Home » Book Reviews » Christina Schwarz » Drowning Ruth by Christina Schwarz
Possible spoilers ahead
This book was brought to my attention by it being reviewed in The Book Club Bible by Michael O’Mara Books Limited (this book being a gift from a family member who knows how I love books). I am inevitably torn with which of the many books reviewed in The Book Club Bible to read first, but I then spotted Drowning Ruth in a charity shop so that made the decision for me, and it certainly sounds very gripping from the blurb on the back of the book so I think it’s a good first choice!
The story is set on a farm beside a lake in Wisconsin at the end of World War 1. Mandy Starkey is a nurse in the war but when she becomes unwell she goes home to the farm to stay with her sister, Mattie, and Mattie’s young daughter, Ruth (Mattie’s husband being away in the war). Mattie then drowns in the lake, at which event only Mandy and Ruth are present, and with Ruth being only a few years old and unable to understand the odd things she saw and heard, all the explanations about this are left to Mandy, who also then brings up Ruth.
Oh wow, this is such a fascinating and mysterious story! Mandy is a very strong and quite dominating character, with dark secrets that she is determined to ensure stay concealed, and as the full nature of her secrets aren’t revealed until the end of the novel I was unsure of her involvement in several suspicious occurrences, including obviously the drowning of Mattie! The story is mostly told from Mandy’s perspective, so I was constantly wondering how much I could trust her and what to believe from what she says. Ruth also tells some of the story, but as she was so young at the time of her mother’s death she is confused about what she saw and what this could mean. The story also goes back in time to Mandy’s memories of the past. It feels very claustrophobic, being mostly told only by this one character, though I love how (as The Book Club Bible points out) the lake also seems to be a strong character in its own right and has an influence over events, with its ability to provide freedom yet also hide secrets, and to be a leisure facility yet also a menacing danger, the descriptions of the lake are wonderfully written!
But Mandy…! She is one of the most complex and interesting and fascinating and memorable characters I think I’ve ever read about! She can be incredibly selfless and loyal (looking after Mattie during their childhood and bringing up her niece Ruth), however her love seems an obsessive and controlling and almost unhealthy kind of love, and indeed she often refers to those she loves as though they are a possession of hers, and in her determination to keep them safe she will do anything and sacrifice anyone, which makes her quite an unpredictable and potentially menacing character, shiver! She is also very single-minded and believes she knows best, so even if those she loves want something different than her plans for them she will still drive through her inclinations (again, shiver!).
I was also intrigued by Mandy and Mattie’s mother, even though the reader only meets her in Mandy’s reminisces as both parents had died at the time of the story, as she seemed to have a great influence on the girls and on the events in their lives, even after her death. She seemed unwell fairly often and the nature of her illness wasn’t specified, but I wondered if it was something like bipolar with her changes of mood, which made me also wonder if Mattie suffered from this to a degree as her husband Carl described how Mattie could be wildly giddy and enthusiastic one minute and then very low and tearful the next. Mandy clearly too has her own mental difficulties, which resulted in her having to be placed in a mental institution at one point. I also wondered if it was mum’s difficulties and changeable moods that made Mandy feel the need to control everyone and everything, so she could perhaps depend on things as she wasn’t able to depend on her mother. I also felt sorry for Mandy that she didn’t appear to have been a care-free child herself as she took on a lot of responsibility for caring for her younger sister, due to her mother not doing this.
This is an amazing book, wonderfully written, part mystery and suspense story with the puzzle of how exactly Mattie died and with Mandy’s secrets being gradually revealed, and part psychological thriller with Mandy being secretive and controlling and with a question mark over her mental health and just how far she will go to achieve her aims, plus there are obviously strong themes of obsessiveness and control. Not exactly cosy bedtime reading, tee hee, but wow, it’s a very unusual and memorable book.
There are ‘Discussion points’ raised in The Book Club Bible book which were great for prompting me to consider more about the story and the characters, such as ‘Cowardice is a theme in the book, who do you think is the bravest character?’ and ‘Do any of the characters deserve their fate?’.
Firstly, I am going to read this book all over again, as it was so mysterious and with so many twists that I need to re-read it with the knowledge I’ve now gained about the characters and the events! I’m also very keen to read all the other books by this wonderful author, and I see that All is Vanity is her second book which sounds very interesting, and also The Edge of the Earth sounds very gripping. The Book Club Bible also has a list of ‘suggested companion books’ that the reader might like if they enjoyed Drowning Ruth (which I certainly did), they list Shadow Baby by Margaret Forster, The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan, Hatter’s Castle by AJ Cronin (none of which I have yet read), and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, and The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, both of which I have read and adored and which would be good to now re-read to look for the similarities in themes to Drowning Ruth. I’m so grateful to The Book Club Bible for drawing my attention to this fantastic Drowning Ruth book and will obviously now choose another book to read from the list of ones they have reviewed, such as Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell which sounds an intriguingly structured book, and A Spell of Winter by Helen Dunmore which sounds fascinating. I also wonder if there have been more editions of The Book Club Bible (as my copy is the first one and was written in 2007) as I’d be keen to get them all, as they are such a useful guide to books and also prompt me to think deeper about the books I’ve read with their ‘discussion points’.
