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4.43 AVERAGE
4.43 AVERAGE
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
dark
emotional
mysterious
relaxing
dark
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Wow...just wow. I first got into Michael McDowell’s writing with The Elementals, and he continues to impress me with every book of his that I read.
I knew that this book is considered his magnum opus, but I still wasn’t prepared for how marvelously epic this story is.
Blackwater chronicles the lives of one family over nearly a century. It mixes southern gothic with family saga, mixes monsters with haunted houses, and ultimately examines human and not-so-human nature.
I laughed, I cried, I slept with the lights on.
I knew that this book is considered his magnum opus, but I still wasn’t prepared for how marvelously epic this story is.
Blackwater chronicles the lives of one family over nearly a century. It mixes southern gothic with family saga, mixes monsters with haunted houses, and ultimately examines human and not-so-human nature.
I laughed, I cried, I slept with the lights on.
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Comparison to a classic Southern saga is right. I read it as six individual books, and I think they should either print it beautifully as one book or keep the art and 6-book form of the original. The art is so stunning. The Valancourt edition looks like a shabby run, printer paper and a book so big no sensible person would ever want to hold it to their face for 100 hours; and the art is cartoonish. The art I see here is equally ridiculous. There's nothing about a Roman looking statue with a gaping mouth in the book. There's no effort of joining masterful content to worthwhile front cover. This book is worth way more respect from the people who publish it.
McDowell's writing is country simple, but his conveying of complicated social situations (a la Southern novel) with rich characters you feel like you know--and in my case, ended up caring about more than normal--is what makes him a master.
Further Southernisms put character under the surface in the manner of Oscar Wilde. One uncle without children and with an estranged wife "has the stamp of femininity about him." You will encounter some old time subtleties and phrases, which McDowell collected the same way he collected funeral memorabilia and weird death photos (so I hear).
Similarly, when there is violence (and the books are broken up to have one nice, shockingly violent turn per outing) he is so cold and thorough that you ask, "Can the world be as sad as it seems?"
I definitely urge people to sit back and take this one in. It gives the powerful literary-novel effect that one rarely finds in what is also clearly a beach/vacation paperback. McDowell said "While you're reading one of my books off the rack, I'm already speeding through another to put on the shelf next month." I wish he had lived 30 more years.
In Blackwater the babies become adults with jobs and relationships, and the young newlyweds from the beginning... it just feels like some short life I lived reading this book, when I look over lines in the last book, and say, "My god... you've all gotten so *old*..."
Go read it.
McDowell's writing is country simple, but his conveying of complicated social situations (a la Southern novel) with rich characters you feel like you know--and in my case, ended up caring about more than normal--is what makes him a master.
Further Southernisms put character under the surface in the manner of Oscar Wilde. One uncle without children and with an estranged wife "has the stamp of femininity about him." You will encounter some old time subtleties and phrases, which McDowell collected the same way he collected funeral memorabilia and weird death photos (so I hear).
Similarly, when there is violence (and the books are broken up to have one nice, shockingly violent turn per outing) he is so cold and thorough that you ask, "Can the world be as sad as it seems?"
I definitely urge people to sit back and take this one in. It gives the powerful literary-novel effect that one rarely finds in what is also clearly a beach/vacation paperback. McDowell said "While you're reading one of my books off the rack, I'm already speeding through another to put on the shelf next month." I wish he had lived 30 more years.
In Blackwater the babies become adults with jobs and relationships, and the young newlyweds from the beginning... it just feels like some short life I lived reading this book, when I look over lines in the last book, and say, "My god... you've all gotten so *old*..."
Go read it.
I wasn't sure if I was going to like this for the first chapter or two but I found the Caske family enthralling.