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Summary: below the surface!
Review: Just below the surface of this novel are several secrets that tangle up like fishing line in seaweed to complicate and change the lives of more than one family. It starts with a secret simple and enticing enough to drag you further into the story - just what did happen the night young Ruth remembers drowning, her mother did drown and her aunt denies all? Could it be murder? Insanity? Abandonment? An accident? That sinister secret covers up a shameful secret that led to that tragic night of Novembe 1919. The author is at her finest developing the plot and slowly revealing enough to keep you interested (and still wondering) while holding back the most crucial details till the very end. Her charactors are complex, caught between the stifling bonds of love, family duty, society's expectations and also, finding true meaning in those complicated bonds. There is enough complexity to make you wonder, even as you listen to their voices, what they really know and what are they hiding. The plot is weakest near the end, when a romantic liason is so predicatble as to bore you, and there are spots in the writing that are stilted and amaturish (this is a first novel).
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Summary: vaguely familiar territory re-energised...
Review: Drowning Ruth is one of those psychological dramas involving somewhat inconsistent (and sometimes incoherent) recollections of long past tragic events and the ultimate unravelling of it all. I felt a strong sense of deja vu (ie, didn't I experience all this before in some cheap made-for-TV movie?). I suppose its one curious element is that one of its primary characters is a little girl (Ruth) who claims early on in the book that she drowned.While this might all sound like unappetizing, it actually reads quite well. The author does an admirable job of describing the rather bleak northern Wisconsin landscape and its people. I suppose my only complaints are that the book does move at a somewhat slow pace, and its 'surprise' ending was no surprise to me at all. But these are actually minor quibbles in what has to be considered a wonderful first novel by Christina Schwarz. Bottom line: don't let the Oprah sticker on the front of the book turn you off. Drowning Ruth is actually fine book. Recommended.
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Summary: Drowning Ruth
Review: I personally loved this book. I love trying to figure out why people do the things that they do and this book gave me plenty of food for thought. The multitudinous layers of familial dysfuntion were tantalizing. And the mystery surrounding the actual events of Maddie's death...well lets just say that I thought I had it figured out and I did, except for The Big Question for Ruth, which shall remain unmentioned inorder not to give any of the book away to those who have not had the pleasure of reading it. What I found fascinating about her question was that Ruth herself assumed a negative motivation. More food for thought. Her entire family was a study in dysfunction. No one really communicated. I don't think that Maddie and Amanda's parents had any true inkling of who their partner really was. So many tragic choices. So many things never spoken. I also believe that Amanda was not all there, of course I think that Amanda was untimately a reflection of her parents vastly different view and treatment of the two sisters. Amanda's extreme possessiveness of her sister beginning when she herself was a little girl, I found that very disturbing. And later her relationship with her sister and later her sister's child...well it is really very difficult to discuss this book at any length without giving anything away. Let's just say that it was intriguing and fascinating and if you like trying to understand character actions and motivations, this book is magnificent. I can't recommend it highly enough, it was fast paced and well written and I finally had to stay up until early morning because I couldn't stand not knowing the answer to Ruth's question.
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Summary: good book!
Review: I enjoyed reading this book and finding out the secrets. I thought the ending left me a little bit hanging though. I would recommend this book to others.
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Summary: Drowning Ruth Is definatly a great novel!
Review: I LOVED THIS BOOK! It cultivated so many emotions. The book seemed to read backwards, almost like a mystery. You began to feel genuinly for the characters and If you like any of Oprah's book club books, this is definatly a great pick.
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Summary: Debut novel, and she could get better.
Review: First off, I love to read debut novels. While this novel was well written I was left feeling that we didn't need to read the entire novel to wait for the ending. Still, I felt all the emotions in this novel, I enjoyed Ruth, I was angry with Amanda although I understood her. This wasn't one of the best Oprah picks, and if this were out of ten starts I would give it seven. But, I give to many 5 out of 5 stars, and 10 out of 10!
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Summary: A good read and a fine first novel.
Review: I enjoyed this book. I know it may have been predictable for some, but I was happy to let Christina Schwartz take me on the ride to the end of the novel. The Ruth and Amanda points of view, coupled with the touch of going back and forth in time engaged me in the story from Chapter one. Family secrets, plot twists, memories that don't quite come together for Ruth--I loved it. This is an excellent first novel, and I look forward to Christina Schwartz's next piece.
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Summary: What a terrible book!!!
Review: Depressing things happenning to depressing people. Do you want to see the story of a life that is misery after torment after trauma? Do you want characters you cannot like? I cannot imagine any reason to read this book, unless you have had a terrible life, and you want to read a book about someone whose life was worse that yours. I read this book for my book club, and that is the only reason I finished it. I can think of only one book in my entire life that I liked less than this one, but still finished.
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Summary: WONDERFUL BOOK
Review: IF YOU LIKE OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB, THEN THIS BOOK IS FOR YOU! THE STORY IS VERY GOOD. CAN'T PUT DOWN!
Rating: 
Summary: Okay but slow
Review: This book describes the guilt and pain of Amanda and how those emotions affected her entire family and even those within her community. Although the book starts well, I almost quit reading half way through it. The plot lines move slowly, and there are sudden jumps in time. You'll be reading along in one chapter, you run across a break, and the next thing you know several years have passed. However, you don't even know that for several paragraphs, so it's too easy to get distracted and confused. I also think too many sub-plots and the recollections of the characters were not always expanded upon enough, either. I did think that Amanda, Mathilda and Ruth are well developed characters, and you do feel sympathy for them all. However, I would have liked to see Ruth's father, Carl, and Imogene, Ruth's friend (and something else to the story...) more developed. Imogene especially- I felt like I didn't really know here.
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