Saturday, February 28, 2009

Tomorrow by Graham Swift



After reading and loving Waterland by Graham Swift, I was excited to read his 2007 effort, Tomorrow. In it, Paula Hook spends a night lying in bed next to her husband, Mike, contemplating their marriage and the big secret they have kept for years. The next day, they will reveal this family secret to their sixteen-year old twins, Kate and Nick.

Swift is apparently incapable of writing bad prose. The reader is swept along in the story, reading of Paula and Mike's courtship, early marriage and decision to have children. Their relationships with their parents and their feelings about careers are explored. We even hear the story of the only pet they ever had, Otis, their pet cat.

While the book is interesting, I wouldn't rate it as highly as Waterland. The big family secret seemed like fairly trivial to me, and the book was a bit of a letdown after the revelation of it. Perhaps a more emotional person would have found the secret more devastating than I did. Regardless, I would recommend this novel to readers who enjoy great writing and like reading about family relationships. I will definately seek out other novels by Graham Swift in the future.

1 comment:

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