Drowning Ruth: Amazon.co.uk: Christina Schwarz: Books

Amazon.co.uk Review

For 19th-century novelists--from Jane Austen to George Eliot, Flaubert to Henry James--social constraint gave a delicious tension to their plots. Yet now relaxed morals and social mobility have rendered many of the classics untenable. Why shouldn't Maisie know what she knows? The vogue for historical novels depends in part on our pleasure in re-entering a world of subtle cues and repressed emotion, a time in which a young woman could destroy her life by saying yes to the wrong man. After all, there was no reliable birth control, no divorce, no chance of an independent life or a scandal-free separation. Christina Schwarz's suspenseful debut pivots on two of the lost "virtues" of the past: silence and stoicism.

Drowning Ruth opens in 1919, on the heels of the influenza epidemic that followed the First World War. Although there were telephones and motor cars and dance halls in the small towns of Wisconsin in those years, the townspeople remained rigid and forbidding. As a young woman, Amanda Starkey, a Lutheran farmer's daughter, had been firmly discouraged from an inappropriate marriage with a neighbouring Catholic boy. A few years later, as a nurse in Milwaukee, she is seduced by a dishonourable man. Her shame sends her into a nervous breakdown, and she returns to the family farm. Within a year, though, her beloved sister Mathilde drowns under mysterious circumstances. And when Mathilde's husband, Carl, returns from the war, he finds his small daughter, Ruth, in Amanda's tenacious grip, and she will tell him nothing about the night his wife drowned. Amanda's parents, too, are long gone.

"I killed my parents. Had I mentioned that?" muses Amanda. "I killed them because I felt a little fatigued and suffered from a slight, persistent cough. Thinking I was overworked and hadn't been getting enough sleep, I went home for a short visit, just a few days to relax in the country while the sweet corn and the raspberries were ripe. From the city I brought fancy ribbon, two boxes of Ambrosia chocolate, and a deadly gift... I gave the influenza to my mother, who gave it to my father, or maybe it was the other way around."

Schwarz is a skilful writer, weaving her grim tale across several decades, always returning to the fateful night of Mathilde's death. Drowning Ruth displays her gift for pacing and her harsh insistence on the right ending, rather than the cheery one. --Regina Marler --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

'A compelling mystery' The Times (Play (The Times) 20010901)

'Assured and dense debut...Schwarz's real achievement is in matching the complexities of her plot with vivid characters' The Scotsman (The Scotsman 20010901)

'In [the] assured last stroke, Ms Schwarz affirms the psychological underpinnings of a book that would have worked page-turningly well as a straightforward mystery alone. She gives it the extra wisdom that marks DROWNING RUTH as the chilling, precociously good start to a bright new novelist's career' (New York Times 20010901)

'A strong sense of portent and unusually vivid characters distinguish this mesmerizing first novel about horrifying family secrets and nearly annihilating guilt. DROWNING RUTH is a complex and rewarding debut' (Anita Shreve 20010901)

'A riveting first novel... A very suspenseful tale, one that will keep readers up shivering in the heat of an August night' (USA Today 20020325)

'Quietly powerful prose and carefully nuanced description... Creates a satisfying fictional world. An engrossing debut from a writer to watch' (Kirkus Reviews 20020325)

'The first sentence of this brilliantly understated psychological thriller leaps off the page and captures the reader's imagination...Schwarz deftly uses first-person narration to heighten the drama. Her prose is spare but bewitching, and she juggles the speakers and time periods with the surety of a seasoned novelist ' (Publishers Weekly )

'This unusually deft and assured first novel conveys a good deal more than thrills and chills' (Time )

'The stars of DROWNING RUTH are the beautifully imagined lakes in summer and winter, the desolate farmhouse where Ruth grows up... The book offers ... more tender gifts' (Washington Post )

'It remains gripping to the end' (New York Post )

'A remarkable debut: surprising, unsettling and sure' (New York Times Book Review )

'It is not hard to see why DROWNING RUTH became a bestseller...Where many historical novels are weighed down by detail, DROWNING RUTH is drenched in the melancholic atmosphere of its setting...an intriguing story' New Statesman (New Statesman )

'The compelling quality of Christina Schwarz's first novel, DROWNING RUTH, is quite unique' Independent (Independent )

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Customer Reviews

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

With Kathy Bates, it could be a terrific film. 3 Oct 2003

By Mary Whipple HALL OF FAME TOP 100 REVIEWER

Format:Paperback

With its vivid depiction of its post-World War I setting in Wisconsin, its nightmarish complexities as a family saga, its carefully developed suspense, and its simplicity of theme, Drowning Ruth has "blockbuster movie" written all over it.
These statements are not negatives, however. Drowning Ruth is a very good read!

The author is precise and careful about building her suspense with excruciating slowness. She has created intriguing characters--at heart, not all that different from you and me--characters who are confronted with difficult problems to solve, some of which are not of their own making and some of which are the unexpected results of desperate decisions made in the long ago past. Her alternations of point of view help to give breadth and depth to the conflicts within the main characters, while the fragmentary memories which Ruth contributes add to both the mystery and the sense of dread.

Although Schwarz ably illustrates the restricted roles into which women had to adapt themselves during the period, the mores which applied to "good girls," and the limited choices open to them, the lack of liberation is so natural a part of her story that her novel and its complications are by no means part of a liberation manifesto. Drowning Ruth is a simple story presented clearly and suspensefully by an author who, like Amanda, is careful to keep her grasp completely within her reach. Mary Whipple

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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful

A haunting tale of past secrets 4 Nov 2001

By A Customer

I think it was Oscar Wilde who said nobody is rich enough to be able to buy his/her past. This is a haunting tale of past secrets coming back. A beautifully written, often heartbreaking, book that evolves into a real page-turner. One could say that it speaks of the unbearable decisions people have to make under extraordinary circumstances. I first heard of it when (if I'm not mistaken)it was selected for Oprah's book of the month in the US and it is especially suited to female readers. Christina Schwartz is an author to keep in mind.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

Suspense builds up to an anti-climax 2 Sep 2006

By Howard Bell

Well defined characters, and a suspenseful plot that promises a lot but leaves you just a bit disappointed at the end, when perhaps you might reasonably be entitled to expect a late twist. A couple of the events necessary to fuel the plot seem a little contrived, such as the way that Clement Owens is somehow planted into the vicinity of the Neumanns, the way that Ruth is introduced to the Owens household, and the way that Carl, whose character appeared to be developing quite satisfactorily, is suddenly removed from the story, presumably to facilitate the desired ending. That said, this is still a very readable psychological thriller, and a promising debut for this author. Recommended.