The Boy in the Lake

Rating:
Summary: Three Films Would Greatly Complement this Book...
Review: As I read this book...I had flashbacks of three films that I absolutely LOVED: "The Other" Directed by Robert Mulligan in 1972; "The Prince Of Tides" Directed by Barbra Streisand in 1991; "October Sky" Directed by Joe Johnston in 1999. I found something in common with this author: "Our age". I grew up in the 70's and I could relate to his flashbacks as a child in many ways. There were times when he mentioned names like "Holland" and "little brother" that made me think of the movie "The Other". The scandal occurrence in the barn made me think of "The Prince of Tides". Growing up as a child in a coal mining town reminded me of the film "October Sky". This was really a nice book to read. I give it a B+. The writing is excellent if you take the time to 'get into it'. I liked how he segmented the book into three parts: Tattoos, Hunting, Ashes. The titles are key remembrances to the main characters' life. I bet a book could have been expanded on for each of the three parts. The more I dwell on the book the more I'm glad I read it. I saw Patti Lupone in 'Matters of The Heart' last night in NYC @ Lincoln Center and laughed to myself when she made a joke about being in love and calling someone & letting the phone ring 20, 30 or 40 times...before answering machines existed. It's funny...because that joke was written in this book. It's clear we all get our ideas from SOMEWHERE.

Rating:
Summary: conflicted adult confronts childhood guilt, sexuality
Review: Eric Swanson's brilliant, subtle and evocative novel, The Boy in the Lake, brims with elegant language, compelling dialogue, and universal themes of sexual longing and childhood guilt. The protagonist, a capable mental health professional involved in an unravelling romantic relationship, confronts a childhood rife with a sterile home life, a nascent awakening of his homosexuality, and a series of traumatic events which underscore his feelings of powerlessness and guilt.

Swanson draws his characters compassionately; each has literary integrity and authenticity. Parts of this slim novel are carried by powerful dialogue (in many ways reminiscent of Hemingway); other sections contain absolutely elegant imagery (as if you were reading a prose poem).

For those readers who lament that modern American male authors lack ability to describe and analyze relationships, The Boy in the Lake will be a pleasant reminder that dissecting the heart is not exclusively a female literary occupation.

Rating:
Summary: conflicted adult confronts childhood guilt, sexuality
Review: Eric Swanson's brilliant, subtle and evocative novel, The Boy in the Lake, brims with elegant language, compelling dialogue, and universal themes of sexual longing and childhood guilt. The protagonist, a capable mental health professional involved in an unravelling romantic relationship, confronts a childhood rife with a sterile home life, a nascent awakening of his homosexuality, and a series of traumatic events which underscore his feelings of powerlessness and guilt.

Swanson draws his characters compassionately; each has literary integrity and authenticity. Parts of this slim novel are carried by powerful dialogue (in many ways reminiscent of Hemingway); other sections contain absolutely elegant imagery (as if you were reading a prose poem).

For those readers who lament that modern American male authors lack ability to describe and analyze relationships, The Boy in the Lake will be a pleasant reminder that dissecting the heart is not exclusively a female literary occupation.

Rating:
Summary: Bring me Some Strawberry Sauce.
Review: I'm not sure...It pretends to be a good book, I almost believed it, but I guess it's not. It kept my attention and made me wonder what was the mistery in it, but, at the end, I found out it was really no big deal. The story reveals itself as you expected since the beggining. It's as ordinary as it could be. Alcoholic parents, mysterious friends and all that stuff you read about before. Still, Swanson's narrative style is very soft and pleasant, in a gentle way. It's like a nice apple pie, but I rather have a big Banana Split with Strawberry Sauce and hot chocolate, for dessert.

Rating:
Summary: GREAT Storytelling
Review: Mr. Swanson's novel is full of vivid characters and emotions...I felt myself being entangled in both the plot and the characters...unable to put the book down. Mr. Swanson captured the area that the novel is set in beautifully. I happened to grow up there, and I could almost smell the landscape while reading this wonderful story of friendship, betrayal, family and loss.

Rating:
Summary: Tarnished luxury
Review: Returning to his Ohio hometown, Christian Fowler seeks to pack up his dead grandmother's house and to make some sort of peace with himself and a boy from his past whom Christian had grievously betrayed. Swanson paces the novel like a mystery unfolding, bringing the reader deeper into the regrets and discomforts of the main character. Although not quite as redemptive as the works of Scott Heim, Swanson's novel is still potent and lingers in the reader's mind. My only problem with the novel was Swanson's use of "should of" instead of "should've" and the like.

