To eight-year old Bunny Morison, his mother is an angelic comforter in whose absence nothing is real or alive. To his older brother, Robert, his mother is someone he must protect, especially since the deadly, influenza epidemic of 1918 is ravaging their small Midwestern town. To James Morison, his wife, Elizabeth, is the center of a life that would disintegrate all too suddenly were she to … to disappear.
Through the eyes of these characters, William Maxwell creates a sensitive portrait of an American family and of the complex woman who is its emotional pillar. Beautifully observed, deftly rendering the civilities and constraints of a vanished era, They Came Like Swallows measures the subterranean currents of love and need that run through all our lives. The result confirms Maxwell’s reputation as one of the finest writers we have.
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This novel by William Maxwell gets five stars just for being about a pandemic, the one back in 1918. It’s an autofiction by Maxwell and his second book, from 1937, based on what it was like for him to (spoiler alert) lose his mother to the Spanish flu when he was only ten years old. The story comes from all three of the male survivors of her …
Interesting book written from the perspectives of three members of a family very sadly affected by the 1918 flu epidemic. I read it to learn more about the epidemic, so it wasn’t what i was expecting, but one can imagine this story magnified many times over.
I would have liked to have added another half star as it wasn’t a bad book. To me it was a bit slow. It is divided into 3 sections, each depicting a main character. I just felt I didn’t get to know anyone that well. Even the peripheral characters were hard to get a handle on as to where they belonged in the family or the story. I thought this …
William Maxwell was a wonderful writer. A dear man.
The subject is quite relevant and the writing is well-done. However, the ending was too abrupt.
Written by an author near my hometown and very reflective of what is happening in our country in June of 2020. History repeating itself.