate school. As a result, while I have reread the book on numerous occasions since and, while it remained my favorite book until I read "The Wind-up Bird Chronicle" by Haruki Murakami, I come at my reading of the book from that historian's slant. Also, while I love the book, I don't "like" the characters, if this makes sense.

As noted by other reviewers, Tom Crick tells the tragic story of his family to the captive audience of his high school history class in the days before he is forced out of his teaching position. A troubling aspect of this, though, that I have not seen mentioned in other reviews is that way in which Tom USES the history of his family to, in a way, explain away the recent events that have brought him and his wife to their current place in time. Swift is able to make us feel sympathy for this character all the while that the character is using the trials and tribulations of his family to explain the reasons that "it's not his fault". Shouldn't we feel sympathy for the students who must listen to Tom interpret the events of the past 300 years in a way that absolves himself of responsibility for the faults in his life and marriage?

Thinking about this actually makes me want to read the book once more.....