Sarah recommended the following book as one of her favorites. She warned me it's not a happy book. Looking forward to the read...
"They Came Like Swallows" William Maxwell
REVIEW-1/28/11
This was a quick but tough read.
It is about a family dealing with the 1918 Flu Epidemic and the birth of a child and the loss of a parent. There is a formality to the writing and thoughts of the characters that truly reflects the formality and seriousness of the time period.
The children do reflect real children in their thoughts and jealousies. The younger is definitely attached to his childhood (even though he is 8 he comes across as a much younger child) while the older (a 13 year old) is much more serious and comes across as much more adult. I make these comparisons in relation to the typical children of today.
I didn't question the parents decisions, I didn't question the somewhat odd connection of the German manservant to the children and the desire to "go home." YET upon finishing the book the gravity of the decisions and the desire to go home hit me. I am aware of the consequences and the upcoming issues in Germany that the characters are not.
The ending was odd. The loss of the one parent led to the dissolution of the family. A sense of not being able to go on.
3 comments:
I am a huge fan of Spanish/Latin writers. Gabriel Garcia Marquez has a collection of short stories called,"Love and other Demons". I love the title story the best. Not a novel but let me know!
Laura
So did you like it overall? I have to admit it's been so long that I don't have a good memory of the plot. What I have always found striking is the use of POV in the book. Isn't it in 3 parts, each from a different POV - younger boy, older boy, father? Doesn't it start with the younger boy, whose world revolves around his mother, so that when she dies you've already been drenched in this young kid's attachment and the death hits that much harder for the POV he used leading up to it? That's what I remember, anyway... I need to read it again.
William Maxwell lost his own mother in the 1918 epidemic and so the book was somewhat autobiographical.
At least it's a quick read :)
I did like it!
It is the youngest, the eldest, then the father in the telling.
And yes, you totally get the sense of how the woman who never tells her story is keeping it all together. :)
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