Rating: 
Summary: Great Writing, Marred by Melodrama and Weak Suspense
Review: I was at first struck, as many readers of The Drowning People surely are, by Richard Mason's intriguing choice of beginning his novel after the climax has passed. The use of this clever, if a bit obvious, device places a particular responsibility upon Mason to justify this cuteness with something substantial; and Mason accomplishes this task in his writing style, but hardly in substance of the novel.Mason's language and descriptiveness is the real jewel of this novel. His writing is sophisticated and fluid, capturing both setting and defining characters effectively. Mason sucessfully portrays the sense of resignation and disillusionment of this seventy-year-old betrayed man--not a small feat for an nineteen-year-old writer. Many of the scenes that Mason creates, however, made this reader wonder why such great writing and language would be wasted on a plot that sometimes disintegrates to melodramatic drivel. There are times when Mason's language is fit for a truly great novel, while his odd scenes are fit for daytime soaps. Slightly more frustrating than Mason's provocative but pointless drama is his painfully unsuspenseful attempt at suspense. This novel at times reads like a compilation of obvious foreshadowings of a series of revelations the reader has already easily surmised! Mason's attempt becomes frustrating when the intended subject of suspense is already clear to the reader. Richard Mason has proven his writing talent in The Drowning People--his writing alone makes it worth reading. If his instincts for crafting a story, though, were half as good as his instincts for writing, this would have been a much better novel.
Rating:
Summary: Read at your own risk
Review: As you will quickly realize, this is my first book review. As others have opined, this tome is impressive debut for so young an author. I became more and more involved with the plot and characters as I read, and at least at first, amazed at this young man's writing style. But the style that a first seduced me beame tiresome. With the characters also speaking in a no-longer spoken form, the question arises, "why didn't Mason set the story in a earlier century. And with the story set in the late 20th century, why did these people have to send each other letters to communicate? What about e mail, or better just pick up the phone. I remained curious enough to see where Mason was going with all the superflous blather to finish the book. Read this wordy first novel at your own risk.
Rating: 
Summary: look beyond people!
Review: i just finished reading this story and i also just finished reading all the reviews from you people and my conclusion is that all the so called "intelligent" people hated it and the so called "blue collar" people enjoyed it. sure the story was predictable, sure the story was long winded, but for me it hit home. i was going through a lot of the same kind of emotional feelings that the story teller was going through. i believe stephen king is very long winded ( now mind you i'm not putting mason in with king but the same things they say about king is being said about mason.) you read a book to get away from lifes situations and if you can find a book that does that then great for you. and also about his age who cares! so he's 18-20 its the story and how it relates to myself is why i read thats all. i don't take in to account how OLD the writer is. books are a lot like movies and sports you read them to get away and thats what Mason did for me thanks.
Rating: 
Summary: Dull - Long winded - predictable - juvenile
Review: I have to admit that by the middle of this book I was skimming, hoping for some brief ray of light. There was so much boring fore-shadowing- chapters of predicting really bad things to come - that nothing short of mass murder could have lived up to that angst. Instead we get a "Duh" moment - any one who enjoys even the most banal mysteries was there before the book was. The author may be forgiven writing a bad book but who the heck agreed to publish this drivel?
Rating:
Summary: Beautifully written. I couldn't put it down.
Review: I thought this book was wonderful. Other readers have complained about the confusing timeline. On page one of chapter one, it says "June 1994; almost 50 years ago." Obviously the story takes place in the future with the narrator remembering events that happened in our present time. I will agree with the readers that complained about the author's use of unneccesary words. I found myself skimming portions of the book just to get past what I thought was not important. I also could not sympathize with any of the major characters. They were all pretty unlikable except of course for the one whose death started the spiral downward for the main characters. However, I feel that this book is definitely one of the better ones that I have read and I would recommend it to a friend.
Rating:
Summary: So many words...so little said.
Review: Some of the most ineffective storytelling I've ever read. If there's an audio version of the book it'd be great at bedtime...forget about Nitol.
Rating: 
Summary: The Drowning People
Review: I highly recommend this book! I was impressed with the depth of human understanding that this young man has expressed. Finally, a book that expresses the pleasures and pains of love without cheap language and violent descriptions. I am sharing his name with every avid reader I know. I am looking forward to his next novel.
Rating:
Summary: Unreadable drek
Review: I completely agree with the review from the Oregon reader, too. The Drowning People falls into that category of "young people writing" in which there are three epiphanies per chapter and high flown feelings all around; it gets very boring after a while. Also, the behavior of the youth strikes me as belonging to the 30s, not the 90s, so there is an utter lack of realism, too. Don't be taken in by the prologue, which makes the book look interesting. You will be disappointed by chapter 2.
Rating:
Summary: Mesmerizing
Review: I read the reviews posted and frankly was shocked to find any one and two star entries. I do not understand how they can be so dismissive of such a well-written mystery. The twists and turns would have kept any reader interested even if they would for some unknown reason been turned off by the poetic use of lanugage. This story written by a 20 year conveying the voice of a 70 year reminded me of the fact that a male author wrote the exquisite Memoir of a Geisha. That was a literary feat as is this book. I am looking forward to more works by this obviously talented and gifted author.
Rating:
Summary: Dead Poets Society meets Robert Goddard
Review: I found this a very excellent book --- plot and writing. The author, takes the voice of a 70 year old man, writing about events that occurred mainly in his 20's in the 1990's. Of course, turns out that the author was in his 20's in the 1990's. He also starts with the line about "at 70, I just killed my wife". This is not unlike Erich Segal's opening "What can you say about a girl who died in her 20's" --- you read the whole book trying to figure out how he got to that point. I read this in a 30 hour period while crossing the country on planes --- wonderful.
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