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Title: They Came Like Swallows by William Maxwell ISBN: 0-679-77257-X Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 25 March, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.29 (7 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The best from the invisible master
Comment: William Maxwell, longtime fiction editor for the New Yorker, had a prolific writing career that spanned seven decades. His writing is spare and elegant, his characters genuine. This short(150 pages)novel deals with a family coping with the death of the mother. Each of the three chapters is written from the perspective of one of the survivors -- a preteen boy, a teenage boy, and their father. There is not a wasted or misplaced word in this book. Maxwell manages to capture the depth of experience of each of the characters in very few words. Maxwell should be ranked with the greatest of 20th century American authors; his relative obscurity is a mystery to me. This is my favorite of his novels.
Rating: 3
Summary: Worth Reading
Comment: William Maxwell's short novel is a snapshot of a quintessential American family living during an interesting time. At the first World War comes to an end, the Illinios community is also rocked by an influenza outbreak. But while I found the topic interesting, I also found the characters flat. The youngest son, Bunny, is by far the most developed. In contrast, the father remains more of a sketch. After finishing the book I appreciated the clean, sparse writing style of Maxwell's novel, but didn't much care about saying goodbye to these characters. It's not a book that will linger with me.
Rating: 5
Summary: Poignant, spare, taut, memorable
Comment: I learned of this book thru its being listed by Amazon as one of the ten best books of the 1930s. It is easy to read, but is sad and poignant. It speaks first from the viewpoint of the 8-year-old, then from the viewpoint of the 13 year old, finally the denouement: When I closed the book I realized that it would remain in my memory far longer than most novels. For those of you familiar with Josephine Johnson's Pulitzer-prize-winning novel, Now in November, am I wrong to think this book resonates the way that book has done (read by me over 40 years ago)?
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Title: So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell ISBN: 0679767207 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 03 January, 1996 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
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Title: Time Will Darken It by William Maxwell ISBN: 0679772588 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 04 February, 1997 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: My Mentor: A Young Man's Friendship with William Maxwell by Alec Wilkinson ISBN: 0618123016 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 04 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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Title: The Folded Leaf by William Maxwell ISBN: 0679772561 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 01 October, 1996 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Ancestors : A Family History by William Maxwell ISBN: 0679759298 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 17 January, 1995 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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