Rating:
Summary: Lyrical, funny, and heartbreaking.
Review: The author effortlessly shifts through time and place, merging his character's boyhood past, recent past, and present in this compelling, brief novel. He has a gift for evoking a setting without getting bogged down in descriptive passages. His restrained use of dialect illustrates beautifully how a little can go a long way in revealing the character of a place. He is compassionate in his treatment of even his minor characters. In one example, when Christian learns of his father's death* we are allowed a glimpse of the kinder side of an unpleasant gossip.

This story of a middle-aged man revisiting his past in search of redemption is not a new one but the theme is timeless and Swanson has a refreshing, unpretentious voice. It was disappointing to discover he has only published one other novel. I don't read a lot of travel prose but I will definitely check out What the Lotus Said: A Journey to Tibet and Back based on how much I enjoyed The Boy In the Lake.

* This is not a spoiler --- we are informed at the beginning of the novel that he had lost both his parents by the time he is 13.

Rating:
Summary: Emotional, well-done!
Review: The emotional life of a gay therapist is told here with clarity and honesty. We come to understand his struggles with a particularly reclusive patient as well as the therapist's own "first love." Swanson has created memorable characters and a rich, detailed story. While he jumps back and forth between the protagonist's past and present, Swanson delivers his narrative without confusion. I would have prefered a straight forward narrative but Swanson's prose makes up for all the back and forth.

Swanson's powers of observation and his meticulous attention to detail brings vividness and depth to the story and the characters. There is no explicit sex in the story which I was hoping for since the tension is certainly there. Well done! I look forward to more of Swanson's work.

Rating:
Summary: A discus, quietly hurling
Review: The title of Eric Swanson's little masterwork tells it all. The Boy in the Lake. Doesn't seem very provocative or profound. Swanson's elegant simplicity of nature in storytelling doesn't warn us. Everything about his novel suggests that we sit back and enjoy a tidbit of Americana.....until the author so successfully traps us in his web that we are caught unaware. Who or what is the boy in the lake?

This is how we all have felt in the agonies of growing into our adult selves. The gamut of awakening of the hormones, the ever-present drive to feel needed, to be loved, to be noticed, to not be destined to "grow old and die alone" - all of these growing pains are woven in such a craftsman manner that in less than 200 pages we have met characters who are archetypes..for ourselves. This is very fine writing indeed, and the protagonist journeys back and forth through his history and his present with such ease and natural pace that it is a joy to stoll beside him. This is a very fine book by a gifted author of prodigious talent.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book, but climax/conclusion too brief
Review: This was a compelling book of an undistinguished tale of a gay man's return to his hometown to reconcile himself to his past.

The gist of this book is of New York social worker/ psychotherapist Christian Fowler returns to his Ohio hometown after three decades, seeking absolution from a friend he betrayed, in Swanson's accomplished, beautifully paced tale of self-discovery and forgiveness. Though the ostensible cause of his return is his grandmother's death, Chris is driven to track down boyhood companion Reis Paley, a troubled Alabama-born delinquent with whom Chris had a secret homosexual relationship at age 12. When homophobic classmates brutally beat Reis, Chris (who had led the thugs to Reis) begged them to stop, but -- helpless and outnumbered -- he ran away, eager to conceal his own, only dimly acknowledged sexual identity. In a poignant narrative, at once lyrical and precise, the adult Chris shuttles between his jealous anxieties over Richard, his live-in companion of 10 years who's been sleeping around, and therapy sessions with a mocking patient named Stephen, a self-hating, closeted high-school dropout who becomes a prostitute. Shadowing his present-day fife are intensely vivid memories of his own painful Ohio boyhood with a laconic Czech-American coal miner father and a constantly drunken mother who fancies herself a descendant of a long line of Irish royalty. Swanson's second novel (after The Greenhouse Effect) resonates with haunting metaphors: the lake where Chris first meets Reis and where Chris's father accidentally drowns is where Chris scatters the ashes of his grandmother.

Emotionally weighted with suspense, this story will appeal to straight and gay readers, and seems especially timely given the recent visibility of hate crimes and anti-gay violence.

This was a very smooth, easy to read book that allows you to flip between the past and present with ease.

Please read this book.... you will be very glad you did!!!!